Governor McDonnell Announces $93.5 Million Investment in Roanoke

English: The state seal of Virginia. Српски / Srpski: Застава америчке савезне државе Вирџиније. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

~Ardagh Group to establish metal packaging manufacturing plant and create 96 new jobs ~

-Project represents largest single manufacturing investment in Roanoke County history-

Virginia beats out 6 states for project

RICHMOND – Governor Bob McDonnell today announced that Ardagh Group, a global manufacturer of containers for the food and beverage industry, will invest $93.5 million to establish a metal packaging manufacturing operation in a 525,000-square-foot facility in Roanoke County. Earlier this year Ardagh signed a long-term supply agreement with a major customer, ConAgra, requiring the company to add capacity in the eastern United States. Virginia successfully competed against Kentucky, North Carolina, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Tennessee for the project, which will create 96 new jobs.

            Speaking about today’s announcement, Governor McDonnell said, “This tremendous project represents the largest single manufacturing investment in Roanoke County history and is a major win for Virginia against six competing states. The new manufacturing plant is Ardagh Group’s first operation in the Commonwealth, and will allow the company to easily serve contracts with its expanding global customer base. We thank Ardagh for its significant investment and creation of nearly 100 jobs, and are confident in its future success in Virginia.”

            “An investment of this magnitude and 96 new jobs is outstanding economic news for Roanoke County, the surrounding region and Virginia,” said Jim Cheng, Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade. “Ardagh Group was able to purchase a high-quality, existing facility that met its needs and will be a showcase to its worldwide customers. In this competitive market we are proud that global companies like Ardagh continue to recognize the benefits of a Virginia location.”

            Ardagh Group is a Luxembourg-based global leader in metal and glass packaging solutions for the world’s leading food, beverage and consumer brands. The company has more than 100 facilities and 18,000 employees in 25 countries producing 26.6 billion containers a year. U.S. metal packaging operations are based in Carnegie, Pa. In addition to Roanoke, the company has facilities in Bloomsburg, Pa., Weirton, W.Va., Conklin, N.Y., and Terminal Island, Calif.         

            “Our expansion into Roanoke County was the result of evaluating a variety of qualifications, including, but not limited to, the proximity to our major customer, favorable business tax structure, skilled labor and reasonable cost of living for our employees, as well as logistical advantages,” said James Willich, CEO, Ardagh Metal Packaging USA Inc. “We’re pleased that Roanoke County emerged to be the clear choice.”

            The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Roanoke County and the Roanoke Regional Partnership to secure the project for Virginia. Governor McDonnell approved a $750,000 grant from the Governor’s Opportunity Fund to assist Roanoke County with the project. The company qualifies for rail access funding from the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation. Through its Virginia Jobs Investment Program, the Virginia Department of Business Assistance will provide funding and services to support the company’s recruitment and training activities.

            “Roanoke County welcomes a global manufacturing brand to Roanoke County,” said Michael Altizer, chairman of the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors. “This represents the largest single manufacturing investment in Roanoke County’s history, and we anticipate even greater long-term investments from the company and its suppliers.  We’re delighted that Ardagh has the confidence to invest in our region and we look forward to assisting them in this transition.”

Gunsmoke - Chester's Mail Order Bride, Classic TV

Classic TV for Wednesday is Gunsmoke.  This episode comes from season one and is titled, Chester's Mail Order Bride.  Step back in time and relax after working hard.  Take a trip in our time machine to years ago.  Come back for more classic TV, movies, radio, books and comics right here on GVLN.

Gunsmoke (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

VEAL WITH TUNNY - Recipe of the day

Sliced veal with fresh chanterelle in cream sauce (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Take two pounds of meat without bones, remove the fat and tendons, then lard it with two anchovies. These must be washed and boned and cut lengthwise, after put into the water one quarter of an onion larded with clover, one leaf of laurel, celery, carrot and parsley. Salt the water generously and don't put the veal in until it is boiling. When the veal is cooked, untie, dry it and keep it for two or three days in the following sauce in quantity sufficient to cover it.

Grind ¼ pound tunny fish preserved in olive oil and two anchovies, crush them well with the blade of a knife and rub through a sieve adding good olive oil in abundance little by little, and squeeze in one whole lemon, so that the sauce should remain liquid. Finally mix in some capers soaked in vinegar.

Serve the veal cold, in thin slices, with the sauce.

The stock of the veal can be rubbed through a sieve and used for risotto.

Make something extraordinary tonight.

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Soul - The Alchemist - Free MP3 Song of the day

Royalty-free music for professional licensing

This is Soul with the song, "The Alchemist" from their album, Soul.  The band is from Grenoble, France.  The song is a nice pop rock tune.  Sung in english.  Check it out.  If you like it, download a free copy.  You can not beat the price.

