In the evening

 

During their March 3 dinner break, Goochland supervisors had the opportunity to enjoy a delicious meal at Alinor, the culinary arts classroom/restaurant simulator of the Culinary Arts program, part of the Career and Technical Education (CTE) of our school division.

Delicious dinner created, cooked and served by Culinary Arts Students (Goochland County image)

The meal, an annual feature of the Goochland Leadership Enterprise program, provides an opportunity for GLE participants to interact with supervisors in an informal manner.

Bruce Watson, CTE Director, welcomed the GLE class and supervisors. Culinary arts, said Watson, is one of many career path explorations offered by CTE.

Under the direction of Chef Bill Erlenbach, the meal was created, planned, cooked, and served by students. After introducing his students, all of whom volunteered to participate in the event.

Chef Erlenbach commends his students

Erlenbach said that 2026 graduates will be the first to have taken culinary arts classes for all four years of high school. (To learn more about CTE offerings go to the high school website https://ghs.goochlandschools.org/o/ghs  click on program of studies and explore the offerings. CTE will expand its offering to include mechatronics and other technical pathways so our kids can obtain the skills needed to work in the high-tech jobs coming to Goochland. This is why a $20 million CTE addition to the high school is needed.

Goochland Leadership Enterprise was created in 1996 to inform and educate Goochlanders about the workings of the county and to foster citizen engagement. Graduates of the GLE program have enriched our community in many ways, giving freely of their time, talents, and treasure by volunteering with our non-profits. Several have served as supervisors, school board members, planning commission, and on other boards.

GLE brings together people from all walks of life and all parts of the county that they might not otherwise encounter to explore differing viewpoints on local matters and gain a global perspective on Goochland.  

The program consists of twelve informational sessions held around the county that include presentations by the Historical Society, Constitutional Officers, county administration, economic development, schools, non-profit organizations, and a trip to the Virginia General Assembly to meet with Goochland’s delegation to state government.

Fire-Rescue Station 8

After dinner, the supervisors authorized Raley to execute a construction contract with Gulf Seaboard General Contractor for up to $9,450,000 with a 10 percent contingency to build Fire-Rescue Station 8 located at the intersection of Dogtown and Whitehall Roads in Sandy Hook. The total estimated cost for the facility is $12.8 million including land acquisition; site and building design, well drilling; furnishing, and other fixed assets needed to equip a fully functioning station.

Funds to build Station 8 will come from the 2022 sale of general obligation bonds, which were authorized by a 2021 referendum. Station 8 fulfills a longstanding public safety need in that part of the county. Those of us who spent all or part of a cold and rainy 2021 election day at polling places to encourage voters to approve the referendum, to build a new elementary school—completed in 2024—a replacement for our almost 200 year old courthouse, and fire-rescue station 7 on Hockett Road, are profoundly disappointed by the bait and switch.

Space study

Since moving into the renovated “old” high school in 2005, county administration has grown. Before the move, most county offices were in buildings around Courthouse Green. On tax due days, the line at the treasurer’s office stretched outside and some departments shared a single room. When District Court Judge Claiborne Stokes was Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney, his “office” was the corner of a conference room table. So scarce was space, that sometimes the Clerk of the Court kept trial evidence in a box under a bench in her office.

Two decades later, local government functions are splitting at the seams once more.

Joe Miller of HBA Architects, which was retained by the county to help with design of the new courthouse conducted a space study to provide a viable long term master planning document to help the county forecast and prioritize capital improvement projects to address the needs of the county as it grows.

Miller explained that his team toured all facilities and visited all departments and developed space needs to improve operational efficiency. They developed conceptual plans that identify immediate needs and the highest add best use of facilities that are underused or unoccupied like the old GES. The summary indicates that office and support space needs will grow over the next 30 years. County departments in most immediate need of additional space include community development, fire-rescue, utilities, and the registrar.

The new courthouse, conceptually, a 75k square foot building to house general district, juvenile and domestic relations, and circuit court as well as related functions, will displace general services, whose current location will become courthouse parking. Other departments both at the courthouse complex and administration building could be moved around.

Costs are  being estimated.

Rose Retreat

The supervisors voted 4-1 with Jonathan Lyle, District 5 in dissent, to approve a proffer amendment to waive the requirement for a left turn requirement on Poorhouse Road for the 45 lot Rose Retreat subdivision, which was approved about 20 years ago.

Since being heard by the planning commission, which declined to recommend approval, the applicant S. Barbee Cox III agreed to build a full right turn lane into the property. His attorney said that the left turn lane is not required by VDOT and presented crash reports indicating that in the last eight years there have been only three reported crashes on that road, two caused by animal collisions, one by driver running off the road, no reported rear end crashes. Adjoining landowners were not willing to sell part of their property to build the left turn lane. The addition of traffic from Ros Retreat to Poorhouse Road will result in 11 percent of its capacity.

Lyle observed that Poorhouse Road is narrow and has no ditch. As the county grows, all of its roads will handle more traffic. He contended that requiring both right and left turn lanes many be the only opportunity for road improvements.

Other board members contended that the wavier process provides an escape clause to evaluate each project on its own merits.