The five-member Mathews County Board of Supervisors is open for business in 2016 with one new face, G.C. Morrow of Port Haywood. He was one of three winners in November’s election, and has replaced member Janine Burns who retired. Reelected were Edwina Casey and Charles Ingram.

All Mathews County supervisors serve at large, with three elected at one time, and two up for election two years later. The district method of representation disappeared in the early 1980s, although the ancient district names, Chesapeake, Westville and Piankatank, survive as the names of polling places.

At the same time that the county moved away from magisterial districts, it enlarged the board from three to five members.

In the march of time, Mathews County, still one of the smaller in Virginia, has expanded its outreach to citizens in many ways, especially through a website (wwwco.mathews.va.us) that includes much information on operations, regulations and meetings.

But the best way to be heard is t...