Inside A6 Winter activities offer fun, history, learning
Powhatan, Virginia
B1 Gerardi wins second region title
Vol. XXIX No. 7
February 17, 2016
Employees to lose benefits By Laura McFarland News Editor
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OWHATAN – Five employees of one of Powhatan County’s constitutional officers stand to lose a significant amount of county benefits by the end of the year, if not sooner, after their boss, the county administrator and the board of supervisors failed to reach an agreement. Teresa Hash Dobbins, clerk of the Powhatan County Circuit Court, was the only one of Powhatan’s five constitutional officers who did not sign an agreement last week that would have extended the county’s personnel system to her one part-time and four full-time employees but only if she agreed to certain terms. The agreement between the board and constitutional officers was referred to as a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in previous stories. County administrator Pat Weiler said after the supervisors’ meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 10 that the county had agreements with the sheriff, commissioner of the revenue, commonwealth’s attorney and treasurer. The agreements were released on Friday,
FILE PHOTO BY LAURA MCFARLAND
The employees of Teresa Hash Dobbins, clerk of the Powhatan County CIrcuit Court, are set to lose a number of benefits after their boss didn’t come to an agreement with the county.
Feb. 12 after they had been signed by board chair Bill Melton and are valid until Dec. 31, 2019. On Monday, Feb. 1, the board of supervisors had voted 4-1 in favor of adopting a resolution officially offering the agreements to the constitutional officers to sign and saying if they didn’t sign by Feb. 8, their employees would only receive the state’s compensation board provided benefits, which are considerably less than is offered by the county. In various meetings, the board members have given their reasons for supporting the resolution as wanting fair and equitable treatment for all employees, wanting the public to know what to expect in respect to county openings and closings, and, most recently, being unhappy about payouts the county had to make to constitutional officer employees that weren’t approved or planned for by the county. In two previous meetings leading up to the night of the Feb. 1 vote, all five constitutional officers stood against the resolution and had asked the board not to sign it. see BENEFITS page 4A
Groundbreaking held for Powhatan Food Pantry
PHOTO BY LAURA MCFARLAND
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About 50 people, many representing more than a dozen churches in Powhatan County, came out to join in the groundbreaking for the Powhatan Food Pantry. A new building is being built in partnership between the Coalition of Powhatan Churches and St. John Neumann Catholic Church. The building is being constructed on land next to the Catholic Church that it is leasing to the coalition. Patsy Goodwyn, director of the coalition, thanked the crowd for coming and helping with the project. “The more we do together the better we are. This is what you all have done.” The foundation for the new building has actually already been laid, and the Rev. Walter Lewis, pastor of St. John Neumann, said and the next steps will take place when the weather warms.
Girl Scouts learn money management By Laura McFarland
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News Editor
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OWHATAN – As the sound of candy clattering onto table tops bounced around the room, the task of helping a large group of Girl Scouts understand the concept of money management began. “This is your allowance,” Sylvia Watford, senior financial education specialist with Virginia Credit Union, explained to the various Girl Scout troops gathered on Thursday, Jan. 14 at Blessed Sacrament Huguenot Catholic School. “When you are looking at how you spend your money, everybody is different because we don’t all like the same things,” she continued. At one table, a little girl lined up her M&Ms and realized she was rich in greens (which represents money for clothing) and
PHOTO BY LAURA MCFARLAND
Girl Scouts in Powhatan’s Troop 3140 learn about money managment see GIRL page 2A during a recent workshop held in the county.
Board looks at how to finance CIP By Laura McFarland News Editor
POWHATAN – The Powhatan County Board of Supervisors was given a better idea of what it would take to accomplish $62 million in possible bonded projects in its capital improvement plan. At its meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 10, the board heard a presentation from Pat Weiler, county administrator, on the reason the proposed five year capital improvement plan (CIP) bonded projects amount increased by about $11
million from 2015 and then another presentation from Kyle A. Laux, first vice president of Davenport & Company LLC, the county’s investment firm, on how those bonds might be financed. At the start of the meeting, Weiler explained to the board how the total projected FY 2016 CIP bonded projects, which included five projects totaling $51,946,000, increased so much in a year. That figure is the total FY 2016 CIP, worth $53,967,000, minus more than $1.1 million in proffers and $890,000 to be taken from the county’s capital maintenance reserve fund.
FY 2016 CIP When the board of supervisors adopted its FY 2016 CIP, it only included five items: a public safety communications system; a sally port on the back of the Powhatan County Courthouse; a joint transportation facility servicing the county and school district; a replacement/renovation of Powhatan Junior High School to make it into a new middle school, and major mechanical work to Powhatan Elementary School. At the time the county was looking see BOARD page 9A