Powhatan, you are the greatest

Dear Editor,

Powhatan, you are the greatest.

What a wonderful response the Christmas Mother Program received. We received donations from the Lions Club, not only from the club, but the individual men gave as well. This is a wonderful group of men who do so much for our county.

A big thank you also to Lisa Benusa of The Mill at Fine Creek who gave a wonderful chef tasting dinner, to her staff who donated their time, to her family, Mr. and Mrs. A.B. Lorenzoni, and her brother and sister-in-law Mr. and Mrs. Mark Lorenzoni. This one fundraiser brought in over $5,000. Lisa, you are the best.

A big thanks to the Bob and Karla Curtis, owners of Pie Tech, for the $6,000 check — this helped so many.

There are so many of you who donated, from $25 to the larger amounts.

Thanks to you, we went over our goal of $35,000.

We have received so many thank you notes, I wish I could read them all to you.

We are still helping in emergency cases. Powhatan, we can do so much more because of you. With so many people out of work, we were concerned that we would never reach our goal. But we were able to cover the needs of our county’s children, elderly and handicapped with toys, food, clothing and gifts.

Powhatan, please know that we love our county and we are so proud to live here.

Your 2009 Christmas Mother and Father,
Kay and Tommy Mann

Chief’s ceremony should have been covered

Dear Editor,

The county of Powhatan is very fortunate to have very dedicated, well trained personnel serving in its five fire departments and the rescue squad.  These men and women serve as volunteers and give many hours in training and are skilled in the latest techniques to provide care to those in need of their services. The county has been willing to provide excellent equipment to enable these people to do their jobs well.  The community, in turn, is supportive of these departments and provide donations that are needed to carry out the programs of the fire and rescue personnel.

 The fire and rescue services are well known and appreciated by the citizens. 

Yet, when the first paid County Fire and EMS Chief was sworn in on January 6, 2010, the ceremony was not covered by “Powhatan Today.” 

This was a significant change for the county that was overlooked by your newspaper.  I am of the opinion that your newspaper needs to extend its reporting to what is and can be in the future for Powhatan County. 

Changes are coming and too often your paper assumes things are what they used to be.
 
Janet Goodman
Midlothian   

New House bill seeks to limit FOIA protection
Dear Editor,

Powhatan Delegate Lee Ware has introduced a bill in the Virginia House of Delegates that would allow government to take a citizen to court for “harassing” the government or otherwise abusing the rights afforded citizens under Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

This bill would jeopardize the rights all Virginia citizens have in obtaining records that their government has prepared, generated or kept in the name of doing the public’s business.
The public has a critical interest in being able to monitor the government’s actions, and many do so by accessing records under FOIA.

A citizen never has to say why he or she wants the records, and a citizen is not limited by how many records they want to see (1, 100, 1000) or by how many (1, 10, 20) requests they may make.
Citizens make multiple requests for records for two primary reasons: (1) they learn something from records obtained in one request that leads to questions that could be answered by records from a subsequent request, and so on; or (b) they break a large requests into several smaller requests so that they can afford any fees that are charged.

The bill does not define harassment or abuse, which means it’s up to the government employee to decide when “enough is enough.” For the citizen contemplating his first, tenth or twentieth request, the prospect of being taken to court could inhibit him from exercising his statutory rights to seek records.

Another problem with the lack of definition for harassment or abuse of rights is that it’s not limited to the number of requests or the volume of records requested.

The terms can and will be interpreted subjectively by government employees, which could lead to accusations of harassment because a requester was rude, seemed nosy, or because the employee didn’t like the requester, the requester’s tie or the requester’s mother.

There are some individuals, for sure, who have used FOIA as a sword, to waste government’s time. But these individuals’ poor behavior should not be used as a justification to chill the rights of all citizens to access their own government’s records.

Megan Rhyne, Executive Director
Virginia Coalition for Open Government

Local business needs your support now

Dear Editor,
I would like to thank you, Rosyln Ryan for your article about local business optimism. As a member of the Powhatan Chamber of Commerce I can tell you that we are trying to be creative and think out of the box.

We have created new events that help the members network and refer each other’s businesses as well as promote access to the public. However, these efforts can only go so far.  We need the support of the citizens of Powhatan and we need it like never before. 

Local businesses help volunteer fire and rescue, churches, sports teams, clinics, schools, charities etc., to reach their goals and now we are asking  for you to help us.
We will not be able to continue these efforts if people do not Think, Shop and Buy Local. I think there is a common misconception that local business can not compete with the prices of larger companies.

So compare prices online or by phone and you will see that this is not always the case. Consider whether the pennies you might save by traveling across the county line outweighs the benefits of keeping your tax dollars at home. Powhatan has a wide variety of shops and services to offer the community so please take advantage of them. 

Support your local everything!

Sincerely,
Anita Cook Ridings
The Teachers’ Aide
Powhatan