Category: Virginia

Way to think big and be specific…

From the Richmond Times-Dispatch: Local government wish lists:

Local governments, like industries and other special-interest groups, have their own requests heading into the 2008 General Assembly session. The following are some requests of local officials in central Virginia.

[…]

Caroline County

  • Supports requests of Virginia Association of Counties

Uh-huh…you couldn’t come up with anything original or specific?

How about money for emergency services? A new radio system, perhaps? How about money for the Sparta Fire Station?

Money for the Dawn Wastewater Project, perhaps?

Funding for a full-time Commonwealth’s Attorney?

Meanwhile, here are some other counties’ concerns:

Amelia County

  • Impact fees in areas other than transportation
  • Support for local regulation of plastic bags
  • Funding for conservation easements and open-space preservation

Charles City County

  • Funding to design a new library

Chesterfield County

  • Transportation funding, protection of cash proffer and impact-fee authority
  • $358,000 for a mental-health and drug-treatment program for pre-trial detainees; a staffing review for sheriff’s deputies and other constitutional officers, and funding for a pre-release center at Riverside Regional Jail
  • Assistance with effects of illegal immigration and authority to require businesses to certify that they do not employ illegal immigrants
  • A DUI court for Chesterfield and Colonial Heights

Colonial Heights

  • Supports requests of Crater District Planning Commission and Virginia Municipal League

Cumberland County

  • Revisions to formula for school funding
  • Funding for High Bridge State Park project

Dinwiddie County

  • Supports requests of Virginia Association of Counties and Virginia Municipal League, and infrastructure funding from effects of Fort Lee expansion

Goochland County

  • Widen U.S. 250 from state Route 623 past state Route 621
  • Money to improve primary and secondary roads
  • Money for broadband
  • Relief from a requirement of at least four residential units per acre in planned urban-development areas
  • Designation of wild turkeys as big game

Hanover County

  • Funding for Hanover Juvenile Drug Treatment Court
  • Increase income limit from $50,000 to $62,000 for eligibility for elderly and disabled real estate tax-relief programs
  • Authority to prohibit soliciting of people in vehicles in public rights of way
  • Allow sharing of registered vehicle information with third parties for the issuance of summons and court proceedings
  • $10 million to replace Lewistown Road bridge

Henrico County

  • Increase state payments for Henrico’s road maintenance to levels provided to cities and towns
  • Authority to prohibit soliciting on all highways
  • Authority to establish a stream-restoration bank, allowing the sale of tax credits to offset restoration costs
  • Increase the threshold when an environmental impact report must be submitted for road construction and other major projects — the request would require reports for projects costing at least $500,000, up from $100,000

Hopewell

  • $98,785 for annual rent and debt payment and $5 million for a new social-services building
  • $1 million for economic development and revitalization in downtown
  • Funding to help meet water-quality mandates
  • $250,000 to plan new fire station and emergency-operations center
  • $300,000 for homeland security at the port and dock area

King William and King and Queen counties

  • Eliminate Coleman Bridge toll
  • Money for services and programs for troubled youths
  • Relief from monitoring requirements of local landfills

Louisa County

  • Funding for social services and schools
  • Allow the collection of impact fees from developers to pay for infrastructure beyond roads
  • New revenue sources for transportation and no shifts of maintenance and construction costs to localities

New Kent County

  • Allow mandatory connection to water and sewer systems
  • Authority to regulate well construction and water quality
  • Authority to require screening of automobile junkyards
  • Funding to replace Heritage Public Library
  • Money for lease or construction of a human-services building

Petersburg

  • Money for at-risk student incentive programs, police and local administration of Comprehensive Services Act
  • Increase registration fee for vacant buildings from $25 to $100
  • Tighter regulation of payday-loan businesses, capping interest rates at 36 percent
  • Funding for infrastructure needs of localities affected by Fort Lee expansion

Powhatan County

  • Expand tax-relief program for the elderly and disabled to increase income limit from $52,000 to $62,000 and to set a maximum net worth at $350,000
  • Funding for Powhatan State Park on the Historic James project

