Special Opinion to the Mirror by Joel Hable
I urge Cheriton Town Council to think long and hard before they appoint someone to take Wesley Travis’ seat. Looking at the past election at who was the next highest vote is not the answer as that person was one of four people placed on a political sign boosting “NO NEW TAXES”. This statement was never on the agenda and was nothing more then Dirty Politics. It would be nice to have someone like Jason Van Marter that comes out to our council meetings not because he is on council but because he wants to know what is happening in this town and because he cares. It is time to get new people on council with new ideas and not just the some old ways we have done it in the past. We have recently had several revenue work sessions and out of the seven members that make up the mayor and council not one new idea was brought forward.
There is well over 40 years of service sitting at that table and out of that many years the only thing that they can agree on for town revenue is let’s write tickets or should I say let’s let someone else write tickets for us. Cheriton citizens need to come out and attend these council meetings. They are open to the public and they are “FREE”. Don’t complain about not being informed on what’s happening in your town as it is discussed every 4th Wednesday of the month at 7:00 pm. Jason Van Marter has taken his time to live-steam these meeting and also the special meetings when his business doesn’t take him away. And yes he is not just a resident he is also a Cheriton business owner @ “The Local”.
There are 2 “Public Comment” segments during Cheriton Town Council Meetings but they are limited to 3 minutes per person so if you have something to say make your time count. If you don’t want to stand-up to speak in person then you can write a letter and have it read into the minutes. Please speak-up and let your voice be heard. This is our town and there should be no personal agendas guiding the decisions or votes made by our council.
About the Author
A grassroots effort has organized in support of appointing Jason Van Marter to the Cheriton Town Council. The council can appoint whomever they wish to fill the vacant seat. Citizens have no official voice until the next election in 2020.
Petition asking the Town Council to appoint Jason Van Marter: http://bit.ly/VanMarterPetition
Traditional paper versions of the petition can be found at The Local, S’paw Day, and El Ranchito Mexican Store.
We feel strongly enough about getting a fresh voice and new ideas on the council that we’ve pooled money and taken out an ad in this week’s Eastern Shore Post. Here’s a link to the image: http://bit.ly/CheritonAd
In addition, a concerned citizen has created a website to make Town of Cheriton information more accessible to the public: https://www.cheritonva.com . The official Cheriton website ( http://cheriton.esva.net/ ) is largely outdated and inaccurate. Meeting minutes, budgets, and other important documents are not posted. They are only available upon request. CheritonVA.com makes all of this public information easy to access. It is updated regularly.
2018 Meeting Minutes and Recordings: https://www.cheritonva.com/2018-meeting-minutes-and-recordings/
Town of Cheriton Budgets: https://www.cheritonva.com/media_category/budgets/
Updates to CheritonVA.com are posted on the corresponding Twitter account: https://twitter.com/CheritonVa
Sometimes the minutes arent even available unless you remind the council, repeatedly, about the state’s open records laws and inform them when they continue to refuse that a petition for a Writ would be filed immediately to compel disclosure.
Often, information available to the council at meetings, regular and special, isnt made public either. Its difficult to follow a conversation about contracts, numbered options and requested reports when not even the Clerk was given a copy to review.
For a very small town council its certainly acting like a much larger and uglier draconian body.
The question is, why?
We have an empty police department over an alleged “personnel matter” , an open council seat over what was described by the resigning member as less than professional conduct by the other members, and oddly an occupied post by an employee in a position of public trust with a very recent arrest for a serious public safety charge.
Strange things are afoot in the town of Cheriton.
Something clearly needs to change. Hopefully the appointment of Jason Van Marter can restore the residents’ confidence in a representative, equitable local government.