Council, city remain mum

The cacophony of discordant voices emanating from City Hall in Waynesboro reached a crescendo during the orchestrated departure of City Manager Doug Walker that concluded almost 90 days ago. The tones on the City Council since have hushed and the clash of personalities and ideologies that once marked meetings have been silenced. Soft harmonies soothe, but what Waynesboro needs is a quickening of the pulse.
Since the conservative bloc composed of Mayor Tim Williams, Vice Mayor Frank Lucente and Councilman Bruce Allen assumed majority control of the council July 1, the most significant action regarding downtown, where the quiet is disquieting, has been the Greenway Trail Project. This would establish a greenway path accessible to walkers and bicyclists from the South River between Broad and Main streets to South Wayne Avenue.
Astonishingly, efforts to clear bureaucratic hurdles, including obtaining required easements from Invista and DuPont, have stretched over roughly a decade with work still yet to begin. The city’s downtown, meanwhile, has languished. Our question is not about the project – we support the greenway – but about city government’s prolonged failure to reinvigorate the city’s core. A greenway beautifies, but it does not ignite economic engines.
So to whom should fall responsibility for the latter? The council’s majority faction would answer: entrepreneurs, not elected officials. To a significant extent, we agree. Government ought not to be in the business of development, provided that requires investing taxpayer cash in private projects. Nor should government be expected to spend taxpayer money on studying the feasibility of such projects.
While city officials have been silent on the baseball stadium proposed by Charlottesville developer Jim Morris, we suspect that questions over the use of tax money could be stalling that project’s progress or killing it. Morris initially sought a deal that would include splitting $20 million in project costs three ways between the city, state and his team of investors. Even without state help – lawmakers said there would be none – tax credits could have made up a city share. But Lucente has been adamant: no cash. And we concur.
Similarly, we understand a frequent Lucente refrain that he has tired of the term “vision,” which he construes to mean activity heavy on talk and light on action. Studies for visions never realized line city shelves, attesting to the inanity of perpetual government musing over what to do.
Still, we are disturbed by what strikes us as an eagerness to accept Waynesboro’s present state of affairs. The west end bustles while the downtown sleeps and opportunities drift by. More than 18 million people annually zoom along Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway, right past the city’s doorstep. Those who exit and cruise down Afton Mountain into Waynesboro invariably leave town with their money in their pockets and nothing to hold them here.
Realizing the city’s potential, which we consider to be abundant to the point of overflowing, will not happen osmotically. Those who expect as much should consider the results: decades of stagnancy. Someone must step forward and lead, trumpeting the city’s merits, extending a hand to the developers who could help revitalize downtown and, dare we say, promoting a vision for the place Waynesboro can become.
The River City’s location, natural amenities and friendly business climate make it uniquely appealing, but the city needs a champion willing to sing its praises and capitalize on its strengths. To whom should we look for this? No one has yet answered, but this much is plain: A silent City Council will not be heard.