Lake Barcroft History Book

As a result of the April 24, 1973, referendum, Lake
Barcroft’s residents voted overwhelmingly to create a
Watershed Improvement District (WID) for dam
repairs and silt removal. On May 18, the circuit court found
the WID to be validly established under the provisions of the
Virginia code and approved the issuance of WID bonds. The
community could take pride in the unified way the residents
responded. It was not easy to raise new taxes, but the solid
support for the referendum demonstrated the community’s
commitment to overcome adversity and start over.
The WID
Virginia’s Watershed Improvement Act, passed in 1955, had
never been used before the Lake Barcroft WID was formed.
The act allows an area within a soil and water conservation
district to form a special governmental unit outside the control
of the county government. A WID is authorized to perform
certain administrative functions, to levy taxes and to borrow
money. The governing body of the newly created WID—the
board of directors of the Northern Virginia Soil and Water
Conservation District—appointed three Lake Barcroft
landowners as Lake Barcroft WID trustees. The Board
delegated to these trustees the authority to make the day-today
decisions necessary for operating the lake. In addition, the
trustees assumed the responsibility for estimating the annual
operating budget to provide the basis for the supplemental tax
levy on the Lake Barcroft community. General oversight of the
WID is exercised by the state and the NVS&WCD.
Prior to the formation of the WID, the Barcroft Lake
Management Association had directed the dam, lake and
beach maintenance operations of its subsidiary, Barcroft Beach,
Inc. Funding for BBI operations came from the annual $60
maintenance fee paid by each homeowner. After the WID was
established, the relationship between the WID and BBI had to
be recognized and defined. To this end, the BBI board and the
WID trustees signed an agreement giving WID the right to
conduct operations on BBI properties. WID funds could be
allocated for any reasonable purpose that supported soil and
water conservation, but money could not be used for
recreational purposes. With the agreement in place, the
responsibility for dam repair and silt removal passed to the
WID trustees.
When the WID was approved in January 1973, a slate of ten
candidates was nominated for the three trustee slots. Edwin
CHAPTER TEN
A New Beginning
39
Deagle was chosen as one of the first trustees. Edwin had
written his Ph.D. dissertation on the difficulties associated
with small municipal bond issues. His background and
expertise clearly aided the trustees in addressing the next
challenge—raising $2 million by selling tax-exempt bonds.
Navy Captain Dick Anderson, a specialist in Navy contracting,
was also selected as a trustee. When the nomination list was
first published, Sandy Augliere noted that all the nominees
were men and proposed that a female be included. She
suggested Sally Determan, a distinguished lawyer, who was
chosen and eventually became trustee chairperson.
At a May 2 meeting of BARLAMA, the board elected Dave
Alne president. One of Alne’s major responsibilities was to
maintain liaison with the WID trustees; other board members
were assigned to work with LABARCA, BBI, Fairfax County
and local communities. The overlapping activities of various
organizations required close coordination to avoid mutual
interference. Alne initiated several programs, then, as WID
funds became available, he handed off responsibility for the
projects to the WID trustees. The silt removal plan was a
good example; a significant amount of planning was done
before the WID trustees began to solicit contracts for the
work. BARLAMA also planned extensive improvements to
the beaches.
The Bond Issue
On June 19, WID trustee Sally Determan and several other
residents gathered in a brokerage office in Rosslyn, where they
were connected to Richmond by telephone. At noon, bids for
the WID bonds were opened in the Virginia state treasurer’s
office, and $1.5 million of the bonds sold at an average interest
rate of 5.744 percent. BBI purchased another $500,000 worth
of WID bonds, using an SBA loan in the same amount.
Because the SBA loan carried an interest rate of only 1 percent,
the interest for the entire $2 million bond issue averaged 4.55
percent, a very good rate at that time. The trustees cleverly
invested the funds in federal bank notes yielding 7 percent or
more and timed their maturity to coincide with payments due
on WID contracts. Bondholders collected interest, while
principal payments were put into a fund to pay off the bonds
at their expiration. Interest and principal payments on the
bonds owned by BBI were in turn used to regularly pay the
Small Business Administration, retiring the original SBA loan
on schedule. The last of the bonds expired in spring 2001.