An edgy crowd of up to 300 mostly Mathews residents slammed U.S. Coast Guard and Army Corps of Engineers officials with questions and shouts of derision during a nearly three-hour meeting held last Friday at the Piankatank Ruritan Club at Hudgins.

Moderated by Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Montross), the meeting was held to address residents’ concerns about the recent removal of channel markers in Davis Creek and Hole in the Wall, both Mathews County waterways. 

The result was a promise by Wittman, met with applause and cheers of approval, that he would make sure the channel markers were returned to the waterways. He said that his son, a waterman, “is chewing on my ear.”

“This is critical to marinas, watermen, and the local economy,” he said.

The meeting also dealt with the issue of dredging channels, since the reason for the markers being removed is that the channels have shoaled in and there are no longer funds available for shallow channel dredging. Witt...