Few would say, looking back at 2008, that it was an easy year for Powhatan.
The worst of it, of course, has been told again and again, from living rooms to the courtroom.
The community was forced to consider that small town life was not immune to the violence of places that had always seemed so very far away.
But while the losses the community suffered would cast a certain pallor over the year — and some seemed desperate to say we’d lost our innocence — the community continued to come together and celebrate what it still had.
The following is a look back at some of the events that shaped the county in 2008.
• County suffers rash of violence
It started in June, and the first blow seemed to rock the community to its core.
When Powhatan High School student
Tahliek Taliaferro was killed on June 26, after what police and witnesses say was an altercation between two groups of young people in a Flat Rock parking lot, many Powhatan residents were shocked that such an event had happened in their community.
In fact, before that day, there had not been a murder in the county in over five years.
Taliaferro, a popular student and star on the Indians football team, was
mourned by thousands a few days later at Powhatan High School.
The Sheriff’s Department would make eight arrests in the murder, eventually charging
three Powhatan residents with first degree murder and
five more with accessory after the fact and obstruction of justice.
Sadly, the violence was just beginning. By the end of the year, three more people would be killed, including
Donald Malkemus, 49 ,
Earl David McCoy, 48, and
Anthony McKoy.
Police maintain that none of the shootings were related.
• The economy hits the skids
It was the event that affected millions of American and took over the national television airwaves: the United States economy was in crises. By the time the leaves began to fall, everyone knew someone who had been laid off or a business that had been forced to close its doors.
Powhatan, of course, was
not immune. While commercial building permit numbers were up—a welcome bit of good news—so was unemployment. Businesses from car dealerships to restaurants to hair salons felt the pinch as residents cut back on spending.
A few businesses seemed in a better position than others to weather the storm. While those selling cars struggled, mechanics found business booming as people apparently chose to repair vehicles rather than buy new ones.
• School system changes grading scale
In June, the Powhatan County School Board
voted 4-1 in favor of amending the school system’s grading scale, citing, among other reasons, the need for Powhatan’s students to be able to compete with those in other counties for college admissions and scholarships.
District 2 representative Jason Moore was the only vote against the measure, which changes the range for an A from 95-100 to 93-100.
According to information provided to the board by local parents, Powhatan was one of five school systems in the state that had such a strict scale.
The change, say parents, will mean children in Powhatan will not have to count on college admissions officials knowing that students in surrounding counties, such as Chesterfield and Amelia, could get the same GPA as a Powhatan student without achieving the same academic standard.
To local parent Rich Firth, who had been one of the most vocal supporters of the change, the board’s decision was a sign that the county is making progress not just in the school system but as a community.
“Folks came together in a way that was very positive, and there are some wonderful leaders emerging in our county,” he told the board. after the vote was taken.
• House Bill 113 is signed
The ceremonial signing of House Bill 113 and Senate Bill 368 by Governor Tim Kaine on May 6th was the culmination of extensive efforts by Powhatan County Attorney Bob Beasley, State Representative Lee Ware, State Senator John Watkins and District 2 Supervisor Charlie Green.
Green theorized this new legislation after his son, Powhatan Sheriff Deputy Robbie Green, lost his life while pursuing a fleeing felon, Khalil Jerry Walker, on Sept. 20 2006.
When the murder charge against Walker was dismissed by Judge Thomas V. Warren, Green’s mindset was to “close that loop hole in the law. I did not want another family or police officer to go through a trial and then suffer a dismissal,” he said.
• Powhatan votes
While the county stayed Republican in 2008’s historic Presidential election, it did follow the majority of the country in one respect: a surge in voters.
The election also proved a boon for Powhatan High School government teachers, who welcomed the C-SPAN Campaign 2008 Bus in early October.
The bus, which is essentially a television production studio on wheels, offered students the opportunity to view a different side of the news business.
• 180th deployed again
For the second time in five years, the Virginia National Guard unit based in Powhatan was ordered to active duty.
After a send off celbration at Powhatan High School Oct. 13, the group headed to Wisconsin for training, arriving in Iraq in mid-December.
“The Virginia National Guard continues to play a vital role in the Global War on Terror,” said Maj. Gen. Robert. B. Newman, Jr., the Adjutant General of Virginia.
Formerly known as Company A, 276th Engineering Battalion, the 180th Engineer Company is trained as a horizontal construction company. As such, their mission entails constructing protective barriers and maintaining roads.
• And who could forget…
Flat Rock it is: After putting it to a county-wide vote, the Powhatan School officials finally decided on a name for the county’s newest Elementary School. The building, completed in early October, was named after the Flat Rock area of Powhatan, which itself was named after a flat rock in the area thought to have been used in Native American ceremonies.
Tough birds: In April, Amber Kimmich was finally able to release 16 cedar waxwings she rehabilitated in her Powhatan home. In mid-February, the birds had gotten stuck in a gooey pigeon repellent applied to ledges on the General Assembly Building. More than 30 waxwings died at Capitol Square.
Kimmich and other volunteers from the Animal Rehabbers Klub, had saved the birds from certain death, repeatedly washing the survivors to remove the goo that glued their feathers together. Of the 53 waxwings that Kimmich took in, 27 survived.
Old lakes get fresh start: On April 24, four years after being washed away by a freak thunderstorm, the Powhatan Lakes are officially reopened.
Sometime between 11 and 11:30 p.m. on June 16, 2004, the upper dam of the Powhatan Lakes, which predated the Civil War, had overflowed and then burst, washing out the lower dam. The event was attributed to a summer storm that had stalled over the County, dumping over five inches of rain in less than two hours.
Repair work began in earnest in March of 2007.
New principal: After 19 years as the principal of Powhatan High School, Rick Cole officially retired at the end of the 2008 school year. Taking his place at the helm is Bob Carden, who had previously served as assistant principal.
Teacher of the year, times two: For what was presumed to be the first time in the history of the Powhatan County school system, two identical twins were named Teacher of the Year in the same year. Mike Morin, a fourth grade teacher at Powhatan Elementary School, and his brother Matt, a fifth grade science teacher at Pocahontas Middle School, were each awarded the honor at a School Board meeting in May.
Concerning the fact that students can go directly from Mike’s classroom to Matt’s when they move to middle school, Mike said they see it as only natural: “We just hand them up,” he laughed. “We call it the Morin child factory.”
This is history, baby: On June 7, Powhatan’s baseball team made school history by winning the program’s first ever State Championship. After the seniors on the team received their diplomas in a special ceremony at home plate, the Indians beat Alleghany 7-4 to put the crowning touch on a 23-3-1 season. “I’m absolutely speechless,” said Head Coach Gregg Conner after the game. “I’m just so proud.”
Habitat house: Habitat for Humanity Powhatan was finally able to begin work on a home for a local family that had been waiting for two years. In mid-September, the Merrick family became the fourth family to break ground on a Powhatan Habitat house.
