The Mathews County Board of Supervisors, meeting last Thursday, once again visited the issue of the Hole in the Wall Waterfront Grill on Gwynn’s Island.
County attorney Andrea Erard announced that she had come to an agreement with the restaurant’s attorney, Tommy Norment, to set a new date for a hearing on the board of supervisors’ challenge to the Mathews Board of Zoning Appeals’ July 2023 decision in favor of Hole in the Wall. The matter had been scheduled to be heard in Gloucester Circuit Court this Friday, Feb. 23. A motion to proceed with the Feb. 23 hearing failed to pass on a 2-2 vote, with supervisor Tim Doss abstaining.
In the July 2023 action, the restaurant appealed an administrative decision made by county planning and zoning director James Knighton that cited the restaurant for alleged violations of the zoning ordinance having to do with an addition to the building and expansion of a permitted deck. The BZA voted 4-1 in the restaurant’s favor, attributing the vote to the lack of county records on the matter and affidavits from the former county administrator and building official stating that the restaurant property was in compliance with all relevant ordinances during their time with the county.
Supervisor Mike Walls decried the decision at the time, and on Thursday took issue with Erard’s rescheduling of the hearing, reminding the county attorney that four of the five supervisors had said they did not want the matter postponed. He said she should have brought the matter before the board for a vote.
Erard said she had been asked to take over the lawsuit from outside counsel in order to minimize the cost and that she would need time to be fully prepared for litigation so she could do her best job.
Supervisor Tom Bowen said that when he brought the matter up in January, he had discussed putting a pause on litigation to stop the continued accrual of outside attorney fees and to try to make some progress on the Hole in the Wall situation—progress that couldn’t be made “as long as the parties were duking it out in court.” He said an earlier report by building official Jonathan Morr showed that such progress has been made.
In that report, Morr told the board that he had been contacted by a third-party engineer who will look at the construction done at the site and at various methods for any repairs needed. That engineer will review all the previous engineering reports, construction documents, and inspection records, and will provide a comprehensive report of current conditions for future reference. Morr said he had sent the engineer a list of everything that needs to be inspected, tested, and/or rectified, and he pointed out that many of the items were in the initial report from The Structures Group.
Morr said he visited the restaurant on Feb. 13 to re-inspect the shoring and found everything in the same condition as when it was initially installed, with no signs of bowing in the framing members and no strain or stress on the installed jacks. He said the tenant and his business partners had agreed to make any necessary repairs.
“From a building code standpoint, I feel we’re moving progressively forward in a positive direction,” said Morr.
Bowen said he had spoken with the tenant, Mac Casale, and that Casale had agreed that any repairs will be done by a contractor hired by Mathews County.
Walls pointed out to Bowen that everything he said had also been required by the previous board of supervisors and the previous building official, Kevin Zoll.
Bowen said that a pause on the litigation will give Erard time to prepare and Morr time to gather the needed information.
“This is absurd,” said Walls. “I’ll tell you why they don’t want that BZA hearing—because they can’t win. I know that BZA did not vote the way they were supposed to vote.”
Walls moved to hold the BZA hearing as scheduled on Feb. 23, with a second by Jones. Doss, who was a member of the BZA at the time of the decision on the matter, recused himself from the vote. The vote was tied 2-2, with Bowen and Phillips dissenting, so the motion failed. Erard said she would reschedule the hearing for the earliest date possible.
Broadband
Supervisors unanimously voted to approve a six-month renewable contract with Broadband Telecom for $10,000 a month after a presentation by Mathews Broadband Advisory Board chair Judy Rowe, who shared figures showing that the company has brought $9,145,000 in projects into the county in its ongoing efforts to provide universal broadband, while the county has paid only $664,000 toward the total costs.
Broadband Telecom has “kept the projects in line, kept the costs low, and guided us in the right direction with the right technology,” said Rowe.
Jeff Beekhoo, president and founder of Broadband Telecom, announced a 25-year lease agreement with Verizon to place cellular equipment on both towers at $2,400 a month for each tower, with 1.5 percent annual escalation increases.
Bowen said that universal broadband “will be the biggest and fastest bonus for economic development in our county in 20 years, and we’ll see it in two years’ time.”
Concealed weapons permit fee
By a vote of 4-1, with Phillips dissenting, the board approved the creation of a resolution to reduce the cost of a concealed weapons permit from $50 to $10 every five years.
Arguing in favor of a reduction, Bowen said that the Virginia Code requires only a $10 fee, that the sheriff’s office and clerk of courts incur no expense in processing the permits, and that, although the state police may charge a $5 fee, the agency currently does not do so.
Phillips said there’s a lot of overhead in the clerk’s office and that that, even if there’s no charge, they’re using resources. She said $50 every five years is “not particularly burdensome,” and that it’s “pretty much a standard rate.”
Pickleball courts
On a motion by Walls, the board voted unanimously to allocate $62,000 for the creation of four premier pickleball courts and a basketball court with two adult goals and two children’s goals at the Mathews Park.
