Category: Caroline County

An addendum to my post about the proposed open burning ordinance.

When I wrote my post yesterday about the proposed open burning ordinance I was not aware that it was an adaptation of the Air Pollution Control Board’s model ordinance. According to Mike Finchum, Director of Planning and Community Development, the Control Board told county staff that they were not allowed to change certain provisions of the ordinance that would result in more lax restrictions than were in the model ordinance. As I recall, the only provision that was changed from the model ordinance was that citizens should notify Caroline County Communications before they burn anything. As such, the stated purpose and writing of the ordinance was not the responsibility of the Board or county staff as a whole.

Last night, the Board decided to hold off adopting the ordinance due to concerns that they had, as well as a couple points that I made during the public hearing.

Guess they don’t have anything better to do: Caroline County Board of Supervisors considering seven pages of open burning regulations.

Addendum: When I wrote this post yesterday about the proposed open burning ordinance I was not aware that it was an adaptation of the Air Pollution Control Board’s model ordinance. According to Mike Finchum, Director of Planning and Community Development, the Control Board told county staff that they were not allowed to change certain provisions of the ordinance that would result in more lax restrictions than were in the model ordinance. As I recall, the only provision that was changed from the model ordinance was that citizens should notify Caroline County Communications before they burn anything. As such, the stated purpose and writing of the ordinance was not the responsibility of the Board or county staff as a whole.

Last night (2009-05-12), the Board decided to hold off adopting the ordinance due to concerns that they had, as well as a couple points that I made during the public hearing.

And these go much farther than the regular statewide regulations (PDF).

And consider this: According to the Virginia Department of Forestry, only two other jurisdictions in the state have local burning regulations in place: Roanoke County and Isle of Wight County.

The public hearing for the proposed ordinance is today at 7:30 p.m.

Thoughts (broken done by section):

§ 72-2. Purpose:

The purpose of this article is to protect public health, safety, and welfare by regulating open burning within Caroline County to achieve and maintain, to the greatest extent practicable, a level of air quality that will provide comfort and convenience while promoting economic and social development.

If the county was so concerned about the health and welfare of its citizens when it comes to the air quality in the county, they should be sending letters to the folks at Fort A.P. Hill every day or filing a lawsuit for violation of the Clean Air Act. It seems to me that Fort A.P. Hill likes to burn stuff every other day this year. Do you know how annoying that gets when you go outside and you have to smell the smoke and have to put up with the haze that is created by it?

And the hilarious thing was that Fort A.P. Hill was burning stuff during the day when everyone else in the state couldn’t because of the statewide fire burn. Remember back in the ’90s when they lost control of one of their “control burns” and they had to shut down Route 301 because it was burning across and by the road? Even this year, visibility was close to zero driving up Route 301 towards Port Royal at night due to the smoke.

And the folks on the Board of Supervisors or in the county government think the pressing concern is Jim Bob burning some stuff in his yard?

Portion of § 72-3. Definitions:

“Built-up area” means any area with a substantial portion covered by industrial, commercial or residential buildings.

The term “built-up area” is used to determine whether someone should be approved or denied for a permit to burn and other stuff (more on that later). However, what exactly does the word “substantial” mean in that definition? It doesn’t provide a minimum population distribution, building distribution, or square footage distribution, per square mile. What someone from Wyoming considers “substantial” development is going to be a lot different than what someone from New York City considers “substantial” development.

Also note the following two definitions for later reference:

“Garbage” means readily putrescible discarded materials composed of animal, vegetable or other organic matter.

[…]

“Household waste” means any waste material, including garbage, trash and refuse derived from households. For purposes of this regulation, households include single and multiple residences, hotels and motels, bunkhouses, ranger stations, crew quarters, campgrounds, picnic grounds and day-use recreation areas. Household wastes do not include sanitary waste in septic tanks (septage) which is regulated by state agencies.

Onward to a portion of § 72-5. Exemptions:

The following activities are exempted to the extent covered by the State Air Pollution Control Board’s Regulations for the Control and Abatement of Air Pollution:

B. Open burning for camp fires or other fires that are used solely for recreational purposes, for ceremonial occasions, for outdoor noncommercial preparation of food, and for warming of outdoor workers;

So, a regular citizen can still hold a barbecue, but if he hires someone to do the barbecuing for him (say for a party), the person hired would be required to get approval from the Director of Fire and Rescue (no offense to the person currently in that position on an interim basis, Mark Garnett, of course), since it’s being done for a commercial purpose.

