School daze

Gone are the days—with all due apologies to the Adams International School—of the little red schoolhouse meeting all of a community’s educational needs.  Teaching methods are changing to keep pace with our ever evolving world, and schools need to support these changes.  All three of Goochland’s elementary schools Byrd, Goochland, and Randolph, were built more than 50 years ago. Even the “new” high school has been in operation for more than 15 years.

The economy seems to be rebounding and Goochland is finally seeing significant economic development in the eastern end of the county to  counter balance the real estate tax base. Growth in the Tuckahoe Creek Service District (TCSD) generates additional ad valorem tax to service its debt, enabling the county to address pressing capital improvement needs pushed to the back burner while it got its financial house in order.

Items on the county’s current five year capital improvement plan (CIP) include: a new circuit courthouse; fire-rescue station; emergency apparatus; and a new elementary school.  The notion of building a new elementary school has been around for quite some time, but, due to other debt, was repeatedly kicked down the road. The CIP has a $24 million dollar “placeholder” for a new elementary school to be built somewhere around FY 2020.

For years conventional wisdom had it that the next elementary school would be built on land owned by the county on Hockett Road. As most of the residential growth seems to be in the east end, this seemed a reasonable course of action.

Earlier this year, the supervisors approved a request from the school division to fund the services of  consultant to study all school facilities and make countywide recommendations going forward for a few decades.

This initiative began in the summer and  included a survey and some meetings to discuss the matter. (Sidelined by bodywork, GOMM was unable to attend. However, http://www.dejongrichter.com/goochlandschools/ contains many fascinating details about the county.)

Perhaps the most interesting assumption is that the size of the Goochland public schools' student body will remain around  3,000 for the next five years.  Most of the costs focus on construction or renovation to wind up with a 1,400 student capacity  at the elementary level at either three or four schools. These projections seem to be based on residential building permit data for the past few years, which were depressed by the economic downturn.

Several options were presented for the elementary schools, including razing and rebuilding them on current or new sites. Suggestions were also made to move the Career and Technical Education to the high school campus. Options include modernize existing facilities or replace them. Cost estimates, county wide, not including land acquisition costs range from approximately $49.5 to $61.6 million. The recommendations do not include expansion of athletic facilities, which some respondents to the survey contend are currently inadequate.

While many of the residential developments working their way through the rezoning process target senior citizens and will have no impact on schools, others do not. While it seems almost impossible to gauge how many children will be added to our school division from  resales, it should be addressed. Earlier this year, Director of Community Development JoAnn Hunter said that the bulk of the RES  student increase was caused by resales.

There have as yet been no formal discussions between the supervisors and school board about the matter, or, more importantly, how to pay for new and/or renovated schools. The county issued bonds to pay for the high school at the end of the last century.  Given that we are still carefully working around debt service for the TCSD, it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

The county is in the process of conducting its own studies to create a more comprehensive CIP to include the courthouse, fire-rescue stations, information system upgrades, and additional space needs for county government.

Funds were recently approved to commission creation of a new master thoroughfare plan to deal with actual development activity, especially in the Hockett Road corridor.

All of these capital improvement studies will help the supervisors get a clear idea of the entire county’s needs going forward so they can make informed decisions about  appropriate and sustainable levels of  residential growth.  

Results of surveys about the school options and the remarks made by those who attended the steering committee meetings, last updated on September 19 are available at:   http://www.dejongrichter.com/goochlandschools/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2017/09/GoochlandCo_CD1_ResultsReport_mts20170919.pdf  These documents are well worth perusing.

The last meeting of the steering committee will be held on Tuesday, September 26 in classroom 143 of Goochland High School at 6 .p.  Recommendations will be made to the School Board at its October 10 meeting at 6:30 p.m. in the county administration building.

End of summer

The September meeting of the Goochland Board of Supervisors began with recognition of employee service anniversaries. Kelly Parrish, Director of Human Resources, who was celebrating her own fifth year with the county, said that this years’ honorees represented a more than 380 years of service to the community.  Thanks to all of these fine people who keep the county running. (See the September 5 board packet on the county website http://goochlandva.us/ for the complete list.

Deliberations on a proposed roundabout for the Fairground/Sandy Hook Roads intersection consumed a good portion of the afternoon session. (See previous post for details.)

County Administrator John Budesky said that the administration building parking lot renovations should be completed in October and thanked the public for its patience during construction.

The supervisors authorized a rabies clinic scheduled for October 8, which will be held at the corner of Fairground and Sandy Hook Roads in Courthouse Village from 2 to 4 p.m. A fee of $10 per cat or dog will be charged.

