Transcript
0:03 – all right good morning this is the January 2024 Friends of the fall line quarterly meeting um hope you have a
0:10 – Happy New Year and I want to say it’s also um an auspicious day for the the
0:15 – start of the general assembly session for 2024 um so keep your eyes on that um
0:20 – always an exciting time and we’ve made progress on Trails over the past couple of years and we’re hoping to see some
0:26 – some fun trail stuff again this year um I I noted that we will not have a a
0:32 – PowerPoint presentation today we’ve having the some egregious internet issues and I’m dialing in from mobile so
0:38 – we will uh just be a little more old school but we’ll be able to share um a lot of great information with everyone
0:45 – and um still be able to get this recording online so uh to start us off
0:51 – I’d love to do some project updates I’ve been in touch with vot this morning um I don’t think I see David is on um I don’t
0:59 – think I see Scott so he sent me some information for us to share um that I
1:04 – will just jump into now the maybe the most exciting thing is that the alignment through Virginia State
1:11 – University is all but confirmed uh and he’s uh Scott will be presenting to their board um next month for final
1:19 – approval uh he sent me a map it looks like a good alignment it’s primarily through the forested area um but it
1:27 – looks the line is a lot straighter than it has been in in previous versions of this uh I think it’s it looks intuitive
1:33 – uh having it for about half an hour um it looks like a good alignment um Barb
1:39 – or Ron anyone have any additional information about that that you want to
1:45 – share think you know more than I do so all all I knew is they had it worked out
1:51 – and yeah we’re good and that’s been I think we all know
1:57 – it’s been um a work in progress for a while so happy to hear that kind of coming around um also from Scott and for
2:05 – everyone’s knowledge Scott is the VT project manager for the fall line so we work closely with him on this
2:11 – um he they’re hoping to get the RFP out for what we called design build 2 or db2
2:18 – the southern section of design build out this summer meaning that later and this
2:23 – is not from him but the way I’ve intuited this is it would take a few months to get uh the vendor selected and
2:29 – do contract work but um could have preliminary work by that design build um
2:35 – applicant as early as the end of the year um so I think we’re a little behind
2:41 – schedule from what we had sort of thought was possible a year or a year and a half ago but still moving fairly
2:47 – solidly on this project um and happy to see that
2:53 – develop any other Ron that I see you on mute did you want to say anything about that I was just asking when did you say
2:59 – vs ‘s board’s meeting he said February so I I don’t have a date for that but I imagine
3:05 – that’s easy to find no I think I think Ron asked the wrong question Ron just said vsu’s board you were saying greatly
3:12 – you were saying was V Dot gon approve it right I believe it’s VSU VSU okay from
3:20 – Scott that Scott they have an that vot has an internal
3:25 – um uh final alignment for VSU that has initial approval from VSU but not formal
3:31 – oh so it’s going to their board okay thank you I hadn’t heard that yet that’s news to me as of this morning as well
3:37 – yep um and so for DB1 design build phase one which is Hanover uh it’s they have
3:43 – 100% plans submitted and they’re reviewing them now uh and rideway Acquisitions are in progress so seems
3:50 – like that is full steam ahead looking forward to more development on that and um I think we will look to probably more
3:59 – technical uh updates on of this nature at the next
4:04 – cbta fall line working group so we can report back if uh if Scott or Mark um
4:10 – give any report backs on that that’s um that’s what I’ve got from the VT update are any locality Partners interested in
4:18 – Sharing anything I I’ll I’ll say that we we’ve gotten a lot of press uh the past couple of weeks very exciting we’re on
4:24 – the front page of the Times Dispatch January 1st so our our website numbers have gone up uh which is exciting to see
4:31 – um so I’m sure you’ve answered a lot of questions about this recently but um uh
4:37 – particularly Germaine I think maybe some trail head discussions but U Barb or Kristen Emy anyone want to share
4:45 – anything hi uh this is Kristen thanks Brantley yeah he uh we’re we’re moving
4:50 – along on our on our sections of Trail as some of you guys know Park Street the mo the southern section of hrao is
4:56 – scheduled to start construction this month which is very exciting uh we also intend to start construction
5:02 – for um most of our other projects by the end of the year except for one uh we also just had a meeting this morning
5:09 – actually with Dominion to talk about um installing trees uh for shade in the
5:14 – Dominion Corridor so hopefully we have some good news to bring back to you all in the next uh in the next month or
