Supervisors discuss options for utilities district

Caroline County:

“The Caroline Pines subdivision will eventually need to upgrade its aging water line. The question remains—how will they pay for it? The Board of Supervisors discussed options at its April 8 meeting and will explore the matter further in future work sessions.

Caroline Pines is already set up as a utility service district. This allows the board to increase the real estate tax rate on residences within the service district. The board can also establish a separate water user rate for the district’s customers. The goal in either case would be to recover the costs of repairing and replacing the utilities infrastructure.

Currently, the residents of Caroline Pines pay an extra $46.67 per month on their water bills, and this additional charge goes toward paying off the county’s availability fee—not toward any future repairs. The board had approved a discounted availability fee of $2,800 per customer for the community, which Caroline Pines residents are paying over a five-year period. The more than 350 customers are roughly two years into that arrangement. The county’s current availability fee is about $8,000 per customer.”

~ Writes The Caroline Press

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Board of Supervisors tables tower decision

Greene County:

“Greene County Supervisors have delayed a vote on a request to construct a controversial communications tower on Dyke Road. At its regular board meeting on April 8, the Greene County Board of Supervisors deferred until May 13 the vote on a request to construct the AT&T communications tower.

The decision came after supervisors listened to 15 people on both sides of the issue speak for 45 minutes and then asked questions of their own. ‘Did y’all have a second best choice?’ Supervisor Bill Martin inquired before asking fellow supervisors to defer the vote. The board voted unanimously to table the motion.

Preston Lloyd, attorney at Williams Mullen, told supervisors that AT&T officials chose the Dyke Road location because the site seemed to fit all the criteria mapped out in both AT&T’s regulations and the county’s ordinances.”

~Writes Kane Kashouty of the Greene County Record

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Cell tower proposed off Tide Mill Lane

City of Hampton:

“The City Council will soon act on AT&T's request to build a 145-foot-tall cellular tower in a Riverdale Christmas tree farm on Tide Mill Lane. The proposal is facing opposition from some area residents who see the tower and the technology attached to it as an eyesore in a residential neighborhood.

The Planning Commission unanimously agreed April 3 to recommend the tower at 57 Tide Mill Lane be approved. The Riverdale Regional Civic Association and city planning staff have also backed the request. City staff directs cell tower proposals to areas where fewer residents are affected by the infrastructure.

In 2011, community opposition forced the company to pull its application to build a 120-foot-tell tower at the Elks Lodge, 95 Tide Mill Lane. In 2009, the phone carrier had also submitted and subsequently removed its application for a tower at Burbank Elementary School.

The Riverdale Regional Civic Association opposed both previous proposals. On April 3, the group president Andy Bigelow said the latest site is the best location for the tower. A date has not yet been set for the City Council to act on the proposal.”

~Writes the Daily Press

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Bath-Highland Select Broadband Consultant

Central Shenandoah PDC:

“In January 2014, the Bath-Highland Telecommunications Management Team (TMT) led by CSPDC Regional Planner Robert Huff, solicited proposals for professional broadband telecommunications planning services. A selection committee made up of several TMT members reviewed eight proposals and invited three firms to interview. Consulting Gateway Corporation (CGC), in association with Dewberry Engineers, Inc., was selected to develop the plan. CGC has provided multiple options that the TMT reviewed at their March meeting in order to make service contract recommendations to local officials. 

The TMT is a group of about 30 individuals that have been tasked with improving Bath-Highland broadband services. The TMT acquired state funding  for the preparation of a comprehensive Community Telecommunications Plan, which will include a needs assessment analysis, broadband education and application development, last mile connectivity solutions, preliminary engineering and cost estimates, organizational and operational recommendations, and funding strategies for future implementation projects. The plan is expected to be completed in late summer 2014.”

~ Central Shenandoah PDC

Digital Dead Zones in Albemarle Closer to Getting Service

Albemarle County:

“People living in digital dead zones in rural Albemarle County are closer to getting service. The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors will get a presentation Wednesday from the Broadband Task Force. The task force is expected to identify when and how dead zones in the Scottsville, Samuel Miller, and Whitehall districts will be fixed.

‘I understand that we were just recognized, the city of Charlottesville, as being one of the top ten wired communities in the entire country,’ Albemarle County Supervisor Jane Dittmar said. ‘So to drive 15 minutes outside and have people who can't have internet, can't use their cells, or can't get emergency vehicles in there because they don't have that, [it] doesn't make any sense.’

Dittmar says she hopes private broadband service providers and the county can work together. She would like to see effective service everywhere in the county by the end of this year.”

~ Reports nbc29

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Ground broken for new Bland County sewer project

Bland County:

“Bland County celebrated the first day of spring last week by breaking ground on its wastewater project, which leaders hope will help spur economic development in the county… The county has received grants and low-interest loans to pay for the nearly $8 million project. Phase I is about three-fourths of the entire project. It includes three pump stations and the extension of several thousands of feet of line from Bland to the treatment plant in Bastian.

A gravity line pump station will be built on the lower end of the fairgrounds, near the site of Thursday’s groundbreaking. Two other pump stations will be built on Brushy Mountain. The project will serve roughly 200 customers, including Bland elementary and high schools, ABB and Pascor, and the Exit 52 area of Interstate 77.”

~Writes Millie Rothrock of SWVA Today

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Project seeks to smooth way for offshore Va. winds

Coastal Virginia:

“The state is teaming up with Dominion Virginia Power in a research project that is intended to smooth the way for the development of an offshore wind industry. The Virginia Offshore Wind Technology Advance Project proposes putting two 6-megawatt wind turbines on platforms designed to withstand hurricane-force winds. The turbines would be located 24 nautical miles (27 statute miles) off Virginia Beach.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management announced Thursday it is seeking written public comment on the project as it prepares an environmental assessment. It scheduled a meeting for April 3 in Virginia Beach for the public to speak out on the proposal. Last September, Dominion submitted a successful bid of $1.6 million bid to lease nearly 113,000 offshore acres for the development of wind power. Full development of the area could produce 2,000 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 700,000 homes. Besides the turbines, the project would also include cable linking the turbines to the electric grid in Virginia Beach. The project is expected to be operational by 2017. The so-called demonstration project received a $4 million grant from the U.S. Energy Department.”

~Writes The Associated Press

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