Welcome to this episode of the James Exchange, I am your host Nancy Gill. Donna Price joined me at the dining room table right before Christmas. We spent time reminiscing about civility and bipartisanship. We covered the following topics:
Price’s Greatest Accomplishment
The Keene Convenience Center
Traffic Concerns and Potential Solutions at the Rt. 20/Esmont Rd, Coles Rolling Rd Intersection
The Industrial Solar Farm in Southern Albemarle
Price’s Future Plans
Welcome Donna.
Nancy, it's great to be here.
Tell me what you think your greatest accomplishment is as a supervisor. And you are the chair?
I am the chair of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors.
So what is your greatest accomplishment?
It's not a physical thing. I believe what I have brought to the board is a continuation, and I hope, an enhancement of a degree of professionalism and civility in public service. And, I hope that the foundations that have been made over the last several years will continue as we find ways to disagree without being disagreeable and to always demonstrate equal dignity.
You know, I could not agree with you more on that because as you know, I'm the former Mayor of Scottsville and that was so important to me that even when someone came with, I guess they thought it was a controversial issue, I was just like, well, if you're here to talk about it, it's not all that controversial. So we would talk.
You know, Nancy, when you were the mayor, I've greatly appreciated your ability and your commitment to maintaining a nonpartisan, bipartisan approach to everything. Not allowing everything to turn into animosity and anger and partisanship and sides. Because ultimately we are all in this together. And, the more we recognize that and work towards our collective common good, then the better we are as a community, as a people, as a county, a commonwealth in a nation.
I agree wholeheartedly on that and I'm, I'm sure some people may not, but it's okay. It's my podcast, isn't it? So as you know, one of my goals in my last term as mayor was to bring the council and the supervisors together. I wanted it twice a year, but settled for once a year. I was never able to attend.
But the foundation that you laid has come to fruition and we have now had three successive years of joint meetings, which has also really helped because sometimes there's perception, sometimes there's reality, and sometimes perception can be reality. I believe that there had been a perception, albeit not necessarily a reality, that the southern part of the county had not been given the same attention that other parts of the county might have been given. What you have started, we were able to continue, is an opportunity to demonstrate that the, the county loves the southern part of the county as much as we love any other part of the county.
Well, we also don't have population density, even though in the greater Scottsville area there is 15,000 people living here, possibly even 20,000. I'm not quite sure what the exact number is. Scottsville is their town. It is what it is and we are where we where we are and we know what we know and we don't know what we don't know. So I’m going to leave all of that there.
The Keene Convenience Center
What is the status of the convenience center in Keene?
Well, the rain over the last several months has delayed a bit of the construction and the latest update I received today is, it will probably be March before its opening, but I'd like to go back a little bit and talk about this convenience center. Now I'm only going back three years, not further than that because I've only been on the board for three years. But three years ago, in March of 2020, so almost three years ago, we were starting the budget process.
And, in that first budget meeting, I stated that for the southern part of the county, my number one priority was getting a convenience center down here. And why a convenience center? Why down here and why did it end up being where it is? First off, Nelson County has six convenient centers. Nelson County has fewer people in population than the Scottsville Magisterial district has all Albemarle County and the city of Charlottesville collectively have two convenient centers. One is at McIntyre near the county office building. The other is at the Ivy Materials Utilization Center. And that's in conjunction with a transfer station. So first let's talk a little bit about terminology. There are no open dumps in Albemarle County. I understand that there previously had been a dump in the Keene area. This is not a dump. There previously was a dump. We now call landfills out at Ivy, which has been closed and capped. All of the waste that is not recycled, that is turned in in Albemarle County is trucked to a distant location. So we have no dumps, no operating dumps. What you have, are convenience centers and transfer stations, A transfer station is that part of Ivy where commercial haulers and large items are brought in to be trucked away to a landfill.
A convenience center is a place where you can have recycling, —like at McIntyre— paper, plastic, glass, cans, cardboard, mixed paper, newspapers, those sorts of things. The convenience center at Ivy also allows $2 tag, a bag, black trash bags up to 32 gallons in size, and there's a little $2 orange tag you can put on the bag. The Keene Convenience Center will be recycling plus household garbage.
There will be no bulk items. There will be no commercial. An individual who has a local trash hauling company with a truck cannot bring that to Keene. It's for household trash. We also have a major littering problem in the county, and in particular we've seen it in the Southern part. We also have individuals who either cannot afford to have their regular weekly garbage picked up, or they live in a location where the trucks are not going go all the way up their driveway. I live a mile in the woods. I would not expect someone to drive their truck up to pick up my garbage. So the convenience center had been identified for some period of time by residents in the Southern part of the county as a desired service.
How did we choose the Keene location for this? As many of your listeners know, there had previously been a proposal to place a convenience center up near the Monticello Fire Station. You don't really need a convenient center of this type in an area where there is common garbage pickup. We also looked at a location within the immediate town limits or immediately outside of the town limits of Scottsville. There weren't really any great locations. But the other problem with that is that really disadvantaged those residents who live sort of in the midpoint between Scottsville and Charlottesville.
