October 27, 2020: JMRL plans more limited in-person service; Virginia plans future for rail
To start today’s show, a shout-out to a Go Fund Me campaign for my friend Charlene Munford. She is seeking funds to bring her cleaning business to the next level. I hired Charlene for a big job earlier this year, and I’m very satisfied with the work. Take a look at the Go Fund Me page today to learn more.
(A network error prevented the upload of the podcast to the newsletter - please visit my SoundCloud page to hear the audio for now)
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The Virginia Department of Health reports another 1,134 cases of COVID-19 in Virginia today and the seven-day average for positive tests is at 5 percent for the second day in a row. The Blue Ridge Health District reports another 17 cases with seven from Charlottesville, six from Albemarle, two from Louisa, and one new case each in Fluvanna and Greene. Today’s percent positivity was not available at production time.
The University of Virginia reports 55 active cases as of yesterday, with 45 of them students. Five percent of quarantine rooms are in use as are three percent of isolation rooms.
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In-person browsing may soon be coming to more Jefferson-Madison Regional Library branches as the system considers mitigating potential health risks associated with the pandemic.
The library closed early in the state of emergency but added curbside service at all branches in the summer. They opened branches in outlying counties in September, limiting attendance to five at a time. Library Director David Plunkett addressed the JMRL Board of Trustees at their meeting Monday.
“The goal is going to be to work with Charlottesville to open the city area branches,” Plunkett said. “I’m aiming for between Thanksgiving and Christmas for Gordon Avenue, Northside and Central.”
Plans to open the Scottsville and Crozet branches may be announced sooner as soon as county officials are consulted. When Scottsville opens only one person will be allowed in at a time.
“Scottsville, unfortunately at the moment will only be one appointment at a time in order to keep the six-feet social distancing to make this work. The branch is so small it’s about the size of my office here,” Plunkett said.
Lisa Woolfork is one of three library trustees for Charlottesville. She posed an important question.
“This question isn’t really a critique at all of the plan,” Woolfork said. “I guess it’s a question about some of the speculation or what your thoughts might be on the speculation that we can expect numbers to rise nationally maybe as well as in the state as the weather gets colder and flu season converges on COVID. Do you have any thoughts about what a bump in infection rates might [mean]?”
“I believe that the model that we have in place at Greene, Louisa, and Nelson could continue throughout a bump because you’re talking about nobody being in close contact with any members of the public, you’re talking about everybody masked at all times and you’re talking about very limited people in a building, and you’re talking about a massive amount of cleaning by staff that’s happening on a daily basis.”
Plunkett said staff is reviewing closely the new definition that the Centers for Disease Control have for “close contact.” Previously it was listed as someone who had been within six feet of an infected person for a 15-minute period. Now close contact is defined as someone who has been within six feet of a positive case for a cumulative 15 minutes over a 24-hour period.
The definition of close contact will also affect operations at the Blue Ridge Health District according to spokeswoman Kathryn Goodman.
“Our contact investigations will continue with the same process as before, we just have a new definition for identifying close contacts which may lead to more contact tracing,” Goodman said. She reminded people that COVID-19 is still a public health threat.
“It’s a new virus and emerging research about exposures led to this definition change,” Goodman said.” I know everyone has “COVID fatigue” and heading into the winter will be tough but we need to continue practicing healthy behaviors to prevent getting and spreading COVID-19. This includes wearing face masks, staying home when sick, washing hands frequently, and standing at least 6 feet away from others.”
In other library news, the main meeting room in the Central Branch will be renamed the Swanson Case Courtroom to honor a legal victory which resulted in the first African-American being admitted to graduate school at the University of Virginia in 1950. Learn more on the JMRL website.
Plunkett said the name of the library system will be studied as well.
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The Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority could soon improve its financial reputation with the federal department of Housing and Urban Development. City Council last week agreed to spend $80,000 from its CARES Act funding to cover back rent from March 2020 to now. CRHA Executive Director John Sales said that would make 120 households current. That will signal to HUD that the public housing agency is improving its finances.
“Tenant accounts receivable has been one of the bigger hits on the scoring historically and in many years if you go back through the audits, HUD has always dinged the housing authority on collecting rent and failure to collect rent,” Sales said.
Last week, Council agreed to a funding agreement with CRHA for $3 million in city funding for the renovation of Crescent Halls and building new units at South First Street. They also agreed to a recovery agreement between CRHA and HUD.
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Virginia is set to spend billions on rail travel in order to allay congestion on major highways. Yesterday, the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority held their first ever meeting, ten months after Governor Ralph Northam announced a $3.7 billion program to purchase 350 miles of railroad right of way and 225 miles of track.
To kick off the meeting, Virginia Transportation Secretary Shannon Valentine said she led a bi-partisan case in 2009 for daily service from Lynchburg to Washington when she was a member of the House of Delegates.
“And it actually resulted in Virginia making an investment in intercity passenger rail service for the first time in its history,” Valentine said. Service began in October 2009. Since then the state has gradually expanded service due to increased demand.
“We have certainly come a long way in 11 years,” Valentine said. “We’ve gone from a $17.5 million pilot to a projected $3.5 billion budget for the [Department of Rail and Public Transportation] and VPRA in the upcoming six year program.”
Valentine said ridership has grown from 125,000 in the first year to 971,000 in 2019. She added the pandemic will affect transportation funding but that Virginia will proceed with the purchase of right of way and track.
“We believe that the rail initiatives we are putting forward are addressing transportation issues for decades,” she said. “These are generational solutions and that is the strategy that we are actually bringing forward through DRPT for commuter rail, passenger rail, and as a result, freight rail.”
That includes purchase of a rail line from Clifton Forge to just west of Richmond for future passenger service. Michael McLaughlin is the chief of rail for DRPT.
“We did that for purposes of rail preservation,” McLaughlin said. “We do want to continue seeing freight move along the Buckingham Branch Railroad but we also want to allow the opportunity to control our own future. And that’s really the theme for all of this. It’s not just about the next ten years. It’s about the next hundred years. About The next century. The ability to grow passenger and freight rail in Virginia.”
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Today in meetings, the Greene County Board of Supervisors meets tonight at 7:30 p.m. On the agenda is a rezoning for property on the Albemarle County border and a special use permit for a drive-in movie theater. They’ll also get an update on the Greene County water supply plan.
The Pantops Community Advisory Committee will meet at 6:15 and will get a presentation on the conversion of Exit 124 from a traditional intersection to a diverging diamond. (meeting info)
“By shifting vehicles to the opposite side of the road, this design eliminates traditional left turns that cross over oncoming traffic,” reads a description of the DDI on VDOT’s webpage for the six projects funded in the second round of the Smart Scale funding process. “The DDI improves safety by reducing the number of spots where vehicles could collide and can handle more than 600 left-turn movements per hour, twice the capacity of a conventional interchange.”