Category: Blue Louisa

News and views contributed or curated by our members.

Bad Votes on Education Bills

Education is something Virginians really care about. Virginia Commonwealth University took a poll recently and found that 70 percent of Virginians think Virginia schools need more funding.

Louisa’s delegate in Richmond, however, consistently votes against issues the Virginia Education Association calls “crucial education bills.” In 2021, John McGuire voted against five of the six such bills in the House. Accordingly, the VEA gives our delegate a 17 percent score in supporting education.

The six bills included the following:
House Bill 1736 – School Nurse bill, McGuire voted against.
House Bill 1904 – Cultural Competency, McGuire voted against.
House Bill 2027 – Growth Assessment, McGuire voted for.
House Bill 2176 – Abusive Work Environment, McGuire voted against.
House Bill 2305 – Governor’s Schools, McGuire voted against.
House Bill 1257 – Standards of Quality, McGuire voted against.

On education, John McGuire earned a failing grade.

Jim Wolf
Louisa

This letter was previously published in the July 8, 2021 edition of the Central Virginian newspaper and is reprinted here with the author’s permission. 

Questions why MaGuire opposes the ERA

The 19th amendment to the Constitution, the one that gave women the right to vote, was passed on June 4th 1919. On this 102nd anniversary we still have not added the 28th amendment, the amendment that will give women equality of rights under the law.
 
75% of US citizens favor this amendment according to a recent poll by the Associated Press Center for Public Affairs. This includes a majority of both Republicans and Democrats. And yet our representative in the general assembly, John Maguire, voted against ratifying it. Fortunately, it passed last year without his vote and Virginia became the 38th state to say yes.
 

Why did he vote against it?

 Some say that women already have equal rights and that it’s already in some state constitutions. But states can change their constitutions. We need to make equality permanent. My mother remembers when women could not have a credit card in their own name, could not serve on a jury, and were denied many other things we consider unthinkable now. We don’t want to risk returning to those days.
 
So what’s the real reason? Does he not think women should have equal rights?
 
Fortunately we have a choice this November and can vote for Blakely Lockhart to represent the 56th district in Richmond. Her votes will represent the views of most of her constituents rather than the dictates of an extremist ideology.
 
Thank you,
 
Sara Macel
Louisa
This letter was previously published in the Central Virginian newspaper and is reprinted here with the author’s permission

BOS CORE VALUE OF INTEGRITY

Honesty, straightforwardness, and strong moral principles are closely related. My perception of the Board of Supervisors makes me doubt its ability to satisfy Integrity as one of its Core Values. I’ve seen little to persuade me and wonder how many others are as unconvinced as I am. A large part of the Board’s image, I believe, is of its own making. The anecdote of the corporate board meeting best describes the workings of the people Louisa Citizens elected to fulfill that public office.

“Think of board members having a discussion about financing the corporation’s infrastructure. There may be one or two with the knowledge and experience to adequately address all the important points. When the meeting turns to purchasing equipment and other facility resources, maybe half the members are able to have an intelligent conversation. When the agenda item finally reaches what brand of coffee should be provided in the company kitchen, they’re all experts.”

That’s pretty much the view I have of the Board, except that any expertise with the functioning of high-level finances and operations is overly exaggerated. Basically, there’s no evidence I’ve seen to contradict my view. If someone has that kind of information, it would help to share it with the rest of us.

In the meantime, the Board continues to give the false impression of a competence that’s been bought and paid for with props provided by the likes of Timmons Group. The Board hides its lack of expertise for a reason, to display an aura of authority and omniscience, which is a dangerous combination to those of us who are subjected to it. It certainly has the “authority” to abuse but lacks the omniscience necessary for wisdom. Over time, the perpetuation of that combination results in the kind of mismanagement we get to see from the officials we elected to pursue our best interest, instead of theirs.

Where I see dishonesty, and the accompanying lack of Integrity, is the mercenary approach the Board takes to deceive Louisa that it has the requisite understanding of local government functions. You hire an expert to tell you want you want to hear and convince everyone else in the process.