5:22 – so great thanks thank you and in Chesterfield we’ve got um
5:28 – various projects on Route One at various stages of development so some are in the
5:35 – RightWay phase but others are just uh getting started so we’re nibbling away
5:40 – on Route One and making making good progress good steady progress great and I’m I’m making you a
5:47 – co-host now for your for a later Barb um Barb’s going to share some spur stuff
5:52 – which is exciting any other locality
5:58 – partners all right um I have I I keep funding updates on uh the agenda there’s
6:04 – nothing especially um poignant at the moment because of where we are in the
6:09 – year you know we’re not in a in a real funding cycle announcement phase but the general assembly is coming and there’s a
6:16 – state Trails budget uh that has not yet funded the fall line so keep your eyes on on any developments at the general
6:22 – assembly there um and I know that our partners are are looking at at finding
6:28 – funding from any Source we can so um I’ll just leave it at that uh well
6:34 – without any other unless there’s any other funny discussion I think I’ll turn it over to you Barb um we uh we had the
6:41 – pleasure to present about the fall line just updates about the fall line in Chesterfield a number of times over the
6:47 – past couple of months we um presented at the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors and we were able to meet
6:52 – with Boards of super Board of supervisor members uh to give them some updates as well um and in one of those
6:58 – presentations Barb gave a presentation about her um spur study so we’re excited to see the
7:06 – fall L even where it’s not built yet uh there’s already planning work um being developed to to connect to where it will
7:12 – be in the future okay let me see if I can share my
7:24 – screen oh I did it I think can you guys see that you’re natur
7:31 – all right good um so yeah we we knew
7:37 – that in order to make the fall line Trail really um valuable we needed to be
7:42 – able to connect people to the trail and get people that are on the trail to destinations that are nearby so uh the
7:50 – purpose of our study was to make those connections um we were lucky because we
7:56 – had already developed this Fall Line Trail project dashboard that’s available on the county Webb page um and this has
8:04 – been very useful for us you know as vot got started with the southern section
8:10 – because it’s an interactive map where you can enter in an address and find out
8:16 – how close the trail is to your property so you know when survey letters went out for the southern section we were able to
8:22 – connect people to this interactive Fall Line Trail dashboard and we use that as our
8:28 – starting point in developing our spur study so on this slide you can see the
8:34 – green line and the red line that’s the fall line Trail um in order to develop
8:41 – the Spurs we our strategy was to identify residential density which is
8:46 – shown with these blue blobs um you know darker Blues higher density we also then
8:54 – wanted to find um destinations like public facilities libraries Parks schools fire stations and Retail
9:01 – destinations like nice centers for shopping or restaurants and we also
9:07 – looked for places where Spurs might overlap with our um adopted bikeways and
9:14 – trails plan for the entire County so that’s kind of our strategy in trying to
9:20 – come up with the the Spurs that make sense for Fall Line
9:26 – Trail and from that you know we came up with some spurs that are really strictly
9:31 – for residential connections trying to get people to the trail so this is up on
9:36 – the Northern section but we also found some locations
9:42 – where it really made sense to have a Spur to connect to schools we’ve got a high school off of John John Winston J
9:49 – Jones Parkway and then off a cougar Trail we also have a park there and then we have some spurs that
9:57 – really are focused on Parks uh we’ve got the Bensley Park and Fort
10:04 – darling and then you know really for us the village of Chester is kind of our
10:10 – primary destination with a lot of retail restaurants um supporting services we’ve
10:16 – got a fire station that’ll be a trail head coming in the village of Chester so
10:21 – we’ve got Spurs along Route 10 and also trying to make connections to existing
10:27 – facilities so on Old C trilia we already have a sidewalk up to Castleberry trying
10:32 – to extend that sidewalk or or Trail so that it Loops back into the fall line
10:38 – Trail just connects more people and gives people other options to get to and
10:44 – from the trail or to and from destinations so that’s really all I had
10:50 – if you have any questions let me know happy to open it to the floor uh
10:56 – but really appreciate this work and and I know we’ve spent the past six months
11:02 – or more talking about the value of it’s a lot more than six months now the value of the fall line getting people to
11:08 – places that they want to go from uh from educational sites to where they work but