And what if a business wants to hold a barbecue as part of an open house or some such? Since that would be for commercial purposes as well, they would also have to get approval from the Director.

It’s also a damn good thing that the barbecue place in Port Royal went out of business otherwise this ordinance could have put them out of business.

Now to § 72-6. Permissible open burning:

B. Open burning is permitted on-site for the destruction of household waste by homeowners or tenants, provided that the following conditions are met:

[…]

3. Garbage is not burned; (and)

Remember those definitions that I pointed out above? The term “garbage” (defined as “readily putrescible discarded materials composed of animal, vegetable or other organic matter”) is included in the definition of “household waste”. So, they say you can burn “household waste” (which includes “garbage”) but then say you can’t burn “garbage”. So, insistently, you couldn’t burn any organic waste that is generated by your household under this section.

From the same section:

C. Open burning is permitted on-site for destruction of debris waste [defined as “wastes resulting from land clearing operations. Debris wastes include but are not limited to stumps, wood, brush, leaves, soil and road spoils” in § 72-3] resulting from property maintenance, from the development or modification of roads and highways, parking areas, railroad tracks, pipelines, power and communication lines, buildings or building areas, sanitary landfills, or from any other clearing operations that may be approved by Director, provided the following conditions are met:

1. All reasonable effort shall be made to minimize the amount of material burned, with the number and size of the debris piles approved by Director;

2. The material to be burned shall consist of brush, stumps and similar debris waste and shall not include demolition material;

3. The burning shall be at least 500 feet from any occupied building unless the occupants have given prior permission, other than a building located on the property on which the burning is conducted;

4. The burning shall be conducted at the greatest distance practicable from highways and air fields,

5. The burning shall be attended at all times and conducted to ensure the best possible combustion with a minimum of smoke being produced;

6. The burning shall not be allowed to smolder beyond the minimum period of time necessary for the destruction of the materials; and

7. The burning shall be conducted only when the prevailing winds are away from any city, town or built-up area.

In short, this subsection requires you to request a permit from the Director (see § 72-7), get permission on how much and what you can burn, and figured out which way the “prevailing winds” are so the smoke doesn’t blow towards any “city, town or built-up area” (and remember how vague the term “built-up area” is) before you can simply burn a stump or other “debris waste”.

§ 72-7. Permits.

This lengthy section deals with the process for approving permits by the Director.

Here’s the important part: A “permit may be issued for each occasion of burning or for a specific period of time deemed appropriate by the Director.” What exactly is “a specific period of time deemed appropriate by the Director”? Does that mean the Director can arbitrary cancel or revoke someone’s permit on a whim if he deems it “appropriate”?

And the worst part about that section is if the Director denies you a permit, there’s no appeals process. You can’t go to the Planning Commission or the Board of Supervisors looking for a permit if the Director refuses to issue one. Again, no offense to Mark Garnett, but that doesn’t cut it for me.

§ 72-8. Penalties for violation:

A. Any violation of this ordinance is punishable as a Class 1 misdemeanor, in accordance with § 15.2-1429 of the Code of Virginia.

B. Each separate incident may be considered a new violation.

For those unaware, a Class 1 misdemeanor is punishable by up to a year in jail and/or a fine not more than $2,500. So, have fun when you get arrested for not getting a permit to burn a stump on your property or when you’re barbecuing for commercial purposes.

And who will be responsible for enforcing this act? The Sheriff’s Office who is forcing employees to take week-long unpaid furloughs?

Or the Department of Fire and Rescue? Are they that hard-pressed for work? If so, they need to lay some people off over there…

Some General Thoughts

Am I the only person that thinks that this act would be in direct conflict with the “rural preservation” and “agricultural preservation” areas of the county? After all, those areas were created supposedly to preserve the rural and agricultural nature of portions of the county. But now, we have the government coming in telling property owners if they want to burn a stump, they have to get a permit from the government among other asinine requirements. Something that people have been doing in this county for centuries going down the drain because of those geniuses on the Board of Supervisors.

Lawrence Gaudenzi pleads guilty, gets 25 years in prison.

