The Mathews County Board of Supervisors, meeting on Dec. 18, voted unanimously to give the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello another six months to complete its research on the county’s Campeachy-style chair before returning it to Mathews. The chair has been at Monticello for 14 years.

The Mathews County Historical Society had requested that the chair be returned to the county because no research has been done on it since February 2001, it hasn’t been proved to have been built at Monticello, and it’s being kept in a warehouse and not displayed. However, MCHS member Reed Lawson said the society doesn’t currently have an appropriate place to display the chair.

Supervisor Neena Putt suggested that if six months isn’t enough time to find a place for the chair in Mathews, the agreement could be extended again.

Industrial hemp

The board also voted unanimously to approve a resolution supporting the Virginia Association of Counties’ stance on the domestic cultivation of industrial hemp.

Supervisors Chair Janine Burns explained that tobacco farmers have requested that VACo ask the federal government to remove regulatory oversight of the product from the Food and Drug Administration, where, although not a drug, it has been banned because it is a cannabis plant and therefore associated with marijuana.

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