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Vol. XXXI No. 22
Powhatan Christmas Mother celebrates 5 decades
November 29, 2017
VDOT crew rescues 2 honey bee hives Helen Mason, left, The first Powhatan Christmas Mother, stands with Josephine Goodman, who took on the role in the program’s 50th anniversary year.
1967
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
2017
as mothe m t s i r rs ch
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News Editor
P
OWHATAN – A group of Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) employees recently got the opportunity to combine their hobby with work when they saved upwards of 120,000 honey bees in Powhatan and Amelia counties so they could live to pollinate another day. While removing leaning and dangerous trees in Powhatan, a VDOT crew found a honey bee hive in a roadside tree along Huguenot Trail. One of the contractors went
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By Laura McFarland
anniversary CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
By Laura McFarland
p News Editor
OWHATAN – The simplest moments in the large task that is being the Powhatan Christmas Mother can sometimes be the most memorable. For Marie Marie Hertzler, who
was Christmas Mother along with her husband Bob in 1990, the moment that stands out was witnessing the sheer pleasure of a woman who received a handmade quilt. Gayle Walter, 2015 Christmas Mother, can’t help but smile when she thinks about a luncheon she gave during her term for not only past Powhatan Christmas Mothers but
those from all around the region. Deanna Coffey, 1971 Christmas Mother, loved how happy seniors were when they received a gift from the Christmas Mother. And for 2017 Christmas Mother Josephine “Jo” Goodman, her favorite part of the role so far has been meeting so many new people in see MOTHER, pg. 6
Mason shares story of program’s first year By Laura McFarland
p News Editor
OWHATAN – Fifty years ago, Helen Mason said yes to being the first Powhatan County Christmas Mother before she even knew what it would mean. The wife and mother of four was called one day in the fall of 1967 by Sadie Johnson, a friend but also di-
rector of the Department of Public Welfare (DPW), now known as the Department of Social Services. “She said, ‘You know during Christmas time the people that we serve are in need. Not all of them are reached or have anybody to give them gifts or remember them. We were thinking about starting a Christmas Mother program,’ ” Mason said. Right then and there, Johnson asked Mason if she would be the
Christmas Mother. “I said, ‘Yes that would be fine. I don’t know what I would be doing,’” Mason recalled. “She said it would be the start of it. It would be very fledgling.” The Christmas Mother program wasn’t new to Virginia. Some localities had already been doing it for years or even decades. But it was new to Powhatan. At that time, there were very few see FIRST, pg. 8
VDOT employees were able to clear thousands of honey bees from trees and relocated them to properties in Powhatan.
out to remove the tree and was getting stung by bees, said Butch Sirry, VDOT team member. “They notified the inspector that they couldn’t take the tree down, it was full of bees and we should contact an exterminator, which has been a normal practice in the past,” he said. In years past, that is exactly how the situation would have played out. That was before VDOT Chesterfield Residency’s hobbyist beekeepers and Huguenot Beekeepers Association members Sirry, Bruce McFadden, and Melvin Morrison started getting involved. One of the operators called McFadden, a Chesterfield assistant residency administrator, who saw the bees could be extracted if the tree, which was coming down anyway, was cut down. With the homeowner’s permission, the tree was cut down and the bees safely removed. “Honey bees are vital to the environ-
Prsrt. Standard U.S. POSTAGE PAID Powhatan, VA Permit No.19
see BEES, pg. 1
Board takes initial look at comp plan By Laura McFarland
DELIVER TO: Postal Patron Powhatan, VA 23139
News Editor
POWHATAN – A review and update of the document that helps shape how the county develops took another step forward last week when the Powhatan County Board of Supervisors got its first look at the work that has been done. Karin Carmack, chair of the Powhatan County Planning Commission, spoke to the board at a meeting on Monday, Nov. 20, laying out some of the changes being recommended to the county’s 2017 Long-range Comprehensive Plan. She pointed out this is a process that has been more than a year in the making and most recently included two public workshops where residents had a chance to look at some of the pro-
PHOTO BY LAURA MCFARLAND
Karin Carmack, front right, explains portions of the revised future land use map to the board of supervisors.
posed changes and give their feedback. After a great deal of analysis, the planning commission decided to keep the comp plan much as it was in the 2010 version with some modifica-
tions, she said, before going through the recommended changes. She and the board also had a detailed discussion on the future land use map. One of the biggest decisions that came out of the up-
date was recommending the county keep the designation for three urban growth areas Carmack also referred to as development nodes. The three areas are identified as locations to capture the majority of residential and commercial growth in Powhatan County. They are close to services and offer the greatest opportunities for development. One special area, called Route 711 Village, focuses on the area around Route 288 and Huguenot Trail. The other two, Route 60 Corridor East and Courthouse Village, are both located around Anderson Highway. The planning commission had been looking at the possibility of combining the two growth areas along Anderson Highway into one without a rural break between them. see BOARD, pg. 2
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