Beach Taxpayers fear Light Rail

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va - It appears the tide could be turning against "The Tide" going to Virginia Beach. It all played out before Norfolk City Council as members grilled Michael Townes who is HRT's President after the Norfolk Light rail project. This, after learning the project is behind schedule and over budget by as much as 40-million dollars.

 "They wanted to see this project through so badly, they couldn't see the truth," says John Moss who is the Chairman of the Virginia beach Tax Payer Alliance. "This was a bad project and never should have been funded and the truth is baring that out," says Moss.

Moss goes further suggesting the fixing of numbers, "There is tremendous pressure on that organization to say and do anything to qualify for federal funds just to make this project work," Moss says. Moss has sent a letter to the Inspector General of the Federal Department of Transportation calling on an investigation into HRT President Michael Townes accusing him of "willfully understating the real cost of light rail in order to get federal funds." Moss added, "The HRT Executive Director's not being supervised and the Board doesn't know what's going on, but they should have known."

Moss is speaking about the HRT Chair Jim Wood who is also a Virginia Beach City Councilman, "I'm very frustrated by this, and I am incensed. That's a good word for this. I'm very frustrated. Very frustrated by this," Woods says. Woods knows this hurts Beach momentum efforts for light rail, at a time when Virginia Beach is about to fork over $40 million dollars to Norfolk Southern for the tracks that will carry Light Rail. "In respect to the Virginia
Beach Transit Extension Study this does give us a black eye. It hurts all of us," Wood says.

Wood provided WAVY.com with emails he wrote to Michael Townes for information. On September 18th, Woods writes, "How close to budget are we?
Estimated cost to complete? I would like to wrap my head around this project."

Wood claims no response from Townes, so he emailed back to Townes on November 9th, "It has been about 2 months since I requested this info. Please give me an update ASAP.

Wood says he got an answer one month later on December 10th-not by Townes but by another staffer. The sad answer, the new cost overrun of $40-50 million dollars.

Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms  told ten on your side he can't do business with HRT's current leadership headed by Michael Townes. Councilman Bill Desteph says at this point he will only support a public referendum to support Light Rail costs before supporting it. For Moss, "This is a rail to nowhere except it's a black hole for tax payers."

Councilman Jim Wood would not go so far to say Michael Townes must go because Wood is on the board. What we do know Townes will be the topic in executive session when the HRT board meets to discuss Townes tomorrow.