Culpeper’s top 10 stories of 2008

1) We felt the full effects of the 2008 recession

A sour economy trumped all as the top issue on everyone’s mind this year. From layoffs and construction cutbacks to record gas prices and declining home values, Culpeper, like the rest of the nation, felt the full effects of the 2008 recession.

The Wall Street mortgage crisis hit home hardest as foreclosures in the town and county reached an all-time high. Nearly 500 houses went into forced sales by the end of the year as local residents struggled to make monthly payments on risky mortgages with spiraling interest rates.

Meanwhile, other homeowners found it almost impossible to sell as home values continued to plummet by as much as 37 percent since 2006. Likewise, the frenzy of new housing construction in Culpeper of two years back slowed to a snail’s pace, contributing to higher unemployment rates regionwide.

Numerous building-related industries in Culpeper also struggled as a result of the downturn, forcing layoffs at local businesses like Luck Stone, Builder’s First Source, Structural Systems and Merillat.

And who could forget the wacky gas prices of 2008? It was especially painful this summer when the per-gallon price hit $3.99. But Americans reacted sharply, decreasing demand by more than 1 million gallons per day. Now gas goes for less than $2, eliciting sighs of relief — for now.

2) Culpeper opens new high school

For the first time in history, the county now has a second public high school. In August, Eastern View opened with much fanfare, eliminating years of overcrowding at Culpeper County High School.

EVHS, a $54 million, 260,000-square-foot two-story building, accommodates about 1,150 students and is located near the intersection of U.S. 29 and Route 666. It had been under construction since March 2006.

School spirit ran high from the get-go, as an estimated 5,000 people attended the Cyclones’ inaugural home football game, a friendly scrimmage against CCHS. Behind the electrifying legs of star tailback Stevie Strother, EVHS went on to finish 7-3, playing to large crowds most every Friday night. At some games, Principal Roger Mello could even be seen doing push-ups after touchdowns with the cheerleaders!

Not to be forgotten, the county also opened its sixth elementary, which has a great acronym, by the way. Rushing to finish construction, Yowell Elementary School finally opened a week behind schedule along Sperryville Pike just outside of town. Crews put the finishing touches on the gym and cafeteria later in the fall.

3) Center of the political universe

Presidential fever struck Culpeper with fervor in 2008, and it seemed this small community was at the center of the political universe, in part, because BBC America was in town all year, broadcasting Culpeper’s diverse views on McCain vs. Obama across the globe.

Media outlets from France, Germany and Portugal also turned their attention here, apparently a political microcosm. And for the first time, both parties set up Main Street offices in Culpeper, rallying supporters to their candidate. Numerous heavy hitters representing both sides visited as well, including one-time presidential hopeful Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee; Joe McCain, brother of the Arizona senator; former President Bill Clinton; Sen. Jim Webb and Susan Eisenhower, daughter of the President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The best indicator of which way Culpeper would vote in November came in October when students at CCHS released a poll giving McCain a razor thin lead. A local 7-Eleven poll, however, gave the lead to Obama.

In the end, historically Republican Culpeper voted 54 percent for McCain, though voters in town opted for Obama.

Long lines formed early at polls around the county, with an impressive 73 percent of voters turning out for the historic day.

4) It started with Cox’s dismissal

It’s safe to say the Culpeper County School Board had a pretty rough year.

In June, the board’s choice to part ways with Superintendent David A. Cox sparked a firestorm. One of the major issues was Cox’s contract, which contained no buyout clause. If Cox can’t land a job in the next three years, the county would have to pay him close to $500,000. Meanwhile, the board also has to pay the $140,000 annual salary of Larry Carter, who was promoted to acting superintendent.

The board generated more controversy in November when it agreed to hire a search firm and advertise the new superintendent’s salary between $145,000 to $155,000. Such a figure represents a sizeable increase over Cox’s pay rate, and it comes during a year in which teachers received no raises.

The year was full of tough choices and divisive issues for the board. Here are but a few:

n The calendar: The board went against a popular proposal by Culpeper resident Mike Bonfadini, who collected 860 signatures in support of starting school after Labor Day.

n Yowell Elementary: After months of promises it would open on time, YES was a week late.

n Public comments: The board changed its bylaws this month to have more control over public comments at meetings.

n The budget: With the county and state’s finances shrinking, the board had to open two new schools with little increase to its overall budget.

5) Town thrice left in the dark
The Culpeper community faced an unusual and financially damaging series of blackouts this summer, with three major power outages in less than a week.

Town residents spent nearly 13 hours without power in June as powerful thunderstorms slammed the region.

The night of June 4, the town’s main transmission line was taken out of commission for nearly six hours after a severe thunderstorm. Three days later, a tree along Route 3 “sagged” onto the line, causing a second outage lasting more than two hours on an otherwise bright and sunny afternoon. And June 10, another storm hit Culpeper, causing a nearly five-hour blackout.

