Inside
Powhatan, Virginia
A5 Field Day of the Past set to celebrate 25th anniversary B10 Powhatan resident helps bring vision screenings to Honduras
Vol. XXXI No. 11
September 6, 2017
Goodman chosen as Christmas Mother in 50th year By Laura McFarland News Editor
P
OWHATAN – For five decades, the Powhatan Christmas Mother program has been bringing a little extra joy to people in the county during the holiday season. The program has come a long way and grown so much in the 50 years since Helen Mason started it in 1967. As Josephine “Jo” Goodman prepared to take over her official
duties as the 2017 Powhatan Christmas Mother, starting with the Labor Day Parade held on Monday, she was thrilled to be helping continue this wonderful Powhatan tradition in such an important anniversary year. “Powhatan Christmas Mother has reached a major milestone! It’s quite an honor to have been chosen to represent it on our Christmas Mother’s 50th anniversary,” she said. “Powhatan County means so much to me, as I was born here, educated our children here, and I have worked
JOSEPHINE GOODMAN 2017 Powhatan Christmas Mother
in the county for many years.” The theme she has chosen for her year in the position, “Supporting our Community one Neighbor at a Time,” is only a reflection of what the men and women involved in the local program have already been doing since it began, she said. Goodman, 72, of Powhatan, is stepping into the role of Christmas Mother fresh, having never directly served with the program before, but she said that now she is involved, she plans to stay connected to it.
“I will continue with it because I find it very rewarding. I have a natural desire to give to others, and being the Christmas Mother allows me to leverage that desire and meet the needs of our neighbors in the community,” she said. As much work as she knows it will involve, Goodman said she sees becoming the Christmas Mother as a very personal decision. Goodman said she is a wife, mother of five and grandmother see GOODMAN, pg. 4
Supervisors approve location change for two polling places By Laura McFarland
changing the locations of two polling places during its meeting on Monday, News Editor Aug. 28. Karen Alexander, director of elecPOWHATAN – Some Powhatan County voters in Districts 1 and 3 will tions, presented the issue to the board be heading to a new polling place to in a public hearing at the meeting to cast their ballots starting with the Gen- give the reasons for the changes before the board voted. eral Election on Nov. 7. In District 1’s Subletts Precinct, The Powhatan County Board of Suvoters who previously voted at Fine pervisors unanimously approved Creek Volunteer Fire Department, which is located at 1825 Huguenot Trail, will now be casting their ballots at St Luke’s Episcopal Church, 2245 Huguenot Trail. The new polling place at the church is about 1.8 miles west of the old location. Likewise, in District 3’s Bethesda Precinct, people who voted at Bethesda Church of God, 2480 Academy Road, will now be votPHOTO BY LAURA MCFARLAND ing just across Karen Alexander, director of elections, speaks to the the street in the board of supervisors about the need to change two of library at Powhatan’s polling stations
Prsrt. Standard U.S. POSTAGE PAID Powhatan, VA Permit No.19
see VOTING, pg. 3
PHOTO BY LAURA MCFARLAND
Scott Turner, superintendent with Daniel & Co. Inc., discusses the parameters of the courthouse expansion project with county employees. Work is scheduled to begin on the project on Sept. 11.
Year-long courthouse expansion project expected to begin Sept. 11 By Laura McFarland News Editor
POWHATAN – Work is expected to begin next week that will kick off about a year of construction bringing the expan-
sion of the Powhatan County Courthouse. Daniel & Co. Inc. is the Richmond-based contractor handling the roughly $3.4 million capital improvement program (CIP) project. Project superin-
tendent Scott Turner said he expects to begin work on Monday, Sept. 11, and after a few smaller projects that ensure access for employees, work can start on building the addition to see CONSTRUCTION, pg. 6
B E N C H AT H I G H S C H O O L H O N O R S A N D R E W M c K E E By Laura McFarland
P
OWHATAN – As Shelly McKeeSutton sat on the shiny black bench just inside the entrance to the Powhatan High School football stadium she looked at the plaque at the top of it and smiled. The words on the plaque speak to a young life lost too soon. Andrew Jared McKee of Powhatan was only 16 when he died in a car crash on April 12, 2016. In a perfect world, one where every young person gets to see his or her potential fulfilled, Andrew would have graduated as part of the Class of 2017 in June. Sitting on the bench brings up so many PHOTO BY LAURA MCFARLAND mixed emotions for McKee-Sutton, who Shelly McKee-Sutton holds a portrait of her son, Andrew McKee, while bought the bench as a way to pay tribute to sitting on a bench she purchased in his memory. The bench sits at the her son at the high school where he spent entrance of the football stadium. many happy hours. “I was so happy and so excited to think of all the people who were going to sit on think of why we have it to begin with. I am a bench bearing Andrew’s name isn’t actuthat bench and see his name. Some of them glad he has a bench but I wish he didn’t ally strange to McKee-Sutton because her son was not shy about meeting new people. would know him and some of them need one.” The fact that strangers will be sitting on wouldn’t,” she said. “I was heartbroken to see BENCH, pg. 6
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