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Year in review: Top stories of 2008
Economy
You could debate about when the economy started to slow, but there's no doubt that it had a total meltdown in 2008, and that there was but one primary cause: greed.
Economists – rarely known for candid remarks – started calling the mess for what it was: an orgy of greed and investment schemes that haven't been this outrageous since Carlo "Charles" Ponzi bilked millions from investors in a fraudulent postal stamp scheme in 1920.
Here in Rappahannock, several businesses closed up in rapid succession: The Public House, Pellagatta's Eatery, The Antique Market, and other businesses announced foreclosures or pending sale including the Blue Rock Inn, and the Sperryville Emporium.
Requests for help this year during the holidays were much higher than last, and people and businesses were feeling the pinch from higher gas prices to fewer tourists visiting the county.
There were some bright spots, however: Flint Hill Vintage has done well, Stonewall Abbey opened up in Sperryville and the Thornton River Grill can hardly keep up with demand.
Presidential election
Illinois Senator Barack Obama, Democrat, was elected president; A watershed moment in American politics and history. As one BBC commentator noted, "America finally shut the door on its racist past."
Not in Rappahannock though. The county voted for John McCain.
Power Line
Big story in 2008: Big business and power trump communities and environment. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) cleared the way for the so-called Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line to proceed with construction, parts of which go through Rappahannock. The PUC was the last regulatory hurdle for the power line project.
Stadium lights
The big irony of this success story is that you can hardly see the new stadium lights at the Rappahannock County High School athletic field. Installing the athletic lights was a controversial issue in the county. After the Board of Supervisors gave its okay, and the first Friday night football game was held under the lights, many people remarked they weren't so bad after all and they opened up a new era for Rappahannock County High School sports.
Wastewater
The Town of Washington -- after waiting 20 years – finally approved a $4 million bond to build a new wastewater system.
However, there are still some hurdles to leap over as town home and business owners were not happy with the finance model or the proposed rates. Chief among these was the Inn which threatened legal action if the proposed fees were not spread out instead of collected up front in the first year of the project.
Meetings are still ongoing, and the town announced an emergency session to discuss the project, and even suggested the project may be delayed or canceled.
However, council members and representatives from the Inn began to indicate that a deal had been reached which in effect, spread payments out, but leaving a large question mark over project finance beyond 5-10 years.
Number one restaurant
The Inn at Little Washington was named the top hotel restaurant in the world
Celebrating 30 years in 2008, the Inn was voted "Best Hotel Dining in the World" by the editors of Travel and Leisure Magazine in its August 2008 issue.
The magazine also selected as its "Top Dish" one of the Inn's first courses featuring shavings of Virginia country ham with ribbons of Parmesan cheese, pears and pine nuts. The ham came from Calhoun's Ham House in Culpeper and the recipe from Inn chef and proprietor Patrick O'Connell's book, "Refined American Cuisine."
"I have never seen the staff so elated," said O'Connell at the time.
Scrabble School
Restoration of the historic Scrabble School began this year with hopes that it will be complete by spring 2009.
The restored school will serve as the county's senior center – offering meals, educational services and social events for area seniors – as well as serving as an African American heritage site.
The Scrabble School was a segregated school for African American children that operated from the 1920s to the late 1960s.
Tourism
In 2008, the county hired a tourist consultant to highlight what the county has to offer visitors as Shenandoah National Park – the tourist draw that had been pulling visitors through Rappahannock County – has seen its numbers drop significantly over the last decade.
The flip side was that Rappahannock County had become a tourist draw in itself, especially to its inns and wineries.
An exploratory committee has already met twice to discuss having a farm tour for the county as a way to attract more visitors, especially as there seems to be increasing interest in locally and sustainably produced agriculture.
Fauquier county already has a successful farm tour, but Rappahannock has its own "brand" to sell: Organic agriculture, art and wines.
Castleton Festival
The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved Lorin and Dietlinde Maazels' Castleton Festival after it received strong backing from the Planning Commission and County Administrator John McCarthy.
The Maazels were lauded for their contribution to the children of the county and for the well-known musicians and performers that the festival will bring to Rappahannock County over a two-week period in July 2009.
The application brought endorsements from several groups who had backed the festival at the Planning Commission and laudatory statements from the members of the board. Bryant Lee wished all the applications "would be that easy" and come in unopposed.
Unopposed was not what Bill Fletcher and Cory Koral – both of whom had similar applications for using their properties as event locations – experienced. Both of their applications had strong opposition.
Fletcher withdrew his application at a special hearing by the Board of Supervisors at the RCHS auditorium before over 100 people, and Koral's application was literally booed off the stage at the Planning Commission meeting which eagerly approved the Maazels' application.
The first session of the Castle ton Festival will begin on July 3, 2009 and run to July 19. The Maazels are converting a large barn on their property to a theater able to seat some 200 people.
Easements
Rappahannock County's total easement protection has reached nearly 20 percent of all private land in the county. The Virginia Department of Forestry recorded its first conservation easement in Rappahannock on Dec. 18 – by Walter and Patricia Nicklin who granted to the VDOF a working forest easement protecting over 124 acres on Jefferson Mountain northwest of Amissville. The easement limits future development and the property may never be divided in the future.
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