The Cape Charles Mirror received this letter in the mail; while it did not have a return address, and was postmarked from Richmond, Virginia, it did contain disturbing allegations. It was also printed, not hand written, which made us wonder a bit.
Here is the scanned letter below:
Given the nature of the letter, the first thing the Mirror did was contact Supervisor Hogg to get his comments on the allegations. Mr. Hogg generously agreed to meet, and spent over an hour stepping through each line of the letter. Of particular interest was the allegations over Rural Health. According to Mr.Hogg, he and Ms. Stern of Rural Health did meet to discuss the sale Hogg’s property in Eastville. While there was some interest on the part of Ms. Stern, she and Hogg could not come to an agreement on the sale (Mirror does not have all the details of the negotiations, but according to Mr. Hogg, the main sticking point was over the amount of land Rural Health was willing to purchase).
Relative to the allegations that Hogg then attempted to scuttle the Rural Health plans to put the new facility on RT 13 in Eastville, Mr. Hogg stated, “No matter where they put it, they are going to have to answer questions, aren’t they? Was I wrong, were we wrong to ask appropriate questions, questions that pertain directly to the safety and well-being of Northampton citizens?” Mr. Hogg, we believe was referring to questions of traffic safety, and the ability for fire and rescue to access the new facility.
Historical Note: The property that Hogg was negotiating over with Rural Health, at one time had been offered for free to the medical exploratory group from Cape Charles that was looking at options after the hospital had made the decision to move. That never came to fruition.
The letter also mentioned that members of the Rural Health Board had gone to County Attorney Bruce Jones to file a complaint against Hogg. The Mirror contacted Attorney Jone’s office to confirm this. Mr. Jones was courteous, but said he could not comment on the matter.
The Mirror also attempted to contact Nancy Stern, CEO of Rural Health. We left voicemail messages, but as of this publishing, we have been unable to speak with her.
Editor’s Note: Embarrassingly, the Mirror has held this information for some time before publishing. Without a return address, and since the letter was sent from Richmond, we weren’t sure how much credence to give it. However, after being chastised by a friend who has been in the media field for a long time, we decided to publish what we had, “What are you doing, dude? You can’t hold that information, not publishing that immediately was borderline incompetence on your part…If your feelings are getting in the way, that’s even worse…that information, anonymous or not, does not belong to you, it belongs to the public, and they deserve to know about this. Do your job. It may be something, it may be nothing…it’s not your decision to make about that…”
There you have it. Take it as you like it.
I am incensed that you would print a defaming letter from “anonymous”. I could write a letter about ANYONE and send it anonymously and it SHOULD be printed? BTW, all postmarks from this area are Richmond postmarks, unless you ask for a local postmark.
I have known Granville Hogg for 48 years now and I have never known him to be underhanded. In fact, he has always been forthright….sometimes to his detriment. You might not agree with him, but he holds nothing back when asked about something. Anyone who has spoken to Granville over the years knows that he loves this area and is frantic to help keep medical care here for Northampton County. He has been diligent in trying all avenues to solve these problems.
The problem with the relocating of ESRH to their proposed sight is nothing but a highway safety issue. Mayor Jim Sturgis is concerned also with the access to route 13 and the fact that two U-turns on Rt. 13 will be required is what is at issue there. Granville did not go to Mayor Sturgis to ask to work for selling his property. I believe the Town was concerned and went to the Board of Supervisors and they have had discussions.
I really miss civility in the world. Name calling and underhanded tactics do harm to all…especially those innocents. I never write anything like this, but I was SO upset when I woke up this morning to slander against Granville Hogg….I can’t be silent.
I agree wholeheartedly with Johnny. Her statement that “he has always been forthright….sometimes to his detriment” sums up things in a nutshell. Anyone that can’t see that Granville cares deeply about this county and works overtime to vet out all the issues just isn’t looking very closely. If you don’t think Granville is very concerned with traffic safety, you haven’t been paying attention to his longstanding crusade to alleviate problems with the Food Lion intersection. Back when there was a TMDL study of Kings Creek, Granville bought the equipment to do citizen water quality with his own funds when the DEQ would not do so, then proceeded to do the testing himself to determine the accuracy of the DEP data.
Doesn’t sound like a self serving individual to me.
Mr Hogg has been the best member of the BOS that we have ever had in Northampton County. He has always looked out for the welfare of the people. After the December overturn of the BOS and their ill conceived zoning debacle I am not surprised that this cowardly attack has been made against Mr. Hogg. Hang in there Granville the people have your back!
Could not have said it better, David Gay.
