Local Sheriff; Complaints About Massage Parlors, Warning; Sexually Explicit Content

(Story by; Chuck Thompson)

Tuesday, October 1st, at the Gloucester County Board of Supervisor's meeting held at the old colonial courthouse, Sheriff Darrell Warren was looking to get a public hearing on the creation of a special local ordinance that is outside of the purview of state code and equally outside of the Dillon Rule that local authorities are supposed to adhere to.  This new special local ordinance would create a new law against what is going on inside of local massage parlors making certain actions illegal in Gloucester County.  Now for some background on why the Sheriff is looking for such an ordinance.  Sheriff Warren claims that he has received numerous complaints about special services being practiced at several locations here in the county and that there are no state laws for which the Sheriff or his deputies can site against these massage parlors for these special services in an effort to stop future practices like this.

What are these special services?  (Warning, the following may be considered sexually explicit and may offend some readers. Caution is advised beyond this point).  Before we begin to explore these special services, let's define what they are not.  Vaginal, Anal and oral intercourse for a fee is considered prostitution within the state and there are laws in place that Sheriff Darrell Warren can take action on and stop these actions if they were going on inside of these massage parlors.  So, these are not the actions where complaints have been issued.  What is not covered is masturbation.  There are no state laws that forbid paying someone to masturbate or massage one's private areas, male or female.  Other complaints are also massage with nudity.  What was not said is who the nude parties are, if they are the massage therapists or the customers or both.  The indication seems to be both however.  The complaints later explained, were after mutual agreements between a customer and the massage therapist and there have been numerous complaints filed by multiple citizens.  Why is anyone's guess.

  One of the problems our forum had while discussing this is the violation of the Dillon Rule by counties in matters like this one.  How is one person to know the laws of one county to the next when traveling through them?  Once the lion is out of the bag, there is no stopping how far it will go in these situations.  One day what looks like a local ordinance to protect the county ends up with who knows how many later?   It's a very dangerous precedent once started, more will follow.  That is why the Dillon Rule is in place.

  So we sent out part of the TTC Media team to do some research and see if Sheriff Darrell Warren might be overlooking any laws to curb and or stop what he believes to be a breach of county ethics in an effort to save the people from themselves.  Why yes there is we found out.  Each massage therapist must be licensed by the state and they could very well be in violation of their state license if they are in fact giving customers hand jobs for a fee.  Besides, this is also a state matter if that is in fact not the case.

  We had a round table discussion on this matter and an interesting concept was brought up.  Could it be that Sheriff Warren wants the county ordinance in an effort to close these businesses down and force a Civil Asset Forfeiture upon them taking all of their money and assets?  We looked at that and what we see, this is an interesting question.  It would also make it impossible for the people who both own and or work at these locations to properly defend themselves as all of their money is taken from them.  In Civil Asset Forfeiture cases, rarely does anyone ever get their money back even if found to be innocent.  Great way to fund your department when the county isn't giving you the budget you would like for your department.

  Now we are not saying this is going to be the case with Sheriff Warren.  This only came up as a possible question in our discussions that makes for an interesting story.  There is also the question in regards to the timing of this.  It's re election time.  What a powerful story this could make days before the election to help sway the vote.  Not that Sheriff Warren really needs any help here anyway.  But it sure does not hurt.  Positive news spin and who knows how much in cash and assets all in one single move?

  Another interesting fact that came up in the round table discussions is that these massage parlors are believed to be owned by folks of oriental decent.  Eastern philosophy is much different than western philosophy in that orientals believe that a massage should have a positive outcome.  A question of intolerance for their beliefs may be of concern to some.  This is not brought up in defense of their practices, just an interesting note.  It was equally brought up with interest that failure to address masturbation for a fee by state legislatures may be for reasons we might not be aware of and they may not wish to discuss.  Either way, it's going to be interesting to see how this plays out over the next few months here in Gloucester. 

Legal Brief Calls For Circuit Court Judge Jeffery W Shaw's Arrest

A legal brief filed in court on February 19th, 2019, listed as a Notice, Motion of Default, calls for the arrest and conviction of Circuit Court Judge, Jeffery W Shaw.  Said arrest and conviction is not limited to just Judge Shaw, but also a number of others as well.  The arrest and conviction of Judge Shaw is found on page 23 of the document ported into this article and seen below.  78 Federal charges of premeditated fraud with malice are claimed in the document.  Total charges start at over 9 million dollars and claim RICO charges as well which triple the amount of the charges to a new total of over 27 million dollars.

