Subdivisions in Shenandoah County remain incomplete

Woodstock council calls bond on Commons to finish roads project

By Elizabeth Wilkerson -- ewilkerson@nvdaily.com

WOODSTOCK -- The Town Council has called the bond for an unfinished subdivision visible from Interstate 81.

The panel voted unanimously last week to call the surety bond for the unfinished Woodstock Commons subdivision, which is located off Hisey Avenue on Hotchkiss Drive. The project is one of developer Denver E. Quinnelly's seven unfinished subdivisions that were foreclosed on and sold in April.

At the council's Aug. 4 meeting, Councilman Bill Pence, who chairs the street committee, said the entrance and road into the subdivision were not finished. The committee discussed the situation with the town staff and recommended calling the project's $97,356 surety bond to complete some of the work, he said.

Town Manager Larry Bradford said the town had the cash bond in hand.

"We will not have enough money to finish everything, but we will have money to do what's absolutely necessary," he said.

"Those people who live out there deserve better than they have right now, I can tell you that," Mayor Bill Moyers said.

On Monday, Bradford said the town plans to extend Woodstock Commons Drive to meet Hotchkiss Drive and overlay Hotchkiss Drive and the townhouse parking lots, which just have a "base coat" of asphalt at this point. Depending on how much money is left after that work, he said, other items, including sidewalks and erosion and sediment control issues, may be addressed.

About a dozen townhouses were completed, he said, though more than 90 were planned for the subdivision. It's been about two years since the development was worked on, he said.

"They quit building the units and they didn't finish the infrastructure," Bradford said.

The town has not had to call the bond on any other subdivision in recent memory, but "we have a couple more that we'll be looking at," he said. Officials hope to complete the work in Woodstock Commons by fall, he said.

"It shouldn't be a major problem to get proposals together for people to bid on," he said.

Road work also is planned at the intersection of Va. 42 and Henry Ford Drive for later this month or early September, Bradford said. When drivers turn left from Va. 42 onto Henry Ford Drive, he said, the "road has sort of a bump-out" and a reverse angle curve.

"So, we're going to push that back by a max of 6 feet, so that will be tapered from zero to 6 feet," he said. "I'm hoping it'll make [the intersection] a lot safer."

The town will pay for the project, which officials estimate will cost between $15,000 and $20,000, with maintenance funds, and the Virginia Department of Transportation will be assisting with design, inspection, signs and traffic control, he said.