Powhatan Today, August 10, 2022
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Board hears presentation on transportation for seniors By Laura McFarland Managing Editor
POWHATAN – The Powhatan County Board of Supervisors recently further explored the issue of providing for senior needs with a presentation on efforts taken in Hanover County to supply transportation options for its underserved senior population. During the meeting on Monday, July 25, representatives from Hanover County and the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) gave a presentation to the board on the creation of Hanover DASH. The program’s mission is to provide an affordable and reliable countywide transportation option to increase access, reduce isolation and promote independence for older adults and persons with disabilities. The subject of providing resources for seniors has been a prevalent issue in Powhatan County as local officials work to evaluate residents’ needs and how best to meet them. Thanks to a grant from the DRPT, Hanover began offering specialized transportation service to older adults and persons with a disability on Dec. 12, 2019. The program allows eligible residents to book one-
way rides to certain locations within Hanover County and a few approved medical facilities outside of it for a flat fee. The rides can be to medical appointments; personal trips such as grocery shopping, banking, employment or recreation, and to county government buildings. Hanover County has contracted with UZURV to provide transportation using approved company owned/ branded vehicles or wheelchair accessible vans. In addition to the program itself, the visitors discussed the DRPT grants the county applied for to help fund the program. The presentation was followed with a series of questions from David Williams, who represents District 1, on how the program works and provides for the needs of Hanover seniors. No action was taken on this topic at the meeting. Other business at the meeting included: The board unanimously voted to pass a resolution committing to fully fund the Judes Ferry and Route 60 SMART Scale project. In the 2018 SMART Scale round, a project to add an additional left turn lane on Route 60 onto Judes Ferry, add an additional thru lane on Judes Ferry
between 60 and Batterson and construct a right turn lane on Judes onto Batterson was awarded at $2.4 million, according to board documents. Inflation, utilities, signal, right of way and engineering costs, which increased from 2018 to today’s design phase, have increased the cost. The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) worked to find every possible alternative and cost savings, and now have a plan which brings the project to being $1.1 million over budget. The board needed to pass a resolution committing to fully funding any cost over the $2.4 million previously awarded to keep the project alive, county administrator Ned Smither told the board. By passing the resolution, the board committed to funding the gap and assigning a portion of the general fund balance for this purpose in the future. Karin Carmack, District 5, made the motion to approve the resolution and suggested the county use money from the now eliminated revenue stabilization fund for this guarantee. While those dollars had become part of the general fund without being assigned once the fund was eliminated, Carmack was
Rob Cerullo sworn in Aug. 1 as interim commonwealth’s attorney CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Powhatan Circuit Court Judge Paul Cella swears in Rob Cerullo as the interim commonwealth’s attorney on Aug. 1. Cerullo took the position after Richard ‘Dickie’ Cox retired. The ceremony was also witnessed by deputy commonwealth’s attorney Tim Dustan and the new assistant commonwealth’s attorney, Alice Sheridan, who started work with the office on Aug. 1.
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tistics were derived from the offense listed by the officer in which petit larceny or grand larceny was the offense. These statistics do not represent the call volume of larceny calls, as a call may come into Powhatan Public Safety Communications as a larceny but may be determined to be of another nature upon deputies’ arrival. The majority of the numbers can be attributed to shoplifting and catalytic converter theft cases, said Rob Cerullo, interim commonwealth’s attorney. All 27 of the grand larceny cases in the second quarter of 2022, for instance, involved the theft of catalytic converters. With the shoplifting charges, “skip scanning” is a real problem with selfcheckout kiosks, chief deputy Jeff Searfoss said. An individual pretends to scan an item before putting it in a bag or basket, which is still shoplifting. He also noted the dramatic rise in these cases, pointing out that as he spoke, a deputy was currently responding to a shoplifting call at Walmart. “There are cameras on all of those things, of course, so they are watching and they take notice when people are not scanning all the items, so their bill is not accurate. They might scan half of what is in their cart,’ he said. While all of these crimes can’t be attributed to one cause, Cerullo said he doesn’t believe it is a coincidence that these numbers have gone up dramatically along with inflation numbers. “What I have noticed is the increases are attributable oftentimes to first-time offenders, so I am seeing a lot of cases where this is the first time the person has ever been arrested. I think that is consistent with the inflationary trends,” he said. The question that then follows is what can be done about the growing problem? Unfortunately, much of that will fall on businesses and residents since law enforcement’s involvement is usually reacting to a crime in these cases, Cerullo said. The best tools in the moment against shoplifting are
loss prevention staff, video cameras and shoppers discretely informing a store employee if they see suspicious activity (only when it can be done safely and not tipping off a thief). The best guard against catalytic converter theft is taking measures to hide or monitor vehicles that may be a target. “Short of putting a deputy in every store, which we can’t do, we are reacting to the fact. Now we can certainly punish people more harshly and make them do different things, but are you going to punish someone who is a first-time offender really harshly when it is their first time? No, we’ve got to try to help them and find out why are you doing this,” Cerullo said. “There has got to be some punishment but I am not going to put a first-time offender in jail for six months when they have never done anything wrong before.” From the enforcement standpoint, the rise in first-time offenders committing crimes of desperation has created more tricky issues, he said. When prosecuting, the commonwealth’s attorney’s office already takes into account mitigating factors such as whether someone who is arrested cooperated and admitted wrongdoing versus fighting or running. Powhatan has a first-time offender program that includes probation, community service and fines that help someone avoid a conviction, Cerullo said, but “in order for them to take advantage of that program, it’s got to be a first offense and it’s got to be something where we think it’s worth doing for these people because they made a mistake as opposed to someone who is just trying to pull the wool over our eyes, so to speak.” “I think it is fair to say that we are not going to treat everybody the same. Obviously we are going to take into consideration their criminal record, and we are going to take into consideration the circumstances of the case,” he said. “Does it appear, based on the facts of the case, that they are stealing to support their family or does it appear like they are stealing to sell on the streets?”
