Fluvanna Finances $8 Million for ZXR Water Project; Discusses Refinancing School Debt
By. Bryan Rothamel, Field Officer
The Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors have a tentatively agreed to finance the Zion Crossroads (ZXR) water project with $8 million of debt. The county was approved to finance up to $8.5 million through the Virginia Resource Authority.
The ZXR project is projected to cost $10.2 million. The county has $4 million in cash savings, most commonly called the fund balance. Supervisors debated how much they would feel comfortable financing between $6 million and $8 million and for how long.
“I would encourage you to go $8 [million],” said county administrator Steve Nichols.
Tony O’Brien
Tony O’Brien (Rivanna District) said, “The more flexibility we have in regards to the fund balance, the better.”
The county was advised by staff to go no more than 25 years on the bonds to avoid financing a project longer than the project’s replacement cycle. The estimated lifespan of the project is 50 years for the water tower, 15 to 20 years for mechanical parts and 70 to 80 years for the pipes.
“You should view this debt as an investment,” said O’Brien.
Don Weaver (Cunningham District) said, “It is definitely an investment.”
Also at the June 7 meeting, supervisors decided it will sit back and watch the market in regards to how to reinvest $58 million worth of bonds. In third quarter 2018, the school bonds will have about a 100-day span where money can be reinvested. The proceeds of the investments would be profit for the county.
“I don’t think you will make less [later] than you are going to make today,” said Patricia Eager (Palmyra District).
The county explored a float agreement where the county would now offer companies an opportunity to invest money when the chance arises in 2018. The companies would pay the county now for the opportunity later.
Another option is to buy state and local government series (SLGS) securities. However, the government regulates when those can be purchased. Currently SLGS securities are not allowed to be purchased but it is expected to open again.
As the opportunity to reinvest the bonds gets closer, the float agreement becomes less advantageous because companies would not be ‘betting’ on the market. Another issue with the float agreement is the county would pay fees which would take away maximum income.
If SLGS window is closed during the reinvestment period, the county could purchase treasury bonds for a similar rate.
“In other words, [by not doing anything now] we are taking a risk?” said Mozell Booker (Fork Union District).
Eager responded, “Not a very big risk.”
The county administration recent discovered a new ‘bed and breakfast’. Staff has discovered 20 to 25 homes are listed on popular sharing economy website airbnb, where owners can rent out spare rooms to strangers.
The state now allows localities to regulate this new type of lodging options. Many localities have had an adversarial relationship with airbnb because many owners are failing to pay lodging (and business) taxes. [Albemarle County is considering a new lodging tax and business tax ordinance this Wednesday]
However Fluvanna has no lodging taxes. County staff asked the supervisors for direction regarding the issue. Weaver found no issue if renting your own home was legal.
“Have you had any issues?” Weaver asked and received a no. “Then leave it alone.”
County attorney Fred Payne said, “I think [the market] is so new, it is still shaking down.”
Staff offered an opportunity to require airbnb hosts to register with the county. “I think it is a very fluid market,” said O’Brien.
Staff research and return to the board with opportunities or regulations.
The next Fluvanna Board of Supervisors meeting is June 21 at 7 p.m.
The Free Enterprise Forum’s coverage of Fluvanna County is provided by a grant from the Charlottesville Area Association of REALTORS®and by the support of readers like you.
Bryan Rothamel covers Fluvanna County for the Free Enterprise Forum
Photo Credit: Fluvanna County
Greene Supervisors Recognize Ethyle Giuseppe
By. Brent Wilson, Field Officer
As a part of their regular business meetings, the Greene County Board of Supervisors highlight citizens that have made a difference in the community. At the May 9th meeting Mrs. Ethyle Giuseppe was the Greene citizen selected to be recognized. Giuseppe’s selection attracted about 20 citizens to attend the meeting to help recognize her.