It was affordable to use this Keene location because the county did already own the property, but it was not exclusively that which led to the decision to place the convenience center in Keene. One of the things that we were looking at is we have Ivy out to the West. We have McIntyre in Charlottesville. The plan is to next identify a location and construct a convenience center on the Northern side of Charlottesville. This one in the Keene location is not exactly halfway between Charlottesville and Scottsville, but it's sort of in that mid range.
And what it allows is individuals who are heading North from the Southern part of the county up towards Charlottesville to drop their household waste and recyclables off on their way up to work. Or if they don't want to do it on their way to work, they can drop it off on their way home. We also took a map of the county and we used a compass and we drew basically a five 10 mile circle. And by having this convenience center in Keene, the one in Ivy, one in the Northern part of the county and one at McIntyre, we are covering about 75 to 80% of the county all being within a five to 10 mile driving distance. So the location was really very convenient for people, particularly in the Samuel Miller and Scottsville districts.
Traffic Issues
Thank you for that very broad description/explanation. Traffic at that intersection is pretty dangerous.
I am concerned about the traffic at the intersection and I have raised on multiple occasions that concern and for suggestions for ways that we can address it. Now we have to talk about the traffic in two respects. One is the traffic that goes down Esmont Road and the traffic at the intersection of 20 with Esmont Road to the west in Coles Rolling Road to the east.
I have been suggesting proposing that on the stop signs coming in from the side of 20, that we should increase the size and probably put those electrified stop signs. So there's the border that flashes around the stop sign just to help make sure people remember to slow down. I've also asked for consideration of a flashing yellow light on North and Southbound 20. And, even a flashing red light for the side streets.
I believe that those would likely be sufficient to catch the attention of drivers and be able to reduce the potential risk of accidents there. The Esmont road traffic, as many people have pointed out, it is a relatively narrow road and there will be some concerns about vehicles on that road. However, it's a relatively short distance between 20 to the convenience center to the west, and the road is pretty open in that location and I think it's less likely to cause problems there.
It's also anticipated that people will generally be taking their trash during their regular route along the roads and not necessarily be making special trips to go just to the convenience center for most of the people in the Southern part of the county. Our only real choice right now for household garbage if it's not picked up, is to go to Ivy or over to the East to Van der Lin basically for where we are now, just out just inside the town limits of Scottsville, you're talking about a 45 minute route each way. You're talking an hour and a half of driving time, a few minutes there while you drop your stuff off. It's not only time, it's fuel. Uh, I was pleased to see that gas, uh, uh, just up the road on 20 dropped today from 2.99 a gallon to 2.95 a gallon. But we all know gas was up in the four to $5 range not long ago. That's still a lot of driving and so having a convenience center down here will save time, it will save money, it will contribute to the county's climate action program as environmental stewards to have fewer vehicles on the road for longer distances. So I personally see this as a physical improvement. One of the legacies that I will be very proud of when I leave as a supervisor.
The Industrial Solar Farm
Another thing that's happening down here in the Southern end, actually over in your neighborhood, is a potential solar farm. I know that the planning commission has didn't know if they had a public hearing or not.
They did, they did. My understanding is the planning commission recommended approval six to zero.
And when does it come before you?
It's not on the schedule yet. That will be up to Community Development, County Executive and the Clerk's office to schedule it. We had a pre-agenda meeting this morning for this afternoon for our January 4th, 11th and 18th meetings and it was not on there. So it could be February, could be March. Whenever Community Development and the County Executive says they're ready, it'll get on the agenda.
Okay. So is there anything else you would like to share?
Well, let's talk about the solar in industrial application. As I hope your listeners know, after three years of me on the board, I do not make decisions until the matter finally comes before the board. I do that for multiple reasons. One is don't make a decision until you have all the facts. The second one is if you make a decision too early and then things change, then you have to explain why you may have changed your decision. There are many things about that application that I think are very beneficial. There are also things where I have concerns. So we'll wait until we get the final staff report that have the applicant make their presentation, listen to the community, have our discussion, and then I'll make a decision on it on where I'm going go.
Price’s Future Plans
I think the other thing, Nancy, that we had briefly mentioned before coming on the air is I am not running for reelection. That was my decision to retire at the end of my term. December 31st, 2023 is the hardest decision I've ever made. And anyone who knows anything about my life knows I've had some pretty hard decisions to make. The irony is I spent six years getting lined up to be exactly where I am this year to run for the House of Delegates. And the reason I ultimately decided not to run for that office is it takes two to three terms. If you're elected to reach a position of seniority to actually be able to get things done, then you have to hope your party's in power or you're in the minority. And at that point, Nancy, I would be 75 years old.
Oh, just seasoned.
