'Hard to Put a Price Tag' On Quality of Life

More Budget Cuts in the Cards, Fairfax Grapples With Trimming Its Cherished Cultural Diversions

The 200 music fans who came to Royal Lake Park in Fairfax County on a recent Friday to hear folk singer Mike Seeger brought lawn chairs, buckets of fried chicken and the expectation of an enjoyable evening amid difficult times. They appeared to get it: A father and son tossed a football, the setting sun cast golden light and a great blue heron skimmed the lake as Seeger strummed Carter Family classics.

The taxpayer-funded event is one of many continuing in Fairfax despite the worst economic downturn in a generation -- punctuated by the news that next year will bring another round of deep cuts to schools, police, the fire department and other essential services.

As they make difficult budget choices, local leaders have struggled to strike the right balance with the smaller programs that help define their communities but become increasingly difficult to justify as the recession wears on. In many cases, they have spared the events.

"This is something that people enjoy, but it certainly isn't essential," said Fairfax Supervisor Michael R. Frey (R-Sully), whose office runs a popular drive-in movie series in Centreville each August. "Whether it makes it beyond this year is a good question. It very likely may not. But you can't eviscerate the entire quality-of-life component that makes Fairfax a nice place to live."

Every community in the Washington region is confronting the effects of the recession. Prince George's County schools last week agreed to close eight schools and lay off 270 employees. Loudoun County raised its property tax rate this year by 10.5 cents. In addition to reducing library hours, scaling back recreation programs and freezing employee pay, Fairfax gutted one policy priority: a $22 million-a-year program to preserve affordable housing.

Smaller budget items were also up for discussion in many places. Arlington County board members eliminated funding for the Neighborhood Day parade and the Arts al Fresco outdoor music series, while some Montgomery County leaders considered canceling Fourth of July fireworks.

"I think you're hard-pressed as a local official not to at least scale back some of these things," said Barbara A. Favola (D), chairman of the Arlington County Board. "But we also hear from people who are taxpayers and feel that quality of life is important to them. They'll argue that in difficult times, they don't have the money to go out and entertain themselves, so having the county provide these things is really nice."

In Fairfax, budget officials proposed eliminating the Showmobiles, two nondescript trailers that unfold into amplified concert stages, allowing live music to travel to the far corners of the county all summer long.

The board's response: Absolutely not.

The Showmobiles make possible the county's 12 different summer concert series. Relatively speaking, the program doesn't cost a lot: About $75,000 a year for the workers who set up the stages five nights a week and an additional $50,000 for the event coordinator who schedules the more than 200 performances staged each year.

The Showmobiles hold a special place in the hearts of Fairfax supervisors, enabling performances at neighborhood parks that otherwise couldn't accommodate them and fostering goodwill among residents. Supervisors often emcee the events, which draw about 70,000 people a year.

"This adds so much to the quality of life here," said Terry Murtaugh, 63, a consultant to the National Guard and a resident of Burke Centre who came out for the Seeger concert. "It's hard to put a price tag on this. Why live in Fairfax County if you can't enjoy the culture, the music, this kind of thing?"