Tears flow as James City supervisors approve Toano halfway house for addicts
Good morning! It's June 12. Today: Tallying donations for District 71 House candidates, York County serves notice on regional library, and a Juneteenth celebration roundup.
Corrected Edition. We have updated this report to correct wrong figures in the House of Delegates fundraising story.
What would normally be a routine bureaucratic exercise – voting on a special use permit – became an emotional event at the James City County Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday night, underscoring the broad reach of substance abuse across society.
When it was over, the supervisors unanimously approved a permit to let Evolution House operate a transition center for up to 24 men at their existing facility in Toano.
Berkeley District member Ruth Larson cried as she shared that her sister died of a drug overdose in 2006.
“We have so many people who need help and they don’t know where to go,” said Stonehouse member Barbara E. Null. “You’ve got me up here crying.”
Powhatan member Michael J. Hipple added one of his relatives had fought hard against substance abuse, and the facility was needed.
Statistics cited by spokesmen for Evolution were grim: last year Virginia had 920 traffic deaths, and 2,440 deaths from drug overdoses.
In reviewing the special use permit at the county planning commission last month, commissioner Jay Everson said his own grandson died of an overdose several years ago after relapsing from treatment, adding “I wish we’d known” about the program.
Evolution House helps recovering addicts transition from their initial treatment back into society. They often have no jobs, no credit rating, and no place to live. The organization creates a home-like atmosphere where the clients hold each other accountable, get jobs and get help finding a place to live.
The organization says its residents are there voluntarily, are tested for drugs three times a week under a zero-tolerance policy, and are transported by van to jobs, therapy, churches and recreation. The typical stay is 90 days.
The Tuesday decision was a good ending for a bad start to Evolution House, which had been violating county codes for several years by housing more than the eight residents allowed by right at a home they rent at 2010 Richmond Road.
Spokesmen for the organization, which operates four other homes in James City County and one in the lower Peninsula, blamed the misstep on ignorance on the part of the founders, Jeffrey Carver and Ryan Whatley.
The two received a license from the state in October of 2023 and did not know to check the county’s own specific requirements, Chief Executive Officer Eric Rhodes told Williamsburg Watch. He said they were trying to handle the process on their own at first but eventually brought on an engineer and the Kauffman & Canoles law firm to help.
The two founders were former addicts themselves, Rhodes said, and when they left treatment they had “no place to live, no real means to get a job.” That experience led them to found Evolution House.
Rhodes said he joined the organization late last year and began coordinating the process to conform to county code.
The county’s permit sets a series of requirements for the halfway house and the means to police them. No sex offenders are allowed, there must be stringent screening of applicants with felony convictions, and they must provide annual reports to the police chief on residents and the zoning administrator on occupancy.
Evolution brought in several former clients to testify about how the program helped them, as well as a mother whose son was helped by the home.
Local businessman Chris Henderson also spoke up, saying he has three former residents working for his businesses.
“I have seen the recovery of some really broken people,” he said.
Donation update: District 71 House race
The two candidates for House District 71 had more than half a million dollars in their campaign accounts at the beginning of June, according to the latest reports they filed with the State Board of Elections.
The reports were collated by the Virginia Public Access Project, a nonpartisan organization that follows campaign contributions and spending throughout the state.
Democratic Challenger Jessica Anderson took in the largest amount of contributions -- $143,721. That includes both cash contributions and in-kind contributions, which are goods or services offered free of charge or at a discount to help a campaign.
Incumbent Amanda Batten took in $51,713 during the same period.
The largest chunk of Anderson’s cash contributions -- $98,272 – came from 247 donors who gave cash contributions of more than $100 apiece. But the majority of her contributors -- 1,081 -- were small donors who provided cash contributions of $100 or less, for a total of $28,613.
Batten received $46,950 in cash contributions from 62 contributors who ponied up more than $100 each. Another 35 cash contributors donated $2,595.
The largest amount of contributions to Batten came from individuals who reported they worked in real estate or construction, followed by miscellaneous, then employees of technology and communications firms and those working in energy and natural resources.
The largest number of contributors to Anderson were listed in the miscellaneous category, followed by technology and communications, public employees and political, law and health care.
After backlash, supervisors take next step on government center but promise engagement
James City County supervisors moved a step closer to a $189.5 million county government center Tuesday night but pledged to work harder to keep citizens informed about their plans.
Supervisors voted 4-1 to approve a special use permit to allow eventual construction of the center. Stonehouse District representative Barbara E. Null was the sole vote against the permit. She said her vote was not needed to pass it and she was getting a lot of negative emails about the government center.
Discussions about the new center have been underway for nearly five years, but many residents seem to have only recently begun to focus on the issue.
Opponents demanded a referendum, but supervisors said Virginia law would not permit the county to hold a referendum on the project itself, only on whether general obligation bonds should be issued to fund it. Such a limited question could be confusing, the supervisors said.
Thousands of flyers against the project were distributed in the last week, with mailings to Chair Jim Icenhour’s Jamestown District.
