State of the county: New transportation, schools, ‘Uber-esque’ services discussed

Chesterfield County is a great place to live. That’s the word from county administrator Joe Casey, who spoke to a large crowd at the Chesterfield Career and Tech Center last week.

Casey highlighted a number of items in his 25-minute “state of the county” speech, including the fact that the county was the only one in the region to reduce its real estate property tax rate this year. The tax was reduced by a penny to 95 cents for $100 of assessed value. In addition, he noted that the average home sales price in the county increased from $279,323 to $285,171 from September 2017 to 2018.

Transportation was another item Casey mentioned, noting that a Goodwill-Uber pilot project has provided 1,388 trips from July through September of this year. “We have continued to focus on needs-based populations with Uber services for former addicts to get to treatment programs,” he said. Last week, the county supervisors approved a grant of $116,720 from the state to continue the Uber-Goodwill project. This grant will fund the project through April 2019. (See another story in this week’s issue.)

Casey said the county is currently reviewing “Uber-esque proposals to expand services.” County spokeswoman Teresa Bonifas said this was in reference to a request for proposals for Access Chesterfield’s new on-demand service, a pilot project that provides transportation for elderly people who have disabilities or live on low incomes. The program would also include clients of the Chesterfield-Colonial Heights Department of Social Services. The request for proposals closed Aug. 24. In his speech, Casey said, “We are defining this topic based on the needs of those that would utilize such services repeatedly, and not those with opinions who wouldn’t use such service, who often live far away.”

The county expanded from 40 to 52 miles of bikeways, trails and sidewalks in the past year, Casey said, and some $145 million in road improvements are planned for the next five years. He noted the county is currently studying adding a bus route along a 7-mile stretch of Jefferson Davis Highway.

Including a new Beulah Elementary School that opened in September, the county is planning on building six new schools over the next three years. These were made possible through a 2013 bond referendum.

“The old Beulah Elementary will be repurposed into a community center for Parks and Recreation,” he said. The county estimates that the project will cost $7.8 million, which would include demolition of portions of the facility, revitalization of the portions of the facility that will be converted into the community center and parks and recreation offices, and improvements to the grounds to include recreational amenities.”

Casey said the county is positioned for greatness. He noted that more than 1 million people were reached through the county’s social media during a mid-September tornado event.

The county’s new website, chesterfield.gov, was designed by many focus groups, he said. “We will hold training sessions at your business to help [employees]better leverage our website,” he said.

As far as the future goes, Casey noted that the 400th anniversary of the opening of Falling Creek Ironworks is next year. “We are working hard in making this area along the creek and James River even better and more connected,” he said. “I’m hoping this place will come alive over the next three years commemorating … the destruction of the ironworks by Chief Powhatan.”

Falling Creek Ironworks was located east of what is now Jefferson Davis Highway, south of Chippenham Parkway (Route 150).