Ethyle Giuseppe and PVCC President Frank Friedman in 2012
Supervisor Jim Frydl (Midway) presented Giuseppe a plaque recognizing her lifelong and tireless efforts in the community and her church. Frydl asked if anyone from the audience would like to address Giuseppe. Greene County Schools Superintendent Andrea Whitmarsh thanked Giuseppe for her significant contribution to the community – mainly for the youth of the county. She specifically mentioned the High School gymnasium scoreboards, the ball field at the park, the greenhouse for the agricultural students, the historical society and especially the Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC) facility above the library.
Whitmarsh told the supervisors that many of the students at William Monroe High School (WMHS) take college level classes while still in high school. Thanks to this facility, this year 20 seniors will receive both a high school diploma and an Associate Degree from PVCC.
To reinforce the impact of the Giuseppe Center on WMHS students, Angelina Santus, WMHS Director of counseling also spoke along with three students. Santus told Giuseppe that she sees the impact of the PVCC campus on the students at WMHS every day.
WMHS Senior Kristin Shifflett thanked Giuseppe for having the PVCC facility in Stanardsville. This year she will receive her associates degree and will have 60 credit hours transfer to James Madison University when she reports for the 2017 fall semester.
All of the supervisors thanked Giuseppe and her deceased husband for their generous giving to the community. Giuseppe thanked the supervisors for her recognition and she also thanked those that came out tonight to celebrate.
At that point, the supervisors asked that anyone representing an organization that has been impacted by the Giuseppe’s come up and have their photograph take with Mrs. Giuseppe. A tough act to follow for the next citizen who will be recognized!
Brent Wilson is the Greene County Field Officer for the Free Enterprise Forum a privately funded public policy organization. The Free Enterprise Forum Field Officer program is funded by a generous grant from the Charlottesville Area Association of REALTORS® (CAAR) and by readers like you. To support this important work please donate online at www.freeenterpriseforum.org
Greene Supervisors Set 2018 Tax Rates
By. Brent Wilson, Field Officer
The good news for Greene County residents is on April 25th, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved keeping their personal property tax rate steady for 2018 at $.775/$100.
The bad news is the tax bill is going up. According to County documents, due to increased assessments and other revenue, the county’s total budget is increasing by 5.22% ($61.267,707). The assessment increase alone creates “an effective tax increase” of $.055 per $100.
Supervisors Chair Michelle Flynn (Ruckersville) asked County Administrator John Barkley to review the process up to this point and she explained that approval of the budget will be on the agenda for the May 23rd meeting. Barkley started by thanking all of the counties departments, staff, managers and especially Finance Director Tracy Morris , Economic and Tourism Director Alan Yost and Planning Director/Zoning Administrator Bart Svoboda for their work on the budget.
Barkley outlined the process from the first meeting on March 7th, a workshop with the School Board, another workshop and the advertisement on the March 26th of the proposed rates. Funding for core services are being provided for, a solid foundation for the county’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) to go forward has been established and the county is investing in cross-training of staff.
Barkley did address how the county will partially be funding the increased budget – property assessments have increased approximately 5% which will generate over $1.4 million of additional tax revenue to the county. In addition, drawing down of the Reserve Fund (currently at over $14 million) by $4,158,981 will balance the proposed budget.
This being a public hearing four residents addressed the supervisors.
School Board Chairperson Leah Paladino (Midway) thanked the board for working with the School Board through the joint work sessions during a period that has several significant increased expenditures before addressing additional staffing needs.
School Board Chair Leah Paladino
Virginia Retirement System (VRS) Increase $326,000
Health Insurance $548,000
2% Raise $481,570
Greene County Schools Superintendent Dr. Andrea Whitmarsh spoke in support of a request made during the meeting by the Jefferson Madison Regional Library to add 4 hours each week. Whitmarsh stated that many areas of the county are without internet service and the expanded hours will help students have internet access to help with their school work.
Bob and Joann Burkholder also spoke, both in support of the water impoundment project stating that work should continue.
