November Board highlights

 

Back to full strength after appointing Charlie Vaughters as interim District 4 representative, the Goochland Board of Supervisors addressed business at its November 1 meeting.

Small area plan meetings

Updates on the small area plan studies for both Centerville and Courthouse Village have been scheduled. The Centerville meeting will be held on Monday, November 28 at Grace Chinese Baptist Church 850 Broad Street Road, and the Courthouse Village meeting will be on Tuesday, November 29 in the county administration building. Both sessions begin at 6 p.m. Go to https://www.goochlandva.us/1201/Goochland-County-Village-Plans-2022 for details.

Celebrations

County Administrator Vic Carpenter reported that over 3,500 people attended the fall festival on the beautiful autumn day of October 29.  Halloween afternoon trick or treating in the admin building was enjoyed by more than 174 youngsters.

Recognition

Christina Neal, paralegal in the Goochland County Attorney’s office, was selected by her peers as Virginia’s Government Paralegal of the year. Her work is an integral part of the function of the County Attorney’s staff, which interacts with every other department and takes great care to make sure that details of contracts, ordinances and the workings of the county comply with state and local laws.

The annual employee recognition event, recognizing and commending employees on five-year increment service anniversaries was held with a luncheon preceding the board meeting.

Director of Human Resources Shaletha Dyson said that the 40 county employees recognized for their service represent over 429 combined years of serving our citizens. Wanda Tormey celebrated 30 years with the county and Dale Agnew Clerk of the Circuit Court, marked 40 years. These are the people who day in and day out, and especially through the high weird of the pandemic, kept Goochland running. See page 82 of the November 1 board packet for the complete list.

During public comment, Jonathan Lyle Director of the Monacan Soil and Water Conservation District, thanked the board for its continued support of agriculture in the county. He also said that the MSWCD has a gracious plenty of cost share money to help local farmers improve their land and hoped the supervisors would help spread the word.

During evening citizen comment—Lyle is a regular attendee of board meetings and shares observations on a wide range of topics—commended all members of county staff for their hard work. An organization, he said, is only as good as the people who make it run.

He also paid homage to unsung staff members who keep the administration building sparkling. As this is the face of the county to most citizens, making a good impression is important. “This place always looks well kept, and I’ll even say well loved, and ready for inspection,” said Lyle. He commended Brenda Anthony, who has been taking care of the administration building since it opened after renovations in 2005. Others on Lyle’s list are A.J. Jackson, Tina Tate, Linda Coles, Dwight Kenny, and Norman Harper. “In my opinion, these folks are pretty special.”

 

Broadband update

Expanding broadband coverage to all of Goochland is happening in fits and starts. Some residents of the upper end have already been connected to Firefly broadband https://www.fireflyva.com/. Others, mostly Dominion energy customers, grit their teeth in frustration when told it may be many months before they can log on. Central Virginia Electric Coop, Rappahannock Electric Coop and Dominion Energy are working together to leverage their infrastructure for universal coverage.

Dominion representatives explained where their company is in the process. In short, it’s complicated. Dominion is providing “middle mile” connections, from which Firefly will run “lateral lines to connect customers.  See https://www.dominionenergy.com/broadband for details. The answer seemed to be “it’s complicated.”  Go to the 1:12 minute mark of the meeting recording (available on the county website goochladva.us under “watch county meetings”) to listen to the presentation.

District 1 Supervisor Susan Lascolette asked for clarification. Dominion representatives explained that they are currently researching easements to identify the parcels of land they are crossing. The plan to connect western Goochland is a patchwork. Dominion will build the “backbone,” Firefly will connect the backbone to the customers.

Dominion customers in western Goochland should be connected by the end of 2023. Firefly, which is the internet provider, will let residents know when construction will begin in their area.

Miscellaneous

The supervisors approved raising the threshold for transfers within the county’s operating, capital, and utilities funds made by the county administrator without board approval from $7,500 to $25K and for the superintendent of schools from $7,500 to $10k from one unencumbered appropriated balance category to another.

The board approved a resolution accepting a $178,044 school resource officer grant from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services to fund SROs in all county schools and authorize the county administrator to execute all documents related to the grant. The budget was amended to accept and appropriate these funds.

Supervisors adopted a resolution amending the FY2023 budget capital improvement budget by transferring and appropriating $4,055 from the Central Virginia Transportation Authority (CVTA) Fund to the Capital Improvement Fund. The money was appropriated to the CIP fund for the Hockett Road realignment project.

A sketch of the proposed realignment of Hockett and Ashland Roads

Board referrals to the planning commission included an ordinance amendment for the M-2 zoning district to clarity maximum permitted building heights; to allow, by conditional use permit, small contractor storage in agricultural districts to support small and startup businesses; and an ordinance amendment concerning installation of sidewalks and street trees in new subdivisions. These are expected to be addressed by the planning commission at is December meeting.

Public hearings

·        The Board voted to amend the FY’23 budget as outlined above.

·        An application for a conditional use permit to allow a detached family accessory housing unit on 15.01 acres at 6 Road’s End Lane in District 5 was approved.

·        An application filed by Columbia Gas Transmission, LLC to amend its 1989 conditional use permit for expansion of its gas transmission station on 29.6 acres at 1436 Hermitage Road was approved.

·        Nearing the finish line of correcting the misalignment of the Goochland/Louisa boundary that has been in question for more than a century, the supervisors approved 4-1 with Borad Chair Neil Spoonhower in dissent, a resolution moving nine properties from Louisa to Goochland and one parcel the other way. If Louisa County supervisors approved the same resolution at their November 7 meeting, a notice of approval will be sent to all 10 affected property owners and Goochland and Louisa will file a joint petition with the Circuit Court requesting it to enter an order approving the new boundary line. This is the same procedure that was used in 2019 to clarify the county border before local elections. County Attorney Tara McGee said the court order would then be filed with the Secretary of the Commonwealth. After all of those steps have been completed, probably in the spring, the supervisors will need to amend portions of the election district ordinance to reflect the changes. This should be complete well before the November 2023 local and state elections. McGee said that the US Census will pic up the changes in its next annual update.