Inside
Powhatan, Virginia
A5 Local students join SEC on National Electric Cooperative Youth Tour B1 Powhatan duo teams up again in Harrisonburg
Vol. XXXII No.. 8
August 8, 2018
Richmond Region Tourism visits Powhatan By Laura McFarland News Editor
P
OWHATAN – The organization that is going to help bring Powhatan to a wider audience recently started getting to know the county a little better. The first of two teams representing Richmond Region Tourism (RRT) took a tour of Powhatan on Friday, July 27 to get a good introduction to the county that they will be helping promote. The second team will visit later in August. Powhatan and Ashland counties became a member of the destination marketing and tourism organization effective July 1, joining the counties of Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico and the city of Richmond in the nonprofit organization that offers services to support the area’s hospitality industry.
PHOTO COURTESY OF POWHATAN COUNTY
Richmond Region Tourism employees and county staff visited several sites in Powhatan to start formulating how the group will promote tourism. One of the stops was The Mill at Fine Creek.
The purpose of bringing RRT staff members out for a county tour was to start introducing them to the great things
Powhatan has to offer, said Roxanne Salerno, the county’s economic development program manager.
The tour made stops at a selection of some of Powhatan’s bigger tourism draws, such as Powhatan State Park, Maidens
Judge denies injunction, board finalizes host agreement details By Laura McFarland News Editor
DELIVER TO: Postal Patron Powhatan, VA 23139
Prsrt. Standard U.S. POSTAGE PAID Powhatan, VA Permit No.19
CUMBERLAND – A specially appointed judge this week denied an injunction brought by a Cumberland County resident to stop the Cumberland Board of Supervisors from taking any further action regarding the approval of a proposed landfill pending a referendum being held. Retired circuit court Judge Melvin R. Hughes Jr. presided over the hearing on Monday, July 30 regarding an injunction sought by Bill Bruce of Cumberland. Hughes was appointed by the Virginia Supreme Court after several local judges recused them-
selves. About 85 people attended the hearing. On June 15, Bruce had begun the process to add a referendum about a landfill being proposed right off of Route 60 in Cumberland near the Powhatan County line. Bruce wanted the ballot in the November general election to have the question: “Should the Board of Supervisors of Cumberland County, Virginia be allowed to approve the building of a landfill within the County Limits without a Voters Referendum?” A motion to dismiss on the basis of lack of subject matter jurisdiction was filed by attorney L. Lee Byrd on June 15 on behalf of the board of supervisors. It asked for “an emergency hearing on the Motion to Dismiss prior to the Clerk’s certification.” The hearing on the motion to dismiss was moved up from its original Aug. 23 date and scheduled to be heard on Tuesday, Aug. 7, which occurred after press time. When the county announced it would hold a meeting on Aug. 2 to “consider the Green Ridge
Host Community Agreement,” a special hearing regarding Bruce’s request for an injunction was scheduled on July 30. After listening to arguments from both Byrd and Bruce, Hughes told them he would take all of the documentation they had provided for review and issue a decision the next day. Byrd shared a copy of the letter issued by the judge in which Hughes outlined the two sides’ arguments and gave his reason to deny Bruce’s s request for injunctive relief. He also said Bruce had not “demonstrated immediate or imminent harm which proof is required before the Court can act by the extraordinary remedy of an injunction.” He pointed out that since getting approval at the local level is followed by roughly 18 months of permitting process by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality in which there are “political and regulatory processes in place which would allow those in opposition to express their views.” After the injunction was desee LANDFILL pg. 6
Landing, Foundry Golf Club, Mill at Fine Creek, and Independence Golf Club, she said. They also stopped to get a preview of the upcoming Three Crosses Distillery, which was not open yet. And while they were driving to these sites, county staff were pointing out other attractions and the RRT had the opportunity to see some of Powhatan’s beautiful rural landscapes, Salerno added. “Because they are going to represent us and they are going to promote us for tourism, they need to see tourism in the county and they need to see the county because a lot of them are not familiar with it. So we took them to sites that are the more popular sites. We would love to take them to every site but there is just not enough time in the day,” Salerno said during the see TOURISM, pg. 3
Rochelle dives into role as social services director By Laura McFarland News Editor
POWHATAN – For someone who has only been on the job a little over a month, Powhatan County’s new director of social services, Sharon Rochelle, hasn’t wasted any time diving right into her duties. Rochelle began work on June 27 and had a plan for how she wanted to approach her new position. She started meeting the heads of the different county departments and local agencies. She tagged along with some of her staff members as they went out into the community on home visits to see how things are done here. She scheduled visits with social services directors from neighboring counties and is already looking ahead to her first conference with the Virginia League of Directors in October. She began studying Vir-
ROCHELLE
ginia regulations to see how they are different from those she was used to in New York, where she lived her entire life prior to moving here to take over as the director after Cathy Pemberton retired. In the weeks Rochelle has spent getting to know the community, what she has seen so far has both surprised and pleased her, she said. “I am so impressed with what Powhatan has to offer and how people in the see SOCIAL SERVICES pg. 6
Public safety communications officers take oath of office By Laura McFarland News Editor
POWHATAN – Powhatan’s public safety communications officers last week reaffirmed the gravity of the responsibilities inherent in their jobs when they took an oath of office. The oath was administered by Rene Holy, deputy clerk for the Powhatan County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office, at the board of supervisors meeting on Monday, July 30. The brief oath of office made by six of Powhatan’s 17 emergency 911 dispatchers took only a few minutes, but its significance still needed to be underscored, Tom Nolan, director of the department of public safety communications, told the supervisors. He pointed out that those staff members who could not be at
PHOTO BY LAURA MCFARLAND
Rene Holy administers an oath of office for six of Powhatan’s emergency 911 dispatchers.
the meeting were sworn in separately. “We wanted to stress the importance of what the job is and what it takes to become a 911 dispatcher. It comes with
a lot of critical information, vital information that you have to share quickly and accurately without delay,” he said. “ Communications officers
are trusted with criminal history information from the VCIN- Virginia Criminal Information Network, governed by the state police. Communisee OATH pg. 5