All five supervisors expressed support of maintaining the tax rate and highlighted various areas that the county will benefit from the budget to be approved next month. Supervisor Dale Herring (At-Large) explained that 17 departments budgeted reductions while 13 departments requested no increase in their budget and that the increase in the budget is being driven by costs of the regional jail, health insurance and VRS costs being pushed to the county. The Board unanimously approved keeping the tax rate the same and the detailed budget will be reviewed at the May 23rd meeting.
Brent Wilson is the Greene County Field Officer for the Free Enterprise Forum a privately funded public policy organization. The Free Enterprise Forum Field Officer program is funded by a generous grant from the Charlottesville Area Association of REALTORS® (CAAR) and by readers like you. To support this important work please donate online at www.freeenterpriseforum.org
Sunny Day? Albemarle Prohibits Greens, Endorses ‘Green’
By. Neil Williamson, President
What does Albemarle want for the rural areas (95%+) of the county?
On this and other issues, Albemarle County’s Board of Supervisors is putting the fun back into dysfunctional.
Earlier this month, the Supervisors enacted two Rural Area Resolutions of Intent that are as similar as a ten pound bag of gold and a ten pound bag of manure. Both weigh ten pounds but one is more valuable than the other because the supervisors like it better.
Please let me explain.
First up on April 5th, buried on their consent agenda as attachment “T”, the supervisors decided they don’t like golf, swim and tennis clubs in the rural areas:
WHEREAS, it is desired to implement the Rural Area Chapter of the Comprehensive Plan by removing “swim, golf, tennis, or similar athletic facilities” as a use permitted by special use permit in the Rural Areas zoning district because those uses are no longer consistent with the County’s policies and objectives for the Rural Area
During the Comprehensive Plan discussion (which reads such regulation should be considered) many of the folks opposed to such recreational activities in the rural area have suggested they generate too much traffic and take
up too much land mass. Interestingly, this would effectively ban new golf courses in Albemarle County as we wrote in a piece earlier this month (A Tradition Like No Other–Albemarle Again Seeks to Ban Golf).
So imagine our surprise when the same Board of Supervisors later on the same day used climate change as the justification for changing their regulations regarding rural solar farms.
To be cost effective, these farms will take a large amount of acreage and require significant additional infrastructure.
The sunny view on solar is different than that of swim, golf and tennis clubs.
WHEREAS, the Albemarle County Comprehensive Plan (hereinafter “the Plan”), Chapter Four, Natural Resources, Objective Eight states the County shall, “Recognize changes occurring to the earth’s climate to anticipate and mitigate impacts to the County.”; and
WHEREAS, the County, the City of Charlottesville, and the University of Virginia formed the Local Climate Action Planning Process Steering Committee (hereinafter “LCAPP Committee”) in 2010, which recommended that all three entities integrate the role of energy and carbon emissions in projects and planning and that the entities identify and promote actions that enable the community to reap the health, economic and environmental benefits that accompany sound energy-based decisions; and
WHEREAS, the Board accepted the LCAPP Committee’s recommendations on September 7, 2011; and
WHEREAS, the Plan, Chapter Twelve, Community Facilities, Objective Ten, Strategy 10(a) provides that the County will, “Continue to ensure the adequate provision of electricity, telephone, fiber optics, and natural gas services to support existing and anticipated development in the County through coordination with utility companies”; and
WHEREAS, permitting the siting, development, construction, operation, integration, and decommissioning of large-scale solar energy systems may assist the County’s efforts to achieve the aforementioned objectives in the Plan as well as the LCAPP Committee’s recommendations;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT for purposes of public necessity, convenience, general welfare, and good zoning practices, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors hereby adopts a resolution of intent to consider amending the Albemarle County Zoning Ordinance to achieve the purposes described herein;
So, despite the Comprehensive Plan’s discouragement of commercial activity in the rural areas, it is OK if they like your product or service provided. As property rights advocates, we believe both uses should be permitted in the rural areas. 
