Carmack will not seek reelection as supervisor

LAURA MCFARLAND

Managing Editor

POWHATAN –Supervisor Karin

Carmack announced last week that she would not seek reelection in the fall to represent District 5 during an emotional accounting of recent events in which her residency and eligibility to hold her elected office were challenged.

Carmack made the announcements during the board comment period of a joint meeting between the board of supervisors and school board on Wednesday, March 8.

“Candidly, this last year has been very stressful, agonizing, and, if I am honest with myself, pretty much my entire time on this board has been very mentally taxing and has consumed an in- ordinate amount of my time,” she said, struggling to get through her speech at times. “Therefore, going forward, I am going to refocus my mental energy on my children and myself, and in doing that I will not be seeking reelection this November. I will certainly continue to work diligently to serve my constituents and all the citizens of Powhatan County for the remainder of my term.”

During her comments, Carmack recounted her experience trying to get answers and a retraction after a special prosecutor in Caroline County who was assigned to investigate an allegation that she no longer lived in her district released an opinion saying that was the case.

Carmack described the time-

Teen counselors prepare for 4-H summer camp

CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS

Recently 25 teens from Powhatan, Goochland and Hanover counties traveled to Jamestown 4-H Educational Center to participate in an overnight training. These teens put in a lot of time and effort to attend 4-H camp as teen counselors. In addition to this kick- off training, the teens will meet monthly to prepare for camp. If you know a child ages 9 to 13 who would like to attend the camp the week of July 17, register at the link, https://forms.gle/Wi7gjwmMxsngocKd6. Note boys spots have filled quickly and they will be placed on a wait list. Bring on the girls! line and the steps she took to refute the opinion of assistant commonwealth’s attorney Bryan A. Dunkum and prove that while she temporarily relocated to District 1 when a new rental house she was moving into was being renovated, she was back living in District 5 as soon as it was habitable. Included in her speech were the lengths she had to go to in order to get answers about the investigation and later have it retracted. After clearing up the matter locally with Tom Lacheney, county attorney, including explaining to him about the temporary move during renovations, she focused her attention on working to get the Caroline special prosecutor to revisit the matter and to find out who made the complaint in the first place.

Carmack said she was told by the Virginia State Bureau of Investigation that she was never investigated as this complaint was civil in nature.

Through Freedom of Information Act (FOAI) requests to the state police, the results of which she shared with the Powhatan Today, Carmack said she learned that the initial complaints were filed by resident James Kunka.

“That got me thinking, why is he so frosty at me? I think it revolves to Nov. 28 conditional use permit that I approved, which was in District 2, which was also approved by staff as well as the planning commission – they recommended it – and the board of supervisors,” she said.

She also read a response from Carolina County Commonwealth’s Attorney John Mahoney sent on March 1 in which he wrote “In my absence the case was assigned to our newest attorney. I regret that the matter was given insufficient supervision which resulted in confusion and the issuance of a letter concluding that Ms. Carmack was not a resident of the district which she represents and therefore not qualified to hold her office. That conclusion was incorrect. That is on me, nobody else.”

The letter also stated that “that Ms. Carmack is a bona fide resident of District 5.”

Laura McFarland may be reached at Lmcfarland@powhatantoday.com.

Powhatan couple faces 15 charges of abusing a juvenile

LAURA MCFARLAND

Managing Editor

POWHATAN – A multi-jurisdictional grand jury has indicted a Powhatan couple on 15 charges relating to the abuse of a juvenile, including abduction, rape and assault.

On March 1, as the result of an investigation that included multiple search warrants and interviews, Daniel Wayne Kidd, 48, and Rosalinda Delgado Rosas, 34, both of Powhatan County, were charged with reported abuse of a juvenile that occurred in the 700 block of Appomattox Trace Road between April 1 and 7, 2022, according to Powhatan County Sheriff’s Office

Chief Deputy Jeff Searfoss.

An investigation into the couple, who are not married, began on April 8, 2022.

