The
South Fork Reservoir Stewardship Task Force
held its third meeting on September 8, 2008 in the Albemarle County Office Building. A dozen task force members and about twenty citizen observers heard the continuing discussion of issues related to the use and maintenance of the reservoir, a key component of the community water supply, to guide its stewardship over the next fifty years.
In the course of the two-hour meeting, the task force shared reflections of their recent reservoir tours, they reviewed answers to questions raised at their first meeting, they took public comment on the public input process, and they learned they would all be held to Virginia’s open government laws. Those laws determine how they advertise their meetings, prohibit gatherings of three or more members to discuss public business (without advertising that in advance as a public meeting) and require that their e-mail related to the work of the task force be subject to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
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John Martin
represents the Rivanna River Basin Commission on the Task Force. He is also a member of Friends of the Moormans River and is an appointed member of the Albemarle County Service Authority Board. Martin began his comments reflecting on his recent tour of the reservoir by suggesting the University of Virginia could help pay for dredging in the event it is determined to only be needed to support the athletic facility for the rowing teams.
“To the extent that some of those sand bars need to be removed, and that is the sole reason for expenditure of funds for dredging, that the University should think about picking up the tab for maintaining their sports venue,” said Martin. “There may be other reasons for dredging…and perhaps eventually we could talk about some sort of a cost share.”
Mark Fletcher
, Associate Director of Athletics for the University of Virginia, said sedimentation of the reservoir was a long term-problem from lack of maintenance and that other rowers use the reservoir, both of which would need to be factored into a cost sharing arrangement. Sally Thomas reported that she has asked the Planning and Coordinating Council (PACC) of the City, County and University to consider recreational uses of the reservoir on the agenda of their next meeting scheduled for November 20, 2008.
This meeting was largely devoted to a discussion of
previously identified questions
from the task force and to the future public input process. The timeline below will allow citizens to find and listen to the corresponding parts of the meeting. Meeting agendas and reference materials will be available on the
Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority website
.
The next meeting of the task force will be on Monday, September, 29, 2008 and will feature remarks by Stephen Bowler, former Watershed Manager for the County of Albemarle
.
Brian Wheeler
TIMELINE FOR PODCAST
:
