• Comprehensive One-Stop Career Center Opening
• Louisa County Successful in Rural Broadband Grant Application
• RideShare, TJPDC, and PWN Hosts Employer Workshop
• VA Representative Addresses Coalition for Homeless
• Proposals Sought for Projects Using the THA Toolkit
• Draft 2008 TJPD Legislative Program Available
• Regional Housing Conference Planned for Spring 2008
• New Members Appointed to Disability Services Board
• Village of Rivanna Visioning Session
• Regional Recycling Report Accepted
• TJPDC Awarded FTA Grant to address Public Participation in Public Transportation
• Final Public Meeting for Hardware River TMDLs

In a coordinated effort led by the Special Advisor to the Governor for Workforce Development, the Piedmont Workforce Network and local Workforce Investment Act (WIA) partners, agreements have been finalized that establish a model One Stop Career Center in Charlottesville. This Center will be located at 2211 Hydraulic Road in Charlottesville and will be the first of its kind in Virginia. This will be the first time that employment-related service agencies will be co-located and the customer will get to experience true “One-Stop Shopping” by having all of their employment needs under one roof. The Center will house, in addition to the WIA program, the Virginia Employment Commission, Virginia Department of Rehabilitative Services, the Veterans Affairs Office, representatives from Piedmont Virginia Community College and other partners such as WorkSource Enterprises, Jefferson Area Board on Aging, Charlottesville Department of Social Services, Job Corps, The Choice Group, Career Support Systems, and Goodwill Industries. Occupancy is expected for all tenants by the beginning of November. A formal grand opening with state dignitaries will be planned at a later date. For more information, contact Todd Palmquist at tpalmquist@tjpdc.org or (434) 979-7310 x250.

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The Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) has granted funds to Louisa County under the Rural Broadband Planning Initiative. The project will include a needs assessment, an analysis of current and future business and professional uses, an assessment of community computer literacy, and the identification of technology education needs. The project will include planning for universal access to high-speed broadband service. One key factor is placing towers in areas of greatest need. TJPDC assisted Louisa County with this application, and is pleased to be a part of this successful grant. For more information, contact Bill Wanner at wwanner@tjpdc.org or (434) 979-7310 x390.

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RideShare, the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission, and the Piedmont Workforce Network will host an awards luncheon and workshop entitled "Being a Commuter Friendly Employer," on October 16th from 11:30am to 1:00pm at the Omni Hotel in Charlottesville. Presentations at the workshop will address ways commuter benefits can help companies deal with issues such as parking, expansion, and employee morale on both state and local levels, including success stories from employers in the Charlottesville area. RideShare staff will also be on hand to explain how they can help organizations become more commuter-friendly at different levels of investment. The workshop will be followed by a brief awards ceremony recognizing local organizations that have made outstanding efforts in the area of commuter benefits. Featured speakers include: Butch Davies, Commonwealth Transportation Board Culpeper District Representative; Sandra Lynn Taylor, State Farm Insurance Charlottesville Operations Center; and Louise Wyatt, County of Albemarle Human Resources. For more information or registration, visit www.rideshareinfo.org or contact Rhonda Edmunds at redmunds@tjpdc.org or (434) 979-7310 x330.

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Ray Patterson, Program Director for Health Care for Homeless Veterans at the McGuire Center in Richmond, was the keynote speaker at a special meeting of the Thomas Jefferson Area Coalition for the Homeless (TJACH) meeting on September 18. The Thomas Jefferson Area Veterans Council arranged for the presentation where Patterson provided a view of the current and projected problems at the Veterans Administration resulting from returning troops from Afghanistan and Iraq. These wounded and/or traumatized men and women are and will be coming into our community and need help and the families need support. Homeless service providers will need to know what to expect and be prepared to provide needed services and referrals. Post-traumatic symptoms are often hidden and lead to homelessness. Veterans appear to account for 30 – 40% of homeless individuals in central Virginia. This is the 12th year of the Veteran’s Homeless Program. For more information, contact Jeff Cornelius at jcornelius@tjpdc.org or (434) 979-7310 x440, or visit TJACH’s web site at http://www.avenue.org/tjach/.

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The 1st Edition of the Transportation and Housing Alliance (THA) Toolkit is complete and was distributed to planning district commissions (PDCs) across the state at the summer conference of the Virginia Association of Planning District Commissions (VAPDC). TJPDC is now accepting proposals for projects using the THA Toolkit. The Request for Proposals (RFP) has been distributed to PDCs, Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), Rural Transportation Programs, housing programs, and Centers for Independent living across the state. Proposals are due October 31, 2007. The RFP and the Toolkit are available on-line at http://www.tjpdc.org/housing/THAtoolkit.asp. The key outcome of using the toolkit is a clear understanding of the current transportation and housing needs of people with disabilities and others who may otherwise be excluded from the planning process. The Toolkit is a planning tool to assess needs, and a guide to incorporate what has been learned into a plan, create an action agenda, and implement the plan. The project was funded through a grant awarded by the Virginia Board for People with Disabilities (VBPD – www.vaboard.org), which has just awarded a two-year continuation grant to TJPDC to put the Toolkit to work in twelve projects across the state. For more information, contact Billie Campbell at bcampbell@tjpdc.org or (434) 979-7310 x230.

