Speaking up

 

Population wise, Goochland is a small county with fewer than twenty-five thousand souls. Our supervisors value citizen input and set aside time at each of their meetings for comment about anything not on the agenda.

Their March 2 meeting was no exception. Alas, in spite of the noise about last year’s presidential election, Goochlanders pay little attention to local government unless—as a wise man once pointed out—their ox is being gored. Indeed, public hearings on contentious land use matters have filled the board room and stretched sessions into the wee small hours of the next day. More often than not, however, the “public” at supervisors’ meetings consists of Jonathan Lyle and GOMM.

Lyle, a Director of the Monacan Soil and Water Conservation District, often opines during citizen comment and public hearings. An engaged citizen, Lyle fearlessly weighs in on a wide range of topics and always advocates for support of Goochland’s agricultural community. “Cow’s don’t send children to school or call 911,” he often contends. Citizen comment is limited to three minutes. Its end is signaled by a red light at the lectern. Sometimes, caught up in enthusiasm for his topic, Lyle runs over and is reminded of the time limit.

At the March 2 meeting, Deputy County Administrator for Operation Derek Stamey, who sadly is leaving Goochland at the end of the month for a position in Hanover County, presented Lyle with a custom Virginia farming license plate inscribed with “3 min”.

Derek Stamey (l) and Jonathan Lyle

“I know how much we all value community engagement. Mr. Lyle is perhaps the most engaged citizen,” Stamey said. “Now, every time you use your three minutes, you can think of me,” he told Lyle. The Commissioner of the Revenue helped to create the plate.

Lyle was gob smacked by the very appropriate gesture. He regularly laments the lack of interest in local government. Come to a board meeting, or watch the livestream, or past recorded meetings, available on the county website http://www.goochlandva.us/

During citizen comment before the evening meeting, Cindy Charlton Matejka, a lifelong Goochlander, spoke against an insidious threat to the beauty of our county—roadside litter. She implored the supervisors to do something about the problem, which she contended, is getting worse. Matejka recently created a Facebook page Clean Up the Gooch that is replete with distressing images of roadside rubbish.

In her remarks to the supervisors, Matejka first thanked Susan Lascolette, District 1, for her help during last fall’s flooding of Riddles Bridge Road and sharing updates about power outages during the recent ice storms. She then lambasted the supervisors, and VDOT for their failure to keep the county clean, comparing trashy Goochland to a third world country.

Matejka said that the garbage discourages businesses from locating here. She wondered why there are not more community clean-up days and suggested enlisting civic organizations to deal with the problem. She presented several photos of trash, something we all see every time we drive on local roads.

Matejka is not alone in lamenting the increase in roadside garbage. Sadly, this is not a new phenomenon but is growing worse. During the early days of Covid lockdown last spring, many citizens used their free time to collect trash near their homes and continue to do so. But the garbage keeps coming.

The county has an Anti-Litter and Recycling Council that sponsors free shredding, tire amnesty days, and periodic roadside trash collection. A few years ago, it launched a county wide clean up initiative, with limited success.

Collecting roadside trash, which sometimes seems to reappear as soon as it is removed, is only part of the problem. Until the behavior of those who toss trash out of their vehicles with no regard to the consequences, and haulers who fail to secure their loads is difficult is changed, our roadsides will be disfigured by trash. Last spring the county distributed truck nets to secure loads of trash on the way to the convenience centers.

Perhaps tracing the rubbish back to its owners could help. If people knew littering was not an anonymous transgression, and they would be called to account for their actions, they might be more careful. As the world becomes more self-centered, that is probably a pipe dream.

Capturing images of littering slobs and putting them on social media could be a deterrent. Or filling the trucks of those who toss their trash out the window while going down the road with other people’s refuse might get the message across.

We need to make it clear that littering is never acceptable, and must stop. Thanks to Matejka for speaking out. Let’s all do what we can to clean up the Gooch!