  A demand for the professional bonds of both Judge Jeffery W Shaw and Attorney Bruce E Arkema, of Durrette, Arkema, Gerson & Gill P.C. law firm have been set forth in the mtion for
default filed.
(By: Liberty Law)

The motion for default is due to a failure to answer previous briefs filed with the court and presented to the plaintiff's and their attorney and Judge Shaw ignoring the fact that plaintiff's refused to answer said filings.  Filings challenged jurisdiction.  Papers were filed in King William County where the civil case issues are located, but from what we know, Judge Shaw held court in Gloucester County, creating a serious jurisdictional issue.  Jurisdiction was challenged and while in court, judge Shaw denied the demand that challenged Jurisdiction.  According to adjudicated Supreme Court rulings, once jurisdiction is challenged, everything must stop and jurisdiction must be proven.  Judge Shaw failed to follow this.

The court papers are below and include court stamps on several pages.

Judge Jeffery W Shaw Arrest Legal Filing from Chuck Thompson

What comes next is not within our knowledge.  We report information as it is brought to us on this case.  We sat in several of the court hearings on this case and can attest to a number of facts here.  

Gloucester's Over Inflated Budgets?

If you listen to the present board of Supervisors and the present county administration, these folks are doing everything they can to keep taxes down.  Are they?

  Let's look at the facts.  On the one hand, I would say they are trying to keep present costs within control.  But they are not really doing anything to cut taxes by cutting out ridiculous government programs they like to tell us are services.  Zoning, not a service.  Planning, not a service, building and codes, not a service.  These departments should be cut and the money returned to the people.

  There is also too much fluff in many departments that one has to question if that many people are really needed to run them?  Present budget being presented to the board is maintaining present level so called government services that we simply do not need nor want.  The school board is the biggest factor in tremendous waste.  Way too many administration personnel that I would love to see fully justified and not with lip service that means little to nothing but sounds good.

  We have problems with department heads that earn in the neighborhood of one hundred thousand a year that could not and I will repeat, can NOT transfer those same skills to the private sector and earn even close to those wages.  Something is horribly wrong here.  I am not knocking the people in those jobs, most do a great job.  But when the same skills pay much lower in the private sector, then we have a major disparity going on in our government.

  We have people in government who are empire building and all at the expense of the taxpayer.  If you want to build an empire, great, I am all for it, in the private sector.  Not at the cost of the taxpayer.  The school board comes to mind here as these folks have been wasting taxpayer dollars to the tune of millions that we have shown over and over on this site.  Did I say education?  I meant indoctrination.  Schools no longer educate.  They indoctrinate the children who will never question.  They might ask questions when they do not understand the directive, but they are taught to not question the directive.  Indoctrination costs more than education.  We see this reflected in our taxes as they continue to skyrocket each year.

  I get tired of the lip service paid each month at the county meetings and it turns out to be nothing more than lip service with no real actions.  Charging people a fee to get a business license?  That means you do not have the right to start a business without government permission.  Not exactly what the framers of our Constitution had in mind.   That also means you are paying a tribute to the government for the privilege of allowing you to put your savings at risk.  That's pretty sad.

  Freedom is gone as long as you are forced to pay for starting a business, maintaining your business every year, what you can do with your land, how and what size signs the government is going to allow you to put up, and then you have to collect taxes for the government at your expense?  Really?  Really!  We are being fooled and robbed at every turn and there is no end in sight.

  Yet everyone thinks this is all normal.  No one studies history to see this is all only about 70 years old and grew very slowly.  Our government officials thinks these concepts are normal and have not looked into history to see that it is not.  Nor will they.  In fairness, our board is comprised of some great folks that are decent people and a good time to talk to.  As individuals, I have the utmost respect for them.  As a collective, they are thieves as long as they continue to perpetrate these frauds against the taxpayers and business owners.  They each need to go back through history and return to the principles of our founding fathers.

  Tear down the services that are not services but instead government theft with no value.  You do not attract business by demanding tributes be paid to the government before the government even thinks about what they will allow and what they will restrict you with.  I don't care every locality does it.  I don't care the state and federal government allows it.  That does not make it right.  In fact, the federal courts have said it is illegal when it comes to planning and zoning when planning and zoning goes outside the purview of government owned lands and properties.  The same has also been said about business licensing.  But who listens to the courts?

