November board highlights

 

The November 6 meeting of the Goochland Board of Supervisors—held on Wednesday because county offices were closed on Tuesday for election day—was quite short.

County offices will be closed on Monday, November 11 for Veterans’ Day. All are invited to Goochland High School at 9:30 a.m. that day for the Marine Corps Jr. ROTC observance. The keynote speaker will be Michael Flanagan, retired Army Colonel.

Board Chair Charlie Vaughters, District 4 said that the district town hall meetings held I October were a success and thanked staff for their great presentations and responses to citizen questions.

Vaughters said that the meeting between county officials and our delegation to the Virginia General Assembly was a productive exchange of concerns and insight.

Fire-Rescue Station 8, at the corner of Dogtown and Whitehall Roads in Sandy Hook is in the design process, construction is expected to begin sometime next year.

Newly created voting precinct 403 at Avery Point in eastern Goochland was a resound success, said Vaughters. He commended Goochland Registrar Ryan Mulligan and our Electoral Board Pam Johnson, chair; Robert Walker Vice Chair; and Wanda Taylor, Secretary and all of the election officials for their hard work made more arduous by the long early voting period, for conducting a successful election.

County Administrator Vic Carpenter reminded all of the document shredding and tire amnesty, which will include farm equipment tires, to be held on Saturday, November 16 on the Fairground Property at the intersection of Fairground and Sandy Hook Roads from 9-1.

 

The consent agenda, essentially a laundry list of items that need to be voted on in a public setting by the supervisors.

On November 6 it included amending the FY25 budget and appropriating a one-time $300k donation from the county’s unassigned general fund balance to the Goochland Education Foundation https://goochlandedu.org/  to create an extended day enrichment program for all three county elementary schools. The money will kickstart the program, which will fill a gap, rather than compete, with other after school programs. Benefits to families include budget friendly extended learning in a safe environment, homework completion, academic remediation as needed, and expanded opportunities for learning activities like STEM. It will also help to mitigate Covid learning loss. The program will include success metrics to gauge a return on investment and reinforce our school division’s commitment to maximizing the potential of every learner.

This donation will enable the GEF to move forward with the program, which is expected to be self-sustaining once in operation. Details are expected to be shared early in the new year, so the program will be in place at the start of the 2025-26 school year next August.

A resolution affirming Goochland’s support of and participation in Firefly Broadband’s expanded regional internet service expansion project (RISE), the 2024 Virginia Telecommunications Initiative (VATI) Broadband grant, authorizing the county administrator to take all actions necessary in furtherance of the RISE project, was unanimously approved.

The Virginia Board on Geographic Names asked for approval of a proposal by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names to name an unnamed stream in Goochland and Louisa Counties "Fern Creek." The creek is perennial and about 4-6 feet wide, 1.7 miles long and heads at an oblong pond near the boundary of Louisa and Goochland Counties and flows generally southwest into Courthouse Creek. The name Fern Creek was chosen due to the widespread presence of fern along its banks near the Aldwyck Subdivision in Goochland County.  This item was provided to both Goochland and Louisa County staff and was reviewed/researched by both the Goochland and Louisa County Historical Societies. Neither historical society found precedent names or conflicts with the proposed name.

Employee service recognition

On October 24, 40 county employees were recognized for their years of service to Goochland for a total of 360 years. These are the people who work hard every day to serve our citizens.

 5 Years of Service: Beatrice Hall; Jamie Sherry; Christopher Johnson; Dennis Mayo; Justin Pennington; Wendy Grady; David Croker; Sara Grayson; Robert Page; Ashley Eggleston; Ashton Gruzsecki; and Diane Pomphrey.

10 Years of Service: Chris Ferguson; Alyssa Ferguson; Scott Leabough; and Christina Neale.

15 Years of Service: Daniel Sprouse and Michele Parrish.

20 Years of Service: D. E. “Eddie” Ferguson

(Happily, GOMM did not have to file a FOIA request to obtain the list. Photos of some the honorees are on the county Facebook page.)

 

VDOT

Marshall Winn, administrator for the Ashland VDOT Residency, which includes Goochland, reported that a speed study to lower the speed limit on Fairground Road from 45 to 35 mph and a safety study for Rockville Road necessitated by site distance issues at the entrance to the Tuckahoe Bridge North community, which is in the data collection phase, are ongoing.

Winn said that there will be no more VDOT roadside vegetation spraying in Goochland. He speculated that continued spraying, which has generated complaints from residents whose plants and trees have been harmed, may be part of power company efforts to clear their transmission lines.

District 5 Supervisor Jonathan Lyle commented that the new lane and crosswalk striping at the intersection of River Road and Route 6 by the Richmond is confusing and may have caused more problems than it solved. Winn promised to meet at the site with Lyle to address the situation.

Board reports

Our supervisors serve on regional bords and commissions representing the interests of Goochland.

Neil Spoonhower, District 2, who serves on Plan RVA and the Central Virginia Transportation Authority CVTA ( https://planrva.org/) reported that he has been elected finance chair of that group. Thanks to a white paper crafted by county staff, CVTA is “beta testing” the possibility of CVTA to issue bonds to finance regional transportation projects to understand how Goochland could benefit from this while protecting the county’s excellent bond rating.

Created in 2020, the CVTA administers locally generated transportation funding, generated from 50 percent of taxes generated by local fuel sales. Goochland has benefited to the tune of more than $9 million used to fund a variety of local projects. (Go to https://www.goochlandva.us/1363/Gas-Up-In-Goochland to learn more.)

Lyle, who represents Goochland on the regional Richmond Transportation Authority, reposted that the group will move to a biannual funding schedule to synchronize with other transportation funding groups.

Lyle said that a discussion about paratransit caught his attention as perhaps a way to mitigate the dramatic increase in calls for, perhaps less than emergency, EMS transport from Sheltering Arms Hospital and Avery Point, which are near an established GRTC bus route.

Vaughters expressed appreciation to his colleagues for their time and effort participating in these groups on Goochland’s behalf.