11:14 – also parks and schools and um lots of other destinations or Commerce where
11:20 – where people shop so really exciting to see and um where where are we at in the process is there are there next steps
11:27 – we’re pretty close to finishing up the spur study and you know then we’ll just
11:33 – have it available for us to use when we go after funding um doesn’t need any kind of
11:40 – approval no probably we probably don’t need to go forward with approval we’ll present it to the board for information
11:47 – um but uh I think we’ll be good to go one thing I did want to mention is uh it
11:53 – was really great to have sort of a sniff test with you guys with Sports Backers
11:59 – you were working on your vision plan and also with the um Community connections
12:05 – that uh um um um oh gosh Lane shift is
12:10 – working on it was neat to see what you guys were thinking was matching up with
12:15 – what we were thinking so um I really do think the the plan is a good one and
12:21 – we’ve got some good connections to make in the future great I think maybe my one of my
12:28 – personal highlights is the um or favorites would be the connection to the government complex and how useful that’s
12:34 – going to be yeah yeah so on this particular slide you see this Trail along Route 10 which is pretty long it
12:43 – you know I don’t know what a definition of a Spur is but that’s a super spur for
12:48 – sure I had a quick question about um maybe bike lane infrastructure in Chesterfield and pardon my ignorance I I
12:56 – I sort of know Chesterfield closer to pocah less the route one Corridor and the connection’s over but are there
13:02 – places that have or streets that have bike lane infrastructure that could potentially be upgraded with the right
13:09 – away to like a protected bike lane so you’re creating more of like a trail in a street like within the curb to curb is
13:16 – that I think there’s bike Lanes some on Iron Bridge at various places and maybe I’m wrong but that to me and I know
13:21 – Chesterfield doesn’t necessarily have a lot of the density that you see with other places that are doing kind of big protected bike lane projects but I’m
13:28 – interested the idea of like if you’ve already got a bike lane is there a way to create kind of that trail protected
13:34 – feel within the curb to curb yeah there is um it comes with a heavy price tag
13:40 – but yeah we for instance we are working with vot right now on a safety study for
13:46 – the courthouse Road um from 60 to 360 and that road has a bike
13:53 – lane um if money grew on trees what I’d really like to
13:59 – is US convert the bike lane into a separated facility with a trail on one side Sidewalk on the other um it’s
14:07 – expensive so you know slowo but I can see that as well along
14:14 – Route 10 we’ve got bike Lanes on the road being able to utilize that ride of
14:19 – way in a different way to separate it would be great yeah it’s always
14:27 – money great question and good morning Barb so just for V central office um
14:33 – just for our information so what you’re looking at here are these going to be kind of meeting the V Trails off this
14:39 – definition of a of a multi-use trail which is going to be kind of like a 10l
14:45 – pain facility uh the question I have after that is was all of this done in GIS and do you have uh that information
14:52 – in shap bile format yes uh we do and I think we’ve shared that with the state
14:58 – Trails office already um or at least it’s on our to-do list because um I
15:04 – think at the last meeting Brantley pointed out that they were look that you
15:09 – all were looking for those files um so if we haven’t sent them they’re coming
15:14 – um as far as yes we do try to make that the trails meet State Standards there
15:21 – are times that we ask for waivers though if we’ve got a right ofwe constraint or whatever um so
15:29 – we don’t always get the the desired maximum but we make sure we always meet
15:34 – ashow standards good you thank you hey David since I have you on the line and I
15:40 – don’t want to put you too much on the spot but can you give us any context of the development for the your mapping
15:46 – work and anything that you are willing to share from the state Trails office so yeah basically at this point we’ve
15:53 – wrapped up Bas one and uh that includes mapping all existing and plan facil
15:58 – ities so the deadline for plant facilities have a laps for the analysis
16:03 – phase of the state TR plan we are going to be building up a resource up that’s going to display all the existing and uh
16:11 – plan facilities throughout the state uh that meet the VA definition uh standards
16:16 – um for Sina connected uh regionally connected multiuse raail so all of that
16:22 – should be out later in the year towards the fall uh but for part one based on
16:27 – the data weight we received about 3,000 miles of plan facilities uh Statewide so
16:34 – pretty robust uh plan data set but looking forward to Barb sending over
16:40 – that data I don’t think that was captured the data we sent over um to Tool Des sign group last week uh but
