The entire shoreline of the Carvins Cove Reservoir could soon be in public hands.
A $175,000 grant from the Virginia Outdoors Foundation will initiate talks with the owners of a 46-acre tract at the reservoirâs southern tip â the last remaining privately owned piece of waterfront property.
The grant was awarded to the Western Virginia Water Authority, which co-owns and manages the reservoir and a surrounding 12,700-acre natural reserve with the city of Roanoke.
âCarvins Cove is the primary source of drinking water for residents in the valley, and land conservation activities such as these protect water quality and expand low-impact recreational activities in the valley,â read a statement released Monday by authority spokeswoman Sarah Baumgardner.
Vinton plans to borrow $4.3 million to complete water and sewer upgrades, resulting in modest rate hikes for its more than 5,000 utility customers in eastern Roanoke County.
Two large projects, one each for sewer and water, require $4 million to fund, with a third, smaller project also identified for completion in the near future, after the town council approves measures to borrow the money, said Vinton Town Manager Pete Peters.
For a bit more than $2 million, Vinton is converting its more than 4,500 residential and 525 commercial customers to remote-read water meters.
âThatâs not only the meter itself in the ground, but in some cases, meter boxes, the antennas â all the infrastructure that would actually collect that data, and then communicate it back to our office,â Peters said. âThen thereâs some software on the back end.â
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