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The draft 2008 TJPD Legislative Program is being discussed and voted on by TJPD localities during the month of October. The program establishes the Comprehensive Services Act as the top priority for the next legislative session. It also urges lawmakers to revise the impact fee authority granted this past year and to resist unfunded mandates on localities, as well as to increase state funding for public education and transportation. The Commission, our localities, and their staffs have helped shape this program, which will inform our legislators and help guide lobbying efforts during the 2008 General Assembly session. The text of the draft can be found at (http://www.tjpdc.org/liaison/legProg08.asp). For more information, contact David Blount at dblount@tjpdc.org or (434) 979-7310 x350.

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The success and impact of the regional housing conference “Creating Successful Mixed Use Communities” has spurred plans for another regional conference to be held in February or March 2008. The Housing Directors Council hope to bring a variety of partners together for a conference that will result in an updated and focused Regional Action Agenda for housing and community development, and continued linkages with transportation and services. The planning group for the 2008 conference includes representatives from the City’s Housing Advisory Committee, Albemarle County’s Housing Committee, CAAR, the Regional Housing Directors Council, the Chamber’s Aging in Place Roundtable, and Livable for a Lifetime. Additional members may be added as plans advance. The Action Plan for the 2003 Mixed Use Conference is available at http://www.tjpdc.org/housing/mixedUse.asp. For more information, contact Billie Campbell at bcampbell@tjpdc.org or (434) 979-7310 x230.

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Three new members have been appointed to the Jefferson Area Disability Services Board for three-year terms. Mike Peoples and Trisha Stevenson are new consumer representatives from Albemarle County. Peoples is the founder of the Guiding Light Foundation, which is designed to help people with disabilities navigate gaps in the system. Stevenson is a writer whose background includes fiction, magazine publishing, teaching Big Ten football players, university relations, and managing the editorial department of the Learning Company. She has been living with multiple sclerosis for many years and is eager to be a positive voice for the disabled community. Valery Lytle has also been appointed to the board and is a retired Navy officer and elementary school teacher who runs a second-generation family mobility aid business from her home in Louisa County. These three new members bring a great deal of energy and enthusiasm to the Board. For more information, contact Rochelle Garwood at rgarwood@tjpdc.org or (434) 979-7310 x320.

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On July 30, the TJPDC conducted a visioning session at Stone Robinson Elementary School to receive public input for the Village of Rivanna Master Plan. The session was well-attended, with citizens providing input through a visioning exercise to identify principles for the master plan and mapping work in small groups to mark up areas to protect, areas to enhance, and connection possibilities. Each small group reported their recommended priorities to the full group. The Visioning Session was the start of a process that will help guide how the Village of Rivanna community grows and develops. This public process will continue over the next year or so, with the community serving as a critical partner in creating a successful framework for the future of the Village of Rivanna area. For more information, visit the Albemarle County web site at http://www.albemarle.org/department.asp?department=planning&relpage=9650 or contact Billie Campbell at bcampbell@tjpdc.org or (434) 979-7310 x230.

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The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has made its final determination of the 2006 recycling rate for the region, based on the April 30 recycling report submitted by the TJPDC for Albemarle, Charlottesville, Fluvanna, Greene, and Nelson. The rate was determined by DEQ to be 34.3%, over 8% higher than 2005’s rate of 26% and 10% higher than 2004’s rate of 24.1%. For more information, contact Rochelle Garwood at rgarwood@tjpdc.org or (434) 979-7310 x320.

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TJPDC was recently awarded a competitive national grant as part of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Public Transportation Participation Pilot Program. Through this program, TJPDC will develop a Regional Transit Assessment Toolkit to solicit feedback from current users of the public transportation system to determine if the existing public transportation service responds to their needs, and if it doesn’t how it could be improved. The Toolkit will also solicit feedback from people who do not currently utilize alternatives to driving alone, to determine what changes would meet their access and mobility needs and attract them to the benefits of using public transportation. The Toolkit will complement the Regional Transit Authority Plan, current underway through funding by the Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT), the City of Charlottesville and the County of Albemarle. The FTA grant award is for $100,000; with work scheduled to begin in late Fall 2007. For more information, contact Harrison Rue at hrue@tjpdc.org or (434) 979-7310 x110.

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The final public meeting for the Hardware River TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) study was held on September 25th in the Scottsville Town Council Chambers. Staff from the Virginia Departments of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and Conservation and Recreation (DCR) discussed the findings of the study and the next steps. The study found that livestock and residential sources would need to be reduced by 70-75% in order for the Hardware and North Fork Hardware Rivers to meet state water quality standards for bacteria coming from fecal matter. Copies of the presentations and the draft TMDL report are available from Rochelle Garwood at rgarwood@tjpdc.org or (434) 979-7310 x320, and public comment is being accepted by DEQ staff member Robert Brent (rnbrent@deq.virginia.gov or (540) 574-7848) until October 25. Work on the Rivanna TMDLs is ongoing, with a final public meeting to be scheduled at a later date.

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Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission
PO Box 1505 - 401 East Water Street
Charlottesville, VA 22902
www.tjpdc.org
(434) 979-7310