Alabama Theater (Photo credit: Josh Self)

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Gloucester, VA Middle School Bond Issues

Gloucester, VA New School Bonds Issue - August, 2013" target="_blank">Gloucester, VA New School Bonds Issue - August, 2013 from Chuck Thompson

Above comes from the county's own records on the approval of the Bond during last night's meeting, Tuesday, August 6th, 2013.  There are a lot of questions here including where is the full 12 million dollars received from the insurance company for the old Page Middle school.  We are going to be looking at this document very very closely over the next few weeks and also pulling other county documents to see what is really going on here as there just seems to be a serious wall of voodoo cooking up some major concerns.  

  This is for a combination of maintenance work that needs to be done on local schools as well as construction of the monument to stupidity known as the new Page Middle school.  To be built in the middle of wetlands without proper a proper foundation and closer to flood zones without checking concerns about the new issues of the sea level rising.  Questions were brought up why we are committing to a 20 year bond for items that will not last 20 years and will be outdated well before the bond's payments are finished.

  Also, concerns about where county money has gone that could have funded the maintenance instead of borrowing and committing everyone in the county to higher taxes.  And this is only one little area.  Stay tuned.

Click on the icon at the bottom of the container of the document to enlarge the document for better reading.  

Board of Supervisor's Meeting Video August, 2013 - Gloucester, VA

Gloucester County, Virginia Board of Supervisor's meeting video from August 6th, 2013.  Meeting started at 7:00 PM.  Here is what you missed if you did not see it live.  We will be picking all of this apart for the rest of this month.  If they take the video down, we will post the video on YouTube as we already have a copy of it.  There are a lot of serious issues here folks.  This is also where you get to see how the Board has just raised your taxes more than you can imagine.  From the people who bring you county waste on a grand scale, watch more of it here.

Carl (Chuck) Shipley, Animal Control Retirement Questioned

The first question we have is did the county throw Carl Shipley under the bus?  Documents on the county website state that they are publicly honoring him.  Yet we watched the entire meeting last night and do not remember seeing the county honoring this guy.  In fact, we question his retirement as an actual retirement or was this forced on him?  See post below for more information on this.

Gloucester, VA Supporting Document" target="_blank">Carl Shipley Retirement, Gloucester, VA Supporting Document from Chuck Thompson

We found the above document and another one which will be posted below here, showing how the county is honoring his retirement.  Yet, when we watched the meeting last night, we did not hear this announcement or see Carl actually being honored.  So we have posted the video above.  When we tried using the county's video section search, nothing came up at all.

Carl Shipley Retirement, Gloucester, VA Supporting Document from Chuck Thompson

The above was not read during the meeting.  There are a number of us who watched this meeting while it happened and not one of us saw the above ever stated.  So where did this come from?  We keep telling you, there is a lot of very strange stuff going on here in this county.  This might be minor on the one hand but when you look at the bigger picture, all of these little things keep adding up and we are seeing much bigger issues that need to be exposed.

  Again, we question if Carl was forced into retirement.  See post below about the Animal Control job opening.  Carl can now concentrate on his business.  Chuck's Carpet Cleaning.  He's going to go suck carpets full time now?  http://www.chuckscarpetcleaning.com/Pages/default.aspx  Link to his company website.  Rug sucking at it's finest?  Well now that just sucks for Carl Shipley.  He can always inquire with us for free advertising.  We'll be happy to show everyone his background that we have collected here.  If the video above does not work, then it's the fine coding from the county IT department.  We will be posting a copy of the video on YouTube to make sure that everyone can see it.

 

Gloucester, VA - Senior Animal Control Officer Opening - Jobs

Animal Control Officer Openings, Gloucester, Virginia from Chuck Thompson

Gloucester County has an opening for a Senior Animal Control Officer.  All the details are above.  It turns out that Carl Shipley, head of Animal Control is retiring after 22 years.  Or is he being forced out for making the Board of Supervisors look bad a few weeks ago when we showed that the Gloucester Animal control laws were not in compliance with what the Board of Supervisors had passed and approved back in February of 2013, in order to get into compliance with state laws.  We covered this extensively a few weeks ago showing all the documents and exactly where the county was out of compliance.

Gloucester county animal control ordinances as of july, 19th, 2013. from Chuck Thompson

This document shows all the animal control ordinances as they appeared on Gloucester, VA's website a few weeks ago.  3-15 is out of state compliance as well as what the Board of Supervisor's had authorized for compliance in February of 2013.  Since then , that section of the site has been locked out from public view and you are now taken to municode to view the ordinances as they are within compliance of state code.

