Monday May 29, 2023
Episode 4 of the New Dominion Podcast | Fredericksburg City Council | Memorial Day Memory
Episode 4 of The New Dominion Podcast
Shaun, Marty, and Scott talk cigars, rum, Cuba, and local taxes
Stafford County's very own Commissioner of Revenue Scott Mayausky talks about the role of constitutional officers, how local taxes are valued and collected, plus the vast economic impact new data centers will have on the Virginia localities lucky enough to host them.
NEWS: Fredericksburg City Council
by Savannah Dunn
Alternative Dwelling Units continue to be a source of contention at City Council meetings. On Tuesday, May 23, 2023, the issue resurfaced and caused the City Council to extend some pending deadlines.
Multiple Fredericksburg citizens expressed their concerns with ADUs, particularly their concern that passing allowing ADUs but doesn't require owner occupancy at the property will encourage unwanted developers to come in and build rental apartments.
Concerns were raised that building rental apartments under the ADU proposal would lead to owners more concerned with money than the living environment.
Many of the council members, including Timothy Duffy, Kerry Devine, and Jon Gerlach agreed there needs to be more time spent on the decision. City Manager Tim Baroody plans to hold a work session with the council as soon as June 13, 2023, as well as a public hearing on June 27, 2023.
Among the presentations was the Virginia Department of Health’s plan for opioid harm reduction. VDH noted that while the opioid death count in the city is going up, emergency room visits for opioid-related health concerns, including overdoses, are going down.
VDH also presented information from the National Harm Reduction Coalition, which has a set of practical strategies and ideas aimed at reducing negative consequences associated with drug use. These strategies and goals should help reduce judgment and stigma around opioid use, disease transmission, risk of overdose deaths, health complications, exposure to vicarious trauma which in turn reduces burnout, and costs over time (i.e. Incarceration, law enforcement, first responders, foster care, treatment/recovery).
The Health Department's goals for opioid awareness are increasing understanding of harm reduction, increasing Naxalone (a drug blocking opiate receptors in the nervous system) distribution, and increasing access to fentanyl strips. VDH currently offers trainings that are an hour long and are usually put on twice a month.
Each person who goes through the training receives a bag that contains Naxolone, written instructions, as well as other necessary items to help in the case of an opioid overdose.
Councilor Matthew Kelly motioned to remove the housing density and rezoning plan (which was passed at the May 9th meeting) from the consent agenda. Kelly was concerned that Fredericksburg would no longer have a small town ‘charm’ if more people are encouraged to move into the city.
He prefers having special exceptions for properties rather, than doing small, incremental changes over time. Opposed to Kelly’s concerns, the Council approved the rezoning plan on a second read with a vote of 6-1.
There was also discussion about the City Manager’s plan for updating for updating the Economic Development Strategic Plan. Council member Matt Kelly, concerned with what he described as a lack of detail in the proposal and the emphasis on sports tourism. Councilor Graham countered that he appreciated the emphasis on sports tourism because it is a significant economic driver. The Council approved the proposal 7-0.
GUEST COMMENTARY: Remembering Gordon
by David Kerr
This group photo of the pilots who took part in operation Vengeance, the mission that shot down Admiral Yamamoto’s aircraft, was supplied by Kerr. Gordon is on the far right in the first row.
Memorial Day is about remembering. It’s about recalling those brave young men and women who gave their lives that future generations of Americans might live in freedom. However, each one of those who gave their life in the service of their country comes with their own personal story. This is my recollection of one. The story of one empty chair at the family dinner table.
I was about six years old, I was with my mom, dad, and grandmother, and we were visiting some dear friends of my grandmother, the Whitakers. This was North Carolina and “visiting” on Sunday afternoons after church was an important part of the culture.
Mr. and Mrs. Whitaker were longtime family friends. They were charming, gracious, and cheerful. But as I found out that day, they bore a special kind of sadness for a loss that occurred over 20 years before in the South Pacific.
During the visit I remember being a little bored, as little boys are apt to be when the adults are talking, and I took notice of one of the pictures on the mantel. I found myself studying it rather closely. It was a photo of handsome young man in his World War II flight suit. There was an unmistakable good nature to his smile. I didn’t know who he was, but right away I liked him.
With all the tact a 6-year-old can muster, I asked my father, who was sitting next to me, who the man in the picture was. My dad was a little nervous in answering. Not just because I was talking when I should have been quiet, even though the topic of conversation was a mind-deadening back and forth on various approaches to planting rose bushes, but because it was a sensitive topic.
The young man in the photo was the Whitakers’ only child and he had been killed in World War II. My father, hoping not to draw attention to our father-and-son exchange, said it was very sad, but like a lot of young men in the war, Gordon didn’t come home.
Mr. Whitaker, having caught a hint of our conversation, spoke up and began to explain to me who this young man was. I think my parents were surprised by his willingness to talk about his lost son. He told me his son’s name was Gordon, just like his. They called him Gordon Junior and that he was their only child and that he went off to war back in 1942. Mr. Whitaker said that Gordon Junior was their great joy in life, and they had never stopped missing him. Then he went to the mantel to get the picture to show it to me.
I may have been little, but for the first time in my life, I had a sudden, though gently offered, lesson in the cost of war. Gordon was just about ready to graduate from college when he asked his dad if he could take flying lessons. He wanted to get a leg up in qualifying for the Army Air Corps’ Aviation Officer Cadet Program. With war seeming more likely, he knew he wanted to be a fighter pilot. His father agreed and paid for the lessons.
Gordon was commissioned in the Air Force and was an outstanding aviator. He flew in the closing weeks of the Battle for Guadalcanal and later flew “top cover” for the mission that killed the Japanese top strategist, Admiral Yamamoto. He survived that mission but was lost two weeks later while escorting a photo reconnaissance plane over Bougainville.
Gordon’s parents have long since passed on. But to this day, I have trouble imagining how they found the tenacity and the resolve to carry on after such a terrible loss. That empty chair at the dinner table never went away.
Even as a child I could tell that this was a wound that had never healed.
Gordon never had the chance to marry, have kids, and live long enough to reflect on times past.
Eighty years after Gordon’s death I live a comfortable life.
I make my living as I choose, think as I please, associate with whom I please and worship as I please. I complain about my government and my elected officials whenever I feel like it. That’s all a part of being an American. And I owe that privilege to Gordon Whitaker, a kind, decent and gifted young man, who like thousands of others in his war, and other wars, didn’t come home.