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State Sen. Emily Jordan, R-Isle of Wight, spoke at the Windsor Town Council’s Tuesday, March 11, meeting, providing an update on work taking place in the Virginia General Assembly that affects the town of Windsor. She also fielded questions from council members.

Jordan noted that there will be a one-time bonus in fiscal year 2025 of $1,000 that will go to school personnel, including principals, assistant principals, guidance counselors, teachers and support staff.

She stated that an additional $25 million was put into Quality Infrastructure Grants for drinking water and infrastructure in localities, which towns and counties can apply for.

“Now I’ll tell you why I think this is of note … this only requires a 25% match,” she said. “So if there is a small project that might be of use here, I think that would be a great opportunity for the town to look at if there’s something of note there.”

Councilman Walter Bernacki later said, “I know some of those grants were very specific as to population, land-mass size or things like that. Does that grant have those same types of restrictions to it that would inhibit us from participating or applying?”

Jordan said, “So the criteria is being developed right now. I don’t believe it’s going to be as restrictive as it has been in the past, from my understanding, but the Office of Drinking Water, I believe, and (Department of Environmental Quality) will be coming up with those final criteria probably in the next 30 days. It’ll be on their website.”

She indicated there is $27 million in new funding for Agricultural Best Management Practices, which could be helpful for farmers in and around the town of Windsor.

“The local control bill on solar, it looks defeated, and that’s going to be put to bed,” she said. “I think that localities, they should be able to decide on what goes in our backyard, and the General Assembly or any other corporation or commission shouldn’t be deciding that, and we’ll make sure that is put to bed. So I just want to bring you good news on that front.”

Jordan then highlighted some legislation she had a hand in that can also help Windsor.

She noted that she carried Senate Bill 1275, which featured the following summary as it passed the Senate: “Virginia Business Ready Sites Program Fund; eligible site for site development grant. Provides that the Virginia Economic Development Partnership Authority may determine a site of at least 25 contiguous acres to be an eligible site to receive a site development grant from the Virginia Business Ready Sites Program Fund if such site is located in a locality with an area of 35 square miles of land area or less.”

“When the town of Windsor or the county abroad is looking to market any properties that might be in the town limits, that will give an extra carrot to be able to negotiate and offer some opportunity, I would say, for the town,” Jordan said. “That bill helps places like Windsor, the town of Smithfield, even the city of Portsmouth, Emporia, places of that nature. And so that was done with the thought that rural places should not be less competitive, they should have more opportunity, and so this allows the opportunity when we have less of a land mass to be able to compete for those grant funds.”

She said SB 1275 has passed through the Virginia House and Senate and is heading to Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s desk “and will be certainly signed, which we’re very excited about.”

She also noted that $50 million in additional funding has been added to the Virginia Business Ready Sites Program Fund.

”So it’s not a small bucket of money to be able to apply for,” she said.

Jordan noted that she also carried a bill with regard to critical infrastructure that will make it a Class 4 felony to trespass over any critical infrastructure for the purposes of recording and surveillance.

She cited some examples of critical infrastructure, including but not limited to natural gas and any major substations.

“This also will apply to any military bases or offsite installations that they service in the commonwealth,” she said. “Unfortunately we’ve seen trespassing from foreign entities who are very excited about things that we have in the commonwealth, and they’d like to learn more, and we would like them to know less.”

She said the governor will be signing that bill shortly.

She stated that she carried a bill and worked with the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association on a matter pertaining to health care and mental health.

“We know that our police departments and our sheriff’s offices have been tied up unnecessarily with (Emergency Custody Orders) ECOs and (Temporary Detention Orders) TDOs for years and years and years,” she said. “It hurts rural areas disproportionately more than any other place, and so I carried a bill to reclassify the definition of psychiatric EDs in hospital settings.

“Kind of what that means is it will give hospitals the flexibility to assign other beds in their space as psychiatric beds without the need of a formal bed but maybe a room and a holding space so that way we’re making sure that our law enforcement officers and those that are doing the job of making sure they’re handling our mental health needs with ECOs and TDOs are able to get back to our communities,” she added. “And so that will be signed into law here shortly.”

To conclude her presentation to the Town Council, Jordan highlighted two big funding priorities that she said will help the region.

“I was able to secure with my budget amendment $750,000 for the Paul D. Camp Workforce Trades facility in Suffolk that will serve the Western Tidewater region — hopefully put some welders and maybe some shipfitters and the like into the workforce with maritime trades,” she said.

The other funding priority she identified was $500,000 for a homeless shelter just past the Suffolk-Isle of Wight line that is under construction that will service the Western Tidewater region.

Councilman David Adams said he had a question that was related to the warehouses going up in Suffolk and potentially in Isle of Wight County.

“I know a long time ago there was a bill or proposed funding to build a bypass around Windsor,” he said. “Has that come up again in the transportation subcommittee or…”

“That has not come up again,” Jordan said, “and if you look back at the documents on the 460 realignment from back then, there were many groups, including the Southern Poverty Law Center, I believe the Army Corps of Engineers and many others, that were very concerned about I think it was a frog and a couple other offshoot items that were located in the areas that would be redirected to, so I don’t believe that’s in the long-term future.”

But she said she did think a prime opportunity exists, if the Town Council and the county would like to look at it, of doing some safety upgrades to those concerns.

“I will add to note that with the warehouses coming to Suffolk, I did work with the governor,” she said, “and he was able to assign $30 million from his Transportation Partnership Opportunity Fund — which has been the only allocation of that fund since it’s been founded that we were able to take the full $30 million — to go to the interchange at 58 and 460 to upgrade that intersection to make sure that traffic flow moves appropriately.”