  Some will argue that some of the services like zoning are good and protect the rights of private property.  I disagree and there are plenty of market conditions that can easily be put in place that do not require government interference.  These so called services are nothing more than socialist programs.  Socialist programs are not du jur where one gets to pick and choose what programs they like and what programs they do not like.  Under socialism, you get it all like it or not.

Oration at Gloucester, July 4th, 1827 from Chuck Thompson

 

  I post this yet again for those who question any of the freedoms argued above.  Before you make one single argument, know your facts first.  The above starts to give you some of those facts.

Gloucester School Board Asking For 44 to 65 Million Dollars Throwing Taxpayers Deeper In Debt

The Gloucester County School Board is asking the taxpayers of Gloucester County to shell out another 44 million dollars to renovate the present high school or shell out 65 million to build a new high school.  These elitist board members fail to take into consideration what that kind of money will do to the average family in the county.  Higher taxes is a burden on families that are struggling now just to make monthly expenses in the present economy.  This hurts everyone with the few exceptions of those who can afford those higher taxes.  It does not matter if you are renting, it means your rent will have to go up to cover the new taxes.  And for what?  We are always told it's about the children.  Someone please show me the figures of how many students Gloucester has graduated that have moved on to an Ivy League college.  Does anyone have that figure?  

  Just because you throw money at something does not mean education improves.  Gloucester wants to put those huge windows in the high school like they have at the new Page Middle school, which by the way are on the wrong side of the building now costing tax payers a bundle in extra heating costs because the windows face north instead of south.  

  How can we trust them not to make all the same mistakes they made with Page which is a disaster by most measurements and considered as such by many throughout the county.  

  How many people will be put over the edge financially because of an ever growing tax demand by school officials who seek nothing more than to build their own empires?  We have a shrinking student base, not a growing student base.  We have had a shrinking business base, not a growing business base in Gloucester.  So where is that money coming from?  Where is the budget to help the poor, disadvantaged, homeless people in the county?  I would rather see that kind of money go to helping the local people who need it, not some ego hungry empire building school board that wants to throw money at looks, but it has nothing to do with education.  How does improving the looks of a school or building a new school improve education?  It doesn't.  But these elitists will do everything to sell you on the idea that it does.  Don't buy the hype.  Check into every aspect of it yourself and learn everything you can.  Just because they make it sound good, does not mean it is good.

  Demand justification for every benefit they try and sell you on.  Demand that the school board stop the wasted spending on over priced staff that has nothing to do with education but instead called administration.  As taxes continue to escalate, people will move to cheaper areas to live forcing yet higher taxes on those who remain further decreasing the value of improving looks of a school and shrinking the student base that is already in decline with no improvement in sight.  

  How these elitists justify grabbing more of your money?  Well, they live here too.  But as their empire grows, so does their pay.  And if the pay is still to low to cover the new taxes?  Pay raises are demanded to meet educational needs.  It's a great game they play against us because they can't loose.  

  This article is not meant to reflect on all of the hard working highly dedicated teachers that work for the Gloucester County School Board.  Overall the teachers do a great job with ever lower budgets despite ever increasing tax money given to the school board.  Where is that money really going is a wonderful question to ask.  The school board did not need to renovate an old school they closed and make it their headquarters, but they are empire building so........

  We highly recommend that everyone stop buying the slogan that it's all about the children.  They know that the slogan is very hard to argue against.  But it's nothing more than a slogan.  

  So here is our counter slogan:  "When elected officials see the citizens as nothing more than their own private bank, it's time to replace our officials.

  

Gloucester, VA: Can We Trust The School Board? Failed Utopia

Can we trust the school board?  You may need to watch this video several times over and really listen to what John Hutchinson is actually saying and not what you may think he may be saying because when you first hear him you are likely to get the wrong message.  John Hutchinson appears to be addressing the issue of a Homeland Security audit.  On the one had he is.  On the other hand, it's not anywhere near as comprehensive as you may have been led to believe.  It's a very clever tactic used to send you the wrong information and making you think that the School Board has done everything in their power to ensure the safety of the students, teachers and staff.  We are going to show you that this may not be the case and give you the proper tools to figure it out for yourself.  Let's start with a video on body language.
  

