For Immediate Release
March 8, 2003

(James City County) The St. Thomas Hundred and St. George’s Hundred homeowners associations today were presented with a commemorative neighborhood sign along with the special designation of being an official PRIDE community by representatives of the James City County Environmental Division.

"Last winter, residents came to us and asked what they could do to improve the condition of their stormwater pond," says John Horne, Manager, Development Management. "They took and interest and followed through by taking action. Today we reward their efforts and share our PRIDE in a job well done."

The pond is a BMP (Best Management Practice), an extended detention dry pond with a shallow marsh bottom. At the request of residents, county staff inspected the BMP and submitted a report with maps, tips for landscaping and watershed awareness, pond buffer information, a maintenance plan and specific recommendations to maintain and improve the BMP.

The neighborhood immediately took action on the County’s recommendation, and spent three Saturdays clearing trees from the dam, clearing vegetation from around the riser structure and pipe outfalls and educating residents on watershed and BMP protection. Although more work is planned, these efforts in combination with meeting basic BMP standards make this BMP worthy of PRIDE designation.

"A special thanks goes out to all the St. Thomas Hundred and St. George’s Hundred volunteers, the homeowners associations and County staff who participated in improving this BMP," added Horne.

The goal of the PRIDE watershed education program is to improve water quality in James City County by teaching residents about the importance of watershed protection while providing residents and neighborhoods with specific watershed restoration and protection tools.