We even agree that a special use permit is an appropriate route to make sure swim golf and tennis clubs as well as solar farms have adequate protections in place to remain harmonious with the surrounding rural areas.
We do not understand how the Board of Supervisors can call for a ban on rural area recreation the same day as they endorse the concept of a commercial field of glass that will require regular maintenance, transmission lines and have equal if not greater significant neighborhood impacts.
Perhaps there are some politics involved in such in-congruent decisions.
Respectfully Submitted,
Neil Williamson, President
Neil Williamson is the President of The Free Enterprise Forum, a public policy organization covering the City of Charlottesville as well as Albemarle, Greene, Fluvanna, Louisa and Nelson County. For more information visit the website www.freeenterpriseforum.org
Photo Credits: Sigora Solar via Facebook
Fluvanna Financing Fun
By. Bryan Rothamel, Field Officer
The Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors approved debt financing plan for Zion Crossroads water project at the April 19th meeting.
The project doesn’t have final design or numbers yet, but the possible funding source will be the Virginia Resource Authority (VRA).
The supervisors approved applying in the summer bond pool with the VRA. The application will be for $10 million, the latest estimated cost of the project. The deadline for the application is May 1.
The county should get a final design and cost in the next month. At that time, the supervisors can decide how much financing they want to use and amend the application. The county administrator recommends putting $4 million from the county’s cash balance to the project.
In regards to current county debt, the high school bonds have a window of about 100 days in the fourth quarter 2018 where $57 million can be reinvested. The county has two known options.
One option is to issue a ‘float agreement’ where the county contracts with an investment firm now at a locked in amount. The investment firm gives the county a set amount now with the hopes the firm can invest that money for a better return when the window opens.
If the county issued a float agreement right now, it is estimated it would bring in a $74,000 immediate payout. They could also ask for a specific amount and once a bid comes in at that price, accept it. The county can issue the float agreement at any time but as the window nears, firms will be less like to ‘bet’ high.
A second option is to purchase a state and local government series (SLGS) when the 100 day period occurs. The only issue is the SLGS are sometimes blocked to be purchased. Two years ago SLGS were not allowed to be purchased for most of the year.
Supervisors directed staff to ask more questions about possibilities to Raymond James, the county’s financial adviser.
At April 12th meeting, the supervisors approved the FY18 budget and tax rates on a 4-1 with Don Weaver (Cunningham District) dissenting.
The real estate tax rate is set at $0.907 per $100 assessed. The personal property stayed at $4.35 per $100. The business rates decreased in an effort to help local businesses.
Late changes to the budget included giving staff a 2 percent raise to start January 1, increasing the budget for county attorney, additional funds for the Sheriff’s Office and Earth Day hazardous waste collection. The supervisors also are using cash to purchase a new brush truck for emergency services.
More public was present at the meeting but overall the budget season had few county residents active in the process.
The supervisors will next meet on May 3 at 4 p.m. for a regular session. A work session on county projects, including the Zion Crossroads water project, is expected before the May 17 meeting.
The Free Enterprise Forum’s coverage of Fluvanna County is provided by a grant from the Charlottesville Area Association of REALTORS®and by the support of readers like you.
Bryan Rothamel covers Fluvanna County for the Free Enterprise Forum
New SNP Superintendent Updates Greene Supervisors
By. Brent Wilson, Field Officer
Superintendent Jennifer Flynn
Shenandoah National Park (SNP) has a new superintendent – Jennifer Flynn, as of 2017. She addressed the Greene Board of Supervisors at their April 11th meeting.
Flynn succeeds Jim Northrup who retired after a 36 year career and she served as Northrup’s deputy superintendent since 2009.
Flynn reported that 2016 saw a record 1.45 million visitors in the park, up 8.3%, which was in celebration of the centennial of the SNP. The park also held its first naturalization service with 80 new US citizens. In addition, she highlighted the parks Night Sky Program and the musical programs as highlights of last summer’s programs.
