Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Mathews County does not and has never owned Williams Wharf. In the last Mathews BOS meeting Supervisor Dave Jones argued that there is precedent for gifting or otherwise transferring title of land owned by Mathews County to a private organization. Jones cited the transfer of land at Williams Wharf to justify his point. Jones subsequently moved to hold a public hearing on the general idea of giving public land to private entities.

To support his position, Jones cited the supposed transfer of the land at Williams Wharf as precedent. However, there was never a transfer because the county did not at any time own the land at Williams Wharf. The county served only as a fiscal agent on behalf of Mathews Land Conservancy. In other words, there is no established precedent in Mathews for such land transfers.

In minutes from the Board of Supervisors meeting on December 20, 2011, Mathews County Attorney Richard Harfst, addressing the Board regarding the abandonme...