16:47 – definitely more than happy to have that data for the State trail sub so certainly it’ll be displayed in there um
16:54 – but yep that’s kind of where we are right now great and thank you for your work on
16:59 – that and I know gosh mapping 3,000 miles of stuff’s got to be a task so that’s oh
17:05 – yeah give you a plug that you just updated your website so if you haven’t been to the bicycling in Virginia
17:11 – website in a while um look at the great work that they’re doing at V do there thanks
17:18 – grantly all right the last project update that I’ve got um before we talk more about community and vision plan
17:24 – type stuff is and I I’d like to be able to share my screen but I’m a little worried about um my mobile connectivity
17:31 – so um there’s a it’s not directly a fall line project but it’s it will directly
17:37 – impact the fall line and its design is the forthcoming plan and redesign of the
17:43 – intersection year Linn Holton Elementary School it’s at leum Road and Hermes Road
17:48 – in uh the city of Richmond in the northern northern section of the fall line alignment um you’re probably
17:55 – familiar with that intersection because it used to have a confederate general statute uh in the middle of it and that was
18:00 – removed and now it’s a big expanse of asphalt and the the city has released a survey looking at design options for
18:07 – what they’d like to do to change it um and so we we just want to make sure that we’re getting the best foot forward on
18:14 – what the fall line design and that section is going to look like because they’re going to be potentially making
18:20 – very substantial infrastructure changes uh to that intersection so they’ve got a survey that’s on the the bike ped
18:27 – website of rv. goov um that closes on the 12th and they have a public meeting
18:34 – on the 18th at lywood Holton um from 5: to 7M that would review those those – 18:41 – designs um to be just a little bit candid I think U the the the current proposed
18:49 – Concepts don’t really incorporate the fall line as I think most of us think it will look from a 10 10 foot multi-use
18:56 – Trail um but certainly there’s a lot of time to adjust it and we look forward to that really being a catalyst to really
19:02 – kind of figuring out what the fall On’s going to look like in that section I I’m thinking of it basically from Belleview
19:08 – which is more or less the entrance to Brian Park uh down to the fivepoint
19:14 – intersection of Westwood and what I think of is the kitchen 64 but that’s not there anymore so uh the uh Westwood
19:22 – Brian Park um and I see W just uh said to drop that in the chat I if I could
19:27 – maybe ask um I think Phil probably can find that for us pretty handily if uh if that’s
19:33 – okay to drop that in the chat but it is on the RBA um. goov website so that’s
19:40 – just something to pay some attention to and and um we think it’ll be oh thanks Kelly we think that’ll be a good
19:46 – conversation to have and we’ll be there at that meeting on the 18th any other thoughts or discussion
19:52 – before we move on all right thanks for bearing with me
19:57 – so I do want to say we were in the we were in the the time dispatch twice we gave uh presentations at the the um
20:05 – Chesterfield Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors we also presented at the uh vot bicycle pedestrian
20:11 – advisory committee uh it was a bit of a trail inspiration uh presentation so a lot of fall line stuff but also um
20:19 – lessons learned and and sort of some inspiring U examples from abroad and and
20:24 – other places in the US so we’re uh we’re happy to keep this conversation going and um if I can sort of duvail into my
20:33 – next fall line Vision plan segment I think it really um corroborates
20:39 – something that um Kevin Carroll supervisor in Chesterfield said as the
20:44 – forward to our fall line Vision plan which is everyone he talks to is super excited about it that they think that
20:50 – it’s a it’s an amazing concept and we uh we were we didn’t ask him for that he actually said that at a cvta meeting and
20:56 – I was like um Mr Carol can I uh can I include that in our vision plan and he
21:01 – was happy to share that so um yeah just that the the all the organic supportive comments that you hear about um in the
21:08 – entire region it’s it’s something like I keep pinching myself uh that this is actually even happening um so I I want
21:16 – to say that many people on this call and and certainly many people who are not on this call participated multiple times
21:22 – with our F line Vision plan shet process and and Andy here from tulle was one of our our key uh consultants and now we
21:29 – just back to being a friend and um we um it was it was a great experience the the
21:35 – two really significant charet phases um a lot of back and forth on the the
21:41 – document and I think we’ve created something that is very um aspirational
21:47 – but also gives us some uh really flexible near and medium-term goals in
