INSIDE Lestyk leads Bulldogs in 12-4 win over Nottoway Cougars > page 8
Volume 66 Number 20 • May 20, 2021
BOS signs off on plan for retreat in western Goochland By Roslyn Ryan Editor
dilemma. Eventually, what began as a few pages of notes and remembrances would blossom into Martin’s first book, “The Sharecropper’s Son,” a collection of short, richly detailed stories culled from his trove of childhood memories. “It was designed primarily for my
A plan to create a high-end retreat facility in western Goochland will be moving forward after the Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 on May 4 to approve a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) for the controversial project. Property owner Kim Bergmark-Hill had been seeking permission from the County to bring the retreat—which will include several small cabins and yurt-style dwellings, an art studio, a lake-front dining pavilion and a series of trails—to a 98-acre parcel of land on Tabscott Rd. As she explained to board members, the goal of the project is to create a family-run business that will be offer numerous benefits to the local community. Because the land is currently zoned only for agricultural use, any kind of business use requires a CUP approved by the county Board of Supervisors. But although the CUP would require Bergmark-Hill to strictly monitor activities or risk having the permit revoked, many of those living near the site of the future Crane and Clover Retreat had voiced concerns in recent months
see Book > 3
see Retreat > 2
Photo by Wayne Dementi
Goochland Rotary Club joins fight against hunger Goochland Rotary members are reaching out to neighborhoods throughout Goochland on Friday and Saturday, May 21 and 22, to collect items for Hunger Awareness Week. Rotarians are asking residents to be on the look-out for a Rotarian in their neighborhood. Pictured from left to right are Rotarian Vern Fleming, Rotary Food Drive Chairman Andy Hayes, Goochland Cares Food Pantry Director Terry Ebright, Goochland Cares Executive Director Sally Graham, Autumn Breeze Neighborhood Captain and Rotarian Kevin Kelly and Rotarian John Aaron. For more information, see page 4.
Local author’s memoir details life of sharecropping family By Roslyn Ryan Editor
Goochland resident Al Martin has never been a stranger to hard work. In fact, as the youngest of six boys born into a sharecropping family in Amelia in the 1940s, he was introduced to it almost as soon as he could walk. It wasn’t an easy life, he recalls,
but it certainly wasn’t without its joys. Growing up in Amelia, Martin and his brothers lived without many of the modern amenities most of us take for granted today, including indoor plumbing and even electricity. But there was plenty of love to go around, Martin says, as well as simple pleasures such as his mother’s cooking or catching a movie at the local theater on a Saturday night.
It was the kind of childhood that would be hard to comprehend for most young people today, Martin says, which is why several years ago he began to think it might be a good idea to start pulling together some of the stories from his youth. Both his parents were gone by the time he thought to ask about their early lives, Martin says, and he didn’t want his own family to face that same