County administrator Ramona Wilson said the $62,000 will be covered by reappropriating funding previously designated in a line item in the budget for technology.
Additionally, $65,000 in the capital improvement plan that had been designated for repairs to the tennis courts will be used for the project. G&G Paving of Colonial Heights will be doing the work.
Walls said both areas will be fenced in, with the pickleball courts placed where the basketball courts are currently and the basketball courts moved to an area in front of the pavilion near the tennis courts. Lighting is not included, he said, but if there’s a demand for playing at night, lights can be added later.
MOUs for constitutional officers
Board members took no action on a proposed Memorandum of Understanding with the county’s five constitutional officers—the sheriff, commonwealth’s attorney, clerk of court, treasurer, and commissioner of the revenue—after commonwealth’s attorney Marie Walls and Sheriff April Edwards objected to the documents during public comment. Bowen said he was opposed to the MOUs, as well.
Walls said other nearby localities do not have such MOUs and that sharing personnel records outside of her office would be a breach of confidentiality. “We respect the county, but we operate under different masters,” she said.
Edwards said there needs to be a separation of powers and that she considers her personnel her responsibility. “If something needs disclosing, I give my word to come to you,” she said, “but anything else should remain private.”
The county attorney, who developed the MOUs, said the premise was not to hamstring or penalize constitutional officers but to clarify the understanding between the offices and the county in terms of rights and responsibilities.
Bowen said that constitutional officers are independently elected and are “a separate entity set forth in the constitution.” He said it was important to maintain a separation of power and duties. If a constitutional officer feels a need to terminate an employee, he or she has the right to do so immediately, he said, adding that the system has been used for over 100 years and that there are “very unique reasons for it.”
Other board members voiced agreement, and Phillips pronounced the issue closed.
Social Services
The board heard a report from Mathews Social Services director Tiffany Gordon that 9 percent of all Mathews residents and 15 percent of all children in Mathews under the age of 18 were living in poverty as of 2022, the latest year for which she had statistics available.
Many of those in poverty are the working poor, she said, with over 28 percent of the population receiving “some sort of benefit” from social services.
Mathews no longer has an approved, licensed provider for children under school age since Little Shepherds Academy closed, said Gordon, and “people can’t afford” the $300 per week for child care services at the YMCA.
Confederate monument
Bowen told the board that he plans to bring forward a proposal next month to have a new plat made for the Mathews Court Green that will return the property to its original dimensions.
The dimensions were altered in 2022 when the previous board voted to accept a donated survey document that divided the portion around the Confederate monument from the rest of the court green in preparation for possibly transferring it to a Confederate organization. That transfer did not occur.
Supervisor Dave Jones said the division was “nothing more than a line in the sand,” and Walls said that, when he met with incoming supervisors in December, they agreed not to talk about the monument. “Here we are in the third meeting now, talking about the monument,” he said.
Phillips said that cutting up the court green was “a slippery slope” and that it would be “best to put it back the way it was.”
In other matters, the board:
—Unanimously supported a motion by Doss to have an energy audit completed on all county buildings and to encourage the school board to join the audit for all school buildings, as well;
—Heard a report from Kay Bradley with the Rural Housing Partnership (formerly the Gloucester Housing Partnership), who told supervisors that the 35-year-old organization, which helps people with housing issues whose income is up to 200 percent of poverty guidelines, completed its fifth project in Mathews this year. She said the partnership can provide up to $10,000 in assistance and hopes to get financial support from Mathews in order to expand its services;
—Took no action on making the emergency services coordinator position full-time after a report from Wilson that showed it would nearly double the cost of the position and that, while there might be enough work for the employee, the county can’t currently afford the increase in costs. She said that a lot of localities larger than Mathews do not have full-time emergency services coordinators;
—Agreed to a change of name for the Middle Peninsula-Northern Neck Community Services Board to Middle Peninsula-Northern Neck Behavioral Health in order to better identify the services offered by the agency;
—Voted to enter into a service agreement with the Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission for its services in overseeing the upcoming $1.46 million Davis Creek dredging project;
—Heard from the county administrator that requests for proposals have been issued for architectural and engineering design services for the new Mathews Volunteer Fire Department Station 1, for ditch-cleaning services, and for a classification and compensation plan;
—Also heard from the county administrator that the county’s fund balance is not excessive, but that it is in line with recommendations by Davenport that the county retain 20 percent of the county’s funds in reserve to pay for grant-funded projects that require pre-payment with reimbursement and to get favorable borrowing rates for capital projects, and
—After a closed session, voted unanimously to make the following appointments: Brian Russell to the board of zoning appeals, Harry Meeks to the Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission, Laura Jones and Linda Lancaster Loyd to the VA250 Committee, and Leigh Ramos as the county’s liaison with Rappahannock Community College. On a split 3-2 vote, with Walls and Jones emphatically dissenting, voted to appoint Desmond Smith to the Social Services Board.