Now let's go back to the joint meeting between the school board and the board of supervisors.  Let's discuss John Hutchinson's location of his hands when he was talking about the Homeland Security evaluation.  His one hand was in his pocket.  If you will also look again at how his head was dodging back and forth, he did not appear to be actually looking at anyone but instead below the level of anyone before him.  What did you just see in the video here on body language?  I am not suggesting he was lying.  I am suggesting that he may have been trying to pull the wool over the eyes of everyone listening.  Again, listen to what John Hutchinson says.  The security evaluation was a transportation evaluation.

  That means John Hutchinson was talking about the security for the bus system where Gloucester received high marks and why John did not want to get into specifics is because that would have revealed the slight of hand he just pulled in our opinion.  That is a trust issue.

  So does Page Middle school meet Homeland Security guidelines for safety?  Is there such a thing as guidelines for safety from Homeland Security?  Yes there are actual guidelines for safety and we have those guidelines and we are going to share them with everyone here reading this.  You can make up your own mind after doing the proper research whether or not the school board has done due diligence in ensuring the safety of the students.  The guidelines are 317 pages long and very comprehensive and well done.  It's a very impressive document.  At the end of the book is a checklist that you can take with you and conduct your own evaluation.  What we see is failure after failure after failure here to meet most of those guidelines.

  What will they argue back on this?  The Homeland Security guidelines are just that.  Guidelines.  As we understand how the federal government works, if they are mandatory, then the federal government would have to fund each project.  So guidelines are setup instead allowing states and localities to determine what the priorities should be.

Homeland Security Building Recommendations 

So above is the Homeland Security guidelines for schools.  Look through it and learn what those guidelines are and then take a copy of the checklist to Page Middle school and see how it stacks up.  We can tell you that one local resident pounded on the school board about these issues and even provided the school board with the exact information above before Page Middle school was constructed.  The School Board ignored these recommendations and that you can easily prove to yourself.

  To make it easier for you we have made a separate checklist that you can download for free from our slideshare site.  It's the same checklist as in the above Homeland Security book we just made it easier to print out for you because we want you to see all of this for yourself.

Homeland Security Building Design Recommendations Checklist 

We apologize for the annoying auto play of the Bos, School Board, meeting video as it is out of our control and the default option from the county that can not be changed even though it shows as an option.  We did not choose the auto play option which means it's supposed to be off.  Technical difficulties the county needs to address.  This is only one area in that video from the BoS/School Board where we have a lot of issues.  More stories coming very soon.

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Gloucester High School's Untold Transgender Issues

English: A purple transgender ♀+♂=⚧ symbol surrounded by a triangle. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Everyone is sick of the story about Gavin and her fight to use the male restrooms at the Gloucester, VA High School.  We feel pretty much the same way, but we have noticed that mainstream media continues to fail to bring various aspects of this story to light for readers which is why so many are sick of reading about this fight.

  Today we are speaking for those who can not speak for themselves.  The other side of the story no one else wants to publish nor dares too.

  Has anyone noticed that the teachers and staff at the Gloucester High School have not been interviewed for their opinions on this issue?  Let's look at some concepts here.  If teachers and staff should have to use the same restrooms as the students then having a transgender walk in while one of them are in there can represent a real issue that is simply being ignored by the press and the ACLU.  What about the rights of any adults that may need to use the restrooms of the school?  You are dealing with a minor in this situation and if the transgender student has an issue with that adult all kinds of accusations can fly creating havoc.  Of course this can happen without transgender students but is much less likely and there are other bathrooms for teachers and staff.  However, teachers and staff still need to monitor these areas for potential trouble.

  Now you will not get any of the opinions from any of the teachers or staff of the school unless it supports the issue.  Anyone giving the perceived wrong opinion is likely to be fired or come under heavy media scrutiny and potentially sued.

  It is the obligation of those charged with deciding this issue in maintaining the moral factor for all students and not trying to figure out the questions of some perceived rights of some few across the nation.  It does not matter what other students may think of the issue and whether some come out and say they have no issues with the situation as they are minors.  It is our obligation to make many decisions for minors or they would "NOT" be minors would they?  Let's look at it another way.  As a male one may not care if the females want to come into the bathroom while a male is in there.  But, would the female students want a male walking in on them?  Not likely.  Males may have motives for their seemingly liberal answers.

