.jpg)
Editorial
The most substantial winter storm in a couple of years led to the cancellation of the chamber of commerce’s State of the Community breakfast meeting this week so we were deprived of the opportunity of hearing from local government leaders on their plans for the new year. So, we thought we would offer our thoughts on what we hope transpires on the local government front in the year ahead.
Skirmishes over plans for utility-scale solar projects on farmland accelerated over the past year, with such battles pitting neighbor against neighbor. The heated debates have caused hard feelings among many as the county planners and supervisors have struggled to come up with a consistent vision to guide their decision-making.
A citizens committee has worked diligently to draft a proposed ordinance that would set guidelines for government officials to follow in making these decisions. The Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors are expected to take action on this draft early in the new year, thus potentially making it easier to determine the criteria for where utility-scale solar arrays should be located.
While others may disagree, our view is that these solar projects should be allowed in agricultural-zoned areas under carefully considered circumstances. It’s incumbent upon local governments to play a role in promoting reasonable renewable energy projects so as to ward off global warming. Also, allowing such projects provides farmers with an alternative source of income that could be helpful in preserving family farms.
We are looking forward this year to the completion of the transformation of the former Courtesy Ford building in Buena Vista into Mountain Gateway Community College’s Wilson Workforce Training Center. This $7 million construction project, which includes putting academic classrooms in the adjacent McCormick building on Forest Avenue, is to result in having 24,000 square feet of floor space for educational endeavors. This educational facility, which is to supplant MGCC’s Rockbridge Center on Vista Links Drive, is expected to be a boon for downtown Buena Vista, as hundreds of students and faculty members will be within walking distance of the downtown area. We hope to see a surge in entrepreneurs opening restaurants and retail outlets to serve these newfound customers.
As for the soon-to-be vacant MGCC Rockbridge Center, Buena Vista City Council will be looking at options for filling these 18,000 square feet of floor space. The options could be relocating the middle school or the courts there, or utilizing the space for economic development. A Buena Vista schools facilities committee is studying the future infrastructure needs of the city schools. The committee could be recommending that a referendum be held later this year to ask the city’s voters whether or not to make a big financial investment in a major schools capital project.
In Lexington, preserving and revitalizing its historic downtown should continue to be a priority for the city government. We hope to see the continuation of work by the city’s Economic Development Authority to develop a plan to provide financial incentives to businesses and building owners to install fire sprinklers in aging structures, especially in the upper floors of buildings in the downtown historic district. We hope city leaders and developers will continue to work together on plans to revitalize the downtown and fill empty space in downtown buildings.
In Goshen, we are hopeful the town will be successful in securing grant funding for the future construction of a community center. If these efforts come to fruition, such a center could one day be a hub for local community gatherings as well as a location for various government agencies to provide services to northwestern Rockbridge County and nearby portions of Bath and Augusta counties.
We are optimistic about the establishment of the Maury River Recovery Court in the new year. This alternative court serving the three Rockbridge area jurisdictions is to hear cases of drug charges against nonviolent offenders who are seeking to recover from drug addiction. We believe this new court offers hope for such offenders to break the cycle of addiction. Society at large would benefit by a reduction in the scourge of drug abuse.
On a related note, we are hopeful that those who were behind the creation of the Hope House, a group residential home in Buena Vista for recovering adult male addicts that opened its doors last year, will be successful in establishing a similar group home for recovering adult female addicts. There is definitely a need for such a facility.
These are a few of our thoughts about local undertakings to hope for in the new year. We invite readers to share their ideas about what they hope transpires locally in 2025.
