U.S. Senator Tim Kaine stopped in the Town of Broadway on May 6 during his recent tour of the Shenandoah Valley. He met members of the Shenandoah Rail Trail Exploratory Partnership to learn about their work to build a 50-mile rail trail from Broadway to Front Royal along an out-of-service Norfolk Southern rail line. The Partnership hopes that Senator Kaine’s support will help to move the Partnership and the region closer to building the State’s newest rail trail, which would pass through two Planning Districts, three counties, and connect nine towns in the northern Shenandoah Valley.

CSPDC is a member of Shenandoah Rail Trail Partnership, which just launched a public input survey to assess support for the Rail Trail. We encourage everyone to participate in the survey.

The first bus that will be used in the Afton Express transit service connecting Staunton, Fishersville and Waynesboro to Charlottesville has arrived to the BRITE Transit Facility. Two additional buses will be delivered and branded with the distinctive Afton Express logo prior to initiation of service on September 1, 2021. Marketing and promotional planning is underway and includes an advertising campaign to begin in July.

The completed Agricultural Enterprise Center Feasibility Study was presented to 56 stakeholders and local government representatives on May 18. A recording of the presentation, an Executive Summary, and the final report can be viewed on the project website.

Since the study began in July, 2020 the CSPDC in partnership with a ten-member study team and consultants New Venture Advisors (NVA), set out to determine the feasibility of a shared-use agriculturally-focused facility that if brought to fruition would support business diversification and growth in the Shenandoah Valley through value-added products and the delivery of agricultural goods and products to new markets. The conducted research resulted in a recommended “Shenandoah Specialty Meat & Produce Hub” operating model that includes a commercial kitchen and meat and produce storage, processing and aggregation facilities. The project’s recommended next steps include conducting an operator and anchor tenant search, strengthening third-party partnerships, performing site search and selection, beginning facility design, refining the business plan, and commencing fundraising. The Study has been funded by a USDA Local Food Promotion Program grant and a GO Virginia Enhanced Capacity Building grant.

Central Shenandoah Health District (CSHD) will be offering mobile COVID-19 vaccine clinics in the community in an effort to increase access to COVID-19 vaccines. If your organization is interested in a COVID-19 vaccine clinic, fill out a request form. Mobile clinics can be walk-up with no registration needed and can be flexible in date and time of clinics. Clinics can serve anywhere from 20-200 people. Ideal locations include festivals, events, block parties, farmers markets, churches, community centers, businesses, and homeless shelters.

The CSPDC is hosting a Broadband Workshop on June 15 to discuss broadband project development and state funding resources, including the Virginia Telecommunications Initiative (VATI) program. The workshop will feature presentations by Kyle Rosner, Deputy Broadband Advisor to the Secretary of Commerce and Trade, and Tamarah Holmes, Director of Virginia’s Office of Broadband.

The virtual Broadband Workshop is the third of an ongoing series of recovery-related Rural Attraction Roundtables, supported by the CSPDC’s EDA CARES Act funding. The most recently completed roundtable focused on telework and featured the results of VEDP’s Virginia Remote Worker Survey.

The Town of Bridgewater in Rockingham County recently completed construction on Phase I of its Riverwalk trail system. The Riverwalk is envisioned to connect all of the Town’s parks along the North River. Phase I built a trail between Seven Bridges and Edgebriar Parks, going under the Main Street (VA 42) bridge, a significant safety improvement for trail users. The CSPDC assisted the Town in making application, and the Town used a CSPDC On-Call Consultant, AMT, for the engineering and design. VDOT awarded the Town a Bike and Pedestrian Highway Safety grant in 2016 to fund the project.

The CSPDC is providing grant administration support for two infrastructure building broadband projects to benefit the underserved areas of Rockbridge County, including the towns of Goshen and Glasgow Both projects, a Virginia Telecommunication Initiate (VATI) program grant and an Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) POWER Grant, will total over $3M in funding and will help build strong, competitive communities within this region. The VATI project alone, with a total cost of $4.4 million, will result in 111 miles of gigabit last mile fiber infrastructure that will reach 492 unserved homes and businesses. Local service provider BARC Electric Cooperative is contracted to complete both projects.

Other broadband access efforts in the Region include a project in Augusta County, through a partnership with MGW/Lingo, to construct a fiber-to-the-home network in the McDowell and Deerfield areas of Augusta and Highland Counties. This project totaling over $1M is expected to provide broadband access to 1,099 total locations, including 15 businesses.

On June 17, 2021 the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) will be hosting an application how-to-apply webinar for the 2022 VATI program. Representatives from units of local government, internet service providers and other interested stakeholders are encouraged to participate. VATI applications are due on September 14, 2021.

The CSPDC is hosting a second Rural Attraction Roundtable meeting on May 20 to discuss regional teleworking trends and assess the opportunity and best strategies on how to attract remote workers. The Rural Attraction Roundtable will feature a presentation on the Virginia Economic Development Partnership’s National Remote Work Survey, an introduction to the state’s Telework!VA program, and an open discussion for regional stakeholders. For registration information, contact CSPDC Regional Planner Grace Blanchard at grace@cspdc.org.

This meeting is part of the CSPDC’s ongoing economic recovery efforts. For additional resources, upcoming events and data, visit the CSPDC’s COVID-19 Recovery webpage. New information is added regularly.

The Agricultural Enterprise Center Feasibility Study is in final review and is scheduled to complete in May. Since the study began in July, the CSPDC in partnership with a ten-member study team and consultants New Venture Advisors (NVA), have conducted and completed primary and secondary research that serve as the backbone for the study. From this research, NVA presented three potential operating models to the CSPDC and Study Team in which one, named the “Shenandoah Specialty Meat & Produce Hub” was chosen for further development. The final report will include a financial analysis, building diagram, funding strategy, potential site inventory and operator RFI and will be presented virtually on May 18 to stakeholders, local governments and the general public.