  The precedence that could be made here is far reaching.  If Gavin is allowed to use the male students restrooms then what is to stop any female student going into the male students restroom with a male?  Here is the claim that can be made if she is caught.  She is a transgender male who is gay and went into the male's restroom with her gay male boyfriend.  Is Gavin a gay male transgender?  That question is not being brought up.   Again let's look at the idea as though this is a member of the staff at the school.  A female janitor who wants to clean the male students restrooms while the males are in there.  The female janitor's explanation is that she is a transgender male.  What is the decision now?  How is this different?  Do we make the same provisions for cross dressers?  Could start a real trend.

  There is a similar case right now in Texas.  A male who claims he is a female and wants to use the female student's locker room.  Oh but that is somehow different?  No it isn't.  It's morally wrong and the mainstream press not addressing these issues is equally morally wrong.  It is all a part of tearing down the moral fabric of this and every other country across the world.

  If Gavin can not use the men's restroom at Walmart or Lowes or any of the local restaurants then why should the school be any different?  It isn't.

This fight is nowhere over and it is best that people do get involved in this fight until it is finally put to rest.  Are we going to continue to allow the few to dominate the many on supposed conceptual arguments of rights?  Do we ignore the morals of this nation?  It is an adult's argument to begin with.  Minor's need to be protected here.  And how many people notice that every picture of Gavin, she is always wearing earrings?  Yes some males have earrings but most males that have earrings usually only have one ear pierced not both.  Gavin has both pierced and another facial piercing as well.  I am not buying her story.   The word heard on the street which we can not verify is that Gavin's parents are betting on receiving a lot of money from the lawsuits here so is that the main incentive?  It is also heard that they have plenty of plans on how they want to spend all of that money.   

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Gloucester, VA Public Library Debate Over Leasing's High Costs

Public libraries are a key element in promoting literacy and intellect, building a community and providing free and open access to a vast amount of information the public would otherwise face challenge and expense in obtaining. Gloucestercurrently has two public libraries where the community may access only a small portion of information actually available. The quantity of information contained in public libraries is highly dependent on local community financial investment. Upon glancing at the amount of money Gloucester annually invests in our public libraries, it is evident their importance to the community is realized by our elected leaders. Unfortunately upon a closer look at how the money is actually spent it becomes clearly evident the taxpayers are getting very little return on their investment. In fact, we are throwing away several million dollars to lease library spaces instead of owning them.

 

This year the Board of Supervisors (BOS) budgeted $996,982 to operate our two public libraries. $577,630 is for salaries and benefits and $253,226 for rent, leaving only $166,126 for library operations. The larger of our two libraries is located in the MainStreet Center and owned by the Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust (GMSPT). Rental of this 24,000 square foot library space initially began in 2004 for a period of 10 years, with four five year renewal options for up to a total of 30 years. The BOS renewed the lease for five more years in 2013 which became effective in 2014. This year we will pay the GMSPT approximately $190,000 in lease associated payments to rent the library and among other things, to pay 23% of the property tax charged on the entire Main Street Center. Our second library, located in the York River Crossing Shopping Center, is rented to Gloucester under a similar lease agreement. This year the People will pay approximately $63,000 in lease associated payments for this 3,916 square ft. library space.

 

Should Gloucester continue leasing the Main Street library for the full 30 years, the taxpayers will have paid the GMSPT close to $6 million in rent. A new 24,000 square foot library constructed at $2.50 per square ft. would cost the taxpayers approximately $6 million and would convert the annual rent obligation from $190,000, to an annual library capital improvement fund contribution of approximately $50,000; rendering an eventual annual savings of at least $140,000. Similar, but smaller scale results could also be realized by constructing a second library instead of continuing to rent. Over the years Gloucester’s administration and elected leaders have made some deals and decisions that have proven to be contrary to the long term financial interests of the overall community. Just think, if the earlier decision makers had truly acted in the community’s best interest, they would have built a new library and the benefits and savings of such would be enjoyed financially stress free today. Unfortunately, we now appear to be locked into a carefully designed financial cycle that will be very hard to break without a significant cash windfall, as we currently cannot afford to rent and build a new library at the same time. The current BOS has an obligation to address this issue and initiate a process that will result in construction of the larger of two new libraries within the next six years, with construction of a satellite branch beginning not far behind. Hopefully the current BOS becomes the Board that did what was best for the entire Gloucester community; otherwise we will just keep paying more for library rent than for information quantity and quality.

