Inside A8 Historic Bike Ride to be held April 28
Powhatan, Virginia
B1 Leadership recognized: Katlyn Hicks nominated for Lexus of Richmond scholarship
Vol. XXXII No.. 42
April 10, 2019
PHS creates memory for first graduate’s family By Laura McFarland News Editor
P
OWHATAN – The graduation of the first member of Powhatan High School’s Class of 2019 was a joyous celebration in the midst of one family’s greatest struggle. PHS senior Abby Bodsford stood in a hospital room at Johnston-Willis Hospital on Wednesday, March 27 dressed in her black cap and gown surrounded by the most important people in her life. To her right, her mother, Stephanie, sat in a wheelchair looking up PHOTOS BY ANJIE KAY at her daughter with pride and exAbby Bodsford, left, hugs her mom, Stephanie, after a special ceremony was held in her hospital room making Abby citement. Abby’s father, Patrick, see GRADUATE, pg. 3
the first PHS Class of 2019 graduate. Later that night, her son, Ethan, and his fraternity brothers serenaded Stephanie.
Prayerful Hands Garden seeks help to County officials mull water needs, raise crops benefiting food pantries how to meet them By Laura McFarland
By Laura McFarland
News Editor
News Editor
POWHATAN – When the volunteers who cultivate the Prayerful Hands Garden tend to the plants in their care, they never know who will benefit from the hard work they put into seeing it grow. When the vegetables they grow are ripe enough to be harvested, they could go to a family in need who is served by the Powhatan Food Pantry, Feeding Powhatan or the Free Clinic of Powhatan. If they nurse along seedlings destined to yield zinnias or strawberries or thyme for some local gardener, they know the sale of that plant will contribute to their ability to buy more supplies to keep the program going. Now in its second year, organiz-
PHOTO BY LAURA MCFARLAND
Svetlana Weimer shows the strong roots of a broccoli plant being grown in the Prayerful Hands Garden to donate.
ers of the garden at St. John Neumann Catholic Church are aware of how far they have come in just over a year as they built the garden
from scratch. Located on the church property on Batterson Road, the garden was always meant to be a community garden,
Prsrt. Standard U.S. POSTAGE PAID Powhatan, VA Permit No.19
see GARDEN, pg. 8
POWHATAN – Even as surrounding localities are working on solutions to meet their future water needs and demonstrating it is not a resource to be taken for granted, Powhatan County is in a transition period of assessing how it wants to address this issue. For the last several years, talks about meeting future water needs in Powhatan were generally tied to the Cobbs Creek Reservoir, a 1,117-acre reservoir that Henrico County is currently constructing in Cuûerland County . The project was a part-
nership between Powhatan, Cumberland and Henrico counties designed to help with the meeting of potential water needs in the next 50 years. But county administrator Ted Voorhees has confirmed that the county pulled out of the project in October 2018 because of the cost-prohibitive infrastructure that would have been needed to really gain any benefits out of the project. Part of that decision was down to the current and immediate lack of demand on the county’s water resources, he said. “The idea we would see WATER pg. 4
Economic development efforts garner award By Laura McFarland
DELIVER TO: Postal Patron Powhatan, VA 23139
News Editor
POWHATAN – The Virginia Economic Developers Association (VEDA) has presented Powhatan County with a 2019 Community Economic Development Award. Powhatan County earned its award for redefining their community vision to create a strong, diverse economy, according to VEDA. The community set out on a year-long vision that resulted in a playbook – an implementation plan – that began in 2018 to build a high-functioning economic development program. “We commend them for involving experts and assistance to focus on business retention, recruitment, tourism and workforce in a 14-month transformational program,” said Traci Blido, chair of VEDA’s awards committee. Awards were also given to the Town of Pulaski, James City County, and the Northern Virginia communities of Arlington and Alexandria. The awards were presented on Friday, March 29 during the organization’s spring conference in Harrisonburg. Bret Schardein, assistant county administrator, Roxanne Salerno, economic development program manager, and Dan Jones, a member of the Powhatan Economic Development Authority, accepted the award on
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Shown are winners of the VEDA’s economic development awards, including Dan Jones, first row from right, Bret Schardein and Roxanne Salerno representing Powhatan County.
Powhatan’s behalf. VEDA is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership association for individuals with a professional interest in economic development across the Commonwealth of Virginia. In 2019, it offered five economic development awards to communities in Virginia. Powhatan’s economic development story is one of a locality that had had “previously de-invested in economic development” but “was able to relaunch a comprehensive, sustainable, community supported and successful economic development program,” according to its nomination
description. The program, which is run by the county’s economic development office, is focused primarily on business retention and expansion but also includes efforts toward recruitment, tourism and workforce, Schardein said. Some of the achievements that were highlighted in the award included staff being in discussions with 25 existing businesses about expansions, working with 43 active leads on new projects and seeing 41 commercial projects receive approval or break ground in 2018. This included bringing Classic Granite and Marble’s
expansion project, a 25-acre high-end light industrial/office/retail development anchored by the manufacturer, with a projected $10 million investment and 100 new jobs. Other efforts included creating an economic development website and increasing the number of properties in the VA Scan inventory. The county’s application also highlighted tourism efforts, such as landing the 2019 US Disabled Golf Association’s US Open, 2020 US Mid-Amateur (jointly with Goochland County), Patriot League Golf Tournasee AWARD pg. 7