The Arlington government’s budget woes likely won’t be severe enough to impact new deer-culling efforts .

The $151,000 proposed in County Manager Mark Schwartz’s draft fiscal 2026 budget “will fund these efforts,” Department of Parks and Recreation director Jane Rudolph told County Board members at a Feb. 27 budget work session .

The funding is designed to allow for more analysis on the deer population and, starting at the end of 2025, to fund sharpshooters. Funding also will support fencing and deer-repellant efforts.

Board members last year moved forward with plans mirroring efforts in Fairfax County, which for years has employed various methods to deal with what county leaders there say is an overpopulation of white-tailed deer.

The Board’s vote came after several years of contentious community debate . By the time a decision arrived, however, most critics of the proposal had abandoned their efforts to sway Board members.

Almost all the $151,000 funding was designated as one-time, rather than recurring, funding. It suggests county officials will revisit the issue after results of the winter culling efforts are known.

To Turn Profit, County Fair May Need Good Weather: When it comes to its budget implications, Arlington government leaders have a strategy for addressing the 2025 Arlington County Fair .

The plan? Fingers crossed for sunshine.

The county government this year will take over operations, and funding, of the fair from the non-profit entity that has run it each August for decades. To do so, the government is budgeting just over $200,000, mostly for staff costs.

Those costs will be recouped, and the fair might even turn a profit — if Mother Nature cooperates.

But “if we have a rainy fair, and we don’t get as much revenue,” those costs might not be recouped, county parks director Jane Rudolph told County Board members at a Feb. 27 budget work session .

Her comments came after Board Chair Takis Karantonis said the requested funding “concerns me a little bit.”

Rudolph did not attach a dollar figure to the financial shortfall that inclement weather might cause. There was little choice but to wait and see if the weather cooperates, she said.

“We have been really lucky in the past few years,” Rudolph said.

Board member Susan Cunningham suggested county officials should establish a stabilization fund — “literally, a rainy-day fund” — where profits from good fair years could go, to be drawn on when revenues aren’t quite as large.

County staff said they would look into the possibility.

The fair is held at Thomas Jefferson Community Center in the middle part of the county. Several years ago, when it was still run by the non-profit Fair Board, county staff suggested moving it to Long Bridge Park in Crystal City.

The 2025 fair is slated for Aug. 13-17.