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Volume 57, Number 28 • July 15, 2010
Goochland’s County officials ponder the economic future of the TCSD fire marshal Diversifying retires economic efforts could help, said Dickson at last week’s planning session By Amy Condra acondra@goochlandgazette.com
Tuckahoe Creek Service District, a water and sewer system covering 13 square miles, was created to ease economic development in the eastern end of the county by providing a ready-to-go infrastructure. But nothing about the TCSD has been easy. In 2002 the county borrowed $63 million from the Virginia Resources Authority to build the service district. That investment has already accrued more than $11 million in capitalized interest the county hasn’t yet started paying off, and its liability is growing at a rate of about $2 million per year. Deput y Count y
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Administrator John Wack confirmed to The Gazette last week that about $97 million of the county’s long-term enterprise obligations are tied to the TCSD. And if its pipes are defective, as Goochland Utilities Director Gary A. DuVal asserted last December after a force main broke on River Road, the TCSD could come with an even bigger price tag than already anticipated. The cost to fix the sewer line was more than $50,000, which, considering that County Administrator Rebecca Dickson told The Gazette last month that there is only $85,000 set aside for repairs and maintenance of the district’s infrastructure, is a significant sum. At a strategic planning session held last week, Dickson said that, in addition to Courthouse Village, the county needs to aim its economic development efforts on the TCSD. But West Creek Business
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Co-workers hold reception for ‘Fire Marshal Phil’ By Ken Odor jodor@goochlandgazette.com
Photo by Ken Odor
Sites are available for development in West Creek Business in the TCSD. Development of the office park, once slated to house a giant Motorola chip plant, has been slow.
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Scores of co-workers and other well-wishers gathered at the Fairgrounds Building Friday afternoon to bid farewell to Phil Paquette, who has retired after seven years as Goochland’s first Fire Marshal. “Fire Marshal Phil,” as he is affectionately known around the county, retired after almost 29 years of paid fire service in addition to a number of years as a volunteer. Already in training for his new career working with the Transportation Security Administration, where he will be a Security Officer at Richmond International Airport, Paquette took time to look back on his career in
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Phil Paquette the fire service, as he waited for the reception to get underway. “I started out as a volunteer in Phoebus in 1976 down in Hampton where I grew up,” recalled Paquette, now 51. He was working in heating and air conditioning at the time, but liked being a firefighter so much “I wanted to see about getting paid somewhere,” said Paquette, who had to pause frequently to greet friends as they came in the building for the program. He achieved that goal when he went to work as a see Marshal> page 3
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Tourism brings dollars into Henrico County