Not in Williamsburg
Joel, Williamsburg: My comments have to do with the local news where you have said, “Publix open for business in Williamsburg,” and of course that it really wrong and in error. That business is open in James City County. The business license is from James City County. They pay taxes in James City County. The location is James City County. The first responders, if they need it — the fire and rescue — would come from the James City County Fire Department. So it’s a bad error to say this is in Williamsburg. It’s nowhere close to Williamsburg and has no connection whatsoever. The food stores we have in Williamsburg are Food Lion, Harris Teeter and Aldi. We don’t have a Publix. We don’t have enough room. There’s only nine square miles. We only have 15,000 people once the students from The College of William and Mary are added to our 7,000 residents. I really think this is bad reporting and not very good.
Editor: I grew up in Florida, where cities were located inside a county, and so it was a little easier to tell where the boundaries for communities began. It’s a bit more difficult in this community, unless you’ve lived here for a while and understand those nuances. Not everyone knows them as well as you do, and clearly in this case, we missed the mark.
Thanksgiving meal is $25 per person or $250 for a table of ten. Donations can be made by calling Catrina Jones at 757-788-0300.
NEWPORT NEWS
2 injured in shooting
Two Newport News men were injured in a shooting in the 4700 block of Marshall Avenue downtown around 4 p.m. Saturday, a police spokesman said.
The 39-year-old and 38-yearold were transported to a local hospital with injuries that weren’t life-threatening, said Master Police Officer B.J. Maynard, a spokesman for Newport News Police Department.
Police do not have suspect information and are still investigating, Maynard said.
— Staff reports
Big numbers
Who did your math on today’s headline squib on “Sharp increase of voters”? The difference between the two figures is 350,000 resulting in a difference of 0.00409 percent. Less than one percent? I came up with and then verified the difference percentage on my laptop.
Some folks might think of 350,000 as a large number, but as a percentage it’s a different story.
VDOT money
I caught the tail end of a news story on TV about VDOT complaining to somebody about not having enough money. They said they’re broke, in so many words. They don’t have enough money to fix the existing bridges and infrastructure and all that that goes — the pilings of support, the decking of the bridges for the bridge-tunnels. Frank Wagner spoke up and said, “The money we have appropriated is for new construction, not old.” And it seemed like they cut the story off. It seemed like it had been a heated debate between VDOT and Frank Wagner. All that said, if you remember back in (McDonnell’s administration), he did an audit of VDOT and found out they have loads of money. Why don’t we do an audit and see what they do have. I think that’s a very good story. Thank you for all you do.
Thanks for sharing, Dennis. Will pass your thoughts along for story consideration.
Which city?
In Feedback, you had an item about “a city councilman highlights miscommunication,” and I can’t figure out which city council you’re talking about. We have several on the Peninsula. Would you be more specific?
The story online has a headline that reads, “Newport News City Council highlights miscommunication with School board over Huntington.” The second paragraph of the story states, “At Friday’s City Council financial retreat, council members didn’t dig into whether they would fulfill the School Board’s request for $50 million to rebuild the school, which closed in June. Instead, members expressed the need for better communication with school officials, as well as a better understanding of how city-appropriated money is
used.”
Booze and bucks
I’d love to see a study to show the costs and income comparison between state run ABC stores and private stores. I don’t know what Virginia currently makes from its stores or what it costs to keep up the buildings and pay employees plus employee benefits. I’d like to see how that compares to privatized sales where the state still gets the taxes from sales, but doesn’t have the expenses. I’d be willing to bet the consumer would win with lower prices for alcohol while the state gets about equal income.
Sounds like a story I’d read. I’ll pass it along.
A word about a caption
Subject: Kroger opening in York County, today’s paper, the 25th. Caption under the picture: “The store is located inside what had previously been a Farm Fresh store. Wordy. Verbose. Redundant. “Had been” can get by without “previously.” Thanks. Today’s Feedback was compiled by Marisa Porto, publisher and editor of the Daily Press Media Group.