He also refused to say where the body was (The Free Lance–Star, Ellen Biltz’s Twitter page), which I found a little weird.

Couple of possibilities there: The prosecution knew that the body was disposed of in such a way that nothing could be recovered and didn’t want Gaudenzi to be able to get a lighter sentence because he disclosed what happened to the body. I was also wondering if he would come forward during sentencing and voluntarily disclose where the body was in an attempt to get the judge to reduce the sentence by a couple years, but that isn’t the case since he was just sentenced and no mention of the actual disclosure of the body was made in Ellen Biltz’s tweets.

I’m also ignoring the most obvious one: The guy’s an evil piece of s— and enjoys hurting people, even if it’s the victim’s family.

The Free Lance–Star shows its utter contempt for the citizens of Caroline County.

From an editorial in yesterday’s edition:

HAD IT FOLLOWED a trajectory of indifference just a few years ago, Caroline County now would be a place where residents of one rural community waded through raw sewage; children’s teeth rotted in their head, causing them so much pain they could not follow their teachers’ instruction; and many county people found it hard to borrow a book or log onto a computer.

Yeehaw! We bango-playing slack-jawed yokels here in Caroline County can’t do nothin’ without the benevolent government doin’ it for us! We don’t know nothin’ ’bout them series of tubes and that computer box thing! Dentist, what be a dentist? Why, I just use a pair of pliers to fix me teethes!

And when did this “tolerance of indifference” end? A later section of the article notes “the turn of this century”. Are they implying that the county government didn’t care about these things until recently? What does that say about Board members that have been on the Board since 1988 or 1992?

Hey, apparently County Administrator Percy Ashcraft thinks $1,250,000 is chump change as well.

You get the government you deserve folks. From today’s edition of The Free Lance–Star:

Caroline County Administrator Percy Ashcraft told fair officials that he welcomes all to the fair, but he really wants Caroline County residents to benefit from it.

“We are the host county and we want to feel like the host county,” Ashcraft said at the meeting. “With the [National Scout] Jamboree, we were the host county and we didn’t feel like it.”

And going way back to the October 15, 2001 edition of The Free Lance–Star:

Caroline County made more than $1.25 million in food and hotel-room sales during last summer’s National Scout Jamboree, a new report shows.

The total regional economic impact of the jamboree was expected to be in the tens of millions of dollars, officials from Fort A.P. Hill, which hosts the event, said earlier this summer.

[…]

Caroline’s gross food sales this July were nearly $1.16 million more than for the same month last year, when no jamboree was held, according to the report.

County hotels earned about $128,000 more than last year.

The report also said that gasoline sales were far above typical for July, and that many local contractors and suppliers of building materials were used to prepare A.P. Hill for the jamboree. Exact figures for these two sectors were not available for the report, [Director of Economic Development Gary] Wilson said.

Wife of a Board of Supervisors member calls for the tarring and feathering of a citizen if he goes to a public meeting.

Ah, good old oharascarlett (I would link to thread but it has since been deleted due to her antics):

Sorry Minx but the eye rolling is very real, Yesitsme did this all to himself with his contiuning behavior and public officials are very real human beings with feelings also.

He took asking questions way beyond what was fair and reasonable and hurt many, many people.

Hate is a strong word, no I can’t say I hate Yes in fact was on board with him in the beginning thinking perhaps he had been treated unfairly but over the months learned completely otherwise.

As is usually the case with someone like Yes, the local schoolyard bully there are distinct advantages to offering a counterpoint to his arguments on a public blog and I promise you Scarlett never writes anything she does not want read by people. In other words Yes is and continues to be very useful. You can’t hate a guy like that, hes better than a direct mailer.

I am now far more interested in seeing Yes in front of the Bowling Green town council. What say you Asst Chief? Can we get a bit of tar and feathers going in the back room, the next first Thursday of the month.

As a side question, isn’t referring to yourself in third-person a sign of schizophrenia? Not to mention that the only reason the person oharascarlett is attacking (YesItsMe) joined the forum was because of the trash she was posting; she was never “on board with him in the beginning”.

Another post:

C’mon now Yes a little gentle feather bath might do you some good, white feathers of course or at a least a white streak right down the middle.

Caroline County Board of Supervisors finally makes users of the county water/sewer system pay their fair share.

