September board highlights

Goochland Supervisors kicked off September with their monthly meeting on the first. After naming Kenneth Young as the next county administrator and getting him sworn in, they got down to routine business.

Interim County Administrator Derek Stamey invited everyone to attend one or both remembrances of 911 at Courthouse Company 5 Fire-Rescue Station on Fairground Road beginning at 9:45 a.m. or Manakin Company 1 Fire-Rescue Station on at 180 River Road, beginning at 7 p.m. Company 1 is home to the Goochland County 911 memorial, which includes pieces of steel from the Twin Towers. The ceremonies honor the sacrifice of the first responders who perished in the attack. Names of the members of FDNY, NYPD, Port Authority of NYNJ, and NYC-EMS, who made the ultimate sacrifice, are read and a bell is tolled in their honor.

Board Chair Susan Lascolette, District 1, said that the inaugural meeting of the community conversations work group to examine race relations in Goochland county is set for September 8. “We are very grateful to all who stepped up for this important project." May all involved listen with hearts and minds.

Town Hall meetings, whose spring round was cancelled by Covid, will resume in October. Districts 2 and 3 will meet on October 8 at the Central High School Educational and Cultural Center 2748 Dogtown Road; District 1, October 15 at Byrd Elementary School, 2704 Hadensville-Fife Road; and Districts 4 and 5 October 22 at Salem Baptist Church 465 Broad Street Road, Manakin-Sabot. All sessions begin at 7 p.m. Supervisors, school board members, and county staff will present updates and gather citizen feedback. Come out and meet our new County Administrator Kenneth Young.

September is traditionally the time that service awards for county employees are presented at the board meeting following a luncheon. Due to Covid, an alternative approach was taken, explained Stamey. He read the names, jobs, and length of service into the record. The awards represent 340 collective years of service, experience, time and talent devoted to the county. “You’d have to go back to 1630 to equal the number of years of service,” he said.

Those recognized for five-year service increments:

5 Years:
Amanda Adams Circuit Court
Kelsey Amos Sheriff’s Office
Gregory Atkinson General Services
Stanley Carrington Sheriff’s Office
Jeffery Compton Building Inspection
Shon Daniels Fire-Rescue
Emily Fisher Social Services
Janet Fontenot Treasurer’s Office
Harrison Hankins Sheriff’s Office
David Kolenich Fire-Rescue
Corey Marshall Parks & Recreation
Robert Mills Fire-Rescue
Michael Mills Fire-Rescue
Taylor Morris Public Utilities
Rory O’Shaughnessy Sheriff’s Office
Chan Rowland Fire-Rescue
Chad St. John Fire-Rescue
Eric Taliaferro Animal Protection
John Woodburn Community Development

10 Years:

Mason Kenney Convenience Center

15 Years:

Brenda Anthony General Services
Kevin Forman Sheriff’s Office
Christopher Jones Sheriff’s Office
Kendal Tanaka Social Services
Donna Vayo Social Services
Sara Worley Economic Development

25 Years:
Jennifer Brown Commissioner of Revenue
Sheriff Steven Creasey Sheriff’s Office
Raymond Henley Sheriff’s Office
Stephen Layton Sheriff’s Office

40 Years:
Beverly Long Social Services

Bev Long and flowers. Derek Stamey looks on


Stamey presented Bev Long with a bouquet of flowers from her staff. “She is a rock in that department and beacon of toughness and tenacity for the county,” said Stamey.

For the sixth consecutive year, the county was regognized for excellence in financial reporting, which is “a demonstration of the spirit of full disclosure,” said Stamey. He commended all involved especially Director of Finance Barbara Horlacher, who spearheaded the “heavy lift” of completing the county’s comprehensive annual financial report (CAFR). These documents are available for review on the county website goochlandva.us. The CAFR for FY 2020, which ended on June 30, is underway and is expected to be presented for approval by the supervisors in late November.

Stamey thanked the board for the opportunity to serve as interim county administrator for the past sixty days. “Pandemic, hurricanes, daily operation of government, was a whirlwind but very gratifying. It was the most interesting time of my professional career that reinforced what a great supportive board we have; how engaged and how much our citizens care about our local government: and how tents a group of constitutional officers and staff who work together. We are a family. We are looking forward to welcoming you and your family (Kenneth Young) to sustain our upward trajectory of excellence.”