How many times, over how many issues, have the citizens of Louisa been lulled into a false expectation that the Board would respond to its wishes and concerns? Until the Monacan Nation pursued legal remedies, the Board had no hesitation squandering taxpayer dollars by ignoring the legitimacy of technical facts from citizens in favor of the toxic pablum disseminated by the likes of Timmons Group.

The people of Louisa still have to learn that the Board serves the people. That would be the best way to extract the Integrity that belongs to us.

These are my perceptions based on what I’ve seen and the Board hasn’t shown.

“Perception is Reality.”

Joe Mikolajczak
Gordonsville

This letter was previously published in the Central Virginian newspaper and is reprinted here with the author’s permission. You may find the original at The Central Virginian

Are Voters Turning to Competency Over Party?

The results of Tuesday’s snap election, authorized by the Board of Supervisors to the tune of $86,000, might signal political change in Culpeper and perhaps the rest of Virginia.

By an overwhelming margin, county voters chose Carson Beard, the only experienced candidate, to fill the clerk of the Circuit Court position. Mr. Beard ran a fact-based campaign on his qualifications and his long-standing ties to the community. He ran as an Independent. His opponent ran as a Republican, believing that his party affiliation guaranteed success. The voters proved him wrong.

In Virginia, voter registration does not require a declaration of party preference. We do not know how many Republicans, Democrats and Independents voted or for whom, but Beard could hardly have won more than two-thirds of the vote without support from all three corners. The Republican candidate lost despite touting the endorsements of local and statewide Republican officials and candidates. He was mistaken in assuming that a party label entitled him to a job for which he was clearly not qualified.

The election’s outcome is encouraging at a time in this country when partisanship has encouraged ugly actions at the Capitol and in speech. Words have fueled hatred and violence against “others” who may have different opinions, life-styles, religions, appearance, skin color, physical features and even disabilities. No one has seemed to be exempt. Perhaps the hatchet can buried in Culpeper.

Historically, few people vote in special elections, but those who did this time may foreshadow our local elections in November. Traditionally, candidates for town and county offices have not been affiliated with any political party. By law, in fact, party affiliation may not be designated on ballots below the level of the General Assembly.

The Chair of the Culpeper County Republican Committee has boasted that it will offer Republican-labeled candidates for all non-partisan local offices this year, whether Board of Supervisors, School Board, or Town Council. Perhaps the results of this week’s special election for clerk suggest that candidates should abandon partisan labels and focus on issues important to the community, offering policy options and stressing their qualifications.

The larger political picture is no different. This year, both parties have seen an unheard-of expansion in the number of candidates vying for the statewide offices. The Democratic Party will hold a statewide primary on June 8 for five candidates for Governor, eight candidates for Lieutenant Governor, and two candidates for Attorney General. These candidates represent considerable diversity in background and experience. All registered Virginia voters will be able to help choose the Party’s nominees in this primary.

The Culpeper County Democratic Committee has joined with surrounding county committees to organize a “Central Virginia Candidates’ Town Hall” so the voting public will have a chance to review the competence and experience of all 15 candidates. Candidates for Governor will present themselves on Wednesday, April 7. Candidates for Lieutenant Governor will appear on Wednesday, April 14, and Attorney General candidates will appear Wednesday, April 21. Check the Culpeper Democrat’s website for details: culpeperdemocrats.org.

Virginia Republicans, on the other hand, spent many months of messy internal debate before deciding to disenfranchise their party’s voters by holding a “disassembled” convention, rather than a primary, at 37 drive-through locations on May 8. This means that only convention delegates—the most ardent of the party faithful—will choose their nominees, in a ranked-voting process.

Culpeper’s new Clerk of the Circuit Court, Carson Beard, whose grandfather was Culpeper’s Republican delegate in the General Assembly, has shown definitively that voters will respond to competence and integrity over party ideology.

Let us hope that March’s example will carry into November.

Dave Reuther

David Reuther, a retired U.S. Foreign Service officer, is a past chair of the Culpeper Democratic Committee. These are his personal observations. This opinion piece was previously published by The Culpeper Star-Exponent at Will Culpeper persist in voting for qualified candidates rather than party affiliation?