The couple is each facing one misdemeanor and 14 felony charges: two counts of abduction- intent to extort money or for immoral

Chase Kinnier Competes In Regional Spelling

BEE chase Kinnier, a sixth grader at Powhatan Middle school, represented Powhatan county in the 49th annual richmond times-dispatch regional spelling Bee held March 9 in Mechanicsville. he competed against 21 other division winning spellers. chase made it to the eighth round by successfully spelling distinctive, cushion, repercussion, solitude, mandragora, empathy and henchman.

PHOTO BY LAURA MCFARLAND

Kidd

Rosas

purpose; entice into dwelling; prostitution; strangle another causing wound; object sexual penetration; assault and battery (misdemeanor); f orcible sodomy; rape; and six counts of taking indecent liberties with a child by a person in a supervisory relationship. Both Kidd and Rosa were taken into custody on March 1 in separate arrests without incident. They are both being held without bail at Pamunkey Regional Jail. Anyone with any information should contact the Powhatan County Sheriff’s Office at 804-598-5656.

commissioner of the revenue Jamie Timberlake’s best conservative estimate along with the $1 million in relief factored in as well. Without the relief, there would be a slight increase shown in projected personal property tax taxes, she said.

„ Compensation and classification plan: Currently, the county employee compensation and classification plan is being reevaluated, with the understanding that it will likely propose significant changes in compensation that carry an unknown price tag. Staff has put a placeholder of about $1.16 million in the budget to handle the proposals that come out of that study. Those would not be across-the-board increases, instead targeting individual positions that are low on the scale. The board discussed the timing of the consultant’s findings, which may not be finished before the budget is adopted.

Schardein pointed out even once they receive the report, it is up to the board to adopt any changes. However, he did not recommend leaving any adjustments until next budget season as some positions are already behind others.

„ CIP highlights: Schardein touched on some of the capital improvements, which were expected to be expounded on in more detail by department heads this week. Some of those projects include a new ambulance, a Company 1 fire engine, fiber network extension, trail renovations (outside of recent grant dollars awarded), roof renovations, ADA improvements ($750,000 in grant dollars), Carter Gallier Extension for the East Convenience Center, school buses, and school HVAC replacements. The inclusion of a road project in the CIP is relatively new and only possible because of funds the county is receiving for transportation projects as a member of the Central Virginia Transportation Authority

(CVTA).

„ Department initiatives: The commissioner of the revenue’s office wants to become part of the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles’ DMV Select program, which involves local governments and private entities contracting with DMV to provide select transactions in a secure environment. Each DMV Select partner has online access to DMV, allowing the partner to update customer records immediately as well as issue vehicle decals. Last year, DMV Selects processed more than onehalf million secure transactions, according to its website. Schubert said it will help many citizens perform several key DMV functions without having to leave the county and it will generate revenue for the county. The supervisors seemed overall in favor of this initiative. Other initiatives staff presented included the parks and recreation program expansion by hiring an additional staff member and providing money for programming; establishing a designated domestic violence program within the Powhatan Department of Social Services again; expanding public safety by adding more deputies and 911 communications officers; and restructuring of positions within county administration (Schardein said the county should see a small amount of savings).

While it is not yet formal, Schardein said county staff is looking into how the county could take over managing the stormwater program from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. The goal would be to cut down on delays on projects and to generate additional revenue by getting a portion of the fees.

„ New positions: The proposed budget includes a variety of new position requests for the board to consider: two communications officers full-time equivalents (FTE); transportation manager (paid for with CVTA funds); grant writer; commercial reviewer/inspector; librarian (two part-time changed to one full-time); commissioner of revenue deputy clerk II (offset by DMV Select revenue); recreation coordinator; utilities engineer; maintenance worker III; four sheriff deputies (includes four vehicles); IT technician; and domestic violence coordinator.

The board briefly discussed some of the positions with the understanding they would be meeting with department heads this week to ask more questions.

„ Debt policy: The board discussed Powhatan’s debt service vs. expenditure policy level, which is a factor in its credit rating. When the then-board of supervisors agreed on bonded projects in 2016, the majority decision was that they would agree to let that figure approach a maximum rate of 15% with the understanding that they would get it back down to the desired 12% as quickly as possible.

