THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 3, 1996 TAG: 9512300147
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SERIES: 1995: YEAR IN REVIEW
SOURCE: BY LINDA McNATT AND JODY SNIDER, STAFF WRITERS
LENGTH: Long : 241 lines
In January, W. Douglas ``Doug'' Caskey took over as Isle of Wight County administrator.
Caskey, a native of Charlotte, N.C., had been assistant county administrator for several years. He succeeded Myles Standish.
Caskey, describing his first year as ``invigorating and challenging,'' said, ``I've learned a great deal.'' And, he said, ``I feel I've been able to keep the county focused on what the Board of Supervisors has set as priorities.''
Caskey highlighted the connection to regional sewerage as major news in 1996. Depending on the weather, the Smithfield end of the county should be connected to the Hampton Roads Sanitation District within weeks, he said.
And the HRSD line to Windsor, along U.S. Route 460, has gotten the go-ahead. Caskey said it will be a lot of work for all county officials involved to make that connection a reality.
Those two connections could change the face of this rural county as much as anything has for the last several decades, sparking residential growth and industrial development.
``I love my job,'' the county administrator said, after a year at the helm. ``I'm excited about the continued opportunity to be of service to the citizens of this county.''
- Linda McNatt
In February, Dr. Arthur Kirk, a Suffolk native who lives in Portsmouth, donated 77 acres of pristine woods to the Nature Conservancy.
The Blackwater River Preserve, as the conservancy calls it, is today as it has been for centuries - untouched by civilization, with mammoth cypress trees stretching toward the sky.
Last spring, a field trip sponsored by the conservancy took 30 members by canoe to the area, and the organization's Charlottesville office has had numerous telephone inquires about canoeing through the area, said Judy Dunscomb, director of science and stewardship for the Nature Conservancy.
Currently, the Virginia Institute of Marine Science is using Kirk's donated land to conduct studies having to do with the formation of wetlands. Dunscomb said the study eventually could improve on the ability to re-create wetlands.
- Linda McNatt
Betty and Gerald Sykes of Smithfield won one of the largest lottery jackpots ever won in this county on Feb. 11 - $4,818,081. The winning numbers - 1-8-16-20-40-44 - were a combination of the couple's birthdays.
The Skykes, married at the time for 31 years, had played the same six numbers since the Virginia State Lottery began.
Sykes is a disabled Vietnam vet; his wife a devoted Bingo player. The very next day after they won the lottery, Betty won $1,000 playing Bingo. It meant the couple could drive to Richmond to pick up their prize without floating a loan.
The Sykeses, over the holidays, were unavailable to comment about whether money can buy happiness.
- Linda McNatt
In March, Lynn Harris, Isle of Wight County's economic development director, gave Citizen readers a tour of the county from an economic development standpoint.
With new industrial parks just getting off the ground in Windsor and Carrsville, Harris is optimistic about the potential for industrial growth in the county.
And other good things happened to Isle of Wight in 1995.
Union Camp, the county's recognized industrial giant, opened a $100 million paper recycling plant early in the year. Waste paper from businesses now comes to the plant in the southern end of the county, near Franklin, from as far away as Washington, New York and Philadelphia to be recycled.
Most of the waste paper is recycled back into pulp fiber to be used for business and printing paper products.
Later in the year, the City of Richmond and the state Department of Youth and Family services announced that what was once an old road camp near Walters soon will be turned into a facility for non-violent juvenile offenders.
The facility, scheduled to open in January, is expected to bring with it more than 30 new jobs to the county. Expected to house about 45 juveniles from across the state, the Walters facility will be the state's first juvenile boot camp.
New businesses have opened continuously through the year in both ends of the county, and that trend is expected to continue when regional sewerage finally makes its connection in the Smithfield end of the county in early '96 and begins construction on U.S. Route 460 toward Windsor.
- Linda McNatt
Isle of Wight was the stage for a dramatic re-enactment March 30, when ``Real Stories of the Highway Patrol'' slipped into the county to film the highway drama of Virginia State Police Sgt. Phil M. Wrenn.
The cast included about 20 officers from the Virginia State Police's Fifth Division Tactical Team in Chesapeake, the Isle of Wight Sheriff's Department, Smithfield and Suffolk police departments and a 100-pound Rottweiler named Rommel.
The 43-year-old star of the show, a 19-year state police veteran, said he had mixed feelings about reliving the drama that could have killed him.
``I try not to think about it,'' he said. ``It's an eerie feeling to have to talk about it, to go back to it. It's the only time I've ever been shot at.''
The real story unfolded for Wrenn about 5:45 a.m. May 6, 1987, as he worked radar on Route 10 in Isle of Wight County. Arnita Worthington and Daniel Wayne Jones pulled up beside him in a van. Jones fired a shotgun blast at the police cruiser, shattering the windshield, just missing Wrenn. After the assault, the two fled toward Suffolk, with Wrenn in pursuit. The chase reached speeds of 100 mph, glass from Wrenn's shattered windshield hitting him in the face. The chase went on for 14 miles, through Suffolk and back into Isle of Wight.
Finally, Worthington zipped into a sandy road, where the van got stuck. The two ran into the woods, and the manhunt began. Thirty-two hours later, the pair was spotted in a field. They were cornered, and surrendered quietly.
