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In today’s show:
Governor Northam provides unemployment relief to Virginia businesses
City Council agrees to put FY20 budget surplus to capital contingency fund
Charlottesville gives an update on the Belmont Bridge
The Virginia Department of Transportation launches I-81 podcast
The Virginia Department of Health reports another 4,652 cases of COVID-19 this morning, and another 55 deaths. Today’s case count is another new record for a one-day total, and the seven-day average is now at 3,842.
In the Blue Ridge Health District, there are another 94 new cases reported today, as well as another COVID-related death in Charlottesville. That brings the total to 90 to date. As for new cases in each locality, there are 43 more cases in Albemarle, 19 from Charlottesville, 15 from Louisa, six each from Fluvanna and Greene and five from Nelson.
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Yesterday, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam issued a new executive order intended to speed up the delivery of benefits from the Commonwealth’s Unemployment Insurance program. Executive Order 74 temporarily stops businesses who have laid off employees due to the pandemic from fully having to pay back the Virginia Employment Commission.
“The increase in workers who are eligible as well as the increase in funds distributed to families in the Commonwealth has depleted the Virginia Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund, and resulted in greatly increased levels of employer benefit charges and anticipated increases in the tax rates of covered employers under the Virginia Unemployment Compensation Act,” reads the order.
According to a press release, more than 1.4 million Virginians filed for unemployment benefits this year. That’s ten times the usual amount. Northam signed legislation from the General Assembly’s special session that added $210 million to the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund from which benefits are paid from. This executive order is expected to save Virginia businesses $200 million. Read the details in the press release.
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Charlottesville City Council heard details Monday night of how the budget for fiscal year 2020 ended up. Chris Cullinan is the city’s finance director.
“The general fund ended the fiscal year at an operating loss of about $1.8 million,” Cullinan said. “COVID-19 had a significant impact on our large economically sensitive revenues such as meals tax, sales tax, lodging tax, but over all the general fund fund balance finished with a positive surplus of $3.9 million.”
Staff recommended putting the money aside in a contingency fund for the capital improvement program. That could provide additional flexibility for Council as they consider next year’s capital spending, or it could be used to fill any other needs that may come up during the pandemic. At the public comment period, at least one citizen asked for the money to be used for another purpose, but Councilor Lloyd Snook explained why he did not support that at this time.
“I said last month, or two weeks ago whenever it was that we ought to do what staff is recommending and I would note to those who have said ‘why don’t you put this towards affordable housing or homeless relief or something like that’ we may end up having to do that and we may have to do that, I don’t know,” Snook said. “One of the purposes of that reserve was not only to protect against loss revenues but also protect against increased expenses that might come from COVID.”
Council will next meet on January 12 at a budget work session with the Planning Commission.
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The city of Charlottesville has given an update on the replacement of the Belmont Bridge expected to get underway next year.
“The Belmont Bridge project is in the final stages before advertising the project for construction,” reads an email from Jeanette Janiczek, the city’s Urban Construction Initiative manager. “The project team has submitted all required construction documents and is awaiting authorization from the Virginia Department of Transportation to proceed with advertisement.”
The final stages include negotiations with CSX to waive a requirement for pedestrian fencing and to complete conditions by which active construction will be allowed to occur in a way to not disrupt regular train service. The city has worked out an agreement with Dominion for utility relocation. Similar arrangements with Century Link and other companies are ongoing.
An information meeting will be held in the spring to communicate how traffic will be maintained during construction of the 236-foot long and 62-feet wide bridge. For more details on what the bridge will be like after construction, including a pedestrian tunnel south of the bridge, visit the project website.
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The Virginia Department of Transportation has launched a new website to help people keep up with roadworks and improvements on Interstate 81. That includes a podcast.
The website for “Improve 81” will feature videos and podcast about specific parts of the $2 billion project that seeks to make the 325-mile corridor safer for motorists and truck-drivers. The first installment deals with recent changes to exit 158 in Botetourt County near Troutville.
VDOT is also sending out a monthly newsletter on various projects. They’re all accessible via the Improve 81 website. Listeners to the podcast will be able to learn about what projects have been completed to date and what’s coming up. One voice in the first episode is project manager Dave Covington, a VDOT engineer who also oversaw construction of the Route29 Solutions projects in Albemarle. Now he’s tasked with dozens of I-81 projects.
“We’ve completed one here in the Salem District and two in the Bristol District and we have more coming very shortly, I think we’re going to advertise three more in the Staunton District at the end of this year, so we look forward to that,” Covington said.
In the Troutville project, on-ramps will be extended in part to reduce the risk of vehicle collisions.
“These types of projects are relatively low-cost but if we can prevent crashes from occurring, the cost savings to the public is really immense when we think about if we have a major incident on the Interstate and it closes the Interstate for eight, ten, twelve hours, that’s a major cost when we’re shipping as much goods on I-81 as we are,” Covington said.
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December 23, 2020: An update on the Belmont Bridge; I-81 gets a podcast; Northam makes changes to unemployment