21:54 – terms of investing in our placemaking and lots of different ways lots of different
21:59 – um um context sensitive uh approaches so that we are you know if you’re in a
22:06 – rural area you have rural oriented placemaking if you’re in an urban area it can look very different um and so
22:13 – from a um uh a next step process we essentially want to start looking at the
22:20 – the lwh hanging fruit and and looking at places where art or placemaking
22:25 – connections to school and and a lot of things that that barb was talking about in terms of Spurs uh what makes sense in
22:33 – the short term um the a little bit selfishly uh Sports
22:38 – Backers is is planning to move our office right to the fall line uh at Spring Park and that certainly has come
22:44 – into Focus as an opportunity for some placemaking um and um but we also want
22:50 – to make sure that as things like Trail heads are being discussed uh new sections of of construction are coming
22:56 – into uh view that we’re looking at placemaking Grants at working with
23:02 – partnering uh organizations especially ones that are very focused on things like art and placemaking and and the
23:08 – community and and artist involvement with that um at where where and when
23:14 – those start to make sense and how we can start to fund them and and sportsbackers can be a good partner but not be the the
23:20 – lead on all of these things because we’re active the transportation more than than anything else so um I I I want
23:28 – to make sure that everyone has access to this the fall line Vision plan uh I I shared in my email this morning uh if
23:34 – you want higher resolution uh we we do have it just harder to share um and I also want to give you a special shout
23:41 – out to Heather and Phil who I think maybe put the the line share of the review uh of the various drafts that we
23:47 – have and and really appreciate their time and just how much they know about the our region and um I really I I I
23:54 – almost want to say mega region because of our two planning districts so I’ll leave it at that and I want to say um I
24:00 – certainly want to give John the opportunity to say something because I know he was so involved and and and help
24:06 – and you know sort of what we created as everyone in this room
24:14 – together yeah um well you said it well Brantley and and certainly tool design
24:20 – gets a ton of of kudos for this work and it was uh it
24:27 – it was putting a lot of ideas that were thrown out and and sorting through all of that and so hopefully it it provides
24:35 – us a way to connect dots in the future um often with these projects no one’s
24:40 – quite sure where to go and who to turn to and how to get you know oh we think you know like someone commented about
24:47 – trees next to benches well where are the benches being implied and where can we
24:52 – work to get the trees next to them and and so only by having that kind of
24:58 – laid out a little bit and kind of how that could be done um that helps guide that work for everybody so um you know
25:06 – hopefully over the next 10 to 15 years um that that document the vision plan
25:13 – will help guide all of that extra work um and connecting art groups and funding
25:19 – and localities and locations and you know all of that takes time and energy
25:26 – so yeah we’re excited that you have any thoughts to share Andy
25:32 – uh we certainly think of you as an expert in this um well I will since you give me
25:39 – the chance um I would say for us I mean like the the plan reflects the
25:46 – extraordinary work that’s going on on at the local level like we just saw from Barb and Chesterfield County for me the
25:53 – the Highlight was in um in May when we were were at at the um art center Art
26:01 – the Performing Art Center um and saw conversations between the hover and
26:06 – henrio uh about where connections were going to be made and and and where different things were going to
26:12 – potentially happen along the trail to coming back in October and being told hey you got to move that because we’ve
26:18 – just bought this piece of land or you need to uh like seeing the progression that that that that was happening while
26:24 – the vision plan was going on hopefully inspired by it but not necessarily uh
26:30 – was just truly um amazing to see and and a credit to everyone that’s that’s involved so um it was a it was a delight
26:37 – I can speak for the team uh from Tool design that worked on it it was a delight working on it and they are all
26:44 – Keen to see how how it progresses thanks Andy uh so I want to
26:50 – say um it’s a it’s a pretty big document and if you want to give uh you know a cursory glance at it I would recommend
26:57 – looking at the maps towards the end the probably the the best place where people are going to want to jump in is look at
27:04 – the zoomed in sections of areas of interest for you and to see where
27:09 – specific recommendations are um there there are dots on the map for art and sometimes there that that dot is
