Goochland supervisors authorize Station 7 design funds and adopt 2025 utility master plan
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Summary
The board authorized transfer of funds to hire the architect for Station 7 and adopted the Department of Public Utilities' 2025 master plan, which projects needs through 2050 and judged an Oilville extension as cost‑prohibitive at roughly $114 million.
The Goochland County Board of Supervisors voted April 7 to authorize county staff to transfer capital funds to pay architecture and engineering costs for a proposed Station 7 on Hockett Road and to declare the county’s official intent to reimburse qualifying expenditures from the proceeds of future bond financing if bonds are later issued.
Dr. Raley described cost efficiencies from using the same architect that designed Station 8 and told the board the appropriation and declaration of intent are permissive — "this is not committing you to utilizing bond financing," he said — but would preserve the county’s ability to reimburse the cash outlay from future debt proceeds if the board later chose that funding vehicle.
Supervisor S8 moved the resolution to authorize contract execution and a budget amendment; Supervisor S20 seconded the motion. Several supervisors asked clarifying questions about whether the language obligates the county to issue bonds; staff and counsel said the language only preserves the reimbursement option. The motion passed.
The board also heard a detailed presentation of the 2025 Utility Master Plan from Elizabeth McDonald, director of public utilities. McDonald said the master plan models the county’s water and wastewater systems out to 2050, identifies capacity and reliability projects and recommends a mix of county‑funded capacity projects, developer‑funded growth projects and shared responsibility for reliability projects. She noted that projects identified for the Courthouse and Eastern systems are scheduled across the 5‑ and 25‑year planning periods and that the Ridgefield Booster Pump Station and other storage projects are included in CIP projections.
On the question of extending public water and sewer to the Oilville area, McDonald said the analysis examined four alternatives and concluded that extending from the Eastern End is the only feasible option, but that extension would still cost approximately $114,000,000 and is “cost‑prohibitive.” She added that excluding Oilville from the planning scenario would allow existing Henrico County interconnections to serve the Eastern End beyond 2050 under current projections.
The board adopted the updated 2025 Utility Master Plan and approved related appointments by voice vote. McDonald said the plan includes conservative Class‑5 cost estimates and that the Department of Public Utilities will use a financial modeling tool beginning in FY27 to test rate scenarios and present transparent rate impacts to the public.
The board also approved associated staffing increases proposed in the administrator’s budget, including three full‑time equivalents in the Department of Public Utilities that will shift work from contractors to in‑house operations.
