Residents blast Tenaska plans as supervisors remember Mozell Booker

By Heather Michon
Correspondent

The plan by Nebraska-based energy giant Tenaska to build a second massive natural-gas fired electrical plant on Branch Road in the Cunningham district dominated public comments at the start of the Board of Supervisors meeting on Wednesday night (Oct. 1).  

Multiple speakers urged the board to make sure the public was informed about the Tenaska project, asking the supervisors to hold a countywide town hall or launch an official information webpage.

“This is the biggest company in Fluvanna’s history, and nobody knows about it,” said Calvin Hickman, former public works department head. He criticized what he called a lack of transparency and public notice. “You’re supposed to be working for us.”

“Keep Fluvanna informed,” he said. “We can make good decisions. We can make good decisions together.”

Gary France echoed that frustration. “I only found out about this a week ago. I mean, this is ridiculous. Absurd.”

At the town hall hosted by supervisors Chris Fairchild and Mike Goad, “we heard that there would not be an environmental impact statement available until well after the zoning approval,” he noted. “In my strong opinion, that is regrettably backwards.”

Jennifer Kingrea Ruffner said the town hall had shown the anger, frustration, and pain already surrounding the company. 

“You heard valid concerns from neighbors who’ve been ignored or dismissed by Tenaska,” she said. “And you saw Tenaska’s response, often dismissive, relying on semantics versus real answers.”

She listed off the potential health impacts of two natural-gas-fired plants operating close to the county’s most densely populated areas. “Tenaska keeps saying they are compliant, but compliance is not the same thing as safe,” she said. “Cigarettes are legal and regulated, but they’re still the leading cause of preventable death.”

Fairchild, who represents Cunningham, said he had spoken with Tenaska officials after the town hall on Tuesday night, and they had told him they would not be making any mechanical changes to reduce noise at the original plant, nor would they take further steps to mitigate noise levels from a second, larger plant.

Worst, he had learned from an engineer from Tenaska that the two plants likely would not fire up in unison, but run on their own schedules, meaning there could be “ a 50 percent increase in noise, in how much you’re going to hear it during the day.”

Tenaska will need a majority vote from both the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors on several special use permits before the project can move forward.

REMEMBERING MRS. BOOKER

Supervisors paused to note the passing of Mozell Booker, who represented Fork Union for 16 years before retiring at the end of 2023.

Booker, 83, passed away on Sept. 30 at her home in Fork Union.

Her husband, Jerome Booker, also served on the Board of Supervisors for many years before his death in 2004. 

“I will go out on a limb and say, I bet I know who was standing at the gate to meet her,” said Columbia Supervisor Mike Sheridan. 

They will soon issue a resolution honoring her service to the county over more than four decades, and Palmyra Superintendent Tim Hodge proposed renaming the Fork Union Community Center the “Mozell and Jerome Booker Community Center.” 

Mike Goad, who currently represents Fork Union, said he was in favor of having a conversation about a way to honor her, perhaps in consultation with her family.