Opinion

With ‘wants’ cut, more funding may be the only solution for new school project

By Roslyn Ryan Editor

We’ve all heard it, but when it comes to spending money responsibly it’s almost always a wise idea to remember what an esteemed group of musicians from London told us many decades ago: you can’t always get what you want, but sometimes you can get what you need.

The tricky part, of course, is figuring out what falls under “wants” and what falls under “needs.”

Lately, this is a problem with which the Goochland County School Board has become all too familiar. When it was revealed earlier this year that the $30 million dollar price tag for the muchcelebrated new Goochland Elementary School had ballooned to an eye-popping $54 million, school board members were quick to jettison several features of the project that were deemed wants rather than needs.

Suddenly gone were the beautiful walls of glass that were included in the original design to help bring more natural light into the classroom. The metal-clad exterior was replaced with less-expensive brick, and even the shape of the building itself was reworked and compacted.

At one point in the paring-down process, items on the chopping block included everything from basketball hoops to whiteboards to bike racks.

Still, even with the willingness to give up certain “extras,” the school board has been left in a truly unenviable position. With the original plan clearly untenable, they are now faced with a host of less-than-appealing alternatives ranging from starting over from scratch on a new piece of property (one with fewer costly site issues) to abandoning the new construction altogether and simply renovating the current Goochland Elementary School.

Neither choice was met with much enthusiasm during a recent meeting between the school board and the board of supervisors, but both seemed less painful than the solution both elected bodies seemed to be tiptoeing carefully around for the better part of two hours: going back to the citizens, who had overwhelming supported the new school in a bond referendum last November, and asking for more money.

It isn’t hard to see both the rock and the hard place that the school board now finds itself in. But the funds have been borrowed and the interest is accruing. Doing nothing is not an option, and neither is building a subpar facility. If asking for more money would allow the school division to construct a quality building that will continue to serve the community for years to come— even with a few less window or whiteboards—that is what should be done.

There is reason for hope should officials decide that more funding is needed. Residents have already agreed, through their support of the bond referendum, that the county needs a new elementary school. They have also said, by electing the current school board members and supervisors (in most cases to multiple terms), that they trust them to do what is right. So logic would follow that, if the elected bodies say that they have culled every possible “want” from the project and still need additional funds to complete the new school, the citizens will agree that borrowing those funds is the best course of action.

No, it isn’t the ideal solu-

tion, but at this time it would appear to be the best path forward.

As so often happens, not everyone will get what they want. The students of Goochland, however, will get what they need.

“With the original plan clearly untenable, they are now faced with a host of less-thanappealing alternatives.”

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This old house

By Jim Ridolphi Contributing Columnist

I couldn’t remember the last time the old house on Cutshaw Place stood empty. I suppose it was back in the early 1950s when we first moved in the small brick Cape Cod located near Willow Lawn. In those days, we didn’t have an abundance of furniture and the rooms seemed large and unfilled to small prying eyes.

As I sat on one of the many boxes stacked and ready to move last week, I realized it was once again empty and a sense of sadness descended upon me.

Even though life moves on and the possibilities of the future did not include the old house that had more than lived up to any and all expectations, it’s still sad to say goodbye to a place that represented so much history, so much triumph and tragedy.

It welcomed our small family as we moved to Richmond from Montgomery, Alabama. Located just west of Staples Mill Road, we enjoyed the benefits of being in the country in those first years when Willow Lawn was just a plan, and Broad Street narrowed to two lanes heading west.

That was almost seven decades ago, but as we emptied every nook and cranny in the house, reminders of those early days were routinely revealed. As anyone who has moved from a long-term residence can attest, some of the most interesting items are found stuck in the drawer of an old dresser or discarded in the back of a closet.

I looked at an old playing card emboldened with the name of the first company where my father worked when we first came to town. Laying beside it was a clouded plastic remnant of a key ring from Emrick Chevrolet, where he bought his first new car, a 1955 Chevrolet Biscayne with a three speed transmission on the column.

Tucked away in the roof of one of the eaves I discover an old photo of the Class of 1965 of John Randolph Tucker High School. I recognized my sister and some of her friends from that first graduating class.

I collected similar items in a box as we moved box after box of dishes, books. Looking down at the items in the box, I realized that collectively, they may appear as random junk to any onlooker. But, each represented a small portion of the history of Cutshaw, a legacy of family, friends and memories.

It also became abundantly apparent the house would never be defined by its contents, and the true history of the house could better be told by the generations who occupied it.

For example, consider the number of children who called Cutshaw home. My sister and I were the first group to live our formative years there, and my four children all have associations with the residence.

The old house has seen its share of celebrations and also a

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