Local officials brainstorm with Senator Warner, Virginia Port Authority officials on Infrastructure funding

Monday morning, August 23, representatives of several Northern Shenandoah Valley municipalities gathered at the Virginia Inland Port with federal and state officials for a Roundtable discussion of financial implications of recent federal legislation passed by the Biden Administration. Prominent in that discussion were funds associated with the recent streamlined Infrastructure Bill passed with 69-vote bipartisan Senate support, U.S. Senator Mark Warner of Virginia pointed out.

Warner was flanked at the head of the “roundtable” by Virginia Ports Authority (VPA) Chairman John Millikin and Vice-Chair Faith Power. Seated just to Millikin’s right was 10^th District Virginia State Delegate Wendy Gooditis. The second-floor meeting room was filled with interested municipal officials seeking guidance on what to expect and how best to approach financing their own infrastructure needs in coming months. Among those present were Warren County Board of Supervisors Chair Cheryl Cullers, County Administrator Ed Daley, and County Chamber of Commerce Director Nicki Foster Cales. Absent was anyone from the Front Royal town government. (Town Manager Hicks indicated in the Town Council Meeting of August 23, 2021, that apologies were received from Warner’s office for not sending them the invitation)

U.S. Senator Mark Warner, center, addresses the Infrastructure Roundtable crowd of interested municipal and state officials. Below, the Warren County contingent of Board Chair Cheryl Cullers, County Administrator Ed Daley, and Chamber Director Nicki Foster Cales, all under the watchful eye of the Royal Examiner video camera – Good work, Mike. Royal Examiner Photos by Roger Bianchini

With discussion of plans to expand the number of rail lines into the Inland Port’s 95 currently workable acres of its 168-acre property from five to eight on the table, Daley asked Senator Warner about the potential of federal infrastructure funds becoming available to help solve Warren County’s particular issue with neighborhood access roads being blocked by trains waiting to enter or leave the Inland Port. Plans for a railroad overpass at Rockland Road are also currently on the table.

“Great question – not sure I’m going to be able to answer it from Washington,” Senator Warner said in response to Daley’s query. VPA Chairman Millikin then noted that Hampton Roads had experienced similar problems. Those were addressed by getting the needed infrastructure improvements initially put on the regional plan to bring it to the attention of the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB), he said.

“But the Port is perfectly happy, willing, eager to be supportive of something like that. And as the senator said, maritime or port-related dollars are a little more flexible in how they can be used … And we may be able to help … And the key step, as you know, is getting it on the regional plan,” Millikin observed, pointing to Inland Port staff present who could offer help in doing so.

Introduced by Virginia Port Authority Chairman John Millikin, left, Senator Mark Warner decides to de-mask for his remarks to the Roundtable, as VPA Vice-Chair Faith Power observes at right. Power too, demasked when she spoke, as Millikin and Warner had.

Another prominent question offered late in the meeting was whether municipalities should move forward now with their own infrastructure plans, or wait till they see what kind of share of the Infrastructure Act pot will come Virginia and the Northern Valley’s way. Broadband expansion tied to infrastructure was specifically cited, with American Recovery Plan (ARP) funding approved along more partisan lines as part of the COVID-19 economic slowdown recovery, having for the most part already been used up.

“A great, great question – and my gut … is I would make those investments,” Warner said of moving on needs now. “My hope, because even when you make those commitments, it’s going to take a couple of years to spend that out. And as additional money comes in, you can supplant the ARP money back.”

Royal Examiner contacted County Board Chair Cullers about her reaction to what she heard at this morning’s Roundtable. “I was encouraged by what I heard, especially in regard to our broadband regional endeavor. I hope the legislative bills and programs Senator Warner spoke of can be accessed by Warren County. I look forward to working with my fellow Board of Supervisors and our staff to utilize the funds and programs to benefit as many in our community as possible, if and when they become available.

“Whenever we can access these types of funds and programs to prevent raising local taxes for these needs, it is important to make every effort to do so,” Cullers concluded.

Senator Warner ‘meets the press’ on his way out of the Inland Port and to Harrisonburg with Virginia tag #1.

See this morning’s Infrastructure Act Roundtable in its entirety in this exclusive Royal Examiner video, as well as a brief Q&A Warner conducted with the media outside as he headed for his next stop on his jaunt around the commonwealth Monday.