June board meeting highlights

 

Goochland Delegation to 2026 Special Olympics USA Games (Goochland County image)

At their June 2 meeting, Goochland supervisors approved a resolution honoring the Goochland Delegation to the 2026 Special Olympics USA games to be held in Minneapolis from June 20-26. (Go to https://2026specialolympicsusagames.org/about/about-2026-usa-games for details.)

The Goochland delegation to this event includes four athletes; four Goochland high school student partners; and two coaches.

The athletes, all GHS students, are Destiny Brent; Conner Emmert; Dymontrie Hopkins; and Owen Powers. Each will compete in several different events.

The student partners, Ailey Black, Sam Farkas, Ava Freeman, and Jack Stern serve as leaders, role models, and ambassadors of inclusion and teamwork.

Coaches Wes Farkas and Melissa Black use commitment, encouragement, and leadership to guide the athletes to excellence.

The supervisors also recognized the achievements of 11 young men for earning the highest rank of Eagle Scout through years of dedicated community service and adherence to the principles of scouting. They are Rafael Smith, August Kowalski, Samuel Farkas, Adam Seltzer, Luca Gardner, Kyhl Pace, Noah Wensel, Calvin Gibbons, Isaac Schelin, Aedan Curry, and Tucker Smithson.  

Board Chair Jonathan Christy, District 1 thanked everyone who attended meetings about the proposed Valley Link electric transmission line (https://www.goochlandva.us/1454/Valley-Link-Transmission-Project).  “You voice does matter,” he said and encouraged citizens to continue to provide feedback on the project and stay engaged.

County Administrator Dr. Jeremy Raley Ed.D. echoed Christy’s appreciation for citizen engagement in the Valley Link issue.

He also said that recently Community roundtables, conversations about topics of interest in Goochland, have been successful. “These truly are kitchen table conversations where we share ideas, thoughts, and perspectives.” The next roundtable will be on June 25. All are welcome to sign up, but attendance is limited. Go to https://www.goochlandva.us/1474/Community-Engagement-Initiatives for details.

Fourth of July

Goochland will be celebrating the 250^th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, written by son of Goochland Thomas Jefferson, on July 4th.

Independence on the Green will begin at 1 p.m. on the lawn of our venerable courthouse and include a reading of the Declaration, mention of some Goochlanders who fought in the Revolution, participation in the National Bell Festival by ringing the courthouse bell 13 times, one for each colony, at 2:50 p.m. eastern time. Bring a chair. In case of rain, this event will be held in the sports complex gym at 1800 Sandy Hook Road.

Fireworks will be shot off behind the sports complex in Courthouse Village beginning at 9:15 p.m. Come early to get a good parking spot. Rain date July 5.

Good work

Raley lauded the animal protection department for processing a record 94 adoptions in May, up from its previous record of 91. If you are looking for a furry friend, please visit https://www.goochlandva.us/299/Animal-Protection for more information.

Goochland is once again honoring our veterans—their service and sacrifice made the Fourth possible—by displaying banners on light posts lining River Road West in Courthouse Village. Raley commended Scott Foster, Wendy Grady, and the whole general services team for making this possible. The program, which began a few years ago with six banners, has blossomed to 136 this year.

Heart of Service awards recognize county employees who exemplify honor, empathy, accountability, transparency, and respect in their jobs. Those recognized were Fire-Rescue provider Will Shifflet; Larry Hicks, assistant director of general services who is retiring after 30 years with the county; Ashlea Koch, public utilities business manager. Honorees are nominated by their peers.

The following employees were welcomed to team Goochland.

Tommy Parmenter recently joined the building inspection team as a special projects plan reviewer. Among his many professional credentials, Parmenter holds the coveted master code professional certification, of which there are fewer than 1,000 worldwide.

Christy Gilliam is the county’s newest custodian.

Matt Parker was promoted to Assistant Director of Geneal Service and Elizabeth McDonald, to Deputy County Administrator for operations.

Dashboards

To enhance transparency Goochland has created dashboards “intended to serve as a centralized resource for residents seeking information about county data, performance measures, and operational trends.” They will be updated three times annually with potential for added data points. Values in the dashboards are accurate for the date range shown.  Go to https://goochlandva.us/1477/Dashboards  also accessible from the county website transparency tab. Fire-Rescue, social services, and Office of Children’s Services have their own dashboards.

Jessican Kronberg, Director of Strategic Communications, collaborated with county departments, especially Dan Stowers and Elliott Waugh of the Information Technology department and Tegan Ulis of the CSB, to translate a wide range of data into this digestible and accessible format.

Kronberg wants feedback about the dashboards to ensure that they have information that citizens want and are easy to use.

Consent agenda

The consent agenda is a list of housekeeping items that require supervisor approval. The following actions were takin on June 2.

·         Setting a public hearing for July 7 to consider aFY27 budget amendment that would transfer and appropriate up to $2.7 million for architecture and engineering services for the high and middle school campus addition for the career and technical education center and declare the county’s official intent to reimburse itself for these expenditures from the proceeds of future bond issues.

·         Setting a public hearing for the disposition of real property to grant an access easement across the fire-rescue training center.

·         Approving a resolution to adopt the VDOT secondary six-year plan priorities from 2027-2032

·         Authorize the county administrator to execute a contract with McDouough Bolyard and Peck for county courthouse owner representation. This includes an amendment to the county FY26 budget transferring and appropriating $799,952 from the future capital projects assigned fund to the capital improvement fund to pay for these services and declaring the county’s official intent to reimburse itself from future bond proceeds. (The contact is included in the June 2 board packet.)

·         A resolution amending the FY 26 budget by accepting and appropriating funds from state funding and sales tax revenue; school improvement grant; and a categorial transfer of $55k from transportation to maintenance facilities in the school operations fund. This does not include any additional local funding.

 

Public hearings

The board approved a conditional use permit for a detached accessory family housing unit at 1884 Broad Street Road.

Donation of land and related easements to VDOT for the right-of-way extension of Fairground Road to Rt6. And authorization for the county administrator to execute deeds of this donation was also approved.