Supervisors postpone meeting with Rush River Commons

The Rappahannock County Board of Supervisors voted on Monday a ernoon to postpone a meeting scheduled to take place later in the evening with the Rush River Commons property owner Chuck Akre, with some members saying the public wasn’t given proper notice of the meeting.

Akre and his spokesperson Betsy Dietel were scheduled to attend a work session with the body Monday evening to discuss a proposed boundary line adjustment in the Town of Washington that he’s seeking to accommodate his mixeduse development, but Piedmont Supervisor Christine Smith voiced concern that the meeting was scheduled last minute and didn’t give the public enough notice. The Board unanimously agreed to reschedule the meeting.

There is currently no date set for when the meeting will take place.

The meeting with Akre was originally added onto the end of a budget work session. The budget meeting was to begin at 1 p.m., and then the body would adjourn and reconvene at 6: 30 p. m. for their meeting with Akre.

“I am frustrated by the lack of notice to you, whom I am elected to serve, and specifics of the time, which will not be accurately identified until later Monday afternoon,” Smith wrote in a Facebook post and an email sent in the Rappnet email listserv. “... Please know that I believe this is no way to do YOUR business.”

Hampton Supervisor Keir Whitson put forward a motion to postpone the meeting, saying that while nothing was done “improperly” in scheduling the work session for Monday evening during the budget meeting, he wanted to “keep the peace.”

“Three of us probably would have agreed to go ahead and proceed with [the meeting], but what does that gain anybody?” Whitson said. “Then you enter into what should be an informal, friendly discussion with a property owner with a couple of people upset that we're even having a discussion, and that doesn't benefit anyone, including us, or the property owner or the community.”