VTCA’s Advocacy Efforts Never Stop
 |
|
| CTB Quarry Blast |
Even with the Virginia General Assembly’s legislative work mostly complete for the year, VTCA is continuing to advocate on your behalf all year long.
Over the past month, VTCA has been to numerous meetings and hearings with state agencies discussing updates, plans or issues impacting Transportation Construction.
The Commonwealth Transportation Board recently held the Board meeting in the Culpeper District. VTCA staff joined them on a tour of Cedar Mountain Stone where the owners, Ed and Cathy Dalrymple hosted the board and watched a detonation. More importantly, we were able to show off Ed’s staff and discussed the need for Workforce Development.
The Cedar Mountain Stone staff demonstrated the environmental reclamation efforts and the costs to produce the Aggregate needed to build, maintain, and repair all of VDOT’s roads. It gave them a better understanding of all the considerations VDOT, and the construction industry is thinking about designing, building, maintaining and repairing Virginia’s infrastructure.
 |
|
|
Left to right: Ed Stelter, Faulconer Construction, Gordon Dixon, |
Governor Glenn Youngkin today signed House Bill 2195 and Senate Bill 1470 to create the Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement, that will create, sustain, and retain a highly skilled workforce.
“After 30 years of people trying, we have been successful in bringing workforce development programs under the mission of the new Department of Workforce Development and Advancement, and that will allow us to provide better services and training to Virginians, measure and optimize our programs, create more high-paying jobs, and enable the Commonwealth to better compete with other states,” said Secretary of Labor Bryan Slater. “This effort will accelerate Virginia’s economic growth and keep Virginia as the best place to live, work, and raise a family.”
Secretary Slater will attend VTCA’s Annual Meeting next month at Lansdown and discuss how executing this plan will go.
Last week, Ed Stelter of Faulconer Construction attended a House Republican Caucus event with EVP, Gordon Dixon and discussed transportation construction issues with numerous legislators and the Governor. The Youngkin administration was successful in pushing legislation to align all of Virginia’s Workforce Development initiatives into one agency.
 |
|
| Community College Workforce |
This week, VTCA and other construction trade associations attended a strategy session with all the Virginia Community College Workforce Development teams to better understand and help execute the Virginia Infrastructure Academy (VIA).
The VIA is a coalition of transportation construction trades aimed at seriously developing an effective pipeline to attract students, identify and recruit instructors and partnership between the Va's Community College system and industry who will hire the VIA graduates.
Currently, VIA is focused on Heavy Equipment Operators, Diesel Mechanics, Welding, Commercial Driver’s License and Electrical.
Next week, VTCA will meet with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality on several issues including their legislative mandate to combine One Stormwater Management, Best Management Practice and Erosion & Sediment Control Handbook. VTCA seeks to be a partner and advocate for environmental stewardship on transportation construction and Aggregate Production. The Department of Energy will join us as an example of mutually beneficial partnership solving issues together.
VTCA is working on plans to meet with Virginia State Police and VDOT to discuss safety opportunities in work zones. We all know there has been an increase in aggressive driving all over the nation and we want to be proactive in protecting highway workers, equipment, and roads.