A  renewal of the performance contract between Goochland County and the Goochland Powhatan Community Services Board and the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services was approved.  For fiscal year 2018, which began on July 1, Goochland and Powhatan citizens have access to $4,063,511 in services, of which Goochland provides  $268,730 in its annual budget. The CSB provides services for mental health, developmental disabilities and substance abuse issues for Goochland citizens. . (See board packet for complete agreement and visits http://www.gpcsb.org/ to learn more about the CSB.)

  

An additional $15,000 was appropriated to complete the Centerville streetscape project, whose initial budget was $70,000. The project, which will include installation of paver “noses” at the intersection of Broad Street and Ashland Roads, is expected to be complete by October 15.

The supervisors appropriated up to $200,000 and authorized Budesky to execute a contract with a consultant to develop a new major thoroughfare plan for the county. Given that the last MTP was developed in 2005, and development is occurring in different places and ways than anticipated 12 years ago, this is a good move. The county needs current, detailed data about the impact of development on our roads to be able to gauge the cost and other consequences of new projects.

Barbara Horlacher, Director of Financial Services, presented an estimate of Goochland’s fiscal position as of the close of the 2017 fiscal year, which ended on June 30. Revenues are expected to have exceeded expenditures by approximately $5.2 million, final numbers are not quite in. There is a long list of possible uses for the “excess” including the appropriations for the streetscape and MTP.

Good stewardship of public funds  is the basis for every action taken by the current Board of Supervisors. At a meeting of the county Audit Committee, which assists the Board in  financial oversight reporting responsibilities, earlier on September 5, changes were recommended.

Going forward, the name will be the Goochland County Finance and Audit Committee. It will consist of three board members, the county administrator and director of financial services. Staff support will be provided by school administration; the Treasurer’s office and Commissioner of the Revenue’s office as preferred by the Committee.

The Committee will recommend appointment and dismissal of independent auditors and work  with them on the scope and approach,  and provide input on special areas of attention for the annual audit.

 The Committee will review the findings and recommendations of the auditors and the administration response regarding internal controls and review financial policies as needed.

Revised financial management policies were approved and are included in the board packet. This includes limiting  indebtedness to a 2.75 percent of the estimated market value of taxable property and debt service costs to 12 percent of  total general fund expenditures.

According to the policy document, the Commonwealth of Virginia imposes no statutory limit on the amount of debt a locality can issue. Limiting debt service, the document states, provides flexibility for other expenses in the budget.

The policy also states that the county will maintain a revenue stabilization reserve of at least one percent of the total annual adopted budget plus the non-local portion of the school operating budget.  This is sometimes referred to as a rainy day fund. Given the steadfast resolve of this board to operate local government in a fiscally responsible manner, rains of the magnitude of Hurricane Harvey over Houston would need to fall before this fund is touched.

The supervisors also referred ordinance amendments concerning chicken keeping by right in R-1 Districts, which was initiated by residents in James River Estates; to clarify and expand activities permitted at wineries, breweries, and distilleries; and require applicants for land use changes to file an affidavit disclosing the names and addresses of all parties with an interest in the real property, which is the subject of the application to the planning commission for consideration.

The music goes round and round

On Tuesday, September 5, the Goochland Board of Supervisors voted 4-1—with Susan Lascolette, District 1 in dissent—to build a roundabout at the intersection of Fairground and Sandy Hook Roads in Courthouse Village and unanimously passed a resolution to apply for revenue sharing associated with the project.

Lascolette said that her constituents prefer a signalized intersection and expressed skepticism at contentions that roundabouts are safer than signalized intersections.

The roundabout will be part of the extension of Fairground Road to Rt. 6 west of Goochland Elementary School, which has been in the conceptual stage for quite some time.

Right now, the intersection is dysfunctional at best, especially during peak travel hours. It is not usual for vehicles to pile up as motorists try to turn onto Sandy Hook Road. During a public comment that was part of the supervisors’ discussion of the matter, District 2 Planning Commissioner Matt Brewer commented that he sat at the stop sign at the intersection for the duration of an entire song on his radio while waiting to turn left in midafternoon.

According to the documentation on the matter, see http://www.goochlandva.us/DocumentCenter/View/3980, this intersection is number eight on the top ten hit parade of crash prone areas in Goochland. As Courthouse Village grows, congestion there will get worse.

The notion of a roundabout, which keeps traffic moving, albeit slowly, through an intersection, has been around for a while and was approved in 2008, but funding evaporated during the recession.

The cost to build a roundabout, $3.9 million will be split evenly between the county and VDOT. (The presentation shows that Goochland and VDOT will each chip in $1.9 million. GOMM’s liberal arts math skills adds 1.9 and 1.9 and comes up with $3.8 million. Guess the extra $100K  is for contingencies?).

