June 2, 2023: Bryant not seeking re-election to Charlottesville School Board; VDOT outlines plans to add more public EV chargers
Plus: Botanical Garden of the Piedmont collaborating with Bennett's Village for an event tomorrow
Is it time for June bugs? An appreciation of Mrs. Cleaver or for Benny’s friend? Either way, the sixth month is upon us as we wait patiently for the solstice in just a few weeks. Many will savor the extra few minutes of sun time each week, while others are quiet about their delight that the darkness will once again return. Does Charlottesville Community Engagement take a stand on this? I’m Sean Tubbs, and I’ll sit this one out and wait for those June bugs.
On today’s program:
Charlottesville will continue to pay low interests on debt for public projects
James Bryant won’t seek another term on the Charlottesville School Board
The Botanical Garden of the Piedmont is collaborating with Bennett’s Village tomorrow
The Metropolitan Planning Organization Policy Board adopts a couple of plans
A Virginia Department of Transportation outlines plans to increase electric vehicle charging stations across the Commonwealth
First shout-out: Charlottesville Community Bikes
In this first subscriber supported shout-out, Charlottesville Community Bikes believes that bicycles can be a means to social change, addressing issues of equity, access, and inclusion. They provide free bikes to adults who need one, and have a special program that provides free bikes to children. Want to learn more or support their work? Visit charlottesvillecommunitybikes.org to learn more.
Note: There’s no podcast for this one. See the end note. There may or may not be one added in the future.
Charlottesville once again gets top grade from bond ratings agencies
As Charlottesville continues a trend of higher and higher capital improvement program budgets, the city’s low interest rates will continue.
Both S&P Global Ratings and Moody’s Investor Services have once again given AAA bond ratings for the city.
“A government’s bond rating evaluates the City’s ability to repay its debt in full and on time,” reads a press release sent out on Tuesday. “Bond ratings of AAA/Aaa are attractive to investors because it is a strong indicator of low risk of default which results in the City being able to borrow at the lowest possible interest rate.”
Factors that go into the rating include financial practices, budgetary flexibility, and a manageable debt burden.
In April, Council adopted a one-year capital budget of $114,886,179, the largest in history. That’s based on $94.8 million in bond sales which is also the highest ever, as well as $8.3 million from surplus from previous budgets.
The high amount is due to the $84,813,410 that will be spent on the Buford Middle school expansion and renovation. Other projects include:
$3.7 million for traffic signal replacement
$1 million for climate action initiative
$3 million for public housing redevelopment
$1.885 million to Piedmont Housing Alliance for the MACCA apartments on Park Street
$1.125 million to Piedmont Housing Alliance for the Park Street Christian Church project
For details on all of these items, check out the city’s budget viewer.
Bryant not seeking re-election to Charlottesville School Board
Three out of four incumbents up for election to the Charlottesville School Board this November have opted to retire from the body. The latest is James Bryant according to a release sent out this morning by Charlottesville City Schools.
“I have served Charlottesville City Schools 29 years as an employee and 5 years as a School Board member,” Bryant is quoted in a release. “It has been an honor to serve, and I invite others to continue to serve whenever the opportunity avails itself. Our schools and scholars are worth the investment of your time and talent.”
Sherry Kraft and Lashundra Bryson Morsberger have already stated they will not seek reelection. Jennifer McKeever has not yet made an announcement.
So far, only Amanda Burns has filed paperwork with the Virginia Department of Elections. Chris Meyer, a candidate in 2019, has announced a campaign. The deadline to qualify for the ballot is June 20.
Botanical Garden of the Piedmont holding event tomorrow with Bennett’s Village
The organization that has a lease with the City of Charlottesville to build a botanical garden in McIntire Park is holding an event tomorrow with another organization that’s seeking to build an inclusive playground in Pen Park.
“We are collaborating with Bennett’s Village on an event called Just Ask,” said Jill Trischman-Marks, the executive director of the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont.
Bennett’s Village was formed in 2018 to honor the memory of a five-year-old boy with spinal muscular atrophy type. Bennett McClurken-Gibney died of sepsis after complications with influenza, according to a Charlottesville Tomorrow article from that time.
Tomorrow’s event takes place at the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont from 10 a.m. to noon and will begin with a reading of the book Just Ask. The author is was written by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
“It’s about her experiences as being a child with Type 1 diabetes and being different and how much easier life would be if people could just ask questions and move on,” Trischman-Marks said. “But it’s a celebration of building a community. Some kids who were different building a community garden together.”
After the reading, attendees can walk through several different corridors through the garden in order to experience the natural world.
“Kids will be able to smell the different crushed leaves and taste fruit and honey and hear the wind chimes,” Trischman-Marks said. “Multiple ways we’re going to try to bring nature to people regardless of their abilities.”
This is the sort of collaboration that the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont wants to be able to do. Bennett’s Village is not yet constructed so the garden is offering up space to help them build awareness .
“Bennett’s Village is delighted to partner with the BGP on this important event,” said Kara McClurken, President of Bennett’s Village. “Both of our organizations are working to lower barriers to recreational play and foster connection in outdoor spaces.”
As for the Botanical Garden of the Piedmont itself, Trischman-Marks said its size increased last year from 8.5 acres to 15 acres which meant a revision of the schematic design. The Rivanna Trail will one day pass through the expanded garden and will connect with the John Warner Parkway trails.
“In addition we are about to announce our architecture firm for the design of the buildings,” Trischman-Marks.
The Just Ask event will take place next to the entrance to the Garden on Melbourne Road. Limited on-site parking will be available for those with limited mobility.
MPO approves two planning documents after no comment at public hearings
Much of today’s edition comes from a meeting on May 24 of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Metropolitan Planning Organization. That’s a federally mandated body that consists of city and county officials that makes official decisions on transportation funding projects. These exists all over the entire United States of America.
