What are the differences between a turtle and a tortoise? Let’s begin with what they have in common. Both are reptiles. Both have shells. Both begin with T. But you’ll only find the tortoise on land, whereas you will likely find many turtles only in the sea. Tortoise shells are also more rounded, as I learned in a conversation yesterday on the Downrtown Mall. Either way, both are honored on May 23 which is World Turtle Day. How will you celebrate? Either way, Charlottesville Community Engagement sends love and appreciation to one of this planet’s most interesting species.
On today’s program:
Charlottesville is advising people to stay away from Meade Creek due to e. coli
Charlottesville City Schools are one of several localities across the Commonwealth to get school construction assistance
A plan to put solar panels atop the Ivy Landfill has the go ahead from the State Corporation Commission
Charlottesville City Council learns more about the drafting of an economic development strategy
First shout-out: Groove the Blues Away
In today’s first subscriber-supported public service announcement: Are you or someone you know feeling down? Looking for access to mental health resources and a little light movement? Consider attending the final Groove the Blues Away this Saturday from 9 a.m to 11 a.m. in Tonsler Park in Charlottesville.
The event features representatives from Central Virginia Community Acupuncture, Common Ground Healing Arts, Sisters Conquering Cancer, the Trauma-Informed Community Network, and the University of Virginia Cancer Center.
Groove the Blues away is sponsored by Black Women of Central Virginia, Diversity and Community Engagement at UVA Health, Move2Health Equity, WellAware, and Integrated Translational Health Research Institute of Virginia.
Charlottesville warns against contact with water in Meade Creek
Routine water monitoring by the Rivanna Conservation Alliance has detected elevated levels of e. coli bacteria in Meade Creek near Meade Park.
Charlottesville is warning people to avoid contact with the waterway.
“E.coli is a type of fecal coliform bacteria and when it is found in water, it is a strong indicator of sewage or animal waste contamination which can cause disease or illness,” reads a press release sent out this afternoon.
Meade Creek is a tributary of the Rivanna River that begins beneath Garden Street and Walnut Street in the Belmont neighborhood and flows north through an underground pipe before becoming daylighted at Meade Park.
The city will keep the public up to date on a new urban stream health webpage. Pollocks Branch is another waterway where E. coli is frequently detected.
Charlottesville awarded over $17.5 M in state funds for Buford renovation
The Virginia Board of Education held a special meeting on May 11 to take care of unfinished business including the award of $365 million in the school construction assistance program.
“This is the major school construction grant program which was created in the 2022 [General Assembly] session and funded at $450 million,” said Kent Dickey, Deputy State Superintendent for the Division of Budget, Finance, and Operations.
The Board of Education established eleven scoring criteria in the fall and this was applied to all of the applications.
“Those criteria focused on poor building conditions, commitment, and need which were the key triggers that the General Assembly placed in the appropriation act,” Dickey said.
In all, there were 119 applications from 63 school divisions.
Charlottesville submitted the Buford Middle School project with a budget of $87,813,410 and scored a 77. That translates into $17,562,682 in state funds or about 20 percent of the project’s total amount.
The cost estimate used in the application is slightly lower than the full cost of the project, which includes design work.
“The grant will enable Charlottesville to achieve the full estimated $91.8 million scope of its middle school project—including the renovation of the fine arts building, a terraced outdoor classroom, and a redeveloped school garden—without compromising funding for other school facility needs or capital improvement projects,” reads a press release sent out on May 18.
A contract has been awarded to Nielsen Construction for the Buford project and work is expected to begin shortly after school ends on June 9.
The award has the potential to free up other funding for Charlottesville City Schools but staff are still studying compliance requirements.
“By the terms of the grant, the City agreed to ‘maintain or increase the percentage of local revenues dedicated to public education throughout the duration of the financing proposed for the project’, said City Schools spokeswoman Amanda Korman in an email. “As we carefully follow the grant requirements, it is possible that this grant will create opportunities for the City to support other school facilities needs.
Other projects in the Fifth District awarded funds in this round:
The City of Danville received $13 million for renovations at G.L.H. Johnson Elementary, $13.5 million for the R.I.S.E Academy at the John M. Langston Campus, and $23 million for renovations at George Washington High.