The consent agenda included:

Authorization for the interim county administrator to execute two performance agreements between Greenswell Growers, the Goochland Economic Development Authority, and Goochland County to provide economic incentives for locating a hydroponic growing facility here.

Refer an updated parks and recreation master plan to the Planning Commission.

Set a public hearing for October 6 to amend the county ordinance to clarify the definition of special events; add a spontaneous event exception; clarify compliance with other regulations; add more exceptions; clarify the permit review procedure; revise the noise standard; broaden eligible security agencies; remove fee waiver; and other changes. See the September 1 board packet, available on the county website goochlandva.us beginning on page 208.

Set a public hearing for October 6 to repeal the existing county ordinance on parades and replace it with one that complies with current legal standards. Full wording of the proposed new ordinance is in the September 1 board packet beginning on page 221.

Set a public hearing for October 6 to establish the proportionate share of the Bridgewater subdivision district tax liability, provide for repayment; fix each property’s taxable value for assessing the district tax; increasing the district tax rate from .28 to .33022; establishing a procedure for change to parcel boundaries; and clarifying the ordinance language. This refers to a service district established to recover the cost of brining roads in the subdivision up to state standards so they can be turned over to VDOT for maintenance.

Refer a zoning ordinance amendment addressing the timing of installation of street trees in new developments to the planning commission.

Authorize the interim county administrator to execute an agreement with Dominion Energy, Virginia for lighting at the Oilville park and ride.

Authorize the interim county administrator to execute an agreement with John K. George & Company to complete the Tucker Park connector. (See GOMM “Playing close to home” for details.)

Public hearings

• Approved a conditional use permit (CUP) for a detached accessory family housing unit at 5268 Three Chopt Road in District 1. John Lumpkins, District 3, recused himself from the deliberations and vote, due to a business association with the applicant.


• Approved a proffer amendment to reduce the road setback from 350 to 100 feet for property located at 4668 Newline Road in District 2.

• Approved an ordinance to establish a satellite voter office in the parks ad rec gym near the new registrar’s office to handle an expected increase in in-person absentee voting for the November 3 general election.

• Approved 4-1 an ordinance amendment to remove a parcel of land at 12902 Paula Lane from the Tuckahoe Creek Service District. The parcel was recently assessed at $181,000. Since 2018, reported Matt Longshore director of utilities, the TCSD value has increase by more than $700K. It is located east of Hockett Road south of Reader’s Branch. Penalties apply for a property to rejoin the district to prevent property owners from “playing the system.” Lumpkins voted against the measure with no explanation.

• Approved 5-0 an ordinance amendment to remove a parcel adjacent to 2028 Rockville Road, which is not in the TCSD. The land was split from land belonging to St. Matthew’s Church in 2017. The landowner wants to join the two parcels but cannot do so if a portion is included in the TCSD.

• Approved amendments to the FY 2021 budget of approximately $1.557 million to use CARES Act funding for Covid-related expenses. The funds must be spent by December 31. These include: $183K to schools, for technology from previous budgets; $792 K to schools for improved ventilation and an additional $200K for distance learning; $50K to fire-rescue for an update to the county’s emergency operations plan and $78 K to replace gaining portable ventilators, crucial to dealing with Covid cases; $7,500 to the sheriff’s department for Courts overtime; $120 K to replace “tough books” used by public safety; $200 K for computer aided dispatch software upgrade used by fire-rescue and deputies; $60K to create schools’ broadband redundancy to support distance learning; $50 K to improve hotspot around the county. (See the end of the board meeting video for September 1 for details.) Conversations to extend fiber along Cardwell Road from Rt. 6 to Randolph School is part of another discussion. Currently, RES is served only by Comcast.

At the end of the meeting, Ken Peterson, District 5 asked Goochland Sheriff Steven Creasey if the budget amendments presented adequately addressed Covid-related needs for his office. Creasey said that there is a need for Covid-related overtime funds for patrol. A traffic incident involving 9 Covid positive juveniles that took most of the day into the night racked up about $2,000 in overtime expense. Peterson asked that the board be kept apprised of unmet needs.