 

Respectfully,

Kenneth E. Hogge, Sr.

Gloucester Point

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Page Middle School Designed Backward

Charles Records Recent Statement To Us:  " I am a Professional Engineer and Gloucester County Public Schools has employeed dozens of other Professional Engineers, licensed by theCommonwealth of Virginia, to design this project. As a Professional Engineer, our singular duty is to protect the Life, Safety, Health and Welfare of the General Public and it is not a duty I or any other Professional Engineer takes lightly. It is a slap in the face to suggest otherwise."

I am not sure if Charles Records was taking responsibility with the above statement but either way I find it funny as all get out and I am going to explain why in this article.  The school was designed backward from everything we are looking at.  Let me explain this in detail here and show some more serious issues because of this backward design.

  From what we remember of the information about the design of this school Dr Ben Kiser traveled to Finland where he did some studies of their school designs and was apparently so impressed for some reason he wanted to build the same type of school here.  So what we need to do is actually look at the reason why anyone would want to copy FInland's model, especially when you take into consideration that Finland is a very cold country.  Much colder there than it gets here.  Summers as I understand it get into the 70's.

  But there like here, winter months have much shorter days than summer does.  So the objective is to maximize sunlight for several reasons.  One of many reasons for maximizing sunlight is for mental health.  Depression due to a lack of sunlight is a common issue in Finland.  It is not as bad here but has merit all the same.  The other is energy savings.  By maximizing sunlight, you can cut back on heating costs.  Heating is not as expensive as cooling.

  So how do you maximize sunlight?  You build your structures with a lot of glass.  You want that glass on the southern side to capture the maximum amount of sunlight as possible throughout the day.  Where is the majority of the glass in Page Middle School?  It's ............ on the northern and eastern side of the building.   It minimizes the amount of sunlight, not maximizes it.  Just like seen in the picture above.  The picture above was taken at about 3:00 PM in the beginning of September the 3rd to be exact.  Now come December through March, where we have the shortest days of the year, this is going to be a dark area instead of filled with light the way they are built in Finland.

  In Finland, during the warm months, their structures have canopies or awnings to block excessive sunlight from coming in to minimize their cooling expenses.  Page Middle School lacks these awnings, but since the glass is on the northern side, it does not need them as it is not maximizing the sunlight.  So what we are now doing is trying to heat and cool a structure that maximizes expenses and minimizes savings when it should be doing just the opposite.

  This creates a number of other issues that equally maximizes our expenses and minimizes savings.  As we already pointed out the maximum amount of sunlight is on the southern side of a structure.  The northern side has the least amount of sunlight coming in.  Again what does that mean?  With Page being over 2 stories high, shadows are maximized on the northern side of the building.  So what?  During the cold months the courtyards in the back of the school as well as the parking lot where the buses come and go is getting the least amount of sunlight which means it gets the maximum amount of freezing time.

  When little Johnny and Sally are getting off the buses or on the buses, this is the area with the maximum amount of frozen ground and potential ice problems.  The front of Page which gets the maximum amount of southern sun will be the safest areas to walk.  But that is not where the majority of the students will be coming and going.  The majority will be subject to the worst areas of the property.  This also means that the school board will have to use more chemicals to keep the areas free of ice and snow.  Anyone know what those chemicals do to concrete and asphalt?  It deteriorates them at a very accelerated rate.

    
Again as seen in the above picture, the maximum amount of sun is not being produced as the design is backward.  This is the northern side of Page Middle School.  Picture taken from the second floor looking out into one of the courtyards.

  During the short months, this will be the shadow view of about 11:00 AM.  The glass on that back north western corner is just not producing any sunlight at all for the open design.  Instead it maximizes cold which maximizes costs and minimizes comfort of the students, teachers, and staff as well as minimizes savings.

And the lack of a drop ceiling is yet another question as to why anyone would want this?  The purpose of a drop ceiling is to minimize heating and cooling expenses.  Instead we have wide open ceilings that maximizes costs and sacrifices comfort for everyone.  Is it more appealing?  That is up to the individual to consider.

The mantra we keep hearing from the school board is that it is now all water under the bridge and we need to be proud of this new school.  The more we continue to look at it the more we see it as the "THE GREAT MONUMENT TO STUPIDITY."