The fiscal benefits to Greene County being beside the SNP are tangible. $87.9 million was spent in the park and the surrounding 50 mile area in 2016. 300 jobs were provided within the park and it is estimated that over another 800 jobs near the park exist to service the visitors of the park.
Flynn visited Madison County earlier in the day to celebrate the first memorial for the Blue Ridge Heritage Project. The project is seeking to place memorials in the eight counties surrounding SNP with the family names of those who were made to leave their homes in the creation of the park. erect Already erecting a temporary memorial, Greene County is in the planning and fundraising stages for their permanent memorial to remember the families that were forced to give up their land to form the park.
Flynn invited the supervisors to visit the park if they haven’t in several years. The food service is in the middle of a 10 year contract with a new food vender and the increased revenue has allowed the park to upgrade many of their facilities.
Finally, a new program is being tried this April. On April 23rd the north district is being closed off the motorized traffic so that bicycles, joggers, etc. can safely use the road. Already 4,000 bikers have reserved to participate for the day.
Brent Wilson is the Greene County Field Officer for the Free Enterprise Forum a privately funded public policy organization. The Free Enterprise Forum Field Officer program is funded by a generous grant from the Charlottesville Area Association of REALTORS® (CAAR) and by readers like you. To support this important work please donate online at www.freeenterpriseforum.org
Fluvanna Budget Increases Without Public Comment
By. Bryan Rothamel, Field Officer
With the Fluvanna Board of Supervisors considering a budget of $75 million, no one spoke during the public hearings on April 5 for the budget or tax rates.
The supervisors advertised a budget with a real estate tax rate of $0.907 per $100 assessed. The equalized rate for last year was $0.882 per $100.
The supervisors advertised no change to the personal property rate of $4.35 per $100. The business related personal property is proposed to lower from $4.35 to $2.90 and a machinery and tools from $2 to $1.90.
The budget is much of the same from the previous year. The schools were bumped up $320,000. The county is starting to pay the lease for the emergency radio project this year.
Before opening the public hearing the supervisors were updated by staff regarding changes since their last meeting. The slight changes could let the supervisors lower the real estate tax rate or fund items that were previously not funded.
Previously the board tried to find other cuts including an attempt to go line item by line item led by Patricia Eager (Palmyra District). After going through two line items, it proved to be more time consuming than ability to find cuts.
“About three years ago when we were on hard times, we went through the budgets,” chairman Mike Sheridan (Columbia District) said during that work session.
The Fluvanna budget is is hard to maneuver much. The advertised budget includes 13.8 percent of the expenditures going towards debt service. The rest of the budget is heavily affected by salaries.
Don Weaver (Cunningham District) estimated at the last work session that 80 percent of the budget is staffing.
“It is very difficult to cut 20 percent,” said Weaver at the time.
The public hearing on April 5 was only attended by three members of the public, three media members and various county staff and constitutional officers.
The Board of Supervisors will meet to debate and possibly adopt the budget on April 12 at 7 p.m. in the Circuit Courtroom. The board can postpone a vote until April 19 without effecting the operations of the Treasurer’s office to get tax bills mailed.
The Free Enterprise Forum’s coverage of Fluvanna County is provided by a grant from the Charlottesville Area Association of REALTORS®and by the support of readers like you.
Bryan Rothamel covers Fluvanna County for the Free Enterprise Forum
Photo Credit: Fluvanna County
A Tradition Like No Other–Albemarle Again Seeks to Ban Golf
By. Neil Williamson
Adapted from comments to the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors April 5th, 2017
Wow, did you fit a great deal into today’s consent agenda.
The sheer number of resolutions of intent required almost the entire alphabet for attachments. Clearly what started as “Code Housekeeping” has been greatly expanded to a seismic shift of Albemarle’s Planning Philosophy. In the interest of time I will highlight only two of these shifts.