In all three outages, the main feeder line along Route 3 serving Dominion Virginia Power, the Rappahannock Electric Cooperative and the town’s power supply, was damaged.

The blackouts were not only a hassle for affected residents, but also a massive financial burden for businesses. Safeway alone dumped $63,000 worth of meats and perishables as a result of the outages.

Outraged residents complained about the lack of power and questioned why generators were not used, but town representatives explained the generators could not power the entire town and were not used for emergencies, only as backup during peak hours.

6) Controversy for Branch, Compton

Controversy engulfed the Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office following the close of the 2007 election season, as new Sheriff Jim Branch began 2008 under intense scrutiny.

Upon taking office in January, Branch unceremoniously dismissed two long-time deputies — Steve St. Clair (the county’s only arson investigator) and Detective LeiLani Stanley (the 2007 deputy of the year). Jobless without explanation or even a face-to-face meeting with Branch, both expressed their frustration with how the sheriff handled the dismissals.

In March, the Sheriff’s Office came under fire again when Deputy Jason Compton, accused of a long-standing sexual relationship with an underage girl, was allowed by a special state prosecutor to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of adultery and pay a $250 fine.

Meanwhile, many people called it a double standard that another Culpeper resident, Jeff Ferris, was sentenced to a year in jail around the same time for a very similar offense. Critics say Compton received preferential treatment, and Branch remained tight-lipped to the Star-Exponent about key details of the Compton investigation, including why the deputy — whose mother was Branch’s No. 2 campaign contributor — was allowed to stay on staff until he resigned following the court case in March.

7) Teen’s death hits entire community

The Culpeper community faced a tragedy in August it won’t soon forget.

Kelsey Orndorff, 17, died in a head-on collision Aug. 29 on her way to a concert at Fredericksburg Christian High School. Dr. J Bryon Cook, a Culpeper physician, was in the other car and spent 39 days at the University of Virginia Health Center in Charlottesville.

Orndorff’s Dodge Intrepid ran off the right side of Route 3 near Stevensburg, overcorrected and came back across the double line, striking Cook’s westbound Acura SUV.

The community rallied to support the Orndorffs and the Cooks — Kelsey’s father Randy is pastor at Culpeper United Methodist, and Cook is an internist at Commonwealth Medical. Prayer vigils were held, and funds were established in Kelsey’s memory.

Even former ‘American Idol’ contestant Chris Sligh, who Kelsey was on her way to see that night, took time out of his tour to perform a memorial concert in November at Culpeper County High School.

Sligh’s inspirational songs helped comfort those still reeling from the tragedy that took the life of a promising teen.

Cook, who fought for his life in critical care, made an amazing recovery and now walks with the assistance of a cane.

8) Town’s future a matter of politics

A year of work toward consolidating the town into the county and reaching an equitable solution to the area’s water and sewer issues has slowed to a trickle.

Halted by a court challenge filed by the town in September, the consolidation movement began in May 2007 when local businessman Joe Daniel collected about 1,000 signatures in support of his plan.

However, the town now says the petition process wasn’t performed in accordance with the law, a claim Daniel denies. Meanwhile, town and county officials continue to meet, saying they’re obligated to go on until a court decision is returned; a hearing is scheduled for Jan. 14.

Throughout the year, politics has also flowed through a related matter: Culpeper’s thorny water and sewer situation. In October, after six months of considering a $110 million proposal initially spearheaded by Warrenton-based Angler Development, county supervisors shot down the idea, citing the county’s long-term financial liability.

So, where do we stand now? Despite promises to reach an agreement on a regional water and sewer approach, the town and county are still at loggerheads as we enter 2009. And after a strong start, public sentiment on consolidation seems to be waning.

9) No shortage of candidates here

The May election for Culpeper Town Council was certainly an attention-getter, with 11 candidates vying for four seats. It was the largest slate of competitors in recent memory, and four made illegal immigration their main platform.

Some of these candidates partnered last October to form Help Protect Culpeper, a group focused on combating illegal immigration at the local level. This set the stage for early campaigning in January.

But when the “HPC 4” — as the group came to be known — collectively announced their candidacies from the home of the HPC president, it elicited strong reaction online and via letters to the editor, sparking months of debate over how townsfolk really felt about cracking down on illegals.

On May 6, town voters answered, declining to elect any of the HPC associates, though former councilman Bobby Ryan only narrowly defeated its president by 14 votes.

Voters, instead, stuck to what they knew, re-electing incumbents Chip Coleman, Mike Olinger and Chris Snider. The town said a warm goodbye to Councilwoman Emma Richards, who decided not to run in ’08 for health reasons, when her term ended in July. As for HPC, it has been inactive since May 29; according to its Web site, the group is still on summer break.