That's true. It’s not that I feel like I'm too old right now. I wonder whether at 75 to 80 I would have the interest, the desire, and really the energy for a job like that. So when I announced in April, I was perfectly positioned. I think I've done a really good job as a supervisor. I believe I've done well as the Chair, you know, the name recognition, everything you'd want to run for another office. But I thought, let's assume you do get elected for two or three terms and now you're 75 years old and you finally are at the position of seniority to get something done. And I say, I'm tired and I'm ready to retire. I've just taken two to three terms away from a younger person who needed that time to reach that seniority to still be focused and energetic to get things done. So I think it would've been selfish for me to run, to get elected and serve a couple of terms and then retire. It's better for our community for a younger person to get elected to be able to get that seniority and again, and then get things done. So I'm not going disappear. There are many things I'm still going be involved in, but as far as elective office, I think I, I think that ship has sailed and I'm looking forward to that part of retirement.
Well, my ship has definitely sailed and it's not docking again.
No, I mean there are a lot of things I want to do. Several of the local nonprofits have already reached out to me and asked if I’m interested in serving in a higher position with them. What I hope to do is, what I've always read you should do when you retire is not make any major commitments for a year. And I've been working since I was 13-years-old as a dishwasher at a Huddle House. I'll be 70 when well, I'll turn 70 shortly after my term is up. I want to take a year, get settled down, really identify where my priorities are, where I think I can still contribute.
And so with that in mind, I really want to encourage people to get involved. Representative government only works if people get involved. I also don't believe in professional politicians. I think a term or two in an office is about all someone should do. It is important that there is corporate knowledge, that continuity of information. So it's always good to have a few people who are serving on their second or maybe even a third term, but we really need new people coming in because if you have the same five or six people year after year, you're limited in their perspectives, their experiences. And we need fresh ideas, fresh experiences to come in. And in that regard, Virginia is notorious for under compensated.
Their public servants as you know, the unpaid Mayor of Scottsville, the the Supervisor job is advertised as part-time. You can't do it part-time and do it well. But to pay people $18,000 a year roughly for a job that's a full-time job, it automatically excludes anyone who has a family and needs to make, make enough money to support themselves.
So I am very supportive of Virginia increasing the compensation for its public servants. I mean the board of supervisors is essentially a board of directors of a 550 million corporation. Now that brings a whole other area. We could go into Nancy and that is the county executive form of government. Albemarle County has a county executive form of government. There are only two counties in Virginia that have it. And the board of supervisors has one job to vote to set policy. The county executive is then our president and CEO and he executes that.
So, it's really funny, people come up to the me all the time and say, why didn't the Board do this? And it's like, that's not within our jurisdiction. That's the County Executive's role. Anyway, it's always great talking with you Nancy. I'm really looking forward to March when I hope the Keene convenience center will open. I always have my $2 tag so I can do the tag a bag, drop off my recycling. We'll wait and see what the outcome with the solar installation is. You know, one of the other things, my observation is Scottsville came out of the pandemic really well. More storefronts are full than before the pandemic and beyond that, I try to avoid saying anything that falls within the jurisdiction of the Town Council of Scottsville, the University of Virginia, the Albemarle County School Board of the City of Charlottesville.
I think that's very wise and I have no intention of asking you how you think of anything going on in Scottsville. However, I want close this out with one thing. As we get older and we retire, we have these wonderful youngsters running around that we adore them and they adore us.
(I was referring to the youngsters in our personal life, but Donna took another take).
You know, Nancy, that was actually one of the other things that I felt so comfortable about in making my decision to retire. And it really goes back to my Navy experience. You learn quickly in the military. No one is invaluable. You never want to have a single point of failure in any organization. If the commanding officer is killed in battle, the executive officer becomes the commanding officer. If that officer is killed, the next officer and seniority moves up. It's the same thing in any organization in government.
And when I look at the young people in our community today, I am very comfortable and very confident in their talent, their skills, their ability, their energy. And they're going continue to take us to even better places. So my hat is off to them.
(I steered it back to the personal).
Yes. And I know that you're going to go and visit a grandchild.
Yes. Gabriel Messenger of God.
I head back to hang out with my friend Hazel. It's all good. I wish we had more youthfulness onTown Council, but I take my hat off to Alex and Meredith stepping up to the plate.
You know, Nancy, the other thing, and I saw you, when we were caroling on Saturday night, one of the things I have missed so much as a result of being on the board of Supervisors is I haven't had the time, the freedom to be available to do more in the Town of Scottsville. I miss those days of going down to the brewery and just spending time in the local community. But when you've got meetings so many nights, it's hard to do. So people in the town will see me even more after my term is up at the end of next year, not this year
And I'm looking forward to those days.
Donna, thank you so much. And to my listeners, Jeff is in the room and you have heard him not tiptoeing around, but uh, he gets very excited when there's company. So we are going to say, see you later to Donna and Jeff gets to go outside for a little while.
Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. Everyone. Be safe out there.
Thank you so much, Donna.
Thanks Nancy.
As always, if you have a story, a song, an event, or an issue, perhaps it is time for a conversation. I look forward to talking with you!
The Keene Dump is No More--Taking Its Place is a State-of-the-Art Convenient Center