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The Goshen community center effort is not the only local project that will be benefiting from the recently passed 2023 federal spending bill.
Rockbridge County is to receive $3 million to support the design and construction of a new raw water pump station. The pump station is one of a number of upgrades being eyed by the Maury Service Authority, which provides water and sewer services to both Rockbridge County and Lexington.
“We are extremely grateful to the county for the support, and this is great example of our partners in the community searching for funding to support the MSA in sustainably providing clean water,” MSA Director Jordan Combs said in an email to The News-Gazette on Monday. “We are making great progress and are in the final stages of wrapping up the MSA Raw Water Pumping Station Preliminary Engineering Report. We will be continuing to work towards securing sufficient funding and moving forward to the design phase of the project.”
Also the Rockbridge Area Transportation System will receive $75,000 to aid in the purchase of a stretcher van to provide nonemergent medical transport/stretcher transport services in Rockbridge, Alleghany and Augusta counties.
According to Michelle Watkins, executive director of RATS, the process to acquire and pay for the van has been a long one.
In March 2021, she explained, the founder of RATS, Joan Manley, required transportation by stretcher to a nonemergent outpatient appointment and had to be transported by a private, for-profit transportation business from Kentucky because local agencies were not available or able to meet her need, including RATS.
“The fact that a for-profit business from another state was paid thousands of dollars for a single outpatient medical appointment was very disconcerting,” said Watkins.
Due to the specializeddesign of the needed vehicle, the purchase cost for a new stretcher van was over $75,000 and RATS was not able to afford that, she said. Through conversations and emails with multiple state officials, the request for $75,000 was ultimately earmarked for the 2023 budget by Sen. Mark Warner with Sen. Tim Kaine’s support, back in early April.
In September, the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee approved the earmark and on Dec. 29, President Biden signed the Omnibus Bill, from which RATS will receive $75,000.
Soon after applying for the federal funding, RATS researched potential vehicles and, in August, purchased a 2020 Toyota Sienna which was able to be modified as a nonemergent stretcher van in accordance with all regulatory and safety requirements. Funds left over from the federal appropriation will be used to cover liability insurance costs for the first year of service.
The funding is expected to arrive sometime this spring, and RATS hopes services will begin before summer.