27:15 – qualified by a recommendation for what kind of art based on the feedback that we got whether it’s nature themed or
27:21 – history or all you know Iron all kinds of things um and see if it makes sense to you uh this is a it’s a guiding
27:27 – document it’s not U prescriptive in any way and we think that it will morph over time but we also think some sections uh
27:36 – will come into Focus early and we’ll you know we can get starting on working on some of these U I think you know Spring
27:42 – Park being a good example Heather I see your hand up yeah thanks I had a quick
27:48 – question um it’s a beautiful document I mean it really is just gorgeous and I I love all the showing all the materials
27:55 – and colors and things we can use I’m wondering if we can start sharing it yet like can can we oh certainly and I this
28:01 – is my next thing so I want keep our board should see it next or what what you how you want us to start getting it
28:08 – out there yeah what I’ll say is we want to continue the conversation uh so one you know we internally we started to
28:14 – think okay where are five places where it would make sense for us to maybe start talking to artist communities or
28:20 – start talking to funders or or or the property owner in like in the case of it being a park or something like that um
28:27 – but we are not going to be the band or the the bottleneck you know we don’t
28:32 – have to be the only entity who is pursuing some of these and and ultimately we really shouldn’t be um so
28:38 – what I would say is please share the document as it is now it’s just it’s a little bit big so what we are working on
28:43 – internally is something that’s a little more conversational a little more graphic and a little more easily
28:49 – digestible for communities that don’t want to look through 100 Pages uh or don’t necessarily care about some of the
28:55 – background work that we we put into it so that is definitely coming because we want to be having these
29:00 – conversations uh a lot of them very efficiently uh and also recognizing that just a PDF is not the best way to reach
29:06 – a lot of people um but yeah it’s it’s in the public domain now and anyone that you want to share it with please do um
29:14 – and uh but we also want to recognize you know a 10 a 10 page slide uh is a
29:21 – probably a little more effective at reaching people than than the full thing and then finally Brantley share from the
29:27 – PDF you sent or is it anywhere else on a website that we should be sharing I guess that’s my other question uh so
29:33 – it’s currently a 23 megabyte which is like just over the size of it being easily emailed uh so that link you can
29:41 – just copy that link it’s it’s in Mar our share file so happy to use it that
29:46 – way as you actually now that I’m hearing this I we should make it Bently a short
29:51 – link so I’ll I’ll make that um today
30:01 – all right um I think this is pretty much all I’ve got uh on the the formal agenda and if
30:08 – there’s anything uh that we’d like to do a any kind of a round table update I’m happy to entertain that but while we
30:15 – have some time I’m also happy to chat about if you have thoughts ideas
30:20 – connections or any kind of early initiative to develop some placemaking
30:27 – um whether it’s uh art or storytelling or a conversation that needs to take
30:33 – place or a connection to a partner organization um you know we’ve asked this question a lot but there’s no time
30:39 – like now to ask it again is there anything that you’re
30:45 – inspired to work
30:51 – on hi Naomi with Petersburg uh I did want to say that I
30:56 – would our main Main Street organization has been um getting off the ground they’re in the early stages but they’re
31:02 – looking at different things that they could tackle and improve with the community and I made sure to mention to them since one of the components that
31:09 – they focus on is sort of like placemaking in the downtown area is the
31:14 – possibility of contributing and supporting um you know placemaking at
31:19 – the trail head or Trail end in Petersburg so we’re having conversations and I make sure to share when the
31:25 – opportunity arises fory what we can do and who can help support um that creation that’s great and if Whenever
31:33 – there becomes a point person we’d love to have them join the friends of the fall line um and I Heather and Naomi
31:40 – maybe Ron um do you want to discuss anything about the potential for the the patent Park trail head being connected
31:46 – into more of the retail commercial area Oldtown sure I can give a quick update
31:53 – on that um so we are working with the city of Peters pburg um and Timmons has
31:59 – actually produced uh some new estimates for us about connecting the fall line to Oldtown and we’re actually getting some
32:06 – renderings for that section um really this week I think and uh Petersburg is taking that to uh General Assembly this
32:14 – year is one of their legislative asks so that really is one of their big asks is making sure we get that good uh
