Dwyer

Dwyer

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era portion completely forbidden. The 300-acre residue, according to the easement, may be subdivided into two tracts. No additional houses may be constructed, except one single-family home on each of the two parcels created if the 300-acre tract is subdivided.

All industrial or commercial activities not associated with agriculture are prohibited by the easement, as is any grading or alteration of the topography not connected with improvements related to a permitted use.

“I’m trying to preserve a little of what Rappahannock County has always stood for: Nature in its primitive setting,” Mr. Dwyer said of the easement. “I want to keep the area as it is. I’ve got 20 years of blood, sweat and tears in this land, and it would really grieve me to think that after I’m dead that it would be carved up into a cheap housing development.

“I’d like it to be preserved, like Skyline Drive has been preserved; to give a sense of how it used to be.”

Mr. Dwyer said he first heard of the open-space easement option some years ago, but felt that his land was already protected by “a very tight arrangement.” But, he added, he became concerned about “horror stories” he heard about “heirs and assigns breaking arrangements preferred by grantors.”

So, Mr. Dwyer initiated the easeContinued

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residency, which oversees highway construction and maintenance in Rappahannock and Fauquier counties. /

“I’ve got my fingers crossed,” the resident engineered.

Secretary Milliken told his audience at the Local Government Officials Conference in Charlottesville last week that the Virginia Department of Transportation is looking at an estimated $175 million shortfall in revenue to pay for transportation projects, or six percent of the department’s biennial budget.

Despite the austerity measures, Secretary Milliken predicted VDOTs construction program will have to be slashed by $70 million over the next two years to meet the department’s revised budget constraints.