Prince George County

  • Continuation of moratorium on annexation
  • Funding to assist localities with effects of Fort Lee expansion
  • No caps on assessed values of real estate
  • Support for U.S. 460 relocation alternative that does not restrict access to Crosspointe Centre or Southpoint Industrial Park near U.S. 460 and Interstate 295
  • State code changes allowing local sanctions for violation of closed-session confidentiality
  • Support for a northbound entrance ramp onto Interstate 295 from Chudoba Parkway in Crosspointe Centre and Southpoint Business Park
  • Careful consideration and local input on effects of proposed Homestead Exemption

Richmond

  • Funding for combined sewer-overflow project, police, Port of Richmond, mental-health treatment services and juvenile crime prevention
  • Increase payments in lieu of real estate taxes for state-owned properties
  • Simplify foreclosure process on blighted, tax-delinquent properties, authorize tax on vacant properties with proceeds benefiting an affordable-housing fund, eliminate the ability for reduced assessments based on the property’s condition
  • Exempt Richmond from localities subject to a moratorium on jail planning and construction
  • Study whether violent crimes committed in the presence of children should be considered in sentencing guidelines

Sussex County

  • Money for schools
  • Assistance with economic development
  • Money for programs to install indoor plumbing and rehabilitate homes

More 99th HOD coverage…

I do this for you, my loyal readers!

Please, no gifts!

From The Free Lance-Star: GOP set for race in House district:

Only one Republican filed to run for the 99th House of Delegates district by the GOP’s Jan. 1 deadline.

That means White Stone attorney Lee Anne Washington is the Republican nominee to run for the 99th House seat.

Washington has not held public office before. She graduated from the College of William & Mary and got her law degree from the University of Virginia in 1988. She is a member of the Northern Neck Chesapeake Bay Public Access Authority and serves on the boards of several nonprofit organizations, according to a news release.

CORRECTION from The Free Lance-Star: Lee Anne Washington, the Republican nominee for the 99th House District seat, serves on the White Stone Town Council in Lancaster County. A story yesterday incorrectly described her political experience.

On the Democratic side, former Del. Albert Pollard Jr. is running, and while he isn’t the official nominee yet–district Democrats have set a Saturday deadline for candidates to file with them–no other names have surfaced.

The 99th District is open because former Del. Rob Wittman won a special election for the congressional 1st District last month. He quickly resigned his House seat.

The election to fill the seat will be held Feb. 19. By that time, most of the General Assembly session will be over, but state law prohibits holding an election in the 60 days before a primary, and both parties are holding presidential primaries on Feb. 12. That makes the 19th the earliest viable date for the 99th District special election.

Pollard served three terms as the 99th District delegate before retiring in 2005 to attend to his business. He returned to politics last year with a campaign for the 28th District state Senate seat, which he lost to Republican Richard Stuart.

In formally announcing his candidacy, Pollard said it’s “unfortunate that the Northern Neck will be without an advocate” in the House for most of the session, but that his past experience would allow him to begin working immediately if elected.

“If elected, I pledge from day one to continue the style of representation which I proudly proffered before,” Pollard said in a statement. “This brand is independent minded, puts policy before partisanship, and focuses on making the Northern Neck, and Virginia as a whole, a better place to live.”

Prediction: An Albert Pollard win with 70% (if not more) of the vote.

Dave Albo outdoes himself…

And that’s saying a lot, from the Richmond Sunlight: HB 265:

HB265: Wood burning fireplaces; regulation by locality.

Chief Patron
Del. Dave Albo (R-42)

Status
01/02/2008: Introduced

Summary
Regulation of wood burning fireplaces. In any locality with a population density of greater than 1,000 persons per square mile, the locality may by ordinance regulate the use of wood burning fireplaces in any portion of the locality where such use may constitute a nuisance to adjacent residences.

What’s next? A special task force to go around arresting people for using those evil wood burning fireplaces?