County needs to slow down on business park 

I see in last week’s Central Virginian that Louisa County Economic Development Director Andy Wade is once again proposing that we spend $2.5 million to plan and buy easements for bringing utilities to the proposed Shannon Hill Business Park. He’s not only asking to put his request in the budget, he’s also asking to fast-forward the process so that the money would be available immediately rather than after July 1.

He is asking to spend this money for a project that has been dogged with problems. Parts of the due diligence report, on which further site study must be based and costs calculated, are not completed. We know this site has rugged terrain which will be a problem. These problems have not been solved and we have no information as to the cost.

Is this another government project where the taxpayers are seen as a bottomless pit whose money can be used so carelessly, without knowing the cost and feasibility of the project?

Just recently we saw what happened by pushing ahead with a plan in which we did not have all our ducks lined up. We put money into a pumping station on the James River at a location that was known to be the historic capital of the Monacans. We were warned that this would be a problem, but on the advice of our subcontractor, Timmons Group, we ignored that and plowed ahead until we were brought to heel by the Department of Historic Resources and the threat of overwhelming lawsuits. We lost the money we had put into the location.

 Timmons, the contractor who advised them to ignore the claims of the Monacans and hired unqualified people to try to get around laws regarding artifacts on historic sites, is the same contractor doing the engineering on this project. This should raise some eyebrows.

 We need to slow down. We do not know whether this park will be built. In every public hearing, the room has been filled with Louisa citizens saying, “We don’t want this kind of development in Louisa.” It’ It’s way too soon to commit more money to this project.

Mary Kranz
Louisa

This letter was previously printed in The Central Virginian newspaper and is reprinted here with the author’s permission.

No due diligence for business park

Louisa County government has been promoting the Shannon Hill business park entirely on the basis of its proximity to Interstate 64. That is a valid point. That might be a good place for such an investment if there is a good site and if good infrastructure is conveniently and economically available for the property that was purchased.

About the same time that the board of supervisors finally, and possibly illegally, approved the millions of dollars spent to purchase the business park property, they entered into a contract with Timmons Engineering for what was called a due diligence study. Basically it was to advise the county on how to develop the land they had purchased, after the same company had advised them to buy it.

There are lots of different things to evaluate in such a study. Costs and best method of developing the property; earthmoving; paving; utilities, environmental, cultural, and historical considerations; transportation access, etc.

Those were listed as the contract’s objectives.

That contract came into effect almost two years ago. Timmons made a presentation to the board in 2020, apparently accepted without comment, laying out what they called their “final plan” for the property’s development. It was basically an elaboration of previous material from our county planning department showing how one could arrange a number of large buildings on a flattened map of the project. No cost estimates have been provided, as far as I know, for grading and basically resurfacing around 600 acres of one of the more challenging sites in the vicinity.

As per previous publicity, no serious study has been made addressing how the site connects by the existing transportation corridor with most of the county and points north. They have published some existing traffic counts along route 605 and their subcontractor’s report on archeological and historical concerns. The “final plan” presented to the board did not clearly address these issues.

The due diligence study contract has not yet been completed, to the best of my knowledge. Some of the promised preliminary engineering reports are not yet available. Those are what the “final plan” is supposed to be based on. That is only common sense and actually is what their contract stipulates.

County Economic Development Director Andy Wade is now asking, in a public hearing scheduled for March 1, to give Timmons Engineering $2.5 million more just to study how best to spend an additional minimum $20-plus million (their figure) to build a pipeline for water and sewage from Ferncliff with an unestablished source, plus sewage pipe and pumping to take everything all the way back to Zion Crossroads to be treated and put into the South Anna back another 14 miles downstream. They have reported concerns about the possibility of unknown costs and risks in having to tunnel under the interstate and the Colonial Gas pipeline.

And they want this contract expedited. Seems a little greedy, in the least. Are we going to learn from the ancient wisdom stories about throwing good money after bad? In the meantime, what about using that beautiful forest property for citizens’ nature and recreation pursuits? Surely we can do better.

William Hale
Louisa

This letter was previously printed in The Central Virginian newspaper and is reprinted here with the author’s permission.