[New] Ayers retires from MSWCD board

Contributed Report

After serving on the Monacan Soil and Water Conservation District (MSWCD) board since January of 2004, Richard Ayers attended his last meeting on Dec. 19. He was recognized with a resolution from the MSWCD board and refreshments for his outstanding service.

Ayers began his voluntary service at the District as an associate director in 2004 and was appointed as a director in 2011. The director position is also voluntary.

Ayers used his many talents and skills to enrich the leadership at Monacan. He is an aquatic ecologist retired from the Virginia Water Control Board. He served on the Powhatan Planning Commission for two decades. He is a member of the Goochland Powhatan Master Gardeners, specializing in native plants. That talent he has shared with the Fighting Creek walking trail, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and University of Richmond, to name a few entities with which he has worked.

The Monacan Board is comprised of several committees, and Ayers was ac-

From the governmental activities, the business-type activities, the aggregate discretely presented component units, each major fund, and the aggregate remaining fund information of Powhatan County, according to the report. This report included Powhatan County Public Schools’ finances.

The firm’s opinion states that the financial statements referenced above fairly present the re- tive on the personnel and agriculture committees throughout his service. He provided his time to assist with the Envirothon contest, leading the aquatics area of study, Powhatan County Public Schools fourht grade Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience events, AP Environmental Studies water quality monitoring training, and most recently, aquatic insect identification training for teacher professional development. spective financial position of the governmental activities, the business-type activities, the aggregate discretely presented component units, each major fund and the aggregate remaining fund information of the county as of June 30.

Ayers represented the public well. His engagement during Monacan committee and board meetings resulted in thoughtful policies, agricultural cost share application approvals and personnel decisions.

Powhatan supervisor Bill Cox and Monacan chair Jonathon Lyle provided reflections on Ayers’ faithful and extensive public service.

The Powhatan Board of Supervisors also honored Ayers with a resolution at its regularly scheduled Dec. 19 meeting.

Associate director Sebastian Volcker will fill Ayers’ position on the Monacan board beginning Jan. 1, 2023.

The firm issued an opinion on the “uniform guidance,” which is the audit of federal rewards if they are more than $750,000, and did not report any findings, which is the desired outcome, Argenbright said.

The firm also issued a report dated Nov. 30 on its consider- monacan soil and Water conser vation district provided biological and chemical water testing training at Fighting creek Park in november 2019 for aP environmental science classes and the newly formed envirothon team. shown here, richard ayers describes the difference between a caddisfly and dragonfly nymph. The nymphs had been captured from the stream. aquatic insects are collected because they are water ation of the county’s internal control over financial reporting and on its tests of its compliance with certain provisions of laws, regulations, contracts, and grant agreements and other matters. While not an official opinion, the firm wrote that the audit “did not identify any deficiencies in internal control that we consider to be material weaknesses.”

The only questions on the audit report came from David Williams, who represents District 1. He brought up a letter regarding Powhatan County Public Schools’

Arrests

One male was charged on dec. 13 with petty larceny (misdemeanor).

One male was charged on dec. 13 with violating a protective order (m).

One female was charged on d ec. 14 with petty larceny (m).

One female was charged on d ec. 14 with petty larceny (m).

One male was charged on d ec. 15 with profane swearing/public intoxication (m).

One male was charged on dec. 16 with contempt of court (m).

One male was charged on d ec. 17 with weapon possession by a felon (Felony) and assault and battery of a family member (m).

One male was charged on dec. 18 with trespassing (m), concealed weapon violation (m), carrying a handgun in a bar under the influence (m), two counts of possession of blackjacks ( m ), profane swearing/public intoxication (m), disorderly conduct in a public place (m), obstructing justice (m), malicious bodily injury of a law enforcement officer (F), and two counts of assault and battery of a police officer or firefighter (F).

One male was charged on dec. 18 with petty larceny <$500 not from person (m).

WEEKLY INCIDENT REPORT DEC. 12-18 –

Type And Total Calls

INCIDENT abandoned vehicle 1 advice 21 animal calls 32 assault 1 assist 19 attempt to locate 11 bleed 1 bOL 2 hild welfare 2 civil 1 cPr adult 1 damaged property 1 disabled vehicle 8 disorder/disturbance 7 domestic 8 drugs 1 drunk in public 1

Follow-up 2

Found property 1

Fraud 6

Funeral 1

Gunshot noise 1

Hit and run 1

Investigation 7

Larceny 6 financial health and systems submitted by Lloyd Banks when he resigned as the division’s director of finance after less than two months. Lloyd’s letter, which he copied to members of both the school board and board of supervisors, outlined issues he saw with deficit spending, poor procedures and an outdated financial system.