The Caroline County Board of Supervisors voted 3–2 Tuesday night to increase the rates for water and sewer service on the county’s utility system.

For years, this system has failed to be self-sufficient, requiring last year approximately a $300,000 subsidy from the general fund. The general fund is, of course, from taxes that all citizens pay. So, the folks in Bowling Green, Port Royal, Damn, etc. have been getting taxed at a higher rate than necessary — the equivalent of a whole cent on the tax rate last year — so the poor little folks in Ladysmith and Ruther Glen didn’t have to pay more on their water bill.

I’m curious, has the county ever subsidized any citizen’s cost for maintaining a septic tank? Hell, they want you guys to have your septic tank pumped every two years or whatever at your cost.

Has the county even paid for someone’s electric bill which is used to power your water pump to get water from your well? Let’s see…uh, hell no.

And last year, those lovable geniuses on the Board decided that it would be a good idea to increase the cost of one-time connection fees — which is supposed to go to pay off the system’s debt — so the money could be diverted into the operating fund for the system. “Wow, let’s use one-time money to pay for continuing expenditures on a system!” Sounds like something the federal government would do, no?

The two supervisors that voted against the increase, Wayne Acors and Floyd Thomas (note that the majority of the system’s users are in their districts), voted against the increase saying, according to The Free Lance–Star, “they would prefer to see the rates change at a slower pace instead of hitting residents all at once.” ((Portsia Smith. “Caroline changes water, sewer rates”. The Free Lance–Star 12 Mar 2009. The Free Lance-Star Publishing Co. 12 Mar 2009 <http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/032009/03122009/451713>.)) Wow, so the county should continue to subsidize citizens’ water bills when public safety positions are getting unpaid furloughs and the Planning Department just got six positions axed.

Absolutely brilliant…

Another priceless quote from the esteemed Gary Wilson, Director of Economic Development for Caroline County.

A follow-up to my previous post:

Richmond Times-Dispatch, July 31, 2001:

Although Caroline County hasn’t calculated the economic impact the jamboree has on the region, officials say the quadrennial gathering is one of the most significant economic events in the area. On state Route 207 leading from Interstate 95 to Bowling Green, gas stations, restaurants and local businesses prominently display signs welcoming Scouts and visitors to the area – and their business.

The jamboree business boom appears to be good, said Gary Wilson, Caroline’s director of economic development.

“So far, all the information has to be anecdotal, but we could probably use another hotel or two,” Wilson said. “All of our hotels are booked.”

In Fredericksburg, local hotels have been booked for two weeks before and two weeks after the jamboree, apparently from visitors who came early or will linger, particularly to see the Civil War battlefields in the area, said Kathy Beard, director of economic development and tourism in Fredericksburg.

In downtown Fredericksburg, streets are more congested than usual with visitors flocking to visit the antiques shops, cafes and boutiques that line Caroline Street, Beard said.

“The level of this spike does not occur until the Boy Scouts return,” she said. “No other event brings the kind of impact this project does.”

At Main Street Cafe in Bowling Green, owner Maxine Miller has employed family and friends to help her serve the extra customers, and her mother has been working overtime to bake the cafe’s signature homemade pies.

“We’re very pleased,” Miller said. “We love this. We had the Boy Scouts of America band come in the other day. . . . I don’t know what kind of food they have over there, but they ate good. They really enjoyed themselves with the milkshakes.”

At Roma’s, the Amatos hired seven extra workers for the week, rented the building next door to accommodate overflow crowds and added tables to the restaurant. After doubling their food inventory, they found out it still wasn’t enough.

“We can’t keep enough lettuce in the house to make salads,” Josephine Amato said.

But a group of about 20 jamboree youth staff chowing down on mushroom and pepperoni pizzas in the middle of the restaurant didn’t seem to notice. They were just happy to get food away from camp.

“Lunch has been sandwiches all week. Breakfast has gotten to the point where we really don’t get up for it anymore. This is great. And he’s paying the bill,” said Steven Anderson, 19, of Wichita, Kan., as his leader pulled out his wallet.

I threw in the stuff from Kathy Beard just because of the irony of the fact that she now works for Gary Wilson as Tourism Manager or whatever.

Gary Wilson is an outright, pathological liar; and I have proof.