Surely you’ve heard of it?
The first main item on the May MPO meeting was a public hearing on something called the Transportation Improvement Program. This covers the next three years of projects. Here’s a bit from the written document that wasn’t said or explained at the meeting. (view the TIP)
“The Charlottesville-Albemarle Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) is a document used to schedule spending of federal transportation funds within the metropolitan region in coordination with significant state and local funds for the federal fiscal years 2024 through 2027,” reads the TIP. “It also demonstrates how these projects comply with federal planning regulations.”
To all but a handful of community members, the TIP is filled with transportation funding jargon. But if you jump ahead to page 25, you can begin to see a list of projects with federal funds including ones administered by the city of Charlottesville and their funding. Here’s a snapshot:
The Emmet Street Streetscape is a $8.14 million project funded through the first Smart Scale round that has not yet gone to construction.
The full cost of the Belmont Bridge replacement that’s under construction is $38 million.
The full cost of the completed Hillsdale Road Extension is $27 million.
Take a look at the full list. Now let’s check in with the meeting. Ryan Mickles is a regional transportation planner with the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission, the agency that staffs the MPO.
“The recommendation this evening would be for the Policy Board to review this and to approve,” Mickles said. “There have been no public comments received as of today.”
No one spoke at the public hearing at the meeting either. You could argue that this isn’t worth writing about. But then how would we ever get to a point when anyone would make a comment at a public hearing?
Later in the meeting, the MPO Policy Board held a public hearing and then approved the $516,854 work program that will govern the work of the TJPDC’s transportation staff. For those who want to understand how transportation decisions are made, these details are important.
For instance, the TJPDC administered the Regional Transit Vision plan which imagines a future of more robust bus service across the whole region, as well as the ongoing Regional Transit Governance Study. There’s a $27,640 in staff time allocated to the latter and another $12,000 toward work to study potential expansion of the MPO’s boundaries.
Second shout-out: Plant Northern Piedmont Natives
Since the beginning of this newsletter, one Patreon supporter has dedicated their shout-out to an organization that seeks to draw awareness of the importance of native species to the ecosystem. As we approach summer, Plant Northern Piedmont Natives wants you to know they’ve printed over 9,280 copies of their guide Piedmont Native Plants: A Guide for Landscapes and Gardens.
In this guide, Piedmont native plants are defined as plants that evolved before the influences of European settlements began to shape and change the landscape. Plants included in the guide were selected from the Digital Atlas of the Virginia Flora and occur naturally within the region.
You can download your copy today for free!
VDOT planning for infrastructure for electric vehicle charging
As of June of 2022, there were 30,660 electric vehicles registered in Virginia according to data from the United States Department of Energy. But how many places are them for them to be charged?
“We’ve got roughly 1,100 public stations across all charging port types at all speeds,” said Erin Belt, the decarbonization lead for the Virginia Department of Transportation at the May 24 meeting of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Metropolitan Planning Organization.
One of the goals of the federal Infrastructure and Investment in Jobs Act (IIJA) signed into law in November 2021 is to increase that number by opening up new avenues to pay for projects across the entire United States of America.
“This is the funding that provides improvements for roads, bridges, mass transit, including electric infrastructure as well as other alternative fuels along our alternative fuel corridors,” Belt said.
The legislation also dedicated up to $5 billion for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program and $2.5 billion for a grant program for charging and fueling infrastructure.
To qualify for the funding, every state and territory in the United States of America had to submit a deployment plan to the Federal Highway Administration by last August. Virginia’s plan is intended to encourage economic development.
“Our plan was approved in late September of last year,” Belt said. “We will receive over $100 million in a five-year period to build-out Virginia’s alternative fuel corridors.”
There are currently eight designated alternative fuel corridors totalling about 985 miles of interstate highways, including Interstate 64. U.S. 29 is not currently an alternative fuel corridor, but another round is underway for additional pathways.
Belt is working on a mechanism for how different localities and entities can compete for the funds. That process could launch this summer and will follow the Biden administration’s Justice40 program.
“It is a new equitable program that’s been developed to ensure that 40 percent of the benefit of federally funded projects are realized in disadvantaged communities,” Belt said. “That does not mean 40 percent of the dollars. It’s the 40 percent of benefits.”
Belt said officials are still trying to determine exactly how those benefits will be measured.
To qualify for funding through NEVI, a project must be less than a mile away from an alternative fuel corridor and no more than 50 miles away from another charging station.
“But more importantly, you have to have four ports minimum and they have to be able to charge at a speed of 150 kilowatts per hour and not reduce that speed if you have multiple vehicles charging from the same charging station,” Belt said.
Belt added that another aspect of the plan is to develop an interactive map of what charging stations are out there. For more on Virginia’s NEVI plan, visit the U.S. Department of Energy’s website.
Other articles by local journalists to read:
Orange, Louisa county airports getting some funding, CBS19, May 31, 2023
After decades dealing with stigma, Friendship Court residents decide to rename their community, Charlottesville Tomorrow, June 1, 2023
540 end notes
This has been among the most hellish weeks I’ve had. I won’t go into details but it’s clear our nation’s health care system is broken. There will come a time after my family’s crisis has passed and maybe we’ll actually get the care for an elderly family that we’ve been denied, repeatedly.
So that means there’s no podcast for this episode. I may have to clear a lot of time to continue doing the work that a nurse should be doing, but we’ve been denied care. Repeatedly. And no one we’re dealing with seems to care.
And you have a story like this, too. We all have stories like this. And no one who controls the system seems to give a damn about anyone. Can we fix this? Can anything be fixed? Are there answers to the question: Why do we allow everything to remain broken?