Argenbright said the letter was brought to the firm’s attention and was taken seriously and that they performed some additional procedures related to it.

Lockout 12 missing person 1 mVas 19

Overdose 1

Panic alarm 3

Pd alarm 11

Phone threat 1

Project lifesaver 1

Psychiatric 5 reckless driver 12 road rage 2 shoplifting 8 suspicious 13

Traffic hazard 15

Traffic stop 52

Transport 1

Trespass 3

Underage possession 1

Unknown emergency 15

Vandalism 2

VcIn hit 1

Warrant service 2

Welfare check 12 of the Grape, Powhatan Freedom Festival, Juneteenth, Veterans Day events and the Powhatan Christmas Parade were all good signs.

“What we included in our management letter would be the items of concern and we did not say anything, as I recall, related to that particular email,” she said.

Williams noted a previous recommendation for a countywide purchase order system was not in this year’s audit report. Schubert said with the current software system, department heads are issuing purchase orders, usually for larger items.

Laura mcFarland may be reached at Lmcfarland@powahtantoday.com.

If Powhatan dipped its toes in the water in 2021, it completely jumped in during the course of 2022, with most of the regular communitywide events that were not canceled for other reasons coming back strong without restrictions and plenty of new and returning events offering residents more of a sense of normalcy.

Some – but certainly not all – of those events included a full in-person summer reading program; an additional July 4th event; full Halloween and fall festival offerings; Field of Honor; Color Me Active; Farm Day; and the aforementioned events held without masks or social distancing.

Throughout the seasons, people attending various celebrations talked about loving that life was finally getting back to “normal.”

3. County faces budget challenges

Starting in February, the Powhatan County School Board already knew it would be facing challenges with a projected reduction in state dollars combined with a 19.1% health insurance increase and proposed salary increases to stay competitive, all to the tune of an estimated $2.77 million. The school board took deep dives into the fiscal year (FY) 2023 budget and found some savings and staff did likewise, but county staff recommending a large increase in local funds would take a huge portion of that burden off.

Then the board of supervisors’ budget process hit its own snag in April. The board had already voted in March in a split decision to set the calendar year tax rate at a level rate of 79 cents per $100 of assessed value. However, after Williams made a request for information from the Virginia Department of Taxation, it came out in April that there had been a miscalculation in how the county’s assessment growth was calculated and that keeping the same tax rate would actually mean raising taxes.

Instead the actual equalized tax rate – the tax rate that would levy the same amount of real estate as last tax year when multiplied by the new total assessed value of real estate – would be 75 cents.

The board first set a timeline that would both give the public the opportunity to have input on the rate and get it adopted with enough time to mail out the first half of the calendar year 2022 tax bills in June. The board extended the due date of the first tax bill initially to June 15 and then June 24. Several problems plagued the process, and the board eventually pushed the penalty date and interest date for late county taxes back to Aug. 1

The board made some big decisions in May for the budget that included adopting a reduced tax rate (77 cents) that still represented a 2-cent tax increase; adopting the fiscal year 2023 operating budget at $109.9 million; eliminating a $35 vehicle license fee levied on every vehicle in the county; eliminating the county’s revenue stabilization fund, and not taking action to reduce the impact inflated vehicle valuations would have on personal property bills. 4. Three special elections held

Powhatan already knew it would be starting off 2022 with one special election after Joe Walters announced he was resigning from the District 4 school board seat the previous summer. Walters made the announcement that he would be resigning effective July 31, 2021. James Taylor was chosen to serve as the interim representative for District 4 until a special election could be held on Feb. 15, 2022. He proceeded to win that special election with a little over 40% of the vote, which had an 11% turnout of District 4 registered voters.

Then, on April 19, District 1 school board representative Rick Cole announced his plans to retire at the end of the year, prompting the need for another special election. The special election was scheduled as part of the November General election since Cole was willing to stay on through December. Vicki Hurt won that special election by a wide margin and was sworn in on Dec. 14 to begin serving in January.

Also in that General Election was a countywide special election for the commonwealth’s attorney after Richard “Dickie” Cox announced his retirement effective Aug. 1. With his announcement, Cox becomes the fifth local elected official elected in the November 2019 General Election to leave office before the current term is finished. Cox appointed Rob Cerullo to run the office as interim until the November special election, in which he ran unopposed and won easily.

