Friday, October 05, 2007
Bermuda Supervisor Election
The election campaign for Supervisor in Chesterfield County from the Bermuda district is starting to get interesting.
First there are the water restrictions. For the past month and a half, the Richmond, Virginia, area has had only one day with meaningful precipitation; on that day we got one inch of rain. As a result, the reservoirs have been drying up, and this has caused the localities to implement voluntary water restrictions. These restrictions allow even-numbered houses to water on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, and odd-numbered ones on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and no one waters on Monday. There are some exceptions, like for newly planted grass. The forecast from the Global Forecasting System suggests no meaningful precipitation until October 15, when the first cold outbreak comes out of Canada. So mandatory restrictions are likely.
We can't blame the weather for the restrictions. We had droughts before, in 1980 and 1983, for instance. But there were no restrictions then. The only reason why we have restrictions now is that the developers have come and plopped houses and water-users all over the place, and that is draining all the reservoirs dry. The developers are causing other problems as well. They are increasing auto traffic, causing jams every day in Chester now, and increasing demand for schools, causing trailers to sprout like daffodils in the spring at county schools, and large class sizes. Further, the houses they install are far from places of work and from groceries and so forth, necessitating driving a lot, and with peak oil coming up, we don't want to be so dependent on the car. The biggest transgression by the developers lately has been Branner Station, in which three square miles of forest are to be dug up and made into homes for nearly 5,000 households.
Bring in the Supervisors. They are the ones who decide whether these developers get the required zoning, and whether they can go ahead with the projects. We need Supervisors who can plan development and restrain growth, so it does not exceed the resources we have to accommodate the growth. We also need someone who is responsive to the people.
So I emailed all three Supervisor candidates, Democrat Ree Hart, Republican Dorothy Jaeckle, and Independent Roy Wallace. Recall that the Republican candidate, Dorothy Jaeckle, accomplished a major victory for reining in Chesterfield County growth by defeating an associate of the developers in the Republican primary, on an anti-developer platform. So how did the candidates respond?
Ree Hart responded by saying that water is certainly one of the resources that need to be considered in approving a development, and that all areas need to be considered in whether to approve a development. Roy Wallace said the same, but was considerably less detailed. Dorothy Jaeckle offered zero. That's right, nothing. She did not respond.
Now the Village News, the local weekly newspaper, in its current issue has included answers by the candidates to questions. The Bermuda candidates were asked what they would do to alleviate crowding in the schools. Roy Wallace came up with a short and general answer that did not say much of anything; however, he did point up immigration as a potential source of growth. Ree Hart responded with a specific case: overcrowding at Thomas Dale High School. She said that despite this, that it's best to leave the ninth-graders there. She would not move them to Community High, as it accommodates only 530 students, and there are more than 700 ninth-graders at Thomas Dale. Moving them there would simply move trailers. Dorothy Jaeckle, on the other hand, would move the ninth graders there, and would move the special students at Community High to another building in the county. This is because she believes there is room for them, and it can accommodate 700 students. Right away, we have a contradiction. 530 is not 700. I emailed both Ree Hart and Dorothy Jaeckle about this, and put a response to the column in the Village News.
Ree Hart immediately replied that she found from the principal of that school and from the School Board that the functional capacity of Community High is 518 students. This was confirmed shortly afterwards with a communication from the Village News. So Ree came much closer to the actual number. Later on, Dorothy Jaeckle emailed me, saying that the school can certainly hold 700 students; it held that much and more earlier when her children went to school. I remember my child going to school there, and remember that he had to go to a trailer. So there were trailers then. This meant that Carver Middle School (as Community High was called then) was overcrowded at 700-800 students. So to me, Dorothy did not get the facts straight.
But what stood out was the fact that of all the candidates for all the Supervisor positions, only two of them cited restraining growth as the best way in the long run to avoid overcrowding - make sure the resources are there first, and Ree Hart was one of them, and her opponents were not. So to me it looks like Ree Hart is still the best candidate, and if the election were held now, I would vote for her.