pointing out where the extra money could be accounted for, adding that the project would benefit both the county and the schools. The board unanimously voted to approve a resolution aimed at opposing the proposed landfill in Cumberland County near the Powhatan border. The resolution said the “establishment of a mega-landfill is a direct threat to the quality of health and welfare to residents in portions of Powhatan County and to the general environment.” It talked about the risk the landfill would pose to groundwater through wells and the watershed of the James River and its location in the Central Virginia Seismic Zone subject to ongoing seismic activity as severe as a 5.8 magnitude earthquake in 2011 and seven earthquakes in the past year. According to the resolution, the board opposes “the establishment of a mega-landfill a mere 1,000ft. from the western county line between Cumberland and Powhatan Counties and urge district representatives to the State of Virginia legislature to propose and promote legislation that will afford the same or similar protections for residents of private water wells to reduce or eliminate the risks to the health of residents of fence line communities and the environment in general.” After chair Mike Byerly, District 3, read the resolution, the board passed it unanimously without any discussion.
Six of the people who spoke during the public comment period were in favor of the resolution and any measures the board can take to help stop the landfill from moving forward. The board agreed to move to its August meeting a discussion on the Virginia Loggers Tax Exemption so it could hear on the topic from commissioner of the revenue Jamie Timberlake, who couldn’t be there that night. The agenda item deals with requests the board has received to exempt personal property and machinery and tools taxes on off-road forest harvesting equipment. Smither said Timberlake has a good handle on the tax exemption and its possible impacts, which is why he suggested delaying the discussion. Two people spoke during the public comment period in favor of the exemption. The board voted unanimously to add an approximately 100-acre piece of land into the Appomat-
tox River Agricultural and Forestal District (AFD) Program. Once approved, the land joined 1,149.8 acres already incorporated into the Appomattox River AFD with the aim to limit the land to agriculture, forestry, land preservation and open space uses. One person spoke in support of this motion during a public hearing associated with it. The board did not make any comments before approving it. One local resident also spoke during both public comment periods, the first time talking about being denied a temporary event permit and not being given sufficient reasons or an option to appeal the county’s decision. He requested an appeal from the board of supervisors. In the second public comment period, he talked about the length of time given to citizens – three minutes for an individual or five minutes for a group – versus the much longer amount of time given to groups making a presentation, which makes the meetings longer.
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The Powhatan Moose Family Center would like to thank the following merchants and service organizations for their donation to our fundraising golf tournament held at the Mill Quarter golf course. Please support them as they are supporting their community. Local recipients of the proceeds will be Coalition of Churches, Powhatan Free Clinic, Powhatan Food Bank and Moose Charities.
Platinum Sponsors Grover Gaming Deb Beran Realty Cerro Azul Restaurant KBS, Inc. S&K Dozer Anderson Automotive, LLC Hank Cosby Real Estate Adams Oil Patrick Carpet All Good Automotive Jimmy’s Carpet, Inc Hanover Insurance
Behren Group Raymond Hawkins Coffee Crew S&N Transmission Murry & Kuhn Dentistry Ukrops Homestyle Food Premier Med Luck Stone United Paper, Inc Mattress Direct, LLC County Seat Restaurant, LLC Village Concept Realty
Gold Sponsors R.C. Goodwyn & Sons Inc. Powhatan Collision & Glass Stanton’s Auto & Truck, LLC
Atkinson Ins Murray Automotive Cozy Acres Campground
Silver Sponsors Royal Pump & Well
Bronze Sponsors Lawrenceville Building Supply Home Base Credit Union Powhatan Card Boys Arnold/Bette Gunderson Colony Construction Nixon Bros. Excavating Advance Auto Ultimate Cycle Barham Seafood Allen’s Chinese Restaurant Powhatan Pharmacy Raymond Crump, CPA PC Clodfelters Heating & Air Three Crosses Distilling Company
Dwayne & Susan Dudley L&G Construction Tom’s Meats, Amelia New Horizon Bank Rosa,s Italian Eatery Sports Bar Wildwood Barbecue American Family Pawn & Guns Jonis Clipper Club Powhatan Overhead Doors B&L Flooring J.T. Lacy Appliances, Inc Light & Raphael, LLC Powhatan Power Washing