5. High school band director arrested

The Powhatan community was shocked this summer by the news that Powhatan High School band director Andrew C. Snead had been arrested on June 30 and charged with two counts of taking indecent liberties with a minor by a person in a custodial or supervisory relationship.

In the weeks that followed, the commonwealth’s attorney’s office continued to bring charges against Snead in two more waves.

Interim commonwealth’s attorney Rob Cerullo said that after Snead’s arrest, the “floodgates” opened as more current or former students came forward with allegations of abuse by Snead in cases spanning from as far back as more than a decade ago to as recent as days before he was arrested on June 30.

As of a status hearing held on Dec. 13, Snead is facing eight charges of taking indecent liberties with a minor by a person in a custodial or supervisory relationship and one charge of soliciting child pornography, all felonies. He has been in custody since his initial arrest after bond was denied on some charges. A trial by jury is set for July 26 to 28, 2023.

6. Thousands without power after winter storm

While not Powhatan’s worst weather on record, the Jan. 3 winter storm that dropped 5 inches of snow on the county left more than 9,000 homes without power, downed an untold number of trees, blocked roads and closed schools for most of the week.

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A wet early morning followed by a heavy snow was a dramatic difference from the weekend’s almost spring-like temperatures. The storm hit hundreds of thousands of residents and businesses across the region hard, leaving power companies working around the clock to restore power.

At its peak, 4,052 Southside Electric Cooperative (SEC) members and more than 5,300 Dominion Energy customers lost power during the storm in Powhatan. According to the respective companies, SEC had all customers restored by the evening of Jan. 6 and the last Dominion customers were restored by the evening of Jan. 5.

Powhatan was one of the hardest hit areas of SEC’s 18-county service area, which caused extensive damages due to heavy snow. More than 400,000 Dominion Energy customers statewide lost power during the storm, making it one of the five worst winter storms in Dominion Energy Virginia’s history.

7. New school superintendent hired

In December 2021, Powhatan County Public Schools (PCPS) Superintendent Eric Jones announced he would retire from his position effective July 1, 2022.

Rather than a quiet search to fill the open position, the school board made the process of hiring a new superintendent as inclusive as possible. The board hired search consultant firm McPherson and Jacobson, which had consultants come in March to gather input from the school board as well as students, staff, parents and community members about what they valued most in the next superintendent.

After considering the candidates put forward by the firm, the school board voted unanimously on June 14 to hire Dr. Beth Teigen to lead the school division. She was already a Powhatan resident and had been chief of staff/ deputy superintendent in Henrico County Public Schools.

In her months in office, Teigen has already led the school division through the start of a school year unrestricted by COVID-19 measures; dealt with helping the division weather key staffing changes, including a turnover in the finance department; schools being hit with large numbers of flu cases; getting a stop-arm camera policy through both the school board and board of supervisors; and helped the board in its discussions of desired policy changes.

Teigen said last week that she looks forward to engag- ing PCPS families, business partners and staff in the strategic planning process in 2023.

“Together, we will redefine teaching and learning to meet the individual needs of students and develop pathways to ensure every student graduates with the knowledge, skills and attributes needed to navigate life beyond high school,” she said. “Students need to be prepared to enroll is college, join the workforce and/or enlist in the military when they leave Powhatan County Public Schools.”

8. School division lifts COVID-19 restrictions

Although it might seem like a world away, at the beginning of 2022, Powhatan was leading the way among many school districts in its policy about COVID-19 restrictions. At the school board’s Dec. 7, 2021, meet- ing, the members proactively voted to approve making masks voluntary inside school buildings once the Virginia Health Commissioner’s order was lifted. This gave the school division the ability to make plans immediately without having to wait for another school board meeting to vote.

So when on Day 1 in office, Governor Glenn Youngkin signed an executive order empowering parents to make the decision on whether their child wears a mask to school, PCPS was ready. Then-superintendent Eric Jones sent an email to PCPS families informing them that the division would begin complying when the order became effective on Jan. 24. In February, the school division ended the practice of contact tracing as part of its COVID-10 mitigation efforts based on information released by the Virginia Department of Health (VDH).

While not all effects are gone, as the year has progressed, more and more school activities and events have returned closer to pre-pandemic standards, bringing smiles to the faces of staff, students and parents as beloved school traditions have come back.

