July at the sausage factory

Goochland County’s Board of Supervisors plowed through a full agenda at its July 6 meeting, which began at 2 p.m. and adjourned just before midnight with a break for dinner.

GOMM will address some of these items in separate posts. A video and transcript of the entire meeting may be accessed by clicking on watch county meetings on the homepage of the county website https://www.goochlandva.us/  Following are some items addressed in the afternoon session.

Appreciation for the excellent county fireworks display on Independence Day and superb traffic control for the event by our awesome deputies was expressed by citizens.

In the afternoon, the supervisors adopted a resolution terminating the local emergency declaration, put into place in March 2020 in response to the Covid pandemic emergency. At its evening session, the board held a public hearing, with no speakers, to adopt an ordinance repealing the uncodified ordinance it passed in 2020 for the continuity of government operations during the pandemic, and unanimously approved it.

Thanks to all county and school staff, elected and appointed officials who went above and beyond the call of duty and used their considerable ingenuity to find safe and effective ways to continue operations during a strange and difficult time. We may never know the full extent of these efforts, but they are appreciated.

The Goochland Sheriff’s Office was recognized for completion of its sixth consecutive accreditation from the Virgina Law Enforcement Professional Standards Commission.

Board Chair John Lumpkins, Jr., District 3 announced that the county received an award from NACPRO for renovations to an existing building to create the Goochland History Center and improvements on the Courthouse Green. Both add interest to Courthouse Village. If you have not done so, visit the history center, open from 10-3 Wednesday through Friday, on River Road west at the south entrance to the Courthouse Complex or the website goochlandhistory.org. (The Goochland Historical Society, which partnered with the county on these efforts, and is now headquartered in the History Center, was not informed of the award.)

Lumpkins said that the cost of the projects was approximately half a million dollars. The county contributed $75 thousand and the remainder was contributed by the Historical Society. This is another example of a public private partnership enhancing Goochland County.

Marshall Winn, Administrator of the VDOT Ashland residency presented his monthly report. He said that a study of the flooding problems on Riddles Bridge Road is complete and is currently being reviewed by the hydraulics section. He hoped to have that report in the next few weeks.

Susan Lascolette, District 1, informed Winn of pavement damage on Hadensville-Fife Road in front of Second Union Baptist Church and asked him to look at it.

A report on the Virginia Telecommunication Initiative project in partnership with Port80 (http://port80.us/) for the Crozier area was presented. Deployment of broadband throughout Goochland is a patchwork of providers, projects, funding sources, and methodology. A grant for this project was awarded in March of this year. It is currently working through contracts and regulatory requirements.

Neil Spoonhower, District 2, said that he had just stepped down as the Chair of Plan RVA, the regional planning district commission for the Richmond Region. He also represents Goochland on the Central Virginia Transportation Authority and has been asked to chair its committee for personnel decisions.

The CVTA was created by the Virginia General Assembly and empowered to increase gasoline and sales taxes in member jurisdictions and prioritize how those funds would be divvyed up for local transportation projects. Still in its infancy, the CVTA could be the mechanism that solves some of the region’s transportation conundrums.

As part of the consent agenda—a list of items that require a vote but not necessarily any discussion—the board voted to approve creation of a commercial building inspector position. The cost, including a vehicle, salary, and benefits is $107 thousand.

The board voted to ask that the roads in the Reader’s Branch Section 2 be accepted into the VDOT system.

The secondary six-year road plan, for hard surface paving for certain unpaved roads that qualify to be designated as rural rustic roads resolution was adopted.

Authorization was granted to the county administrator to execute an agreement with the Virginia Resource Authority that provides $189,000, including engineering costs, to build a water line to the Jenkins Mobile Home Park in Courthouse Village, and to execute a contract with Piedmont Construction for $126,945.05. Project costs will be reimbursed by federal funding through the Virginia Department of Health.

Thanks to adoption of another resolution by the supervisors, Goochland County is now designated as a destination marketing organization. This makes Goochland eligible for direct interaction with the Virginia Tourism Corporation.

Goochland Commonwealth’s Attorney D. Michael Caudill gave the supervisors a brief overview of the functions of his office. He said that the main function of his position is to seek justice, not necessarily convict. Go to https://www.goochlandva.us/422/Commonwealths-Attorney for details. Caudill said that his door is always open, and he welcomes the opportunity to interact with citizens outside of the courtroom.

Ryan Mulligan, Goochland’s General Registrar reported that there are currently 20,187 registered voters in the county up from 17,875 in 2018. About 88 percent of Goochland voters cast ballots last year, which was not the highest percentage in Virginia. He estimated the total county population at approximately 25,000. Numbers from the 2020 census, on which electoral redistricting will be based, are not yet available, so voting districts in 2021 will be the same as last year. He expects that could cause long lines at the polls this November. Early and absentee voting could alleviate that. Changes to the electoral process that were supposed to be used only for the 2020 elections during the pandemic have been made permanent.

Mulligan said that he hopes to have precincts realigned in time for the 2022 primary season.