The City of Lynchburg will receive $270,090 for work at the Paul Laurence Dunbar Middle for Innovation.
Halifax County will receive $20 million for the $100 million Halifax County High
Appomattox County has been awarded $4.5 million for the $15 million Appomattox County High
Campbell County will get $15 million for $50 million in renovations at Brookville High School.
Pittsylvania County will receive $2.8 million for work at the Pittsylvania Vocational-Technical Center and $1.8 million for Stony Mill Elementary
Nelson County will get ten percent for $24,517,032 of work at Nelson County High
State Corporation Commission approves solar panels at Ivy Landfill
A project to install solar panels atop the Ivy Landfill has been cleared by the State Corporation Commission. That entity regulates power generation in the Commonwealth and requires Dominion Energy to submit proposed solar projects that seek to use funds from ratepayers. This dates back to the passage of the Virginia Clean Economy Act in 2020.
The project at the Ivy landfill was one of several projects Dominion submitted last October and approved by the SCC in a final order dated April 13. (read the final order)
“We anticipate that that project may be completed next year at the Ivy [Materials Utilization Center], said Bill Mawyer, the executive director of the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority that owns and mitigates the landfill, which was closed in the late 1990’s.
The panels will cover about 17 acres of the landfill and the facility will be operated not by Dominion but by the Community Power Group who will sell energy to the utility. (read a March 2021 story)
In other information, Maywer said the RSWA is aiming for a June 22 grand opening for the Southern Convenience Center in Keene. That will be a place where residents in southern Albemarle can drop off trash and items to recycle.
Second shout-out: eBike Lending Library
In today’s second subscriber supported shout-out, one Patreon supporters wants you to know that Charlottesville now has an eBike Lending Library! E-bikes are a great way to get around the community but there are many brands and styles to choose from. Because many e-bikes are sold online, it can be a challenge to try an e-bike before buying one.
The Charlottesville E-bike Lending Library is a free, not-for-profit service working to expand access to e-bikes in the area. They have a small collection of e-bikes that we lend out to community members for up to a week, for free. You can experience your daily commute, go grocery shopping, or even bike your kids to school, and decide whether e-bikes are right for you. Check out this service at https://www.ebikelibrarycville.org!
Charlottesville’s new economic development plan to focus on inclusivity, workforce development
Charlottesville is in the midst of writing up a document intended to guide how economic development should be conducted by the local government. Resonance Consulting of New York City was awarded the contract to create a strategic plan for the topic.
“First and foremost, Charlottesville is a diverse and young community with an authentic small-town charm,” said Resonance Vice President Steven Pedigo at the May 15 meeting of Charlottesville City Council. “Charlottesville is home to a highly skilled work force, a variety of industries, and a really strong healthy economy.” (view the presentation)
Pedigo said 72 percent of residents have at least a bachelor’s degree. Unemployment is low and there are several industries including defense, business services, life sciences, and tourism.
“Charlottesville’s got the opportunity to really lead on life sciences and clean technology,” Pedigo said. “Obviously these are two sectors that are growing quite fast for the country but in addition to that there are really strong assets and associations in Charlottesville to support the growth of these sectors.”
However, Pedigo said Charlottesville should do more to make sure its economic development strategy leads to more inclusivity.
“There’s a lot of opportunity in terms of the knowledge-based sector,” Pedigo said. “It’s a highly skilled population. There are are gaps when it relates to earnings, poverty, and educational levels between white and Black populations so you'll see that we’ve put up a considerable effort and thought into how we can approach those challenges in our economic development strategy.”
The plan will recommend steps to strengthen the workforce development ecosystem to help address gaps. Otherwise he said there’s no real reason to have a strategic plan.
“When we think about economic development today, it can’t just be about business attraction or even just business expansion,” Pedigo said. “There has to be a workforce development piece.”
Pedigo said the city needs to do more to tell the story of economic development and wealth creation in the city. The plan itself will have a very clear vision statement.
“A cultural and creative capital of Virginia, Charlottesville treasures its people and diversity - a leader in innovation and sustainability.”
“So a nice strong vision statement to guide our economic development work to be kind of the future vision that we hope to achieve out of our economic development strategy,” Pedigo said.
