11/02/2016

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Inside A6 Sheriff’s office to hold child ID event

Powhatan, Virginia B1 Knights win in thrilling fashion

Vol. XXIX No. 43

November 2, 2016

Contract approved, more funding needed By Laura McFarland

expected, leading school and county staff members to keep the project on schedule while additional funds are located, Jones said.

News Editor

P

OWHATAN – The Powhatan County School Board voted unanimously last week to execute an almost $3.4 million contract with Daniel and Company Inc. to build the Joint Maintenance and Transportation Facility with the understanding they didn’t currently have enough money budgeted to cover the entire project. Dr. Eric Jones, superintendent, spoke to the board at its meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 25 about the capital improvement program (CIP) project that will be shared by the county and school district. PHOTO BY LAURA MCFARLAND The school district received bids from four contractors The school board discusses a contract for the on Sept. 29, and Daniel and Company came in the lowest with a base bid of $3,849,000 plus an alternate bid for a joint transportation facility and what is needed fuel canopy of $89,000, making it a total bid of $3,938,000, to meet its higher-than-expected budget. Larry Johns, assistant superintendent for finance and business operations, said after the meeting. The CIP allotted $4,156,000 to pay for all costs associHowever, even the low bid came in higher than was ated with the project, which included land purchase, archi-

tect fees, miscellaneous items and a contingency reserve, Johns said. Jones said the contract with Daniel and Co. cannot exceed $3,385,565, which keeps the project within the estimated total budget of $4,156,000. In order to move forward with the contract and keep the project moving, the initial parameters of the build had to be reduced so that it was within the funding that has been appropriated, Johns said. The contract reduction was achieved in two ways. First, there was a value engineering review of the contract and bid by the architects, school staff and contractor, he said. This resulted in a reduction of about $130,000 because the school district agreed to accept a lower cost product in some areas. Some examples are to seal coat the shop floor instead of epoxy floor coating, reduce the length of the perimeter fence and reduce the height of the fence from 8 to 6 feet, and utilize alternate fire alarm controls, he said. Second, the group developed a list of items that could see SCHOOL page 9A

Geologists look at Students explore historic property earthquake zone By Laura McFarland News Editor

PHOTO BY ANJIE HENLEY

Supervisors defend, give raise to Weiler

DELIVER TO: Postal Patron Powhatan, VA 23139

By Laura McFarland News Editor

POWHATAN – Several members of the Powhatan County Board of Supervisors sent a strong message of support for county administrator Pat Weiler at their meeting last week. During the meeting on Monday, Oct. 24, chairman Bill Melton, who represents District 4, and Cason Tucker, District 5, vehemently offered words of support and confidence in Weiler’s abilities. The two supervisors also repudiated a group of citizens they said has been spreading malicious and untrue information about Weiler. Then, at the end of the meeting, the supervisors returned from

a lengthy closed session, and the only action they took before adjourning the meeting was to vote 4 to 1 in favor of giving Weiler a 2 percent raise, effective retroactively to July 1, 2016. David Williams, District 1, was the lone supervisor who voted against giving Weiler the raise. Melton later said that the board does an evaluation of the county administrator each fall and that based on that evaluation, the majority of the board voted to give her the raise. He pointed out that the rest of county staff already received a 2 percent raise that was effective on July 1. This raise took her salary from

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Construction has begun on a solar farm in Powhatan County that will house 77,000 solar panels.

Solar facility under construction in county Contributed Report More solar energy generation is on the horizon for Dominion Virginia Power customers as the company works to complete the construction of three large-scale solar facilities in three Virginia counties, including

see RAISE page 6A

“You have better things to do”

see SOLAR page 4A

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Prsrt. Standard U.S. POSTAGE PAID Powhatan, VA Permit No.19

Geologist Anne Witt discusses the geological dig done on a Cumberland property owned by a Powhatan couple that looked at ancient earthquake fault lines. See story page 3.

POWHATAN – Everywhere you looked on Friday around Belmead Mansion, learning was taking place. A month worth of activities culminated on Friday, Oct. 28 when almost 400 people, including the entire sixth-grade class at Pocahontas Middle School, visited Belmead on the James for a special field trip and activity day. The field trip showcased the innovation and power of creative learnPHOTO BY LAURA MCFARLAND ing by encompassing Pocahontas Middle School sixth-graders sketch the landscape at Belmead physical education, techon the James during a field trip the students took on Oct. 28. nology, English, science, history, math, art and soBy visiting stations 312 sixth-graders who including Belmead’s diciology, said Martha set up inside and around made the trip learned Powers, PMS vice prinsee BELMEAD page 8A the historic house, the about a variety of topics, cipal.


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