Old Trail Golf Course (in the Rural Area)
#1. Banning golf courses. Perhaps it is fitting that this week, the week of the Masters golf tournament, the Board of Supervisors is voting on effectively eliminating new golf courses. Attachment T of your consent agenda item item 8.4.
While this proposal would eliminate golf, swim and tennis club special use permits in the Rural Areas, it really would ban golf courses in Albemarle County. The concept of putting a golf course in the development area would be an economic challenge and would eliminate roughly 200 acres of developable land. The Free Enterprise Forum notes earlier in this meeting you thanked the donors of 1,500 acres of rural area land for a park – does not parkland recreation have many of the same impacts as a golf course? Perhaps Albemarle wishes to eliminate your rural park policies as well.
#2 Shrinking the Development Area using Net vs. Gross density – This deep in the weeds issue will have the likely intended consequence of lowering by right residential density therefore increasing the demand for rezonings and increasing the cost of housing in the community. For two decades, we have heard that placing residents in the development areas provides more efficient delivery of government services. Why now are you going the other direction? The perhaps unintended consequence of this action will be to significantly reduce the carrying capacity of the development areas and therefore accelerate the need for an expansion of the development areas.
The Free Enterprise Forum believes these two examples can trace their lineage to individual
applications (or proposals) that ended up not moving forward. In these cases the NIMBY’s (Not In My Backyard) won. Now these same forces are pursuing regulatory changes that are counter to Albemarle’s planning philosophies but suit their needs; rather than pursuing an anti economic development spot zoning decision they are pushing the NIABY (Not In Anybody’s Backyard) agenda.
In this election year, I know this Board will not reject any of the alphabet soup attachments on the consent agenda. I can only hope that these proposed ordinance changes will be fairly researched and debated by all and that the Board of Supervisors stands up to the CAVE (Citizens Against Virtually Everything) agenda and consider the impact of your decisions on the basic pillars of your planning philosophy.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak.
Respectfully Submitted,
Neil Williamson, President
Neil Williamson is the President of The Free Enterprise Forum, a public policy organization covering the City of Charlottesville as well as Albemarle, Greene, Fluvanna, Louisa and Nelson County. For more information visit the website www.freeenterpriseforum.org
Photo Credits: Old Trail Golf Club
Greene Supervisors Receive Updates On Major Projects
By. Brent Wilson, Field Officer
The March 28th Greene County Board of Supervisor meeting was basically an update of major projects in the county. The first update from County Administrator John Barkley
was on the White Run Reservoir and he reported that the team was reviewing the sources of revenue to build the reservoir.
Barkley announced that a work session would be held on April 11th at 6 pm to go over the analysis of future water demand projections and long term revenue sources. Barkley encouraged the public to review the plan on the Greene County website and to attend the April 11th meeting.
The second major project in Greene County is broadband access and was addressed by Supervisor Dale Herring (At-Large). Herring explained that currently surveying is in process – last week
a survey went out with all students report cards to identify who has what level of service. In addition, property owners are also receiving a survey in their property tax bills. By the end of June all of the surveys will be completed and the next phase of planning for broadband will go forward.
Barkley suggested that carriers be invited to attend a meeting to ask them their plans for future connectivity in Greene County.
The last major project reviewed was the upcoming budget for fiscal year 2018. To date, three public workshops have been held and on April 25th a final public hearing will be held. On May 23rd the Greene County Board of Supervisors will meet to adopt the 2018 fiscal budget .
The supervisors decided to hold that meeting at the county office building vs. the Performing Arts Center where that meeting is normally held. The logic is that the county office building is now set up to broadcast the meetings live over the internet and they wanted to have the ability for the most citizens to view the meeting.