9. BSH launches $8.25M capital campaign

Blessed Sacrament Huguenot School was already preparing for some big changes in 2022 thanks to more than $3 million donated by the Brower family for major improvements in facilities, curriculum and staff retention efforts.

In recent years, retired army Col. Keith Brower and his wife Kathleen had already had a huge impact on the private school where their late granddaughter, Arabella Stuart Brower, once attended. As they got involved with and came to love the school, their support continued.

In February 2022, the school announced funds from the couple would allow BSH to fund major renovations to several buildings, updates to every classroom and the creation of a new creative arts center for the upper school students

But a change to one of the school’s most significant planned construction projects that could have been seen as a setback instead challenged its leaders to double down and grow their plans and expectations even more, leading to the announcement in late April of an $8.25 million capital campaign.

The Knight’s Charge capital campaign had all but about $2 million of the needed funds already raised or committed when it was announced. The school made many improvements over the summer, including updates to paint and lighting in all classrooms and a gym renovation. Also included in the major changes to the school are a new arts center, which is the first new building added to the campus since 1959, and the construction of the new Brower Student Center, set to open in fall 2023.

10. Family protests handling of hate crime

In May, the Powhatan County Sheriff’s Office announced that a special prosecutor would be investigating a September 2020 incident in which mostly white teenage attendees of a party in Powhatan County wrote racial slurs and a swastika, among other markings, on a 16-year-old black teen while he was intoxicated and unconscious. They also draped him with a confederate flag and took multiple pictures of the teen and distributed them via social media.

Sheriff Brad Nunnally said his office took the accusation of a hate crime seriously and conducted an investigation with assistance from the Powhatan Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office but the family did not cooperate in pursuing the matter.

The parents of the teen, later identified as Jerry Chambers Jr., who is now an adult, claimed law enforcement failed to “do their job” regarding the investigation.

Powhatan County authorities disputed this account, providing a timeline and details they said showed the family refused to follow up on the initial allegations and only returned to pursue them 15 months later, after the statute of limitations on the offense they could have pursued was already passed.

The Chambers family and supporters organized two protests about the 2020 incident and what they say had been a lack of willingness by law enforcement to pursue the matter. A crowd of about 30 people attended a rally on May 5 on the steps of the Powhatan County Courthouse, which stayed peaceful but had some tense moments. About the first 45 minutes of the rally were focused on several speakers standing at the steps of the courthouse, including members of the Chambers family.

The focus shifted away from the matter at hand when protestors began to engage with law enforcement officers stationed across the street from the courthouse as well as customers on the porch of a local business. The incident never evolved past shouting and stayed confrontational yet peaceful.

In October, the special prosecutor from Petersburg that was appointed to investigate the incident wrote that he ended the probe after being told Chambers would be unable to participate in the investigation due to an ongoing medical issue.

make something.”

Halli Chewning, 10, of Powhatan participated in the workshop with her sister, Caroline, 9.

Although she had a great time overall, the aspect of the workshop Halli liked the most was that they were given freedom to experiment within the recipes they were given.

“They let us have creativity of our baking. With the cranberry bread, we decided we didn’t want to put cranberries in there so we made it orange and put more fruit in there,” she said.

Caroline said she had baked cakes, pies and bread before the workshop, which she took because she loves baking. She signed up to gain friends with similar interests and learn new skills.

“In your life, if you don’t know how to bake and cook, you won’t know how to provide food for your young or people in your family,” she said.

Amelia Chavez, 10, of Powhatan also came with her younger sister, Cici, 9. Amelia said she had made different kinds of baked goods before and she wanted to do the workshop because she enjoys the results.

“It tastes better when you make it yourself,” she said, adding the gingerbread cookies were her favorite.

Camryn Perkins, 11, of Fluvanna took the workshop while visiting her grandmother in Powhatan. She had baked before and wanted to take the workshop because she loves doing it. She learned how to use new tools, such as a grater, which they used to grate lemons and oranges for the bread.

Molly Schwend, 8, of Powhatan said she had made breads and cookies before and thought she would have a good time in the workshop. She said she likes baking and experimenting with recipes and appreciated the new perspective she gained.

“I learned that baking doesn’t always come out perfect like you want it. Today, when we made fudge, when we put it in the oven, it melted. But we could turn it into a chocolate dressing,” she said. “I learned if something turns out bad, you can always make something better.”

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