Virginia Animal Control ammendments 1 2013" target="_blank">Gloucester County Virginia Animal Control ammendments 1 2013 from Chuck Thompson

Here is the original information from the Board of Supervisors on what they passed back in February.  By the way, we were the ones who argued the original  ordinance violations to begin with.

So why is the job open?  Because Carl (Chuck) Shipley is retiring.

Carl Shipley Retirement, Gloucester, VA Supporting Document from Chuck Thompson

There is a question that we have if the county has forced this on him as he may have been the one who altered the information on the county website?  There is a lot of issues surrounding the entire Animal Control department that we have documented on this site as well as here,   https://sites.google.com/site/gloucestervanews/

Link also above in our pages bar.  So we believe the question to be very fair.

Incompetent applications are more than likely welcome based on the history of the department.  Abusive applications will likely be favored?  Click on the bottom right hand corner of each container to see the documents in an enlarged view.  Does anyone really want this job?

Seal of Gloucester County, Virginia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Deborah Samson and William Bradford of Plymouth

Liberty's Kids, episode 34, Deborah Samson, Soldier of the American Revolution.  This story is incredible in more ways than one.  The story is not only true, but Deborah Samson is also descended from William Bradford.

In 1778, she wanted to enlist in the army as a Continental soldier. Women were not allowed to do this, so she disguised herself as a man. She had little difficulty passing as a man because she was five feet seven inches in height, which was tall for a woman at that time. On May 20, 1782, she successfully enlisted in the army on the master of Master Noah Taft of Uxbridge, under the name of her deceased brother, Robert Shurtlieff Sampson,[1] and gave his/her residence as Uxbridge, Massachusetts.[1] Her signature still exists in the Massachusetts records.

Sampson was chosen for the Light Infantry Company of the 4th Massachusetts Regiment[1] under the command of Captain George Webb. The unit, consisting of fifty to sixty men, was first quartered in Bellingham, Massachusetts and later the unit mustered at Worcester under the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment, commanded by Colonel Shepard.

Sampson fought in several skirmishes. During her first battle, on July 3, 1782, outside Tarrytown, New York, she received two musket balls in her thigh and an enormous cut on her forehead. She begged her fellow soldiers to let her die and not take her to the hospital, but they refused to abandon her. A soldier put her on his horse, and they rode six miles to a hospital. The doctors treated her head wound, but she left the hospital before they could attend to the musket balls. Fearful that her true identity would be discovered, she removed one of the balls herself with a penknife and sewing needle, but her leg never fully healed because the other ball was too deep for her to reach. On April 1, 1783, she was promoted and spent seven months serving as a waiter to General John Paterson. This job entitled her to a better quality of life, better food, less danger, and shelter.

After the peace treaty was signed, everyone thought the war was over. However, on June 24, the President of Congress ordered George Washington to send a fleet of soldiers to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to aid in squelching a rebellion of several American officers. During the summer of 1783, Sampson came down with malignant fever and was cared for by a doctor, Barnabas Binney. He removed her clothes to treat her and discovered the cloth she used to bind her breasts and, thus, discovered her secret. He did not betray her; he took her to his house, where his wife and daughters housed and took care of her.[4]

After Sampson recovered, she returned to the army, but not for long. In September 1783, peace was assured through the signing of the Treaty of Paris. November 3 was the date for the soldiers to be sent home. When Dr. Binney asked her to deliver a note to General John Paterson, she thought that her secret was out. However, General Henry Knox never uttered a word; instead, she received an honorable discharge from the service, a note with some words of advice, and a sum of money sufficient to cover her expenses home. On October 25, 1783, General Knox honorably discharged her from the Army at West Point, after a year and a half of service.

Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_Sampson  

On the wiki link above, you will see the relationship between Deborah Samson and William Bradford.  And here is where we are going to fill in the story about William Bradford.

William Bradford of Plymouth from Chuck Thompson

Click on the icon at the bottom right of the container to enlarge for better reading.  The story that begins religious freedoms in colonial America and fair government.  Principles that go hand and hand.  Exactly what we continue to see disappearing before our very eyes each and every day.

  Free downloads are available on the above e-book from our SlideShare site.  You will have to log in with either your Facebook account or LinkedIn account or set up a free account for the download.  We will be covering more on Williams Bradford around the Thanksgiving season.  So stay tuned.  It will be very interesting as we cover the arguments of the location of where the real first Thanksgiving took place and not the one often mentioned most often.  But again, that is for a future date.

A picture of Colonel William Bradford. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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