Local schools await Trump fund freeze info
Happy Tuesday! Local schools await details on surprise Trump education funding freeze...Dominion Power considers JCC landfill site for solar farm...Cheese Shop/Fat Canary co-founder passes.
Publisher’s Note….we will be on a reduced summer publishing schedule through August, with editions on Tuesday and Thursday.
Local school systems are waiting to see how much money they may lose from the Trump Administration’s surprise decision to freeze nearly $7 billion in federal education funds.
Last Monday, the Education Department sent an email to state school superintendents saying they would not be receiving the money -- which was approved by Congress and signed into law by President Trump in March -- on July 1 as expected.
Federal officials said the administration had decided to conduct a review of the programs being funded by the money, which had been baked into local school budgets.
The Wall Street Journal quoted a spokesman for the White House Office of Management and Budget as saying that “initial findings” from the review show grants had gone to “subsidize a radical left wing agenda.”
York County Schools Chief Financial Officer Bill Bowen said local schools should get details from the Virginia Department of Education, but “because it’s so recent….I’m sure they’re still sorting through it.”
Williamsburg Watch called and emailed Virginia’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Emily Anne Gullickson Monday, but had not received a response in time for our deadline.
Local school systems receive a variety of grants and other funding from the federal government for services that include after school programs, teacher training, adult education and teaching students for whom English is a second language.
Williamsburg-James City County schools identified $525,831.74 in potentially frozen funds, said spokesperson Kara Wall. But the schools are waiting for more details from the state department of education. About 3% of the school system’s $195 million budget comes from the federal government, she said.
“We feel like we are in a good position” to manage the cuts, said School Chair Sarah Ortego, adding the situation is still fluid.
The email state officials received last week did not spell out how much of the grant funding might be cancelled. Since Congress appropriated the money, some legal experts say it is not clear the administration has the legal right to deny it.
About 14% of York County’s $201 million school budget comes from the federal government in the forms of grants and other programs, Bowen said, but half of that amount is from impact aid for the children of military members that should not be affected.
Dominion eyes JCC landfill site for solar farm
Dominion Power is considering building a solar power farm on some 60 acres of cleared land that was formerly part of the James City County landfill off Jolly Pond Road.
The board of supervisors will review a proposed lease today that would allow the utility to conduct an environmental analysis of the land, which is part of a 545-acre tract the county owns at 1206 Jolly Pond Rd.
If the utility decides to move forward, the county would conduct a special use permit analysis to ensure it doesn’t inhibit operation of the transfer station and the police firing range on the site, Assistant County Administrator Jason Purse told Williamsburg Watch.
“This lease is really just to allow them to get onsite and start working on their proposal,” Purse said.
The lease gives the utility one year to conduct a feasibility study, and up to five years to develop the solar farm. Dominion will then operate the solar farm for 35 years, with a starting rent of $1,000 per acre, increasing by 1% a year.
Supervisors will review the plan at their regular scheduled meeting July 8, which starts at 5 p.m.
They will also review proposed changes to zoning ordinances that will limit and control sexually oriented businesses in the county.
Cheese Shop, Fat Canary co-founder passes
We were remiss last month in not having recognized the passing of the woman who, along with her husband, helped shape the Williamsburg area food scene -- Mary Ellen “Myrt” Edwards Power.
She and her late husband Tom founded a series of successful businesses, starting with a small cheese shop in Newport News and expanding into The Cheese Shop in Williamsburg, The Fat Canary restaurant, The Wine Cellar and The Trellis restaurant.
Myrt died June 15 of complications from Alzheimer’s. Tom died in 2017 while the couple was vacationing in Bermuda, the island where they honeymooned and which they visited many times over the years.
They were married 56 years, and she encouraged Tom’s entrepreneurial bent when they opened their first cheese shop at the Warwick Shopping Center in Newport News in 1971. She was 31 and he was 36, and their three young children were often brought in to help with the business.
The couple expanded to a second store in Williamsburg’s Merchant Square in 1971. It was so successful they partnered with John Curtis and Marcel Desaulniers to open The Trellis Restaurant in 1980, an award-winning establishment that was the city’s first New American dining place.
Their daughter Cathy joined the Cheese shop full-time in 1986, and in 1994 the family sold their interest in The Trellis, which has since closed.
The other two children, Thomas Jr. and Mary Ellen Jr., returned to the family business in 2000, and four years later they relocated The Cheese Shop to a 9,000-square foot location on Duke of Gloucester Street.
They opened The Wine Cellar in the basement, and opened The Fat Canary restaurant, where Thomas is the executive chef. In 2020 they opened Downstairs at Fat Canary, a more casual version next to the downstairs wine cellar.
Myrt Power was born March 29, 1940, in Norfolk. She married Tom in August 1961 in Norfolk, where Mary Ellen Jr. was born. The couple then moved to Baltimore, where Cathy and Thomas Jr. were born, returning to Virginia in 1969 to begin planning for their business.
She was a self-taught merchandiser who designed fixtures for the business. She was also the numbers person who established accounting, inventory and employee relations practices the business still uses 54 years later.
She and her husband received William & Mary’s Prentis Award and were inducted into the Specialty Food Association Hall of Fame in 2016.
A celebration of life will be held August 4, 2025 at The Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. Her full obituary is located here.
State Headlines
After Potomac crash, Norfolk touts airspace as coordinated and safe
Cumberland residents continue to raise concerns over landfill proposal
Southside farmers don’t think new solar farm rules will stop farmland loss
Weekend Fun
Sounds of Summer Concert Series presents The Embers. July 10, 6:30 – 9 p.m. Free. Riverwalk Landing, Yorktown.
Citizen Science Family Day. July 12, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. included in $20/$10 youth admission price to Jamestown Settlement.
Yorktown Market Days, July 12, Free. 8 a.m. to noon. Riverwalk Landing Yorktown.
2nd Sundays Williamsburg Festival. Boundary St. Williamsburg. 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Free.
Passings
Donald Wayne Lee, 89, June 30.
Laurel Dean Evans, 98, June 29.
Selma Grace Carpenter, 101. July 3.
Cherryl Cartledge Heath, 77, July 4.
Marguerite Mary Tweed, 86, July 6.