Here’s what Gary Wilson had to say about the National Boy Scout Jamboree leaving Caroline County in today’s edition of the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

Meanwhile, Caroline County Economic Development Director Gary Wilson said yesterday that the county wasn’t particularly stung by the loss, because the jamboree was self-contained and didn’t add that much to the local economy.

[…]

The jamborees routinely attract 30,000 to 40,000 Boy Scouts and their leaders, along with hundreds of thousands of visitors.

Despite those numbers, Wilson said the jamborees typically have not left a massive economic footprint on the locality, primarily because the participants tend to arrive in buses, go directly to the military post and stay there.

“We did a study after the last jamboree that indicated the actual increase in sales for a two or three-week period every year was about $815,000,” Wilson said. “Caroline County is not particularly feeling any sting from the loss of the Boy Scouts, frankly. A.P. Hill is hermetically sealed, practically, and we just didn’t get very much out of it.”

First, it’s absolutely amazing that the Economic Development Director considers $815,000 to be chump change. Especially as the county is forcing the Sheriff’s Office to give unpaid furloughs to sheriff’s deputies due to budget cuts.

And here’s what Gary Wilson had to say about the National Boy Scout Jamboree after the ACLU successfully sued the Department of Defense on the grounds that the DOD couldn’t constitutionally provide support to the Boy Scouts of America and thus the jamboree couldn’t be held at Fort A.P. Hill (the case has since been successfully appealed and the Boy Scouts could legally hold the jamboree there):

Losing the jamboree would be a serious blow for Caroline, which gets about $1 million in revenue during the event, said Gary Wilson, the county’s economic development director. Events such as model train shows and book fairs are timed to coincide with the jamboree, and local businesses print up promotional material to hand out to Scouts’ families.

Residents work at the event and sell the Scouts raw materials, and guests fill hotels and restaurants.

“Our hotels are booked four years in advance,” Wilson said.

That’s from the July 17, 2005 edition of The Washington Post.

From the May 23, 2004 edition of The Free Lance–Star:

Caroline County, a popular stopover for people visiting Paramount’s Kings Dominion, isn’t expecting a significant increase in visitation this summer. But the numbers should climb next year, said Gary Wilson, the county’s economic development director.

[…]

“We’ll also have the 2005 Boy Scout Jamboree,” Wilson said. “That’s always a plus.”

And then there’s this story from WFLS from September 10, 2003:

Having your name on a Boy Scout logo…Priceless.

Soon Boy Scouts everywhere will be recognizing Caroline County.

The organization is changing its international jamboree logo to include a prominent reference to the county. Economic Development Director, Gary Wilson, says by the year 2005, just in time for the next event, every item related to the Boy Scout Jamboree will say Caroline County, Virginia.

Wilson says this is a thank you from the Boy Scout organization

The recognition is expected to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars of free marketing for the county.

And going way back to the October 15, 2001 edition of The Free Lance–Star:

Caroline County made more than $1.25 million in food and hotel-room sales during last summer’s National Scout Jamboree, a new report shows.

The total regional economic impact of the jamboree was expected to be in the tens of millions of dollars, officials from Fort A.P. Hill, which hosts the event, said earlier this summer.

[…]

Caroline’s gross food sales this July were nearly $1.16 million more than for the same month last year, when no jamboree was held, according to the report.

County hotels earned about $128,000 more than last year.

The report also said that gasoline sales were far above typical for July, and that many local contractors and suppliers of building materials were used to prepare A.P. Hill for the jamboree. Exact figures for these two sectors were not available for the report, Wilson said.

Great one, Gary: National Boy Scout Jamboree moving to Goshen, Virginia.

I wonder how much sales and gasoline taxes the country is going to lose from buses that used to stop at Carmel Church (Richmond Times-Dispatch):

The Boy Scouts of America may be doing a good deed for Virginia and West Virginia.

The organization announced yesterday it has settled on Goshen, Va., as the permanent home for its national jamboree. The community is in Rockbridge County near the George Washington National Forest.

[…]

Scout officials told the Charleston Daily Mail the decisions come after an 18-month review of possible locations to create a national scouting center. The center would focus on creating a permanent home for the jamboree, establishing a new high-adventure base and creating new training opportunities.

Now, can someone explain to me why the county is paying $200,000+ to the Economic Development Office for Gary Wilson’s expert leadership? Can someone show me a single thing he has done to get any economic development in the county?