County Board Tables Bike-Pedestrian Plan

HARRISONBURG — The Rockingham County Board of Supervisors tabled a proposal Wednesday to expand a bicycle-and-pedestrian plan already under way in parts of the county.

 

The Harrisonburg-Rockingham Metropolitan Planning Organization and Central Shenandoah Planning District Commission have started work on a plan that would extend the city’s existing blueprint to include Bridgewater, Dayton and Mount Crawford.

 

The plan is being developed using $75,000 of mostly federal money.

 

On Wednesday, supervisors considered a request that would have expanded the study area to include all of Rockingham County at a cost of about $19,000, less a $2,000 pledge from the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition.

 

Supervisor Bill Kyger moved to table the request until the board’s next meeting so members could receive more information about what the plan would entail and how it would be developed.

 

Kyger also expressed concern about spending the money given that there’s so much uncertainty regarding the federal budget.

 

Lawmakers in Washington, D.C., are in a tense standoff to reach a deal to avoid automatic spending cuts, called sequestration, set to take effect Friday. If Congress can’t reach a deal, sequestration could hit Virginia’s budget hard, and by extension, local government coffers as well.

 

The next meeting of the Board of Supervisors is March 16, and Kyger told the roughly two dozen bicycle enthusiasts in attendance at Wednesday’s meeting that supervisors will make a decision either way at that time.

 

Contact Jeremy Hunt at 574-6273 or jhunt@dnronline.com