32:19 – connection between the fall line in Oldtown Petersburg and as Brantley said we do have some funding to start the
32:25 – work at that trail head the co- trail head for the ball line and that trail
32:30 – will be at patent Park and we have some funding to start that project needs needs more funding to make it a full
32:36 – Park but we do have parking lot and some trail aspects coming with that and hoping to make that a betterment um
32:42 – project with the the db2 hoping to get those two things going at the same time so we will see some movement at that
32:48 – area but definitely like you said Brantley always more funding and and more planning going on and of course D
32:54 – has a comp plan that’s wrapping up and that’s all going into that that planning process too that’s great if you wouldn’t
33:00 – mind sharing me with me any of the like budget amendment or other uh information
33:05 – that would be helpful for us to be able to track and um great to see that I will I’ll say uh speaking about that area I’m
33:12 – like it’s it’s great that the I think patent Park is getting some early work there was the funding from um
33:20 – congressionally directed spending funding from Warner and Kane uh I think it was $2 million Maybe a year and a
33:27 – half ago uh is that the funding that’s being used for that section it was for the for Phase 1 a of the trail and the
33:36 – no we’ve got some funding in patent Park too in that general area well I think about uh is there um
33:45 – an early Direction about what kind of placemaking or art could make sense there I know there’s been discussion
33:51 – about how the connectivity to that Park is going to impact existing Park users not to say that’s it’s all going to be
33:57 – bad but you know there’s going to be some compromises happening uh is there a way to to facilitate that by putting in
34:06 – benches or or something like that or you know art shade something like that yeah
34:11 – I think we have some early thoughts on that you know we have been working with the the community at that Park calls
34:17 – themselves the River Rats that’s their their own name and we have been really talking with them and and Scott and vop
34:23 – really have said that we will do you know in person on-site meetings as the db2 comes along really making sure those
34:31 – folks have a strong say and like you said Brantley we already talked about shade for fishing in that area um they
34:38 – have a memorial for um some some that they folks we want to make sure we incorporate some of those Memorial
34:44 – aspects and and really how they’re using the park now just upgrading um that and
34:49 – really vot is definitely at the table and making sure that happens with their design for
34:55 – db2 cool I’ll say and and I you know I I think we stressed this a lot the the
35:02 – opportunity for lots of different kinds of ideas and some being more Grassroots and very Community oriented and some
35:07 – being larger scale and and maybe you know non-traditional from how you might interpret the art so not you know not
35:15 – there’s anything wrong with M murals but is there something bigger or different than murals and I’ll say this is this is just a little seed that I want to plant
35:21 – and if it doesn’t come to if it doesn’t germinate that’s fine but there’s a famous sculpture in Brussels of an atom
35:27 – I think it’s a carbon atom um uh it’s a it’s a kind of a nerdy but really cool
35:33 – impressive sculpture uh with like you know the the different subatomic particles flying around it and um we
35:39 – learned in this process I told this story a lot that um a an alumni from
35:46 – Virginia State University is uh co-credited for in for developing Global
35:52 – Positioning Systems of GPS like we use in our phone and in like the ‘ 50s uh so
35:57 – in the same era as the hidden figures she wasn’t in Hidden figures but sort of the same era kind of person and I just
36:04 – think how cool it would be to put an impressive satellite sculpture in or
36:10 – around Virginia State University and how like uh germine it would be and and and
36:15 – just on a different kind of scale than I think many people think of when they think about kind of public art um no I’m
36:23 – not going to hold anybody to it I just think it would be kind of a neat idea
36:31 – now what’s your wish
36:38 – list all right well um I don’t have anything else on the agenda so baring
36:44 – any other updates or discussion I think I’ll give you a few minutes back
36:49 – today if you have some time thumb through the vision plan and um we’re actually planning to print a handful of
36:57 – copies really nicely so that we can drop them at the general assembly and other places so if you have a recommendation
37:03 – for someone who needs to get it on their desk in a nice format um just send us a note and we’ll make sure it
37:08 – happens thanks all right well enjoy your morning
37:14 – and um I guess uh if you’re if you’re inclined there’ll be some lots of
37:20 – speeches this afternoon uh down at the general assembly so uh tune in thanks
37:26 – Mary thanks y all