A new library just broken ground on, a federal block grant, an up tick in sales tax revenues. “The state of the town of Vinton is very good…the main message is that our town is in good shape,” said long time Mayor Brad Grose just before he gave a State of the Town address, along with Town Manager Chris Lawrence, at a Vinton Chamber of Commerce breakfast last week.
Grose, also the owner of an electronics installation business, said that the small town in eastern Roanoke County, had “weathered the storm of the great recession. Our staff has become very proficient in cost cutting and doing with less. We’re very proud of the job our staff has done, during the past four years in particular.”
Grose also noted that a rise in business activity in Vinton has meant sales tax revenues are growing again. “We’re very excited about the future and hopefully we’ll see some revenue growth. [Then] we can get back to doing some of our capital projects.”
Those capital projects include the ongoing effort to shore up the town’s water system, which serves Vinton and some surrounding Roanoke County neighborhoods. For a decade or so it’s been under reconstruction in bits and pieces; at the same time much lower than market rate water rates for customers have been adjusted to bring them more in line with neighboring systems like the Western Virginia Water Authority. Vinton is currently in the design phase, preparing to replace water lines on Jefferson Avenue in the town. It will also provide more water pressure for firefighting purposes.
The new downtown Roanoke County library branch, which will go up where the old Dunman Floral supply warehouse was on Pollard St., is expected to bring many more people to the district on a regular basis. Town and Roanoke County officials held a groundbreaking ceremony at the Dunman building recently – now it must come down before the 20,000 sq. ft. library branch, scheduled for completion in late 2016, can go up.
“It’s a very exciting time right now,” said Grose, “the new library…certainly will be a boost to our economic development. I think it will help our existing businesses quite a bit as well as attract new businesses.” Grose expects more than 200,000 trips a year to the library, based on a county analysis. The current heavily used branch on Washington Avenue is too small and outdated.
“There’s going to be a lot of people in downtown Vinton and those are all potential customers [for other businesses],” added Grose. A $700,000 federal grant that can be used to spruce up the downtown streetscape (lighting upgrades, the Farmer’s Market) will make it more attractive to visitors.
The grant money is federal but is administered through a state program. That’s meant jumping through hoops while working with state officials, but Grose said they were “great to work with” during the process. The Department of Housing and Community Development was the town’s link to the 700K grant.
“We’re quite excited about the timing. The grant along with the library…it’s worked out perfectly,” said Grose, who gave the big picture outlook at the State of the Town while Lawrence gave more of the microview. A new bridge on Walnut Avenue is also in the works – during what the mayor called a “busy and exciting time in downtown Vinton.”
By Gene Marrano