Bank robber killed himself, police said
Good morning. Police identified the Wells Fargo robber as a Newport News man. WJCC schools' wish list adds up to $17 million to budget. James City County extends emergency recycling to June.
The suspect in last week’s Wells Fargo bank robbery fled to North Carolina and killed himself when local deputies closed in, police said.
James City County police identified the suspect as 50-year-old Richard Frey of the 1100 block of 72nd Street in Newport News.
Police said Frey entered the Wells Fargo Bank at Monticello Marketplace as it opened on Dec. 13, waved a handgun, and fled with an undisclosed amount of money.
Frey fled to North Carolina , where his car was spotted by a Flock camera in Northampton County the following day, said Capt. Ashley Collier of the Northampton County Sheriff’s Department.
She said a deputy spotted Frey turning into the Super 8 Motel off interstate 95, but he fled as officers closed in and shot himself.
James City County police spokesperson Patty Schlosser said police could not release his name until they were able to find next of kin.
She said several people identified Frey from the picture taken from the bank’s security cameras and provided tips to police.
W-JCC schools wish list could add $17 million to next year’s budget
Williamsburg and James City County promised to give the local school system $6 million more next year, but it may not be enough to fully fund the schools’ wish list.
At the school board’s work session Tuesday, the administration showed proposals that would increase this year’s $195.2 million budget by $15.3 million to $17 million more. The current budget is itself up 8% over the prior year.
“We are all experiencing a little bit of sticker shock,” said outgoing schoolboard Chair Sarah G. Ortego.
The Williamsburg-James City County school board is scheduled to refine their ask over three work sessions in the next month. They will then present their proposed budget to a joint session of the school board and the elected leaders of Williamsburg and James City County.
The two governments promised to raise their contributions to the Williamsburg-James City County school system to $118.95 million for the next fiscal year, which starts in July of 2026. The rest of the school’s budget comes largely from the state, as well as federal money and grants.
Still unknown is how much the state will contribute.
Outgoing Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin is proposing to add $544 million to the state education budget, plus $1 billion to provide a 2% bonus for teachers and state employees.
That budget is subject to pushback when the Democratic controlled state legislature reconvenes in January.
Rene Ewing, the schools’ CFO, told the school board Tuesday that most of the preliminary budget increase will go to compensation costs, including phasing in the second part of a three-year plan to raise teacher salaries closer to what other area school systems pay. The schools agreed to phase in those costs over three years, in increments of $3.4 million. Hiring more staff and increased health insurance costs total another $6.2 to $7.6 million, she said.
Requests for other projects add between $4.3 million and $4.6 million to the overall budget increase.
School board members agreed they wanted to continue raising teacher pay to remain competitive.
James City extends recycling contract to June
James City County is extending its emergency recycling contract with Tidewater Fiber Corporation until the end of June, County Administrator Scott Stevens told us Thursday.
Customers will continue to pay the same amount, Stevens said.
The Virginia Peninsula’s Public Service Authority left the county’s 10,000 recyclers high and dry in September when it terminated its contract with TFC effective Sept. 30. That gave little time to affected customers in James City and York Counties and the cities of Williamsburg and Poquoson.
Williamsburg and York County have set up their own agreements with private vendors to provide recycling.
Stevens said the issue that led the regional authority to terminate its contract was TFC’s inability to provide accurate counts of how much recycling it was picking up by locality. The old contract paid TFC for each household it serviced, plus for the amount of recycling it collected.
James City County’s emergency contract with TFC only pays for each household and does not contain a separate payment for the amount of recycling collected, Stevens said.
James City is working to eventually centralize garbage collection and billing.
It will test the concept in the Roberts District and is inviting vendors to bid. Potential vendors can bid on just that work, but they can also bid on recycling county-wide, or on providing both the Roberts garbage collection and countywide recycling Stevens said.
The county also reached an agreement with TFC to buy its existing recycling carts at prices starting at $9 each, dropping to $5 after the first 9,000 carts, Stevens added. A new recycling cart costs around $45, he said.
Existing customers will receive bills for two and a half months worth of service to make up for the brief lapse in October, Stevens said. They will then be billed for the April – June time period.
Bene factum, W-JCC Latin clubs!
Nearly 20 Latin students from Jamestown and Lafayette High Schools represented Williamsburg-James City County Schools at the Virginia Junior Classical League State Latin Convention in Richmond on November 23–24.
The annual convention attracts about 1,200 Latin students from across Virginia for two days of academic contests, creative arts competitions, public speaking, and dramatic interpretation.
Darcy Fang, a 10th grader from Jamestown High School, won a sweepstakes award, placing in the top 10 overall at the convention among all competing 10th graders.
Other W-JCC Schools First Place Winners:
Darcy Fang (Jamestown) - black ink, charcoal, traditional photo, and watercolor
Luke Haskin (Jamestown) - computer photo
Milena Hunter (Jamestown) - vocabulary advanced plus
Anouk Mapp (Lafayette) - vocabulary intermediate plus
John Stewart (Jamestown) - ornament and poster
State headlines
Youngkin pitches final budget, touts strong revenues as he prepares to leave office
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Passings
Why does the county need to be involved in garbage collection or, for that matter, recycling? I’ve had the same trash collecting company for 20+ years and am perfectly satisfied. I was hoping to deal direct with the recycling company, but the county stopped that opportunity.