Jones was later convicted of attempted capital murder and is serving a 57-year prison term. Worthington pleaded guilty to a charge of maliciously shooting into an occupied vehicle and was sentenced to eight years. She has been released.
The show was televised by NBC-TV last fall.
- Jody R. Snider
In the summer months, agriculture led the news:
Dry weather and extreme heat were in abundance for area farmers this year, producing a year of worry for anybody in the agriculture business.
For 26 straight days - from July 12 to Aug. 6 - Southeastern Virginia sizzled, with temperatures in the 90s.
As a result, immature peanut fields became infested with spider mites and worms, dropping yields from 3,100 pounds an acre in '94 to under 2,000 pounds in '95. Yields in cotton, with small bolls, fell from 944 pounds to about 550 pounds.
Expecting hefty returns in cotton, state farmers this year increased acreage from 43,000 to 107,000.
To accommodate the additional acreage, two more gins were built this year, one in Franklin, another in Suffolk, bringing the state's total gins to four.
- Jody R. Snider
In July, The state relaxed its concealed-weapons law, allowing virtually any Virginian 21 or older with no criminal record to carry a gun.
As a result, 120 permits were issued in Isle of Wight from July to Nov. 22, more than triple the 39 permits issued in all of 1994.
Under the old concealed-weapons law, applicants had to appear before a judge. The judge could deny the permit if those applicants couldn't offer convincing reasons as to why they wanted to carry a gun. The new law still requires the appearance but limits grounds for denial.
- Jody R. Snider
The county agreed to lease the old Smithfield High School to the Peninsula YMCA for $1 a year for 20 years.
Almost immediately, about 250 volunteers began painting walls, replacing old windows and installing flooring to refurbish the old school.
The county-based Y opened in Smithfield on a limited basis in October, offering aerobics classes and open basketball sessions.
On Nov. 6, a campaign started to raise $200,000 toward the completion of the facility. Smithfield Foods donated $50,000 and Louise Obici Memorial Hospital in Suffolk pledged $25,000.
A Smithfield High alumni basketball game is scheduled in February to help garner more support.
And although construction on the 16,000-square-foot facility is still under way, memberships are now being offered: Adults, $18 per month; couples, $27; Single-parent families, $20; and families, $30.
For more information, call 365-4060.
- Jody R. Snider
In September, The newest addition to the Jamestown-Scotland Ferry, the Pocahontas, was christened.
The sleek, 263-foot vessel was named for the Indian maiden said to have befriended English settlers in Jamestown, the legendary savior of Capt. John Smith.
The $7.1 million ferry, which carries 70 vehicles, was built by Moss Point
The 1,272-ton vessel's larger size will leave fewer passengers on the
docks and make the ferry system that runs between Surry County and Jamestown more convenient and economical.
- Linda McNatt
The local area saw two female attorneys named judges in 1995: Gammiel Poindexter, of Surry County, and Ann Hunter Simpson, formerly Ann Simpson Jones and formerly of Smithfield.
Poindexter was sworn in in September as a General District Court judge in the 6th Judicial Circuit of Virginia. She sits in Emporia and in Sussex, in Prince George and Brunswick counties.
Simpson was appointed a judge in the 15th Judicial District's Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court in Fredericksburg and sworn in in June.
Poindexter is the first female and the first black appointed a judge in the 6th Judicial Circuit.
- Linda McNatt
In November, Sheriff Charlie Phelps won his campaign for re-election over two opponents who helped to make it one of the most active and colorful elections in recent years.
The sheriff's candidates filed early and fought a hard battle for votes, but the incumbent sheriff won his office for four years.
In the only other contested political contest, Windsor's Mayor Bobby Claud won a seat on the County Board of Supervisors. Claud will take office this month.
Campaign signs for both local and state candidates decorated every highway and back road in the county for weeks after the election. - Linda McNatt
A Smithfield woman appeared on national television when she was a big winner on ``Wheel of Fortune.''
Kristin Wilda was selected to be a contestant on the quiz show when it came to Norfolk last year. In early October, she got the telephone call that they were ready for her.
Wilda's prizes on the show totaled more than $80,000. Her winnings included a new car and several trips.
- Linda McNatt
For the first time in 30 years, deer were hunted at Chippokes Plantation State Park. About 27 hunters participated in the Southern Heritage Deer Hunt.
The day started with an Episcopal priest blessing three dozen hounds and hunters heading to the fields in horse-drawn wagons. Before long, the sounds of dogs yelping and guns blasting could be heard in the 1,400-acre park. The hunt was held to decrease the park's growing deer population, estimated at 150.
- Jody R. Snider MEMO: [For related stories, also see pages 8 and 9 of The Citizen for this
date.]
ILLUSTRATION: [Cover]
Map
Many peanut fields became infested with spider mites and worms.
File photos
Smithfield Station drew tourists into Smithfield with its
beacon-flashing, copper-topped lighthouse on the Pagan River's
bank.
Lynn Harris, economic development director, is optimistic about
growth.
In January, W. Douglas ``Doug'' Caskey took over as Isle of Wight
County administrator.
Dr. Arthur Kirk, a Suffolk native, donated 77 acres of pristine
woods to the Nature Conservancy.
Industrial parks are just getting off the ground in Windsor and
Carrsville.
by CNB