What a Mess! Ice, potential power outages on the menu this weekend
It's Jan. 23. The National Weather service upgraded its winter warnings early this morning. Also, James City County wins another round against referendum and home sales finish year strong.
It looks like ice, potential power outages and extreme cold are on the menu for us well into next week.
National Weather Service forecasters in the Wakefield office issued a report at 2:45 this morning saying we’ll start seeing snow sometime late Saturday but it will switch to sleet and freezing rain overnight, then rain sometime Sunday afternoon because of warm air brought in at higher altitudes from a low off the Carolina coast.
We’ll be under a cold weather advisory Friday night as temperatures drop into the single digits, the weather service said. Temperatures will reach a high in the 20s Saturday and won’t climb back above freezing well into next week.
What the weather service is now calling “potentially catastrophic freezing rain accrual” should occur mainly along or near the I-85 and I-95 corridors to our west, the Wakefield forecasters say.
Dominion Power says it has mobilized crews in every service area to make repairs as soon as they can safely travel. The utility also coordinates with other utilities to share crews as necessary.
Williamsburg officials warned city residents the streets in front of their homes may not be plowed until Tuesday morning. A city press release said the city has six snowplows and salt spreaders standing by along with 400 tons of salt and sand, and hired a contractor to help clear neighborhoods.
Report downed power lines to Dominion at 866-DOM-HELP. If you have internet service you can check the outage map here.
Judge says James City County doesn’t need a voter referendum on government center
Correction: we misspelled judge Brodie’s name in our first edition. It is corrected below.
A judge dismissed an injunction request to stop James City County from work on its new government center Thursday, saying the law did not require a referendum on bonds used to start construction.
Substitute Judge Jan L. Brodie sitting in Williamsburg-James City County Circuit Court, agreed with the county that the statute of limitations had passed to contest a bond the county approved Oct. 8, 2024 to partially fund the $190 million government center.
She said the seven county residents who filed for an injunction last November had 30 days to contest the bond issue in 2024.
The plaintiffs argued state law requires a voter referendum before the county incurred the debt.
But the judge ruled Virginia law does not require a referendum on bonds that are issued by an independent agency such as the county’s Economic Development Authority.
The legal arguments centered on whether bonds that pay for the government center are a long-term debt obligation of the county, which would then require a voter referendum under Virginia law.
Brodie said state law was clear that a bond issued by an economic development authority is not a debt of the state or its localities requiring a bond referendum.
The county arranged the deal as a lease financing agreement with the EDA after being assured by staff it would avoid the need for a voter referendum. The center is leased to the county for a sum that is enough to pay the EDA’s debt service.
“The county is using the EDA as a straw man in order to bypass the (state) constitution,” argued plaintiff’s attorney Christopher Woodfin.
Woodfin based his argument on a state supreme court ruling – later reversed -- that a transit authority in Northern Virginia was an instrument of nine local governments, and could not issue a bond without a referendum.
Brodie told Woodfin the arguments against the reversal used by the minority of the court’s judges who opposed a reversal of the case mirrored his argument, and she did not agree with it.
The judge told Woodfin the plaintiffs’ argument should be directed to state legislators, who have had more than 20 years to change the law.
The plaintiffs have 10 days to decide whether to appeal the judge’s decision directly to the Virginia Supreme Court Woodfin said.
Lead plaintiff Charles Colegrove told Williamsburg Watch the plaintiffs would discuss whether they wanted to pursue the expense of an appeal.
Local home sales and prices finish the year up
Home sales in the Historic Triangle were up for the year in 2025, and median sales prices rose as well, the Virginia Realtors group reported Thursday.
James City County December sales were basically flat, but median home prices jumped 20.87 percent from December 2024 to December 2025, according to the organization’s report.
York County sales prices closed up 13.53 percent, and sales were up 14.47 percent.
Williamsburg, which has wide swings month to month because of its smaller base, saw an 80 percent sales jump, but prices were basically flat.
Across the state, homes are taking longer to sell as inventory expands, the Realtors said.
The median days on market in December was 24 days, five days longer than last year—a reflection of more listings on the market. From an annual perspective, the statewide median days on market in 2025 was 15 days, three days longer than in 2024.
“Recent trends—like a lower sold‑to‑list ratio and rising days on market—show Virginia continuing to move toward a more balanced market,” said the group’s Chief Economist Ryan Price. “Even so, most localities still remain in ‘sellers’ market’ territory.”
Man accused of beating couple in robbery also attacked cops who arrested him, police say
The man accused of robbing and beating a James City County couple reacted violently when he was arrested in Williamsburg last month, court records filed by police show.
Robert Zackary Johnson, 29, is charged with beating 66-year-old Michael Smith and 55-year-old Christine Heckenlaible at their home on the 3800 block of Staffordshire Lane Jan. 11.
Johnson is due in court for a preliminary hearing on March 10 on eight different charges, including wounding the elderly couple, burglary, possessing drugs and assaulting the Williamsburg officers who arrested him inside the city. He is at the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail and was denied bail because officials said he was out on parole for other offenses.
According to police affidavits filed in Williamsburg-James City County General District Court, Johnson broke in and assaulted the couple on Jan. 11. He stole Smith’s wallet and the keys to his car and fled.
Williamsburg police found Johnson hours later near Rt. 199 and Jamestown Road. He fled on foot but was arrested, at which time he assaulted various officers, broke one officer’s glasses and later destroyed a policeman’s iPhone at the regional jail, the city police said in a court affidavit.
A description of the arrest by Williamsburg police said Johnson swung at them after being handcuffed and dared them to shoot him. City police said they found drug syringes in the car and caught Johnson trying to hide a plastic bag they said contained traces of cocaine.
James City County police were sent to Smith’s home to check on his condition and found the couple crying for help.
The two were taken to Riverside Hospital for treatment and later released. The county police affidavit said Smith could not be interviewed because of his injuries, which included orbital and nasal fractures.
According to the county police account, they found Johnson’s ID card at the Smith home, and “evidence of drug usage was apparent throughout the first floor.”
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Passings
I have used this lease purchase arrangement to financing energy management programs for city an county schools in VA and what most folks don't know about the concept is that the county has to appropriate the funds for the lease payments annually because a Board cannot commit a future Board to debt. If a future Board votes not to fund the lease payments, the lender has no recourse because the loan to the leasing agent is not guaranteed by the County. The point is a future Board can cancel the funding any given year without recourse.
Instead of this opening…James City County wins another round… it should have read…taxpayers lose another round. IMHO