First there are the water restrictions. For the past month and a half, the Richmond, Virginia, area has had only one day with meaningful precipitation; on that day we got one inch of rain. As a result, the reservoirs have been drying up, and this has caused the localities to implement voluntary water restrictions. These restrictions allow even-numbered houses to water on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, and odd-numbered ones on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and no one waters on Monday. There are some exceptions, like for newly planted grass. The forecast from the Global Forecasting System suggests no meaningful precipitation until October 15, when the first cold outbreak comes out of Canada. So mandatory restrictions are likely.
We can't blame the weather for the restrictions. We had droughts before, in 1980 and 1983, for instance. But there were no restrictions then. The only reason why we have restrictions now is that the developers have come and plopped houses and water-users all over the place, and that is draining all the reservoirs dry. The developers are causing other problems as well. They are increasing auto traffic, causing jams every day in Chester now, and increasing demand for schools, causing trailers to sprout like daffodils in the spring at county schools, and large class sizes. Further, the houses they install are far from places of work and from groceries and so forth, necessitating driving a lot, and with peak oil coming up, we don't want to be so dependent on the car. The biggest transgression by the developers lately has been Branner Station, in which three square miles of forest are to be dug up and made into homes for nearly 5,000 households.
Bring in the Supervisors. They are the ones who decide whether these developers get the required zoning, and whether they can go ahead with the projects. We need Supervisors who can plan development and restrain growth, so it does not exceed the resources we have to accommodate the growth. We also need someone who is responsive to the people.
So I emailed all three Supervisor candidates, Democrat Ree Hart, Republican Dorothy Jaeckle, and Independent Roy Wallace. Recall that the Republican candidate, Dorothy Jaeckle, accomplished a major victory for reining in Chesterfield County growth by defeating an associate of the developers in the Republican primary, on an anti-developer platform. So how did the candidates respond?
Ree Hart responded by saying that water is certainly one of the resources that need to be considered in approving a development, and that all areas need to be considered in whether to approve a development. Roy Wallace said the same, but was considerably less detailed. Dorothy Jaeckle offered zero. That's right, nothing. She did not respond.
Now the Village News, the local weekly newspaper, in its current issue has included answers by the candidates to questions. The Bermuda candidates were asked what they would do to alleviate crowding in the schools. Roy Wallace came up with a short and general answer that did not say much of anything; however, he did point up immigration as a potential source of growth. Ree Hart responded with a specific case: overcrowding at Thomas Dale High School. She said that despite this, that it's best to leave the ninth-graders there. She would not move them to Community High, as it accommodates only 530 students, and there are more than 700 ninth-graders at Thomas Dale. Moving them there would simply move trailers. Dorothy Jaeckle, on the other hand, would move the ninth graders there, and would move the special students at Community High to another building in the county. This is because she believes there is room for them, and it can accommodate 700 students. Right away, we have a contradiction. 530 is not 700. I emailed both Ree Hart and Dorothy Jaeckle about this, and put a response to the column in the Village News.
Ree Hart immediately replied that she found from the principal of that school and from the School Board that the functional capacity of Community High is 518 students. This was confirmed shortly afterwards with a communication from the Village News. So Ree came much closer to the actual number. Later on, Dorothy Jaeckle emailed me, saying that the school can certainly hold 700 students; it held that much and more earlier when her children went to school. I remember my child going to school there, and remember that he had to go to a trailer. So there were trailers then. This meant that Carver Middle School (as Community High was called then) was overcrowded at 700-800 students. So to me, Dorothy did not get the facts straight.
But what stood out was the fact that of all the candidates for all the Supervisor positions, only two of them cited restraining growth as the best way in the long run to avoid overcrowding - make sure the resources are there first, and Ree Hart was one of them, and her opponents were not. So to me it looks like Ree Hart is still the best candidate, and if the election were held now, I would vote for her.