A roundabout requires more land than an enhanced signalized intersection and costs an additional $300 thousand. The ballfield on Sandy Hook Road will be relocated to the Central High School complex on  Dogtown Road.

Construction for either option is expected to take about a year, and be completed  in 2022. 

A roundabout keeps traffic moving, while vehicles stop in each direction during a signal cycle at a traffic light. As the wait at each “arm” of the traffic signal grows with the number of vehicles, impatient drivers will be more likely to “run the light” paving the way for increased wrecks.

Heavier traffic will require more “storage”  lanes on all sides of the intersection. At some point, traffic  will back up to the entrance to  Courthouse Commons Shopping Center creating gridlock. Vehicles do not stop when negotiating a roundabout, so it would not need to be enlarged as traffic volume grows. The roundabout as planned is expected to handle anticipated traffic flow through 2043.

Opponents of roundabouts contend that they confuse drivers and lead to more wrecks. They also argue that large trucks may be too large to negotiate a roundabout. VDOT and the Timmons Group engineering firm insist that the roundabout template  used in the computer aided design (CAD) software will be large enough to accommodate log, chicken, and perhaps most important, emergency apparatus. Goochland Fire-Rescue Chief Bill MacKay has allegedly endorsed the roundabout option because it enables continuous free flow of traffic.

However, this roundabout will be built by VDOT—the state agency whose motto is “Oops!”—the  same bunch whose engineers used too tight a turn template when designing the Manakin/Broad Street Road improvements. This caused several large trucks to get stuck turning that corner. While the error was eventually fixed at VDOT’s expense, the money  could have been used on another project.

Should a traffic signal pole be damaged during an accident, one engineer said, it would need to be completely rebuilt from its foundation up. By contrast, damage caused by accidents in roundabouts tends to involve curbs and vegetation. Another distinction is that roundabouts do not shut down during power failures and eliminate waiting for green lights when there is no other traffic.

Pedestrians  negotiate roundabouts by crossing only a single traffic lane, not the entire intersection. Splitter  lanes include clearly marked walkways. Drivers yield to pedestrians in the crosswalks. Detectable warning surfaces that signal a change from concrete to asphalt  help the visually challenged realize that they are entering a crosswalk. It is incumbent upon the motor vehicles, by Virginia law, to stop in advance of the roundabout.

The hashed lines on the "arms" are pedestrian crosswalks. 

Experienced bicyclists have a choice of dismounting and walking through the crosswalks, or riding with traffic at the 20 miles per hour speed. Bicyclists on  pavement are considered vehicles and must yield to pedestrians.

Lascolette pointed out that cyclists are not required to obtain any sort of training. She asked if there was any data to compare intersection safety before and after conversion to roundabouts. In the last five years, a VDOT engineer said, roundabouts have gotten  much better, but was not aware of any data supporting  this contention.

Lascolette said that she received at least 70 comments from her constituents and businesses in the area preferring the traffic signal. She said she has been unable to find studies supporting the contention that the roundabouts are safer.

Assistant County Administrator Todd Kilduff and the VDOT engineers contended that there are fewer crashes in roundabouts than in signalized intersections and those that do occur are of the less serious sideswipe variety versus angle crashes.

Kilduff dispelled the notion that the entire intersection would be closed for a year during construction. Instead, he said, lanes may be closed, but traffic will still be able to move through the intersection. The first few weeks will be critical as motorists adjust to new conditions.

Manuel Alvarez, Jr. asked if the county could change its mind if the ultimate cost came in significantly higher. Kilduff said the cost estimates are based on future values. Goochland County Administrator John Budesky said that if costs increase the county and VDOT will need to appropriate additional funds or scrap the project.

Remarks by VDOT on other subjects gave little cause for comfort.

Later in the meeting a VDOT engineer explained the complexity of the approved and funded “fix” for the Broad Street Road/Rt. 288 interchange. There are 95 separate tasks and “450 days of engineering” needed to complete that project.

However, he also indicated that “plan” has already changed eliminating a second exit lane and eastbound traffic signal. This partially explains why it will take up to five years get this work done. This is all too reminiscent of the decade or so during which VDOT held meetings to explain in detail how Broad Street Road in Centerville would be widened, only to have the final product look nothing like the initial concept.

The success of a roundabout, or more complicated signalized intersection for that matter, depends on the behavior of motorists.  Goochland has its share of bad drivers. No road improvements can prevent people who ignore speed limits and recklessly disregard rules of the road from causing accidents. We all need to be a little more careful when we drive, especially on Goochland’s narrow roads, to  get where we’re going in a safe and efficient manner.

May the roundabout be built with minimal disruption and function as promised