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Published: Sep 14, 2011
Lessons from the leaves Whenever the fall comes, I think of a friend of mine who passed away from cancer a few years back ...
No, wait! Come back! This is not that kind of editorial. This isn’t a sad story, because my friend would not have wanted it to be. It‘s not even a story about fall really, not exactly anyway, because that wasn’t
when she died. The reason I think of my friend this time of year, as the weather begins to cool and the days get shorter, is because of the leaves. To be a leaf, usually, is to be an utterly ordinary thing, usually not noticed… Read more...
Published: Aug 04, 2011
Apartment plan sure to irk some I was walking my dog a few weeks ago, Blackberry in hand, when I got the first e-mail about the plan to put 220 apartments near the intersection of Stavemill Road and Route 60.
Fitting, I suppose, since within about two weeks my dog would be the only one who hadn’t expressed an opinion of some kind on the issue (she’s a great dog, by the way. As long as she gets plenty of food and rubs she does not give a hoot about property rezonings or CUP applications.) Needless to say, Powhatan, this will not be the first issue in recent years to bring out the sabers. There… Read more...
Published: Jul 20, 2011
A final farewell Powhatan residents gathered last Saturday to pay their final respects to Dr. Lou Ross Hopewell, the founder of Blessed Sacrament school and the leader of the merger that would ultimately form Blessed Sacrament Huguenot. Though I did not know Dr. Hopewell personally, it has been such a pleasure to hear the stories in recent weeks of the lives she touched and all wonderful things she accomplished. Dr. Hopewell demonstrated an incredible zeal for life, a passion for education, and the courage and persistence to make her dreams a reality. We here at Powhatan Today salute her tireless efforts… Read more...
Published: Jul 20, 2011
Bearer of tough news? On a lighter note, but still speaking of courage, the editorial staff of Powhatan Today would like to applaud County Building Official Ralph Shelton for the remarks he made during a recent BOS workshop about enforcing the state’s Property Maintenance Code. Shelton, despite having received a letter from another building official warning him that code enforcement is often unpleasant—and sometimes downright dangerous—still told county leaders that he would be very willing to switch from a complaint-based policy to an enforcement policy for maintenance violations (essentially,… Read more...
Published: Jul 20, 2011
Where did the time go? As I’ve said in these pages before, time certainly does fly when you work in the newspaper business. I know, I know—time pretty much flies for all of us, no matter what we do. And it certainly does seem to fly faster the older you get. I was reminded of this during an editorial meeting the other day, when someone brought up the fact that the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is fast approaching. We all know this, of course. But somehow it still does not seem like it’s been an entire decade since that one, terrible, unthinkable day. As we draw closer to the… Read more...
Published: Jul 13, 2011
County has many All-Star volunteers When you get right down to it, volunteering is kind of an odd way to spend your time. Let’s face it: just about all of us are stretched to the max in one way or another these days, be it for time or for money. And with the demands put on us by busy careers and often busier personal lives, it just doesn’t seem to make sense –or cents as the case may be—to go giving our precious time away for nothing. Add to that that so many of those who give so freely to their communities are not the ones with oodles of extra time to spare. No, they are usually the ones with full… Read more...
Published: Jun 01, 2011
Tragedies do not dim county’s bright light As much as so many of us love our community, it has been painful in recent weeks to hear it linked, yet again, with violence. As certain as most of us are that we still live in a beautiful community, full of hardworking, compassionate people there are plenty of those outside who now likely associate Powhatan with newsreel footage of police cars and crime scene tape. Have we lost something? Yes. But perhaps not what most outsiders looking in would think. We sit at an odd juncture in our community’s journey. We are now big enough to not be entirely surprised that… Read more...
Published: Jun 01, 2011
Work groups allow residents to help resolve county’s issues The idea of involving citizens in solving problems faced by our community has recently been criticized and dismissed. For instance, it has been suggested that chartering work teams or study groups is a way for individual Supervisors or the Board of Supervisors-as-a-whole to avoid accountability for making decisions or to excuse Supervisors from doing the hard work of government. Or more nefariously, that the Board can “stack the deck” of appointees in order to get a pre-ordained recommendation. I unequivocally reject all three of these accusations. I have… Read more...
Published: May 25, 2011
Show will offer overdue ‘thank you’ Last week, as I was speaking to Powhatan resident Ruth Boatwright about Relay For Life for the front page story in this week’s edition, the conversation turned—as it almost always does with Ruth—to our community’s veterans. As the creator and driving force behind the annual Salute to Veterans, Ruth will once again be bringing the wildly popular musical review to Powhatan High School for Memorial Day Weekend. While the show is dedicated to all of those who have served in our military, Ruth has made a point in recent years to dedicate each program to veterans… Read more...
Published: May 25, 2011
Exploding melons would have come in handy We could have used a couple of exploding watermelons back in the ’70s, when villains roamed the countryside snatching the fruits of our labor and destroying a young boy’s dream of riches beyond his wildest imagination. From the country that gave us rotten-egg-scented drywall and cadmium-filled children’s chew toys -– fueled by our desire for cheap goods—comes news of a fresh debacle: explosive melons likened to “land mines.” According to a story from the Associated Press, the leading source of information on volatile foods, farmers in… Read more...
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