Goshen Gets Community Center Grant

Goshen Gets Community Center Grant Design Work Among Next Steps For Project

Goshen’s plans to build a community center in town took a giant step forward last Thursday with the announcement from the governor’s office that the town had been awarded the $1.25 million grant it applied for to cover the costs of constructing the facility.

“We’re terribly excited about it,” said Goshen Mayor Tom Mc-Craw. “It’s going to be a great thing, being able to provide more services as time goes by. It’s going to be a great thing.”

Goshen Vice Mayor Steve Bickley, who along with McCraw has been a driving force behind the project, told The News-Gazette on Friday that he was “feeling really good” about the announcement.

“It’s been a lot of hard work by the project team, the planning district and many others,” he said. “I’m actually quite overwhelmed about it myself. I had convinced myself that our chances were good, but I was still kind of floored last night when I read it. It’s a big deal for the town.”

The proposed facility will provide space for several community service providers, some of whom already offer some services within the town, to expand the services they can offer.

Valley Program for Aging Services, the Rockbridge Area Health Center and the Rockbridge Area Relief Association have all expressed a commitment to utilizing the facility, and the Rockbridge Area YMCA and Blue Ridge Legal Services have also expressed interest in using the space to provide services to the town.

Both McCraw and Bickley told The News-Gazette that they’ve been hearing from residents who are excited about the prospect of having these services close to home.

“I was talking to a lady this morning, 96 years old, and I told her about it, and she said ‘Are you kidding me? I’m going to be able to go to the doctor in Goshen?’” Bickley said. “She said, ‘You don’t know how hard it is for me to find somebody to give me a ride to the doctor.’ Stuff like that makes it worth it.”

The proposed facility will be an extension of the new town office building, which is located in the town’s original school building on Maury River Road, between the town’s rescue squad and fire department buildings. A number of steps will need to be completed before construction on the facility can begin, including engineering and design work and securing formal agreements with the community service providers regarding use of the facility.

“We’re gonna get started as soon as we possibly can,” McCraw said. “There’s a lot of hoops [still] to jump through, but this is a big step.”

Goshen was one of 33 counties, towns and cities throughout the commonwealth to be awarded a grant through the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program. The federally funded program has been administered by the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development since 1982. This year, more than $23.6 million was awarded to localities for various rehabilitation and revitalization projects. With these funds, localities can provide new or improved water and sewer systems in rural areas, rehabilitate housing in declining neighborhoods, revitalize commercial districts and provide facilities for a variety of needed services, such as health care clinics in underserved areas.

“While each of the 33 awarded projects support vastly different community goals, they all foster strong local partnerships, diverse regional economies and a higher quality of life for Virginians,” Caren Merrick, Virginia’s secretary of commerce and trade, said in Thursday’s press release. “CDBG funding offers the flexibility needed to address the unique concerns of diverse communities, while building a stronger, more cohesive commonwealth.”