News
Augusta County Supervisor Plants Fields of Gold
Augusta County farmer, Gerald Garber, planted 150 acres of his land surrounding the Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport in sunflowers to welcome travelers to the beautiful Shenandoah Valley. The sunflowers attract thousands of butterflies and were planted along with other crop cover plants to help fertilize the land on his Cave View Farm in Weyers Cave. Mr. Garber is the chair of the Augusta County Board of Supervisors, chair of the Shenandoah Valley Airport Commission and an ardent supporter of agribusiness in the region.
GO Virginia BRCC Cyber Security Graduates
Six graduates of Blue Ridge Community College’s GO Virginia cyber security training program have obtained positions with Tiber Creek Consulting, which is opening a new office in Waynesboro, VA, in the same building as BRCC’s Online Outpost. In addition, more students will participate in paid internships with Tiber Creek this fall. BRCC students will be performing cyber security assessments for federal contractors in Virginia as part of a $1.4 million Department of Defense grant awarded to GENEDGE Alliance.
The BRCC students received reduced-cost training from a GO Virginia grant awarded to BRCC in 2018. The goal of the grant is to train and employ 50 Tier I Cyber Security Analysts by July 2020, and to partner with local companies to offer in-demand, excellent-paying employment opportunities. The GO Virginia training program includes a security review course, CompTIA Security+ Exam, Cybrary online training, and on-the-job training, and takes approximately three months to complete.
Joint MPO Meeting Held
The Staunton-Augusta-Waynesboro Metropolitan Planning Organization (SAWMPO) held its 5th annual Joint Policy Board Meeting with the Charlottesville-Albemarle MPO on Tuesday, October 1, 2019 in Crozet. Board members and agency staff heard presentations on inter-regional transit, the restoration of the Crozet Blue Ridge Tunnel, state-wide transit updates from the Department of Rail and Public Transportation, and toured the Perrone Robotics facility and lab to learn more about the local company’s autonomous vehicle research and development.
SAWMPO and CA-MPO meet annually and share their planning processes under a Memorandum of Agreement for collaborative and inter-regional planning signed in September, 2017.
Afton Express Study Continues
The Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) is advancing the planning for the Afton Express transit service proposed to connect Staunton, Augusta County, Waynesboro and Charlottesville. DRPT has contracted with Kimley-Horn to confirm the need and projected ridership for the service from the Feasibility Study completed in 2017, and to refine a service plan and budget, as well as developing performance metrics. A stakeholder group representing the CSPDC and TJPDC, local jurisdictions and the University of Virginia met on September 23 to hear from the consultant on the planning work completed thus far, and to discuss next steps, including a preliminary discussion related to funding. The consultant presented an update on the study at the Joint MPO meeting on October 1, and will meet again with the stakeholder group in mid-November.
CSPDC Submits Chesapeake WIP III Final Reports to DEQ
Last Spring, additional funding was granted by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to the CSPDC and 14 other Bay PDCs to continue the Phase III Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP III) efforts. The CSPDC held their third stakeholder meeting in August, 2019 to continue to develop regional Best Management Practices (BMP) project ideas and share funding opportunities. The CSPDC’s final WIP III reports were submitted to DEQ on September 30.
To meet the 2025 Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load requirements, the Office of the Virginia Secretary of Natural Resources, through DEQ, released the Virginia’s Final Phase III Watershed Implementation Plan in August. The new PDC WIP III Implementation Assistance program with DEQ is anticipated to begin this Fall.