This man really needs to find something useful to do…

Brian Moran to run for Governor

From the AP via WTOP: Brian Moran to File for Va. Governor:

Brian J. Moran, a senior House Democrat, will file papers Friday to launch a campaign for governor in 2009, advisers to Moran said Thursday.

Moran will formally establish a political action committee, Virginians for Brian Moran, with the State Board of Elections, said Mame Reiley, who will direct the PAC.

Moran, 48, of Alexandria, becomes the second Democrat to publicly state his intent to run for governor. State Sen. R. Creigh Deeds announced the formation of his campaign with a video on his new campaign Web site last month.

Another authority that gets to tax you coming to Caroline County?

Looks like Dave Albo has some competition now, from the Richmond Times-Dispatch: Authority for transit projects sought:

A Richmond delegate and business leaders are getting ready to push for a regional authority that could raise $105 million annually for transportation projects in central Virginia.

The money would be generated through an additional 2 percent tax on gas, as well as new or increased fees on car registrations, inspections and repairs. The taxes and fees could apply to much of the Richmond and Petersburg area.

As envisioned, the money would support the sale of long-term bonds that would fund roads and other projects to “deal with the transportation issue in central Virginia before it becomes a crisis,” said Del. Franklin P. Hall, D-Richmond, who plans to introduce legislation on the authority to the 2008 General Assembly, which convenes Wednesday.

“We see the issue as important enough that the leaders need to at least give it some thought,” said James W. Dunn, president of the Greater Richmond Chamber.

Hall’s bill would be enabling legislation. The Central Virginia Regional Authority would be subject to the approval of local governments, and it would spread over nine localities: the cities of Richmond, Colonial Heights, Petersburg and Hopewell, and the counties of Chesterfield, Dinwiddie, Hanover, Henrico and Prince George.

The authority could impose the taxes and fees if the governing bodies of at least five of the nine localities approve. The five approving localities would have to represent at least 51 percent of the area’s population, and they would have to include at least two of the three most populous localities, which are Chesterfield, Henrico and Richmond. Amelia, Caroline, Charles City, Goochland, Cumberland, New Kent, Powhatan and Sussex counties could opt in.

As drafted, the bill would require the localities to act by the end of this year, and it could potentially set up the authority — and the higher taxes and fees — in localities even if they oppose it.

[…]

The central Virginia authority is modeled after similar ones approved by the General Assembly last year for Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads. The authorities haven’t been without controversy.

On Tuesday, the Virginia Supreme Court will hear arguments in a challenge to a circuit court decision upholding the creation of the authority for Northern Virginia.

“We have been assured by the attorney general . . . that it meets the test and those statutes are valid,” Hall said.

It never stops…

And the “stupidest bill so far” award goes to…

*Drum roll*…

Dave Albo (R-42)!

For his bill that would make having a concealed box cutter a Class 1 misdemeanor! Up to a year in jail or a $2,500 fine for a box cutter!

From the Richmond Sunlight: HB169: Concealed weapons; adds box cutters to list.:

Chief Patron
Del. Dave Albo (R-42)

Introduced
Summary

Concealed weapons; box cutters; penalty. Adds box cutters to the list of weapons that are prohibited from being carried concealed.

According to Albo, all of these weapons are equal (all images from Wikipedia):

Machete

Beretta 92FS

Stanley box cutter

With “heroes” like these, who needs bad guys?

From Merrian-Webster Online Dictionary:

Main Entry: he•ro

1 […] c: a man admired for his achievements and noble qualities d: one that shows great courage
4: an object of extreme admiration and devotion : idol

From the Richmond Times-Dispatch: Local heroes:

WILLIAM J. FRAWLEY
Former Mary Washington president

WHY YOU KNOW HIM: He was fired as president of the University of Mary Washington in April after two DUI arrests. He was on the job for 10 months.

WHAT’S NEW: Frawley, 56, was convicted of two separate driving-under-the-influence charges in September and had his driving privilege in Virginia suspended for a year. The charges arose from incidents on consecutive days in Fairfax County and Fredericksburg.

