- [By MIKE STILL mstill@sixriversmedia.com]
GATE CITY — Scott County Economic Development Authority members have gotten a preliminary idea of the kind of child care facility that could be part of the Riverside development.
Tom Crisp, pastor of Church on the Way now in the former Teletech Health building in the EDA’s Riverview site, spoke at the authority’s Wednesday board meeting about the church’s plans for a child care center at the building.
Knoxville-based senior community developer Solinity announced its memorandum of understanding with the EDA to work with development partners to turn the 100-acre Riverview property into the Riverside mixed-use community. According to the company and EDA, child care facilities would be part of a development featuring senior assisted and independent living housing, non-age-restricted homes and some light retail-restaurant locations.
Church on the Way, which leases the Teletech building from the EDA, is working on planning for a child care center to be built next to the building and modeled on a facility in Hickory, North Carolina.
EDA Executive Director John Kilgore later said construction on the Teletech site will require approval by the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority.
“Hopefully we can build a model that works so well we can replicate across Southwest Virginia,” said Crisp. “If the model works, we’re going to need more child care centers in Scott County.”
Later in the meeting, board members Roger Fraysier, Larry Culbertson, Craig Bright and Eric Lane voted for a resolution supporting Solinity’s application for Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development workforce housing grant funds.
Kilgore said the grant could provide as much as $50,000 per house built on the development based on a 1:4 match of land to grant funding, with Solinity working with other partners on the housing.
The board also approved a resolution — at the request of county Board of Supervisors Chair Chris Maness — support for more housing throughout Scott County. Along with that resolution, the board approved another support resolution for Dickenson County’s application to administer a regional grant for addressing housing shortages across Southwest Virginia.
The planned Scott County Regional Business and Technology Park will also see another EDA application for funds to match state Tobacco Commission funds under the state’s Business Ready Site Program.
Kilgore said the EDA had already received half of the needed $180,000 from the Tobacco Commission for an updated study of the property along state Route 58 in Duffield. The authority has not yet received word on a grant application with the Business Ready Site Program, he added.
A grant application for the needed Tobacco Commission grant has been submitted for a Tennessee Valley Authority grant to match the tobacco funds, and Kilgore said that grant could allow the site study to start.
A proposal by cell tower builder Vertical Bridge to set a tower in the Dungannon area also received a board resolution of support. The company recently got a permit by Gate City Town Council for a tower near the town’s post office, and Kilgore said the EDA resolution awaits a county Planning Commission decision on the Dungannon tower site proposal and a follow-on vote by the county Board of Supervisors.
The board also approved a revision of the month-to-month lease of a former garage along U.S. Route 23 near Weber City and below the Riverview site. Kilgore said the revision reflects the death of the property’s owner and the site’s transfer to his heirs.
The EDA board meets again April 23 at 6 p.m. at the county Community Services Building meeting room at 190 Beech St.