Many Nottoway taxpayers are waiting with baited breath for March 31st — or shortly thereafter. That’s when we’ll get the honor and privilege of seeing what our tax dollars are going to build at the courthouse complex. Schematic drawings are expected to be made public by the Board of Supervisors, which in February made a mid-year budget adjustment of $642,000 for a “first draw-down” so that architects can begin to be paid April 1st. Whatever is built, please consider acoustics — perhaps even an amplified sound system — so that jurors and the public can clearly hear court testimony. You’re welcome, Your Honor.
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The Blackstone Chamber of Commerce annual dinner Saturday night was really nice. Very deserving award recipients as well as other nominees. All three mayors in Nottoway County were in attendance as well as Fort Pickett Commander Col. Eric Quinn, State Del. Lee Ware (R-72nd) of Powhatan and last year’s Republican candidate for Lt. Governor, John Reid, who isn’t yet done fighting for Virginia. John was the keynote speaker and keenly pointed out that too many of the lawmakers in Richmond aren’t business people — they’re corporate lawyers and essentially full-time politicians. Lee Ware is NOT one of them — a very nice gentleman and very learned retired high school teacher and even a former newspaperman!
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Nottoway County’s new animal shelter should be open by the end of next month. If the $2.1 million contract awarded to Hurt & Sons doesn’t go over budget, my math has the County spending about $3,062,290. That includes buying the building in Burkeville for $375,000, hiring the current architect for $10,000, and spending $202,290 with a previous architect to erect a new building that Supervisors finally decided was too costly. My total dollar figures don’t include approximately $750,000 in private funds raised admirably by the all-volunteer Nottoway Cares group. The Cares group is providing “extras” not required by State Code. The current Board of Supervisors voted previously to spend no more than $3.2 million of COUNTY money on the new shelter. They’re cuttin’ it close. It would’ve been nice for the Board to have taken similar action three years ago and drawn a ‘line in the sand’ and set a dollar limit for courthouse improvements — as suggested by Supervisor John Roark. That ship has sailed.
Do you remember what happened in Nottoway County on the night of Nov. 21, 2019? I didn’t think so. That’s when the courthouse crowd was elbowto elbow — and overflowing outside — with defenders of the constitutional right of Americans to keep and bear arms and for that right to not be infringed. The Board of Supervisors that night quickly adopted a resolution, 5-0, declaring Nottoway County a “Second Amendment Sanctuary.” That document also expressed the Board’s “intent that public funds of the County not be used to restrict Second Amendment rights…” Asking for a friend: should the current Board re-adopt that resolution and send a copy to ‘Aunt Abigail’ and particularly northern Virginia Democrats along with fantasizing, fast-driving Attorney General Jay Jones? It made many of us feel good, but does that Nottoway declaration carry any legal clout?
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The U. S. and Israel attacks on Iran continue this week. I was wondering the other day, how many drones made and/ or tested in Nottoway County have been involved in defending our military bases in the Middle East? Also, how many diplomatic sercurity agents at various embassies targetted by Iran have trained at FASTC out at Fort Pickett? I remember when Dad broke a story in the early 1980s that Pickett was a secondary nuclear bomb site of the former Soviet Union. He never revealed his sources on that one, but no one from the Pentagon or Pickett demanded a correction. I bet Pickett and FASTC are still on our enemies’ maps today.
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What does Russia’s Putin think about our attacks? Many American-made weapons have been used against Russia in that nation’s war with Ukraine. Should we be shocked that Putin might be helping Iran? One could also make an argument that the U. S. strikes came at the best time possible because Russia is distracted with its own conflict. Meanwhile, China sits back quietly. It’s a precarious situation. You couldn’t pay me enough money to pilot an oil tanker through the Strait of Hormuz.
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There’s a lot of crime in today’s edition. I’ll say it again — a grand jury could indict a ham sandwich, and anyone can accuse anyone of anything. Innocent until proven Guilty in court — possibly even a $25 million new courthouse.
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