  Now if Charles Records has a reason why the design of the school is the way it is and how it is saving us money instead of costing us more money than it should we would love to hear it and we will be happy to publish it.   To us it looks like it was designed backward which is costing us all a lot more than it should at so many levels.  We look forward to hearing from Charles Records on this or anyone else who has sound reasons for this design.

  Let us make one thing very clear.  As far as construction goes we have no issues with what we have seen so far.  From the looks of it, Oyster Point Construction Company, did an outstanding job with the designs they had to work with.  They should be commended for the quality of the work.  We are not questioning any area of the construction.  We are questioning a great deal of the design work.  We do not doubt that safety was taken into consideration as far as implementing the design work.  It's the many areas where the design simply is not appropriate for a Middle School and its students, teachers and staff, or where costs are concerned and we have seen a number of areas where there are, in our opinion, final design flaws that need to be addressed right away with some we have only reported to county authorities.  And with that said, this is why we call Page Middle School, The Great Monument To Stupidity.

  We are nowhere near done with our reports on issues we see and keep hearing about regarding Page Middle School.

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The Waterline At Page Middle School: Disaster Waiting To Happen Here Too?

The new 16” waterline extending along T.C. Walker Road and installed as part of constructing Page Middle School, does not seem to have been installed in the proper location. Apparently when VDOT required changes to design drawings for improvements of the T.C. Walker Road and Route 17 intersection, those changes were not incorporated into the civil site and utility drawings. This failure has resulted in the 16” waterline now being located in the very bottom of the VDOT drainage ditch.

As the story goes; the contractor installed the waterline and then began constructing the drainage ditch. As they constructed the ditch they discovered they removed most of the dirt above the waterline. Instead of removing the waterline and reinstalling it in the correct location when the error was discovered, they excavated along side of and under the waterline, removing the stone bedding and dirt from under the pipe while it was still put together. 

Once the stone and dirt are removed from under the waterline it will sag downward. The more it is forced to sag, the more each connection joint in the line separates. This is a dangerous and unacceptable method of lowering a waterline that operates under pressure. The reliability of the gaskets used to seal each joint and the chances of every joint being completely home (fitted all the way together) become compromised when manipulated in such a manner. 

The required stone bedding under the pipe is also compromised and often completely ignored when utilizing such method. Another reason to avoid such method of adjusting waterline depth is it rarely results in achieving the required depth. A significant section of the new waterline does not come close to having the required amount of cover. On August 20, 2015 I used a four foot long probe rod to determine the amount of cover over the waterline and discovered areas with less than two feet of cover. The minimum cover requirement is generally three feet. The main reasons for minimum cover requirements are to protect the waterline from freezing and to limit pipe movement, thus preventing the pipe from blowing apart under pressure. The close proximity of the waterline to the water tower that supplies it, the fact that the pipe dead ends so close to the incorrectly covered pipe and that flow through the pipe will basically cease daily during each day’s coldest periods, during weekends and during other times the school is closed during winter months, are all very good reasons for not accepting the waterline in it’s current condition. The waterline in its current condition will also increase the chance of VDOT damaging it during ditch maintenance.

 If VDOT should damage the line, they will be exempt from responsibility as prescribed by the Code of Virginia and all liability will fall on Gloucester taxpayers. If, for any reason, the waterline blows apart so close to the water tower supplying it, the results would be catastrophic; most likely resulting in a significant portion of T.C. Walker Road and the entrance to Page being washed away before the water could be turned off. Page would be closed until water could be restored and the road and entrance repaired. In this scenario Gloucester taxpayers will also assume liability.

I know everyone wants the new school opened as currently scheduled, but this serious issue should not be ignored or dismissed for the sake of opening on time. It should also not be dismissed to save a buck, no matter whose buck it is.

Respectfully and just my 2 cents worth,

Kenneth E. Hogge, Sr.

Gloucester Point

The two above pictures shows where we were out measuring where and how deep the waterline is buried by Page Middle School.  

Mr. Hogge,


Schools and the Contractor are very well aware of the waterline issue and have committed to making the needed repairs during the Winter Break in December. Not only has the Contractor’s President issued a guarantee to the County for the repair, but we also continue to hold a performance bond on the Contractor to ensure the repairs are made to satisfaction. Public Utilities is aware of the Contractors commitment and finds the repair strategy to be acceptable.

Thank you for your support. Have a nice day.





John E.Hutchinson

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