Icenhour, a Democrat who faces a Republican challenger this fall, said he had received more than 100 emails and many calls. He said the flyers contained false information, but “it made people more aware” of the issue. “We’ve got a lot of people who did not know what was going on.”
“We are obliged to make an extra effort to engage the community” to justify the project, Icenhour said, calling on board members to hold town hall meetings in each district before architects render a final price tag and design on the center this fall.
Null and Powhatan representative Michael E. Hipple have already announced a joint town hall at the James City County library on Croaker Road June 30.
Ruth Larson, Berkeley District supervisor, said she is planning her own town hall that would be attended by Hipple, who was an early advocate of a new government center.
All of the supervisors repeated Tuesday night they still believed a new government center was the right solution to the growing space demands of county government.
The current complex on Mounts Bay Road was built 50 years ago when the county’s population was about a quarter of its current 83,000 residents.
A consultant’s study in 2022 comparing the cost of expanding and renovating the current complex against the cost of a new government center said they would be about the same, at around $100 million.
But escalating construction costs and add-ons to the center, including a hardened disaster coordination center, have pushed the current cost estimate to $189.5 million.
Hipple said trying to expand and modernize the existing buildings would be a waste of money because they are too old. He also noted the proposed government center would be near the geographic and population center of the county.
Count us out, York County tells regional library
York County just served notice that it wants to terminate its participation in the Williamsburg Regional Library system unless the existing agreement with James City County and Williamsburg can be modified.
County Administrator Mark. L. Bellamy, Jr. sent the notice Monday in a letter to the Williamsburg city manager and the county administrator of James City County, as well as to the Williamsburg Regional Library Board of Trustees.
The termination would take effect June 30, 2027.
“Things have got to change,” we were told by Doug Holroyd, the York Supervisor who represents the county’s District 1. In a newsletter sent to his constituents today, Holroyd noted York County’s cost “has grown dramatically, up from $828,000 in 2024 to $890,000 for the (Fiscal Year) 2026 budget.”
Holroyd said the county does not want to leave the regional group but wants to change how the county is charged.
In his letter to the local government officials, Bellamy said the need for a new agreement was underscored by the announcement that in addition to a proposed new library in Williamsburg, James City County also plans to build a library next to its proposed new government center.
Sandy Towers, the executive director of the library system, noted the localities have been talking about another library location in James City County since 2007. The library was in the county’s capital budget in 2009, dropped out after five years, and was reinstated in 2019 and has been there since then, she said.
According to the James City County budget, James City pays the largest share of operating costs -- $6,305,170 for this coming year -- because its residents account for 73% of the items checked out from the library system. Williamsburg and York County residents almost equally divide the balance of use.
What time should local governments meet? You tell us!
What time is best for local officials to meet in public?
James City County supervisors, whose regular meetings begin at 5 p.m., regularly receive complaints from speakers who say they start too early in the day for working taxpayers to attend.
We’ve never heard anyone complain about the issue at Williamsburg’s City Council, whose regular meetings begin at 2 in the afternoon. York County supervisors hold their meetings at 6 p.m.
Berkeley District member Ruth Larson said at the Tuesday afternoon session that when the supervisors used to meet at 7 p.m., their sessions dragged on until late at night, which she said was just as inconvenient and created a long day for elected officials who have day jobs.
What do you think? We thought we’d throw it open to a quick reader poll:
Juneteenth weekend celebrations
Juneteenth Celebration, McReynolds Athletic Complex, Yorktown. June 14. 5:30 – 9 p.m. Free.
Juneteenth Freedom Fest, Freedom Park Williamsburg. June 14. 1- 5 p.m. Free.
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation Juneteenth Sunrise Service. 112 Nicholson Street Williamsburg. June 15, 6-7 a.m. Free.
Prelude to Juneteenth: Reclaiming the River. Jamestown Settlement. June 15, 1 p.m. $35 with free admission to Jamestown Settlement and American Revolution Museum.
Other events this Father’s Day weekend:
Sound of Summer Concert Series present En’Novation. Riverwalk Landing Yorktown. June 12, 6:30 – 9 p.m. Free.
Williamsburg Players Present Pippin. June 12-15. $22 adults, $12 children
The American Soldier. American Revolution Museum, Yorktown. June 14. $17, reserve in advance.
Yorktown Market Days, Riverwalk Landing. 8 a.m. – noon. Free.
Passings
Mack Gilbert Maples, 83, June 9.
The argument advanced by the BOS that meetings run past midnight is fallacious. 20 years ago when JCC was a fast growing community, there were meetings that ran late. That is no longer the case. The meeting time was moved so as not to inconvenience staff who have to stay later. 5 pm is inconvenient for working people and families. BOS is not interested in hearing from citizen. When they really want to hear from the people they start events 6-7 pm. It's a disgrace and disservice to the citizen's they claim to represent.
Could JCC meetings begin at 5:30 or 6:00 to provide some time for residents to arrive from work?