Inside RLEP, Fall 2005

by Paul Farmer, President

With new RLEP initiatives and emerging environmental issues, summer has not been the lazy, peaceful season that we expect from life in the country. Your RLEP board and volunteers have been busy indeed.

Our Biodiversity Task Force, under the leadership of Pam Owen, is officially off the ground, having held its first organizational meeting in mid-July. Click here for more information about the BTF.

Reed Engle's assessment of the condition of the county's Civil War monument is sobering. [Click here for the details.] Nevertheless, RLEP has worked out a cost-sharing plan that will finance a more detailed professional survey, upon which decisions could be made regarding what will be an unfortunately costly restoration project. Through additional cost sharing, fundraising, and potential grants, we hope to keep the costs to RLEP to a minimum, however. We already have the Civil War Roundtable, the Garden Club, the Historical Society, landscape architect Jay Monroe, estate gardener Candace Clough, cultural resource specialist Reed Engle, Bob Lander, Jim Gannon, Marc Malik, and the county to thank for donated time, labor, and funds. The courthouse grounds improvement project is truly a community effort.

The county Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors both recently denied an application for the installation of an alternative, private sewage plant for a small plot of undeveloped land in Chester Gap. Surface effluent from the complex homeowner-maintained plant would have flowed onto neighboring properties. Without taking a position on the application, RLEP was instrumental in alerting the community to this potentially precedent-setting application. Numerous county residents spoke against the application before the commission and the board. Both bodies wisely disapproved the application, while reserving the right to rule otherwise in cases where this kind of plant is intended to replace a failing conventional septic system for an existing home. [Read more about high tech wastewater systems.]

Jed and Jill Duvall have graciously invited RLEP to sponsor their work communicating the benefits and practicality of solar power for homeowners [read more]. The technology has come a long way and now is affordable (that is, cost effective) in Rappahannock County. RLEP is happy to welcome the Duvalls' solar energy initiatives as an RLEP program. The Duvalls and RLEP are hoping to host a spring 2006 event focused on alternative energy for homeowners.

After a long hiatus, Tier III classification of the Hazel River is back on the agenda. The entire length of the river in Rappahannock and Culpeper Counties has been renominated by Culpeper resident Sally Mello, mother of Rappahannock County High School principal and former RLEP director, Roger Mello. This designation of the Hazel would have many benefits for the two counties and is an opportunity for the two to work together toward saving an outstanding natural resource. Look for RLEP to help spearhead the effort here in Rappahannock County.

I hope to see many of you at our annual meeting on October 28. Come for the socializing and share your views about anything on your mind.