You really have turned into the National Enquirer or some other rag with this load of BS. ‘The Cape Charles Mirror received this letter in the mail; while it did not have a return address, and was postmarked from Richmond, Virginia, it did contain disturbing allegations’. Hmmm, so when does an anonymous letter postmarked from the state capital, filled with unfounded accusations of improprieties become newsworthy? Shouldn’t your responsibility to your readers be to find out the facts before printing such a libelous article? Where is your professionalism? If you have been sitting on this for some time as you say, then you should have done the due diligence and waited for all the facts before posting this! As it sits, this is just a letter that someone with an axe to grind sent to a friend in Richmond hoping that the postmark would add some credibility, and you took the bait…hook, line, and sinker! I guess if you write anonymous, unfounded, slanderous letters and it has the state capitals postmark, it’s to be taken as credible. And because it’s typed and not hand written, THAT makes you wonder? Wonder what? I would say that it’s tells you that it’s from someone around here that was worried that their handwriting might be recognized. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure that out.
And the person that told you to print this is wrong. It would probably be in your best interest not to take advice from that fool because this looks like a defamation suit in the making. Make sure you thank them if you end up in court!
Maybe your editors note should have been along the lines of, ‘Embarrassingly, I listened to someone I shouldn’t have and decided to print this article without fully researching it to get all the facts. Even though I should have known better, I folded to peer pressure and left my integrity at the door.’
P.S. This line is wrong as well…’You can’t hold that information, not publishing that immediately was borderline incompetence on your part’.
PUBLISHING IT WITHOUT FACTS, ON JUST ACCUSATIONS AND INNUENDO IS WHAT WAS INCOMPETENT!!!
Check the computers in the County building……that’s where you’ll find the author. The traffic in summer in Northampton county is so bad on route 13. Rural health will be sorry if they put their new doctor office there with forcing people to make u-turns. Have people lost their minds? So dumb to put a u-turn on route 13. Good for Supervisor Hogg for trying to find a better way. No good deeds go unpunished. Mirror you should take this down because it is a coward’s way.
Editor: A minor correction, Mr. Hogg had to recuse himself from any discussions (as well as votes) involving u-turns or traffic safety, or anything else regarding Rural Health’s SUP on RT 13.
One does have to wonder if this story had taken place this time last year, and the last name were Hubbard instead of Hogg, whether or not the reactions would have been different. We’re pretty sure calls for Mr. Hubbard’s resignation would have come forthwith.
You don’t have to worry about Mr. Hubbard’s resignation, the voters took care of that.
You make no sense. What is the point of the story if there was a conflict and Supervisor Hogg abstained? If Hubbard had a conflict and he abstained, there would be nobody saying he should resign. Rick Hubbard is a good man and so is Granville Hogg. The county employee that sent this to you is the one you should investigate.
Granville Hogg is the onlykk decent supervisor our county has. I agree wih the writer who said that he often votes with the citizens’ interest in mind, even at cost to hiw own populariity. Again with these cowardly bullies who write to ANONYMOUS in your publication. No wonder they dare not write their name because they would have to own up to their rabid lies. THIS IS ONE MORE REASON THAT YOU SHOULD PULL THAT COWARDLY PAGE FROM YOUR PUBLICATION.. It would bring you closer to being a legitimate publication. These cowardly bullies are ruining your credibility and losing you readers.
Am sure there are overlaps with any action in the county or on the whole of the Eastern Shore of Virginia for that matter. There are Trowers involved in all aspects of the Solar project… There also might be nepotism involved with the final sale of the Rural Health property..since Mrs. Stern’s stepson works for Guy Doughty..We have to just believe that everything is being done above board with appropriate transparency and go on . However, safety issues are real and those were addressed, even though the final decision did not reflect the maximum safety options for a busy business locating on Highway 13. There should be no disputing the honesty and dedication of Mr. Granville Hogg. I wonder if the anonymous author could possibly live up to either of these attributes?
Granville has appeared to work for the best interest of the county. There is still grave concern on the location of the new rural health and the many u- turns that will have to be made. A traffic engineer may have been consulted about the issue stating u turns are safer than left turns. However, the length that our traffic lights stay green sometimes long enough for three cars before changing to yellow is very concerning. There have been times that I have personally had to sit through 3 cycles before I could make my turn. This is going to be unacceptable for ambulances in emergency situations. While emergency vehicle have some liberties I foresee a very dangerous situation. Route 13 is already considered one of the deadliest highways. Granville recused himself from speaking on this SUP, this traffic concern is still there