School speed cameras coming to JCC
Good morning! Cameras will be watching if you speed outside 7 James City Schools, earning you a $100 ticket. Williamsburg sees success with pilot homeless outreach program.
When classes begin at Williamsburg-James City County schools less than three weeks from now, officials will do more than implore drivers to obey the speed limit – they’ll be armed with cameras to enforce it. And charge you $100.
The system uses cameras to record the license plates of vehicles violating the speed limit by at least 10 miles per hour during scheduled school zone hours, when the flashing speed warning lights are active.
As with the school system’s successful school bus camera program, drivers who are caught speeding have the option to pay a $100 fine and avoid points on their license and imperiling their insurance. Or they can take their chances with the traffic court and be at risk of getting points and attention from their insurers, who might raise their rates.
Not surprisingly, most accused offenders take the safest way out and pay.
We have spoken with a James City County law firm that handles speeding tickets – but asked not to be identified – and were told the school bus photographic evidence is so iron clad that they rarely take such cases to court.
Installation of the devices is scheduled in the next few days at schools that were identified by a previous survey as having speeding issues:
Toano Middle School
Norge Elementary School
Stonehouse Elementary School
D.J. Montague Elementary School
Clara Byrd Baker Elementary School
James River Elementary School
Lafayette High School
Here’s how it works:
The system, developed by a company called Blue Line Solutions, uses laser detectors to record speed and cameras to take images of the license plates of offending drivers. That information is then reviewed at the company’s Tennessee center, and after verification speeders receive notices by mail.
Blue Line said the laser system -- known as LIDAR -- is much more defensible in court than radar because it uses a single laser beam to capture speeds of vehicles. LIDAR pinpoints the speed of only one vehicle at a time, Blue Line says, so they can prove the vehicle captured was the only vehicle in question.
Blue Line takes a $15 share of the $100 fine and $85 goes to the county’s general fund, according to a police spokesperson.
The company says the goal of the system is not to generate fines, but to change driver behavior around schools. Blue Line said speeding dropped by 91% in the first 90 days of the program at 40 school zones it wired in Georgia
During the first 30 days of operation locally, offenders will receive only a warning notice. After that, be ready to pay up.
HOPE helping city homeless, Williamsburg says
Williamsburg is about halfway through a pilot program to help the city’s growing homeless population, and the city announced it is encouraged by results.
The HOPE Team Pilot Program (Houseless Outreach Partnership Engagement) was created as a street outreach team using a coordinator from the City’s Department of Human Services, a mental health clinician from Colonial Behavioral Health, and help as needed from a police department community engagement officer.
“We are encouraged by our success so far in getting people housed and connected to services” a city spokesperson said. Since launching in May, according to a city news release, 42 homeless people have been reached.
One person was given help returning to their home community and seven others were able to find housing, according to the release. In addition to receiving housing and employment services, individuals receive support in enrolling in benefit programs, obtaining identification, and accessing mental health resources.
“Our goal is to engage with every unhoused individual in the city to help them navigate available resources and locate sustainable housing,” Human Services Director Wendy Evans said.
City officials asked residents to help them locate homeless people by calling Human Services at 757-220-6161 if they spot someone they think needs help.
The spokesperson said the transient nature of the homeless makes it impossible to accurately measure their numbers, and the city hopes the project will provide more data on the population. But she said the city knows there are more homeless “because we are literally seeing more of them in public spaces.”
Team members work by visiting public areas with high concentrations of homeless and trying to gain their trust.
The team then works to connect them to essential services and help them get permanent housing.
City officials said they try to help homeless people who may have mental illness, chronic health issues or drug abuse problems that keep them from using conventional social services.
“By meeting people where they are, and engaging with them consistently, we aim to create pathways to services that lead to long-term stability,” said Roy Gerardi, the city’s outreach coordinator. “We are confident that most, if not all, of our unhoused or precariously housed individuals and families have been offered, and are likely receiving, some form of assistance.”
The pilot program runs October to collect data and evaluate its effectiveness, the city news release stated.
Guest Opinion
250 Years On: Will the Spirit of ’76 Endure?
By Steven Woolley
The Declaration of Independence will mark its 250th anniversary next year. No doubt, we’ll be swept up in a flurry of ceremonies and events commemorating everything from the first landing of British colonists at Jamestown to the final battle of the War for Independence at Yorktown.