Brent Wilson is the Greene County Field Officer for the Free Enterprise Forum a privately funded public policy organization. The Free Enterprise Forum Field Officer program is funded by a generous grant from the Charlottesville Area Association of REALTORS® (CAAR) and by readers like you. To support this important work please donate online at www.freeenterpriseforum.org
VDOT Updates Greene County Supervisors
By. Brent Wilson, Field Officer
Joel DeNunzio, the local Virginia Department of Transportation representative from the Culpeper District, updated http://gcva.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=1&event_id=51&meta_id=1565 the Greene County Board of Supervisors at their second meeting of January.
Two transportation projects received funding from the VDOT’s new Smart Scale funding program. The scoring program is relatively complex but is transparent. According to VDOT:
Virginia’s SMART SCALE (§33.2-214.1) is about picking the right transportation projects for funding and ensuring the best use of limited tax dollars. It is the method of scoring planned projects included in VTrans that are funded by HB 1887. Transportation projects are scored based on an objective, outcome-based process that is transparent to the public and allows decision-makers to be held accountable to taxpayers. Once projects are scored and prioritized, the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) has the best information possible to select the right projects for funding.
US29/Route 33
The first Greene County Smart Scale project funded addresses the upgrade to the southeast corner of the Routes 29/33 intersection based on congestion mitigation, safety and economic development. DeNunzio explained that this project was submitted in the Fiscal Year 2017 and has been funded. VDOT is meeting with the contractor with a targeted completion date of December, 2020.
Joel DeNunzio
The second project DeNunzio discussed was the paving of Route 630 / Beazley Road which is to be started by July of this year.
As for construction projects, the main concern is the intersection of Route 29 and Route 607 / Matthew Mill Road. This is one of the most congested intersections in Greene County and the work will begin this summer and should be completed by September, 2017 as it also included in the Smart Scale program in Fiscal Year 2017 and has been funded.
Another concern is the speed on Preddy Creek Road, especially on the curves. Under State law where there is no posted speed limit, by default the speed limit is 55 mph. Discussion centered on whether a speed limit of 35 mph should be posted on the curves and whether drivers would actually slow down. Over the last year the Greene County Sheriff has placed speed enforcement units on Preddy Creek Road. What was unclear from the Board discussion was why there should be a concern to post a lower speed limit on dangerous curves
A comment from the public brought up the unpaved Ice House Road and DeNunzio agreed that it should be paved. County Administrator John Barkley indicated to Jessica and James Maupin that he would contact them when this issue would be discussed again.
Supervisor Jim Frydl (Midway) then asked DeNunzio if the mobile speed signs that he has seen in other counties could be used in Greene County. DeNunzio agreed that they may help in certain areas and he said that he would work with Sheriff Steve Smith to partner with them to acquire the signs for Greene’s use at a cost of about $5,000 each.
Supervisor Bill Martin (Stanardsville) again expressed his concern about materials left by VDOT and asked that the remaining materials at the northwest corner of the Route 33 Bypass and Swift Run Road be removed. DeNunzio has had the metals removed but committed to have the remaining materials removed.
The final issue discussed with DeNunzio was the possibility of the connector road that was designed in the Preddy Creek project on Route 29. When the project was designed it showed a connector road from Route 29 northbound going through to Matthew Mills Road.
Only a fraction of this project has been completed – the apartment complex. The proposed 1,100 homes and businesses have not been constructed. Chairman Michelle Flynn (Ruckersville) asked Planning Director Bart Svoboda if the connector road would have to be built if the project was completed. Svoboda indicated that the road would need to be built.
A further question from Flynn asked could funds from another project be redirected to provide this road. DeNunzio clarified that funds cannot be redirected to other projects but each project would have to re-apply for funds that specific project.
Brent Wilson is the Greene County Field Officer for the Free Enterprise Forum a privately funded public policy organization. The Free Enterprise Forum Field Officer program is funded by a generous grant from the Charlottesville Area Association of REALTORS® (CAAR) and by readers like you. To support this important work please donate online at www.freeenterpriseforum.org
