Young chefs shine in contest

Managing Editor

Lanie Jastram put a little zest and a great deal of enthusiasm into the sweet corn salsa she served judges last week, and it paid off with a first place win in the Sodexo Future Chefs Contest.

Competing against five other local elementary school students on March 15, the fourth grader from Powhatan Elementary School was the only returning competitor from last year’s contest, where she won third place.

This time around, Lanie’s take on the assignment of making a compelling side dish produced a colorful, tasty dish that saw her taking home a trophy and some cool prizes to keep her culinary momentum going.

“I was really excited. It means that I am really good at baking and I was recognized for that,” she said.

Lanie said she choose her sweet corn salsa because her family likes it and it is both colorful and delicious. She also likes that there are plenty of fresh vegetables.

The March 16 luncheon held at the County Seat Restaurant and Gathering Place is an annual tradition that allows the legislators to talk about the most recent General Assembly session, usually with a major focus on local and business-related issues.

They talked about significant successes in the most recent session as well as efforts that failed to progress, and included legislation they patroned or fought for with mixed results. Both mentioned the challenges of having a divided General Assembly in trying to get work accomplished.

“That reality of having a divided assembly … played a role in what we did this year,” Ware said.

Despite being a short session, Hashmi said it was a busy two months that isn’t quite over. “I feel like Delegate Ware and I just crawled out of a dark hole that was the General Assembly session.”

Some of the main topics they discussed included:

„ State Budget: Both Hashmi and Ware touched on the General Assembly ending its session without passing a full budget and legislators having their work cut out for them to break the billion-dollar stalemate that prevented them from passing changes to the state’s two-year spending plan. Hashmi said it is disturbing that the General Assembly has gotten into the habit of emerging from session without having agreement on the budget.

“Everybody is now waiting for this budget, and as we get closer to July of course it impacts our state employees, our agencies, our colleges, universities; it impacts every aspect of lives in Virginia,” she said.

She highlighted that the Senate version would invest $1 billion into bringing public education back to the level it was in 2008.

Ware talked about the General Assembly passing a “skinny budget” that made a deposit in the state’s rainy day fund and rectified a math error under which local school divisions would not have received their full amount due this calendar year. He also mentioned the deductibles increasing for both single and joint filings, the increases expected in teacher pay, and more funding going toward mental health issues.

„ Redistricting: Both legislators also talked about redistricting, which will mean a change in future representation. Ware said