February 16, 2025: A slight break in the hiatus to learn about Appomattox County
Appomattox County Board of Supervisors to hold public hearing on consolidation of election precincts in two districts
Hello! You may be surprised to see this email in your inbox. I’m surprised to be writing it! To recap, my name is Sean Tubbs and I’m an independent journalist and publisher in Charlottesville. I grew up in Campbell County, and nearly three years ago I created a newsletter to begin to try to understand the contours of the new Fifth District. This is an experiment under my Town Crier Productions umbrella.
For over 185 editions, I put out newsletters that told readers what information is coming up at local meetings in the 24 localities that are within the district. At the time, I was planning on moving back to Campbell County, and I wanted to expand on the work I do in Charlottesville.
In any case, the workload was too much and my drive for this work fizzled as my parents moved to Pennsylvania rather than continue the rest of their life at a retirement community in Lynchburg. I’ve not been south of I-64 since September 2024, and the work seemed less present.
But this month, Womack Publishing announced they would be closing the Appomattox Times-Virginian.
“Unfortunately, it is no longer financially feasible to continue publishing the Times-Virginian at the current level of support,” reads the post.
Does this mean it’s time to resume doing this work? I am not sure, but I thought it would be interesting to do a one-off version that focuses on Appomattox County. Having written it, I remember the reasons I wanted to do this work so I am going to resume the experiment on a limited basis.
So, here we go.
A look at the Community Profile for Appomattox County
The economic and analysis division of Virginia Works periodically produces a community profile of every locality in the Commonwealth. This document provides a snapshot of demographics as well as the top employers for the area. Sometimes the data in these publications are not entirely accurate, but it is very useful to have all of the information in one spot.
For some reason, a document with a timestamp of 2025 is using demographic information from the 2010 Census when the population was recorded as 14,973. The county in 2020 was 16,119 and the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia estimates that climbed to 16,992 as of July 1, 2024. That’s a growth rate of 5.4 percent.
Other data is more current in the community profile for Appomattox County. In November 2024, the unemployment rate was 3.6 percent, slightly higher than the statewide average of 3 percent but below the national average of 4 percent.
The top employer in Appomattox County is the county school system, followed by Wal Mart and the Appomattox County Board of Supervisors. This data comes from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) from the third quarter of 2024, a dataset I can’t easily locate to confirm.
According to the same dataset, the average weekly wage in Appomattox County was $803 in the third quarter of 2024.
A look at county government in Appomattox
Voters in Appomattox elect a five-member Board of Supervisors who in turn hire a county administrator. That person is Susan Adams who was hired in February 2015 according to an article in the Times-Virginian. Adams had previously served as a deputy county administrator in neighboring Charlotte County.
This year, the Courthouse District and the Piney Mountain District seats on both the Board of Supervisors and the School Board.
(image) The five members of the Appomattox Board of Supervisors
Samuel Carter has represented the Courthouse District on the Board of Supervisors since at least 2001. That’s as far back as the online records for the Virginia Department of Elections go. He faced opposition in 2001, 2005, 2009, and 2021, but was on the ballot by himself in 2013 and 2017.
Alfred L. Jones III is in first term as the Supervisor for the Piney Mountain District. He faced no opposition in the 2021 election. The previous three occupants of this seat only served one term each.
Voters also elect a School Board and the same two magisterial districts are on the ballot. Bobby Waddell is the representative for the Piney Mountain District and Gregory Smith represents the Courthouse District. Smith was first elected in 2011 and has never had an opponent on the ballot.
Waddell was elected in 2021 with no opposition. Supervisor Jones served on the School Board for two terms from 2013 to 2021.
The last time I wrote about Appomattox County in this newsletter was a write-up of the results of the November 2023 elections. You can take a look back here but I’ll also cut and paste that article.
In the Appomattox River District, incumbent Supervisor William Hogan has lost a close race against Republican Ken W. "Dutch Henry" Wolfskill, Jr. Wolfskill received 495 votes to 428 votes for Hogan. J. Jerry Boyce Jr. got 83 votes and there were 12 write-ins.
In the Falling River District, incumbent Supervisor John Hinkle defeated challenger Laura Briceland 557 votes to 342 votes. There were seven write-in votes in the unofficial count.
In the Wreck Island District, incumbent Trevor Hipps was the only candidate on the ballot.
A write-in candidate won the Appomattox River District seat on the School Board. Incumbent Wyatt Torrence did not run for another term.
Incumbent Roger Brandon Stough was the only candidate in the Falling River District. Incumbent Jason Wells was the only candidate and consequent winner in the Wreck Island District.
Appomattox County is within the 10th Senate District. Republican John McGuire was unopposed and received 3,732 votes in the county with 121 write-in votes.
Appomattox is within House District 56 and there were 3,736 votes for Republican Tom Garrett who returned to elected office after one term in the U.S. House of Representatives for the Fifth District.
Before we move on, here’s a link to the organizational meeting of the Board of Supervisors from early January.
Appomattox Supervisors to hold public hearing on eliminating two voting precincts
The February 18 meeting of the Appomattox County Board of Supervisors begins at 6 p.m. in the meeting room at 171 Price Lane in Appomattox. (agenda)
After the public comment period, there will be two appearances.
“These scheduled times are provided by the Board to allow citizens and organizations outside the County Government to discuss matters of importance with the Board,” reads the agenda.
The first is an appreciation for an employee who retired last year after 34 years of service. Anne H. Dixon stepped down as Director of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism on December 31, 2024.
“Anne Dixon was the County’s lead on the development, expansion, and maintenance of the Appomattox Community Park on Police Tower Road, writing grants, leading fundraising efforts, and working with volunteers, engineers, contractors, and others to create a park that today is a source of pride for County Citizens,” reads the proclamation. (learn more)
The second is an appearance by Sheriff Robbie Richardson and Public Safety Director John Vannoy to discuss a radio project. There are no advance materials.
There will be a public hearing on a proposal to consolidate voting precincts in the Falling River and Piney Mountain districts. This is a recommendation of the Appomattox County Electoral Board. There is a resolution in the agenda packet, but no map.
According to the minutes of the January 21, 2025 Supervisors’ meeting, the reason so close the Agee and Chap precincts is due to deteriorating conditions.
There are several action items. The first is to schedule a future public hearing on a possible amendment to the noise ordinance that would alter some of the language.
“The proposed change is to eliminate the word discernable and add some punctuation to clarify the meaning and intent of this section,” reads the agenda.
The second action item is to schedule a new time for a budget work session that had been canceled on February 11 due to the winter storm. I’ll write about that when it happens.
The third is to approve a request for a real property tax refund to a veteran who is exempt from paying.
A word about the Town of Appomattox
So far, this newsletter has not taken a dive into the Town of Appomattox, nor any of the other towns in the Fifth District. The original idea was to stay at the county level because 24 localities are hard enough to track as it is.
Still, towns are crucial forms of government so I’ll make sure to have information in the next edition. For now, I must get back to the Week Ahead that I produce for the Charlottesville area. I enjoyed putting this together, and am so glad to have broken the hiatus for a bit. This remains an experiment!
Comments? Let me know.
I appreciate the local reporting, as like long hand , it is a disappearing art plus it provides essential community information. I see how much dedicated work this requires. Even though I am an irregular reader of the news sources I receive, I am grateful for this dedicated journalism.