He managed to skirt his way out of the mandatory ten days in jail for the charge in Fairfax County too…

In December, Frawley acknowledged self-treating depression with alcohol, and he lashed out at the university’s board of visitors in an opinion piece he wrote for The Washington Post. He wrote that the board disregarded his illness, his accomplishments and his family’s needs.

Apparently, you disregarded your family’s needs as well…

He acknowledged he had consumed wine after taking an allergy medication the morning of April 10 when he wrecked in Fairfax. Separately, he told police in Fredericksburg that he had consumed six bottles of cough syrup when arrested in the city the next day, April 11.

I quote from the police report, there was a “strong odor of alcoholic beverage coming from his [Frawley’s] person and he was unsteady on his feet.”

Either way, it’s still a DUI.

In an e-mail to the Richmond Times-Dispatch in mid-December, he said he wrote of his account “for my own well-being and clear conscience, nothing else. At no time has my purpose been to elicit any kind of response — just to state the truth.” He thanked the university’s faculty, students, alumni and parents who have sent him notes of support.

Frawley, who said he is writing two books about his experiences, added, “I am moving on. I would suggest that others, including the press, show respect for themselves and others, and move on likewise. There is a point where mere rehash of the past has to stop and we all move to a new phase of lessons beyond incidents. We have reached that point.”

[…]

SARAH ANN HAISLIP
Underage drinking led to fatality

WHY YOU KNOW HER: She caused an early New Year’s Day wreck in Short Pump that killed a local bartender.

WHAT’S NEW: She’s serving a one-year sentence

Sarah Ann Haislip could have become a household name in the Richmond area last year for her soccer skills and academics.

Instead, the Deep Run High School student, just 16, became a one-person warning poster for the consequences of drinking and driving. Some Web sites even included images of her with beer in hand.

Haislip was westbound and driving alone just after midnight Jan. 1 when her car ran a red light and broadsided a vehicle driven by Wesley Hunter Taylor, a bartender at a nearby restaurant. Taylor had been drinking as well, but his condition was not considered a factor in the fatal collision.

He died in front of Short Pump Town Center. Haislip later was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and underage alcohol possession.

She is serving a one-year sentence, part of it in a juvenile-detention facility and the remainder in jail.

Haislip called her actions “childish and stupid,” and she apologized for not realizing the consequences of her acts.

Money raised in Taylor’s memory has gone to dig wells in Africa.

Since the Richmond Times-Dispatch is hard pressed to find heroes I decided to provide a few links:

Deputy Sheriff Jason E. Mooney of the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office, volunteer firefighter, and Marine – Killed in an automobile accident while responding to an accident on I-95.

Deputy Sheriff Jason Lee Saunders of the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office – Killed in an automobile accident while in pursuit of a suspected drunk driver.

First Lieutenant Benjamin Hall, an United States Army Ranger, and fifth generation soldier, was killed in action in Afghanistan. Originally from Woodbridge, his family lives in Fredericksburg.

Stryker, a police canine with the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (M-NCPPC), helped to search for survivors at The Pentagon after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. He also had a 113 drug arrests (worth $159,923) to his credit. He was euthanized on July 30, 2007.

Marlo David McQuillar, whose information helped to put two cocaine dealers away for 10 and 15 years. He was killed in Fredericksburg on July 27, 2007. “He told a judge in October [of 2006] that he had seen the error of his ways and was looking forward to raising his son as a law-abiding citizen. ‘I refuse to let my son go down the same path of negativity that I went down,’ he said at the time.”

Farooq Anwar, originally from Pakistan, was killed while working at his store in Chesterfield. Both his children attend the University of Virginia. American Dream, anyone?

Chief Brad Thomas and Captain Eric Chenault of the Bowling Green Volunteer Fire Department, both of which were seriously burned while fighting a fire on February 18, 2007. They were forced to jump from the second story of a building to escape the flames.

This isn’t all-inclusive, so if I missed someone leave a comment.

H/t: the fred review