Chris Hutson or Damien Kelly For Gloucester Point Supervisor? The Choice Is Simple.

The residents of Gloucester Point now have the opportunity to elect a Supervisor who has proven, through his campaign efforts and community involvement, he will be a representative of his constituents interests instead of an enabler of the agenda of just a few people in the county. Damien Kelly may be young and may not have the business or political experience touted by so many politicians, but he knows how important it is and is willing to engage, listen to and support issues important to the people he represents. The incumbent Gloucester Point Supervisor has a very strong and continuous track record of avoiding and or ignoring most of his constituents and supporting the agenda of just a few people in the county. Unlike his opponent, Damien Kelly will be a conservative addition to the Board of Supervisors who will fight to eliminate wasteful spending and for keeping taxes as low as possible. November 5, 2019 is the time to make a positive change. Vote Damien Kelly for Gloucester Point Supervisor.

Kenneth E. Hogge, Sr.

Gloucester Point, Virginia

Yorktown Beach Flooding: October 3rd, 2015

On Saturday, October 3rd, 2015 we went out and hit the beaches of Gloucester Point and Yorktown, Virginia to take a number of pictures to show the flooding or, shall we say sea level rise, hitting our shores.  Above is a slideshow of various areas around the Yorktown River Walk area and include street flooding during the high tide.  When we first went over to the area, there was some standing water in the road but as the tide came in so did a lot of water that caused some issues for the various vehicles that decided to tempt their luck and drive through the waters on the road.  You can see what we are talking about at towards the end of the slideshow.  We also played around with some of our camera features which is why some of the pictures seem off color compared to the majority.

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Gloucester Point Beach Flooding: October Hurricane 2015

Over the weekend, October 3rd and 4th, 2015, the road going down to the Gloucester Point Beach has been closed to traffic.  Boats were also restricted and could not use the public access points.  There was considerable flooding all along the beach and parking areas as well as the main road.  At one point during high tide, the main road itself was under water.  It resided very quickly as the tide went out but nevertheless it was pretty much a mess.  We have taken a number of photos both here at the Gloucester Point Beach as well as at Yorktown showing how high the waters came up.

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Standards of Conduct, Gloucester County Board of Supervisors

In the Agenda for Dec. 2, 2014 BOS meeting:

 

There is a proposal to add the following to the STANDARDS OF CONDUCT GLOUCESTER COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS

 

Citizens appearing before the Board will not be allowed to campaign for public office, promote private business ventures, engage in personal attacks, debate among the audience, use profanity, vulgar or abusive language, or jeer, cheer, or applaud, except during ceremonial matters. The Sergeant-at-Arms may be directed by the Board Chair to remove persons who violate these rules.

 

This suggests the People and Citizens in the meeting audience are not allowed to reasonably demonstrate consent or non-consent?  What is wrong with minor levels of applauding or even booing?  What is right with having law enforcement engaged as the Sergeant-at Arms?  There are way too many “will not be allowed” items contained in the proposed language.  Rules of order can be created without binding, gagging and intimidating the People and the Citizens.  The People’s and Citizens’ voices should not be limited, ignored nor silenced. 

 

Section 6-1 of York County’s Board of Supervisors Rules of Procedure is an example of less dictatorial language and reads as follows:

 

The efficient and dignified conduct of public business is the ultimate concern of the Board.  Accordingly, it is the policy of the Board that its meetings be conducted with the highest degree of order and decorum.  The Board's integrity and dignity will be established and maintained at all times during the conduct of public business, and the Board will permit no behavior which is not in keeping with this policy.  The soliciting of funds, the use of abusive or profane language, personal attacks on Board members, the failure to comply with time limits on speakers, or other forms of offensive conduct will not be tolerated.  The Chairman will maintain proper order at all times during all meetings of the Board and shall effect the removal from any meeting of any person guilty of offensive conduct if the offending party fails or refuses to cease such conduct.

 

In York County’s rule the necessity of good order is effectively communicated and control of order is placed with the Chairperson, not law enforcement.  On the other hand, York County’s rule also speaks of personal attacks on Board members.  Without a clear definition of personal attack; one would think a speaker can only compliment a Board member.  Each Board member is elected by the People and Citizens; therefore the People and Citizens should be allowed to publicly address issues pertaining to Board members as long as it is done in a respectful and orderly manner. 

 

Just my 2 cents,

Kenneth E. Hogge, Sr.

Gloucester Point

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Gloucester Board of Supervisors July 1 2014 Meeting Open Letter to the Citizens of Gloucester, VA

“For the Common Good. “

Your meetings seem to get more interesting overtime.

Can anyone show me in the US or Virginia Constitution where you can take money from someone and give it to others?

If you have not seen this meeting it is available on Mr. Thompson’s website.  I cannot do justice to what was shared in the meeting.  But here are a few highlights to wet your appetite.

After listening to Mr. Douglas S. Meredith, we should consider getting an Economic Development Director to look out for the interest of the county. Not sure what he is looking out for besides himself?

Mr. Hutson thanks for sharing your tell tale with us when you are less than totally honest.

Mr. Chriscoe why did you get a text message just before the Woodville vote, was it voting instructions?  We were so sorry to see that the meeting was keeping you from something important that night.  We will help someone else get elected into your position next time around so you will not have to waste your time dealing with something as unimportant as county business.  Why did you use the term “funneling money” sound less than honest for one of our Supervisors in an official capacity?