The board is currently under that 12% threshold. The discussion last week focused on what the board considers the “optimal” percentage and if they want to revisit the policy to make it a firm 12% again. After a suggestion from Williams about lowering that optimal level even further, finance director Charla Schubert pointed out the board doesn’t want to set a ratio so low that “you can’t issue debt without redoing your policy.”

Schardein said staff would do research on the topic and bring the policy back for consideration by the board.

The upcoming schedule for the budget process includes: March 20, discuss the capital improvement plan; March 27, public hearing on real estate tax rate and adopt the personal property tax rate; April 3, decide what budget to advertise, deadline for public hearing on real estate tax rate and adopt real estate and personal property tax rate; April 24, public hearing on the budget and fee schedule; and May 1, adopt the budget. These dates are subject to change.

Laura McFarland may be reached at Lmcfarland@ powhatantoday.com.

Crime Report

Arrests

One female was charged on March 1 with prostitution: cause person to enter bawdy place (Felony), taking indecent liberties with a child by person in supervisory relationship (F), abduction-extort money or immoral purpose (F), entice into dwelling to murder/rape/wound/kidnap (F), strangle another causing wound (F), assault and battery (F), rape (F), forcible sodomy (F) and object sexual penetration (F).

One male was charged on March 3 with assault and battery of a family member (Misdemeanor).

Weekly

Blessed Sacrament Huguenot Honor Roll

Third grade all A’s

Saylor Behren, Cailyn Francis, Tessa Neal, Charlie Tatro, Berkley Welch.

Third grade all A/B’s

Wyatt Balch, Kiley Donner, Ella Felts, Hayes Howerton, Caroline Kelley, Meg Leatherwood, Carmee Maderazo, Charlotte Marks, Gabi Meyer, Zoe Perkinson, Ben Riegler, Finn Thompson, Berkleigh Watts, Sloane Weyant.

Fourth grade all A’s

Raegan Chumney, Tucker Harrison, Alex Jonjic, Colin Lerch, Lexi Lockhart, William McCoy, Olivia Rice, Andrew Roberts, Sophie Stevens, Samuel Walker.

Fourth grade all A/B’s

Allie Baggett, Julianne Biedrycki, Kurtis Camara, Ella Daves, Madeleine Dudley, Angel Fitz, Austin Gregoire, Zoe Harrow, Charlotte Hawkins, Paisley Hearn, Kennedy, McDonough, Abigail Perkins, Aiden Solimine, Caris Springer, Heather Stevens, Hunter Watkins, Lilli Wilcox.

Fifth grade all A’s Dani Blakley, Sam Bowman, Evan Felts, Annalise Gross, Ruby Norman, Maggie Pool, Silas Roberts, Beazy Sweeney, Dawson Tatro.

Fifth grade all A/B’s

Brady Adams, Katie Derryberry, Bailey Dowdy, Melody Gordon, Morgan Puglisi, Leila Purdum, Zach Tovar, Leo Triano, Brantley Turner, Kelly Zuniga.

Sixth grade all A’s

Thomas Delmege, Cruize Springer.

Sixth grade all A/B’s

Jake Berkman, Adam Biedrycki, Andrew Costello, Noah Folliard, Tiger Hayden, Maddie McCoy, Lucas McCuiston, Sage Oprandi, Briana Welch, Sunnie Young.

Seventh grade all A’s

Tommy Badman, Havana Costello, Maddie Gross, Jack Hickey, Natalie Klotz, Stephen Roberts, Chloe Trueblood, Aidan Vaughan.

Seventh grade all A/B’s

Abigail Alcazar, Noah Bowes, Sydney Callis, Madison Carmack, Charlotte Cavanagh, Meredith Klotz, Daniel McCarthy, Luca Neal, Avery Poore, Chase

Watkins.

Eighth grade all A’s Carter Callis, Abigail Delmege.

Eighth grade all A/B’s Courtney Carter, Addison Dowdy, Kaelyn Kipley, Robert Lucas, Alex Perkins, Brennon Welch.

Ninth grade all A’s