THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 15, 1995 TAG: 9511160711
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LINDA MCNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ISLE OF WIGHT LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
Just two days after last week's election, Sheriff C.W. ``Charlie'' Phelps was looking forward to a few days vacation with his wife, and he finally found time to do something about the cat.
And newly elected Windsor Supervisor Robert ``Bobby'' Claud was barbecuing chicken in the parking lot of Windsor Christian Church and looking forward to a few days away from Windsor at his place on Lake Gaston.
Both candidates were major winners in the county elections held Nov. 7. Claud won over his opponent, Joan C. ``Joni'' Griffin, 1,046 to 348.
Phelps, the incumbent, easily beat both his opponents, capturing 4,820 votes against Shelton Spivey's 2,268 and William ``Billy'' Chrisman's 925.
The county's state winner in the House of Delegates race in the 64th District, William ``Billy K'' Barlow, had the same idea as the local winners.
Barlow, a Democrat, won a hard-fought battle against Republican Debra Quesinberry to be re-elected to the legislative seat he first won in 1990. And the Smithfield lawyer also took some time off to recover.
Barlow was vacationing for a few days in Florida, a spokesperson at his office said earlier this week.
Phelps said he may spend a couple of days in the Virginia mountains with his wife, his bicycle and his golf clubs, once he got the cat straight.
The unnamed cat, a gray tabby, apparently had been dropped off by someone at the home of Phelps' secretary, Eileen Smith, a couple of weeks before the election. Smith took the cat to the office to try to find it a home. The cat ended up in Phelps' garage. He took it back to the office.
``I guess I'm just going to let it stay here for a while,'' Phelps said as he lifted a box of cat litter from his car.
Meanwhile, Phelps had been meeting with his deputies and investigators since the election to determine how the Sheriff's Department could be run more efficiently.
``I think the people endorsed what I have done in the last eight years,'' the sheriff said. ``I take it as a vote of confidence. But we've critiqued the outcome of the election, and we're going to listen to what was said to us.''
One of the most important messages he got from the campaign is that Isle of Wight residents often feel they are left uninformed when they have a pending investigation or court case, Phelps said.
``We want to establish better follow-up. We're going to try to keep the people better informed, let them know the status of their cases. Somebody will get back to them and say, `This is where we are.' ''
As smoke from cookers swirled around his head, Claud talked about the opportunity to move into county government from his position as Windsor's mayor.
``I will be representing more than just the town of Windsor. I will be responsible to the whole district. I hope I can play a part in seeing the town and the entire area grow in the right way.''
The town is in the process of hiring a part-time administrator to take over many of the duties Claud had as mayor. He said he would like to stay on in Windsor through the end of December, until that process is complete.
Because there is no provision in the Windsor Town Charter for a special election, it will be up to the council to choose a new mayor. The council can select a mayor either from the council or from the community. If from the council, then council members would have to appoint a member of the community to serve Claud's unexpired council term.
Claud said he probably will resign as mayor around the end of December. His first meeting with the supervisors will be in January.
But first, it was off to Lake Gaston for a few days of rest.
As Phelps put it, ``I want to go somewhere where I don't have to get up in the morning, and there is no planned agenda.'' by CNB