Sometime in 2006, the Rockbridge area is expected to welcome a new employer.

Peterbilt of Baltimore/Richmond, which is owned and operated by John Arscott, has taken out an option to buy a 6.9-acre site near Raphine and build a sales and service facility for tractor-trailers there, the area’s economic development director told The News-Gazette Tuesday.

The Rockbridge Partnership, executive director of the Rockbridge Area Economic Development Commission, said that the truck dealership is expected to employ 45 to 55 people by 2007, with some of those jobs paying in the high $40,000s. The facility will be located on the westside of Interstate 81, next to Cash’s Parts and Repair on Oakland Circle.

Kleppinger went on to say that Arscott is in the process of adding two new locations to his Peterbilt dealership—one in Chesapeake and one in Rockbridge County. The Chesapeake project, which has just been approved by local officials, will be Arscott’s focus for 2005, while the Rockbridge County undertaking will consume much of 2006.

Kleppinger estimated that groundbreaking for Peterbilt’s new 24,000-square-foot building would occur sometime in the spring of next year. Peterbilt is expected to make a $6.3 million investment here.

Once the Chesapeake and Raphine facilities are open, Arscott’s dealership will have six locations in Virginia and Maryland.

News of the venture was made public at Monday night’s meeting of the Rockbridge County Board of Supervisors.

There, Arscott, accompanied by Kleppinger, told the supervisors that he would need a bigger and taller sign than the county’s regulations allow in order to advertise the business to truck drivers passing by on the interstate.

“I want maximum exposure to the interstate,” he said, so that the business is readily visible to truck drivers in both the northbound and southbound lanes. He said a free-standing sign would need to be high enough to be seen over a stand of trees that would otherwise block the view from the interstate. He suggested that he’d like to have signage similar to what’s at White’s Truck Stop, whose signage was grandfathered in under the old regulations.

Kleppinger told The News Gazette that the White’s sign is 55 feet tall.

Sam Crickenberger, the county’s director of planning, said the supervisors might want to consider rezoning the property from business to industrial, then changing the sign regulations to allow bigger and taller ones in an industrial zone. This approach would prevent opening up all of the business zones to bigger and taller signs.

Crickenberger was directed by the supervisors to explore the various options and report back at the Board’s next meeting. It would be about a two-month process to rezone the property and adopt new sign regulations.

Utilities, too, have been somewhat of concern, said Kleppinger, but not as big a concern as the sign. The property has public water, but Arscott has expressed a desire for public sewer as well. The Raphine sewer line is slated to eventually pass through the area, but there is no guarantee as to when that will happen, said Kleppinger.

In the meantime, Arscott is planning to put in a septic system and drainfield. The lack of sewer service, Kleppinger noted, “isn’t killing the deal.”

*Editor’s note: Reporter Ed Smith contributed to this story.