10) Terremark

New Facility brings job

HONORABLE MENTION:
* SUSPICIOUS FIRES On the morning of Nov. 24, a raging fire gutted the state’s probation office on Orange Road.
Eight days later, flames destroyed Ralph Pullen’s barn on Dutch Hollow Road. Officials believe
both fires are suspicious but have yet to officially call them arson. The investigations are ongoing.

* PREACHER GOES TO PRISON
On Oct. 8, the Rev. Charles V. Shifflett, 57, was sentenced to four years in prison for tax fraud and other financial sins while at the helm of his former church, Calvary Baptist. You might remember Shifflett from another high-profile court case: In 2006, he ranked No. 8 in our Top 10 list when he got off with community service after taking a plea deal to multiple charges of child abuse.

* TWO BIG MERGERS In October, Culpeper Regional Hospital officially announced a merger with the University of Virginia Medical Center — a $40 million investment that will see U.Va. take 49-percent ownership of CRH. In May, Second Bank & Trust (at the corner of Main and Davis streets) became known as StellarOne.

* RESCUE CO. 11 After months of legal challenges and years of controversy, the embattled rescue company on Rixeyville Road finally returned to action June 26. In September, the county announced
that the squad had exceeded state-imposed enchmarks for it to remain in service. Its yearlong suspension for low response rates a thing of the past, Co. 11 continues to rebuild.

* DAN BORING
TO THE RESCUE
Dan Boring retired as Culpeper’s police chief in 2007. But that didn’t stop him from serving the town — and, boy, did he ever! — in 2008 after key vacancies arose. Boring began the year as the town’s interim environmental services director before serving as temporary interim town manager. To top it off, in May Town Council appointed him manager of the government consolidation project. Nice pinch-hitting, Dan!

* DOMINION POWER LINE
Among the average Joe, this issue has lost a bit of voltage (pun intended) since we ranked it No. 8 in 2007, but the anger surrounding those proposed high-voltages lines is still some causing sparks. On Oct. 7, the state OK’d Dominion’s controversial plan, which would impact the U.S. 211 corridor of northern Culpeper County. The Piedmont Environmental Council is appealing the decision in Virginia Supreme Court

* BOY’S BODY
TOSSED IN TRUNK
At one point this year, Fielding Taylor Kines might have been the most hated man in Culpeper. On May 16, a drunken Kines rolled his car on a rural road, ejecting and killing his girlfriend’s 8-year-old son. A state trooper reported that Kines, sentenced Dec. 16 to nine years in prison, put the dead boy in the trunk as a possible attempt to hide the severity of the crash.

* MOVIES AT MOUNT PONY: On Sept. 4, the Library of Congress* audio-visual conservation center at Mount Pony began showing free vintage movies at its state-of-the -art, retrofitted, 208-seat theater.

To this day, the thrice weekly showings remain wildly popular — most every movie has sold out in a matter of minutes or hours.

+ BIG-BOX ROAD WIDENING
Culpeper is no longer growing by leaps and bounds, but throughout 2008 the Bus. 29 corridor north of town saw plenty of new retail development. And with those new stores came the need for wider roads. To everyone’s delight, construction crews began tackling the “big-box bottleneck” in March and have made major progress. It’s just a matter of time until the heaviest portions of the road are four lanes.

* WHO IS MILT HATHAWAY?
Eastern View High School students and avid watchers of “Jeopardy!” know who he is. Hathaway, the 62-year-old librarian at the school, recently won $70,002 on the popular television quiz show. But before any “long-lost relatives” start hitting him up for money, he won’t receive his winnings for at least a couple more months.0

* EMMY WINNER
Culpeper native Perrin Chiles put his hometown on the map in September when the 32-year-old producer won two Emmys for his work on “Autism: The Musical,” which premiered on HBO. Chiles, who grew up on Blue Ridge Avenue, is the son of Dr. and Mrs. Morton Chiles.

The big stories of yesteryear

2007
1 – Sheriff’s election
2 – Illegal immigration
3 – Trench collapse
4 – Housing slump
5 – New businesses
6 – Josh Thomas
7 – Co. 11 suspension
8 – Dominion power plan
9 – Consolidation
10 – Drought

2006
1 – Illegal immigration
2 – Bomb threats at CCPS
3 – More growth
4 – Arrest in Warner murder
5 – AirFest fatality
6 – Soldiers in Iraq
7 – County taxes skyrocket
8 – The Rev. Shifflett
9 – Germanna opens GCAT
10 – Tinsley murder trial

2005
1 – Child killed by bus
2 – Officer Barnes injured
3 – Local troops go to war
4 – Housing boom
5 – No guns in park
6 – Sherri Warner’s homicide
7 – Low-water bridge
8 – Historic landmarks
9 – Scott vs. Jarvis
10 – School construction

2004
1 – Leonard Cowherd
2 – Big Kenny
3 – Tornados
4 – New high school OK’d
5 – Town Council prayer
6 – Clevengers development
7 – Hart vs. Close
8 – Construction
9 – Devin Cornwall
10 – Bank robberies