MACEE SWAFFORD Staff Writer

WILLIAMSBURG— As Williamsburg looks toward the future, city leadership is balancing long-term goals with the immediate work of recovery, all while keeping a focus on steady progress and the city’ s small-town identity.

“ I hope, and I think we’ re headed in the right direction,” said Roddy Harrison.“ We’ ve set some

goals. I’ ve got private goals, and then the city has goals and ideas.”

One of the city’ s largest priorities remains infrastructure, particularly water system improvements. Before a devastating downtown fire earlier this year, Harrison said the downtown water project was at the top of the list.

“ Before the downtown fire [ January 20 ], I would have said to start on the downtown

water project,” he said.“ Finish the downtown water project. And actually, I know going forward, we’ re going to go past just the downtown. We hope to do a lot more.”

The city previously secured approximately $ 4 million in federal funding for water improvements, though rising costs have changed the scope of the project.

“ That $ 4 million that was gonna go so far— has shrunk,” Harrison said.

“ So, we’ re getting closer to getting started now, but at the same time, we are designing and developing a project that’ s going to be bigger and better.”

The long-term goal, he said, is a full upgrade of the water plant to better serve residents, the college, and surrounding areas.

“ The goal is to completely upgrade the water plant,” Harrison said.“ To go to 3 million gallons a day that we