Inside A3 Rotary Club celebrates 10 years of service
Powhatan, Virginia
B1 Powhatan Field Hockey earns statement win over Cosby
Vol. XXXIII No. o. 11
September 4, 2019
Blandford crowned as Educators thrilled with possibilities Christmas Mother 2019 By Laura McFarland Editor
P
OWHATAN – The Queen is ready to hold court. When Betsy Blandford was deciding on the theme for her upcoming year as the 2019 Christmas Mother, she heard some good suggestions, but none of them felt quite right. In the end, she fell back on something that she thought best represented her personality – Christmas Royalty. “Everybody needs to feel as lucky as a royal would on Christmas,” she said with a grin. The theme is a nod to a nickname that the veteran Powhatan teacher acquired when she was an instructional assistant in the local schools. One day when Blandford went to the neighboring classroom to get supplies, the teacher there joked to her students that “the Queen” had arrived. “Paige Belcher had a wonderful sense of humor. She stopped
what she was doing and said, ‘Oh look, the Queen has arrived. When the Queen comes into the room, all the princesses must curtsy,’ and she taught them how to curtsy. And she said ‘all the princes must bow,’ and she taught the boys how to bow. I think what she was doing was giving the kids a wiggle break,” Blandford said. But the name ended up sticking with both students and staff at Powhatan Elementary School, where she was an instructional assistant in the early 1990s, and followed her to Pocahontas Elementary, where she went on to teach from 1996 to 2018. Even her late husband, Bill, and PHOTO COURTESY OF PORTRAIT INNOVATIONS their friends adopted the moniker. Retired Powhatan teacher Betsy see CHRISTMAS, pg. 3
Blandford has been chosen as the 2019 Powhatan Christmas Mother.
Lawsuit against supervisors to go to trial By Laura McFarland Editor
Prsrt. Standard U.S. POSTAGE PAID Powhatan, VA Permit No.19
POWHATAN – A lawsuit brought against the county because of the Powhatan County Board of Supervisors’ decision to eliminate the Residential-Commercial (R-C) zoning district will move forward to trial, a judge decided last week. Retired Judge J. Michael Gamble presided over a hearing on Wednesday, Aug. 28 where he had
to rule on two motions the county made in response to the suit, which was filed on May 24. Gamble was specially appointed to hear the case by the Supreme Court of Virginia after Judge Paul Cella recused himself and all of the other judges on the 11th Judicial Circuit. Cella said he could not hear the case because he owns property located in the area in question. The lawsuit asserts that the members of the board of supervi-
sors and the planning commission were “were unreasonable, arbitrary, and capricious” in their decisions to eliminate the R-C zoning district and thus “downzone” 509 parcels in the county. It asks a judge to declare the board’s action unlawful, that the downzoning ordinance is null and void, and that zoning district continue in effect as it existed prior to the board’s action. see ZONING, pg. 4
offered by grants By Laura McFarland Editor
POWHATAN – For many Powhatan educators, the shock hasn’t quite worn off. Last week, Powhatan County Public Schools was rocked by the announcement that a local couple planned to donate more than $400,000 to be used for scholarships, programming, and giving $1,000 to every PCPS teacher and school counselor this school year. Even as educators were readying their classrooms for the start of the 2019-2020 school year, which started Tuesday, they were also still overwhelmed by the generosity of Bob and Karla Curtis, the Powhatan couple sharing some of the profits from the sale of their company, PIEtech Inc. Karla Curtis visited all five public schools in the district to share the news directly with each building’s staff. Every time she unveiled another step in their plan, the staff members became more excited and shocked. Michelle Clark couldn’t wrap her brain around the news. The first and second grade special education teacher at Flat Rock Elementary School said she looked at her teammates in disbelief (in a good way). “As Mrs. Curtis went in greater detail, I became shocked; I was at a loss for words. I had an overwhelming feeling of joy and happiness. I even had goose bumps all over my arms. I couldn’t believe such kind human beings would do such a reMichelle Clark markable thing,” Clark said. Some of the teachers who responded to questions about their reactions to the announcement said they haven’t decided what they will do with their $1,000 grant. Some seem overwhelmed by the possibilities now open to them. At the same time, where the money goes might be influenced by the ways the teachers say they have already been spending out of pocket for years, often to the tune of several hundred dollars. Clark said several different ideas went through see GRANTS, pg. 8
Local families welcome exchange students By Laura McFarland
DELIVER TO: Postal Patron Powhatan, VA 23139
Editor
P
OWHATAN – Two Powhatan families celebrated summer with an international experience close to home when they hosted exchange students from Japan. The Martin and Davis families both opened their homes for a month to 13-yearold Japanese girls who came to experience everyday American life. Crystal and Josh Martin and their four children hosted Koyori Omura, who lives in Shizuoka, Japan. Liz and Mark Davis and their daughter hosted Yui Takahashi, who is from Kobe, Japan. Both families were firsttime hosts. When the Martins first heard about the opportunity to host a Japanese student for a PHOTO BY LAURA MCFARLAND month, Crystal Martin said she thought it would be a good experience for her whole The Martin family, left, welcomed Japanese exchange student Koyori see EXCHANGE, pg. 5
Omura this summer while the Davis family, right, opened their home to host Yui Takahashi. Both families live in Powhatan County.
Powhatan 911 adopts technology to aid in alarm calls Contributed Report Powhatan County recently became the 56th 911 center or public safety answering point (PSAP) in the United States and the 10th in Virginia to implement the ASAP-to-PSAP service (ASAP®). The ASAP program is currently active in 15 states and the District of Columbia. ASAP, launched in 2011 as a publicprivate partnership, is designed to increase the accuracy and efficiency of the delivery of alarm notifications from alarm companies to 911 centers. The ASAP service utilizes American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard protocols
developed cooperatively by the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) and The Monitoring Association (TMA). “Implementation of the ASAP-toPSAP program will help eliminate the potential for clerical errors, reduce telephone call volumes to the 911 center from alarm companies, and, most importantly, reduces 911 call-processing times by as much as two to three minutes. We all know that every second counts in an emergency, and by reducing 911 processing times, we help save lives, protect property, provide faster response times to in-progress
events, and potentially help apprehend more criminals,” said Thomas Nolan, PSC-911 director for Powhatan County. The ASAP-to-PSAP program is the next generation technology that every 911 center should be working toward implementing, Nolan said. The benefits of the program include, but are not limited to the following: Reduced call volume and eventually no more alarm company phone calls! The alarm company receives and creates an incident that is directly sent to the corresponding 911 center for dispatch. see 911, pg. 8