Back to giving away our tax money.  You spent most of the meeting trying to look out for the tax payers and not wasting our money.  You had many energetic and passionate discussions about saving taxpayers money until the end of the meeting.  I am not sure what happened: you had not given away any money; you were tired; or you had money you had to get rid of before the end of the meeting?  I fully agree that our watermen are hard working and need to be looked after, but what law says to take from the many and give to the few (Haven’t we provided them a dock at taxpayers expense?)? How is this helping the whole county?  You did not give outhouses to any other hard working groups like construction workers, landscapers, or VIMS PHDs that are forced to wear short paints to work in the summer because of the heat?

I am not a lawyer and cannot give legal advice.  Our founding fathers used common sense and Christian scripture when establishing our founding documents. 

“For the Common Good. “

Sincerely,

Alexander James Jay

P.S.  "I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it." --Benjamin Franklin, On the Price of Corn and Management of the Poor, 1766

"Be not intimidated ... nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberties by any pretense of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three different names for hypocrisy, chicanery and cowardice." --John Adams (1765)

Gloucester, VA, A Thank You To 3 BoS Members

I sent the following email thank you note to the Board of Supervisors after four of them voted to spend over $500,000 dollars to unnecessarily extend public sewer into an existing neighborhood at Gloucester Point. I can hardly wait until the next election season. 

 

I and many others say “thank you” to Mr. Myer, Mr. Winebarger and Mr. Bazzani for voting against proceeding with the Terrapin Cove sewer project.  Unfortunately for the majority of the County, the project is moving forward.

 

Spending that amount of money without proven justification of the need is not demonstrating good stewardship of the citizen’s money.  There were no condemnation orders and no warnings from any regulatory agencies.  There were no reports indicating sewer infiltration into the adjacent waterways. There were no inspection reports indicating unsuitable soils.  There were no reports of sewer water rising out of the ground.  The monitoring wells placed by public works were not secured to prevent tampering and soil was not properly mounded around the wells to prevent runoff infiltration.  The same results will be achieved throughout the majority of Guinea and in many other areas without sewer if such a test were done.  No swimming pools in the neighborhood have floated out of the ground including on Berkley Court.  Numerous owners on Berkley Court have allowed their drain fields to be overgrown with trees, shrubs and the likes.  Now the majority of the citizens in Gloucester will pay because those property owners failed to maintain their systems.  It is very likely that the majority of the homes associated with the project will not connect and no commitment from the associated homeowners was obtained before deciding to have the majority of citizens pay for the convenience of a hand full.

 

I will refrain from listing what could have been accomplished with that amount of money, but only until the next election season.

Respectfully,

Kenneth E. Hogge, Sr.

Gloucester Point

Gloucester, VA Civil War History, Discourse To The Troops

Civil War Discourse at Gloucester, VA, Free eBook from Chuck Thompson

We came across this document during some of our research and thought we would share it with everyone.  Some Civil War history from Gloucester Point, Virginia.  A rare find.  Downloads are available from our slideshare site and are free.  

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Yorktown Fireworks - 4th of July Show

This is the second part of the video from 2010 and is the entire fireworks show from that time.  We may shoot the show in Gloucester again next year to update our files and news.  Once again, happy 4th of July everyone.

Gloucester County Virtual Tour, Gloucester Point to Hayes

Tidemill Center, Gloucester Point, VA

This used to be a nice little shopping center. Now it's well, barely there. I remember there used to be a great feed and seed store there. I don't know how most if any of the shops are making it here. But if anyone has a bunch of extra cash and want to make an investment, here is a fixer upper that is for sale, at least according to the real estate sign anyway.

I would gamble a restaurant where the old feed and seed store was as it is big enough, but you are looking at some serious renovations. In 5 years from now when the county grows more, then this site should be worth renovating. Until then, ugly duckling is the word of the day.

Carl's Truck and Auto Repair, Gloucester Point, VA

Here is a picture of Carl's Truck and Auto Repair. I remember the days that it was Carl's Exxon and they used to sponsor the Coleman Bridge openings and updates on FM 99.1 for us locals. Hey Carl, thank you for those. There are us who still remember the old days. Then again I also remember the Coleman as a one lane on each side bridge. You used to come down, (or up), Rt 17 driving in 2 lanes and then everyone would have to shift down to one lane. The tie ups were unreal. God forbid you had a bridge opening on top of that.

Well we are very happy that Carl is still there even though the gas station is gone.

A Coleman Bridge Opening, Gloucester, VA from YouTube

Here is a video of the Coleman Bridge opening.  Gloucester Point and Yorktown.  Found this on You Tube and thought we would share it.  Gloucester, VA Links and News.  GVLN Website.

Tyndall's Point, aka Gloucester Point - History

Tyndall's Point, aka Gloucester Point, was originally named after map maker Robert Tyndall in 1608. Mr Tyndall was exploring the lands of Virginia with Christopher Newport and John Smith. The area quickly became a hot bed for tobacco plantations and a warehouse was built on the point to serve planters shipping their crops back to England. In 1667, the first fort was built to defend against any possible invasion from the Dutch fleet.

This was an important area during both the American Revolution and the Civil War. The Earthworks, also known as readouts, are all man made defenses from those periods. Tyndall's Point park is a great example of modern warfare, but the biggest secret of this park remains buried in the woods covered with overgrowth. The best of the earthworks are rather dangerous and the parks department would prefer you stay out of that area and not know about it. The ending pictures on this slide show reveal the best areas, but they are not easily accessible and we do not recommend you try to go into them. They are dangerous as there are sudden unseen drops that are very deep. I tried to take a few pictures of them, but the overgrowth is so thick, none of them came out where you could tell what they were. Plus moving around that area was extremely rough and very hazardous.

Gloucester, VA Links and News.  GVLN Website.