At the heart of it all lies Williamsburg, once the colonial capital where fiery speeches helped ignite revolution and citizen-legislators proposed laws for a new kind of democracy. Jamestown, Yorktown, and Williamsburg form what’s known as the Historic Triangle—the birthplace of what would become the United States of America.
July 4, 2026 will be the signature moment, a time to reflect on what it meant to declare independence from British tyrannical monarchy and to strike out on our own, attempting to build a nation grounded in the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In ’76 no one quite knew what shape this new government would take—only that, as Lincoln later put it, it would be “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
But July 2026 will not arrive in a vacuum. It will unfold in the midst of midterm election campaigning, the outcome of which may decide whether we have surrendered the blood and toil of 1776 to submit once again to authoritarian rule. On the other hand, perhaps the words of Jefferson, the speeches of Patrick Henry and Sam Adams, and the wisdom of Benjamin Franklin will rekindle the revolutionary spark—one that could elect a new Congress dedicated to the democracy for which so many lives have been sacrificed over the last 250 years.
The Historic Triangle draws thousands of visitors each year to its colonial sites, battlefields, and museums, where they hear stories of pre-colonial Indigenous cultures, the arrival of British settlers in 1607, and the final days of the Revolution in 1781. Have they been informed—or merely entertained? I’m never quite sure. But 2026 will be different.
Predictions suggest that visitor numbers will double around the July 4 holiday. May it be a time when our passion for democratic liberty is reignited, when we stand fearlessly against the looming powers of tyranny that threaten to enslave us once again.
Indeed, by next year, tyranny may no longer be a threat. It may be a reality. That is the direction we appear to be heading under the Trump administration.
In the pattern of his predecessor, mad King George III, against whose tyranny we fought for our independence and freedom:
He has burdened us and our descendants with massive debt to further enrich the already wealthy.
He has imposed a national sales tax on imported goods without our representation in the legislature.
He has conspired to restrict the freedom of the press with a stream of meritless lawsuits and threats.
He has deployed the military in Los Angeles to intimidate protests against the widespread arrests of presumed illegal immigrants without due process.
He has used law enforcement agencies as tools of coercion and retribution.
He has deprived persons of their right to due process.
He has conspired to establish immunity for himself from prosecution for crimes and misdemeanors.
He has conspired to restrict what schools may teach and what we may learn.
He has sought to replace historical truth with propaganda masquerading as fact.
It will take courage not only to resist tyranny but also to stand for the government we want—a government rooted in democratic liberty, animated by civic responsibility, and dedicated to preserving individual freedom for the common good, embracing every person of every sort and condition.
Editor’s Note: Steven Woolley is a retired Episcopal priest living in Williamsburg. We encourage guest opinions under 750 words in length, Please email them to: digby@williamsburgwatch.com
State Headlines
With their largest land acquisition, the Rappahannock Indian Tribe is returning to its river
Experts say rural emergency rooms are increasingly run without doctors
Earle-Sears could learn from Reid how to talk about federal job cuts
Weekend Fun & Games
WISC 25th Anniversary concert featuring Canaan Smith. Aug. 9,5 p.m.-10p.m., Jamestown Beach Event Park. $0 to $25.
National Farmers Week wrapup at Yorktown Market Days. Aug. 9, 8 a.m. – noon. Riverwalk Landing, 331 Water St. Free.
2d Sundays Williamsburg Arts & Music Festival. Aug. 10, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. 401 N. Boundary St. Free.
Snow White plays at Merchant’s Square Summer Movie Nights. Aug. 10, 8 p.m.- 10 p.m. Merchants Square 401 W. Duke of Gloucester St. Free.
Passings
Camarrie Tyreese Holmes, 16, July 24.
The alleged tyrannies listed by Mr. Woolley pale in comparison to the tyranny imposed by Biden on his fellow citizens that exchanged death and injury for their livelihoods. By July 4, 2026, I hope real freedom rings across our great land.
Steven Woolley is a retired Episcopal priest living in Williamsburg.
So sad how you have fallen away from God's grace over the years. We will all pray for you!