Strategic plans are about goals and strategies and here are some examples.
Goal 1 is Equitable Entrepreneurship. Strategies include establishing a one-stop source to help people from diverse backgrounds navigate various city processes. Another is to establish a subsidized commercial space on or near the Downtown Mall.
Goal 3 is “Pathways for Opportunity” which relates to creating workforce development pipelines and there are eight strategies.
“One is just continuing to educate private sector leaders on the importance of workforce development and why they should be thinking about this in partnership with the city and [Albemarle County and its partners,” Pedigo said.
Pedigo said Resonance will develop an implementation plan that will be up to city staff to follow.
Charlottesville Economic Development Director Chris Engel said that the various strategies will each come with ways to measure if outcomes are being met.
“One of the challenges we presented to the consultants is to present us with data metrics that are attainable and don’t cost us an arm and a leg so to speak,” Engel said. “Freely available data that is readily available annually so we can use that as a starting point for measuring progress on each of these. That will be easier on some of these than others so we’ll have to kind of dive in and create a path for each of the big buckets, each of the five major goals, to have accountability on each of those with some metrics under each of them.”
Engel said some of the strategies will be led by partnership organizations and there are five people in his office to work on others.
Vice Mayor Juandiego Wade noted that Resonance had also worked to develop an economic development strategy for Greenville, South Carolina.
“Greenville is rocking with what they’re doing down there and I think if we could get some insights on some of the things that they’re doing down there here I think it would be really good,” Wade said.
Councilor Leah Puryear said she was glad to see metrics for the first goal but she had question about sustainability.
“My concern is having small businesses and having diversity but making sure that not only are they visible but that they are sustainable,” Puryear said. “It’s one thing for me to open up a business today but we all know it’s a two to three year timeframe before businesses are going to net a profit.”
Puryear wants to make sure that businesses generated through this process can be nurtured through both funding and support mechanisms.
“And at what point do you have serious conversations with businesses about their viability before they launch?” Puryear said. “Or mid-stream if the viability changes. What are we doing to help them make the necessary shifts?”
Engel said the United Way’s Envision grant program is an example of the type of support that does exist and is targeted for businesses at a critical point in their life cycle.
Councilor Michael Payne said he would like the city to be more explicit in its desire to help households build wealth.
“Richmond has created an Office of Community Wealth Building, Burlington and Portland have made significant progress here, and in thinking about how that connects to some of the things you’ve mentioned like workforce development, GO programs, but how could that connect as part of an even bigger picture strategy around community development corporations, community development financial institutions that are opening up wealth building to everyone in the community,” Payne said.
Charlottesville Mayor Lloyd Snook asked if economic development ever heard from anyone with concerns about not being able to expand within the city limits. Engel said the topic comes up a lot.
“Space is one of the key questions we get from new and growing companies here,” Engel said. “Ten square miles is not much and 70 percent of it is in residential and that’s unlikely going to change. We’re very limited which is why we participate regional and a company that lands in Louisa or Greene or Albemarle County can provide and does provide jobs for us.”
The plan is expected to be completed this summer.
Reading material:
Tight rental market in central Virginia causing people to lose out on federal program, Isabel Cleary, NBC29, May 22, 2023
Albemarle County schools are "reframing the narrative" of social studies, Brenna Kiefner, CBS19, May 23, 2023
Can you believe it’s the end of #536?
That’s two in a row and there will be another tomorrow. This is all made possible because there are hundreds of people who have opted to pay some money to make sure the work continues. I will sayover and over again how important this is to ensuring there will be an episode #537, #637, and perhaps even a #736!
So many numbers, and many of them are in the spreadsheet I use to keep track of this program as well as Fifth District Community Engagement. The goal of Town Crier Productions is to work toward better understanding the how, where, when and why of decisions made in the community.
Ting supports this work, and if you sign up through Substack, Ting will match your initial subscription.
And if you sign up for Ting at this link and enter the promo code COMMUNITY, you’ll get:
Free installation
A second month for free
A $75 gift card to the Downtown Mall
Thanks to Wraki for incidental music in the podcast, which you can’t hear unless you listen to it. Check out the work on BandCamp!
May 23, 2023: Council briefed on plan for more inclusive economic development; Stay out of Meade Creek