Category: Meetings

JoAnne Speiden, president of the Virginia Electoral Board Association, will speak to the April 12 meeting of the LOW Democratic Club, answering questions about election procedures and the role of the Electoral Board in keeping elections fair and legal.

The program will begin at 1:30 p.m. and will take place at a new location — the lower level of the LOW Clubhouse. (Please note the change.) A 30-minute social period will proceed the presentation.

The Virginia Electoral Board Association is a non-partisan association of the 133 independent electoral boards in the Commonwealth.

Speiden has previously served as secretary of the Orange County Electoral Board. She was born in Alexandria and spent her career as a physical education teacher of disabled students in Charlottesville schools. She has lived in Orange County for 16 years.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in U.S. government and education and a master’s degree in special education.

She has served in various offices in VEBA, including district director, second vice president, first vice president and now president.

She is eminently qualified to answer questions about the changes in local representation brought on by redistricting following the 2020 U.S. Census, which moved Lake of the Woods from the old 30th State House District to the newly drawn 63rd House District and from the old 17th Senate District to the newly drawn 28th Senate District.

J. Bryan Nicol, a member of the Orange County Planning Commission, will speak to the Lake of the Woods Democratic Club on March 8. Nicol, who represents District 5, which includes Lake of the Woods, will address the pending Wilderness Crossing project rezoning.

The meeting will take place in Classroom 2 of the LOW Community Center. A social hour will begin at 1 p.m. and the program will start at 1:30 p.m.

Nicol will discuss the status of the Wilderness Crossing project, which would have major implications for our neighborhood, affecting traffic and water use among other things. The project has also raise environmental issues related to mining operations on the site long ago.

KEG III Associates has proposed rezoning more than 2,600 acres of land across Route 3 from Lake of the Woods in order to construct a large residential, commercial and light industrial development. The property is currently zoned for agricultural, industrial, residential and commercial use. The applicant has asked that it be rezoned in the category of planned development — mixed use.

The total timeframe for the project is intended to be from 30 to 40 years and would be broken up into phases, including up to 4,750 residential units, commercial retail, financial institutions, offices, hotel, medical or assisted living facilities, and/or light industrial.

It was the first major planned mixed-use development project proposed under the Greater Wilderness Area Plan, planned to sit north of Route 3, west of the Route 20 intersection, wrapping around the Locust Grove Post Office and behind Locust Grove Shopping Center across from Lake of the Woods.

Nicol and his wife, Traci, have been homeowners in Lake of the Woods for almost 15 years.  He is a former deputy attorney general and commissioner of transportation in Indiana and currently serves as chief strategy officer for an architecture, engineering, and consulting firm.

All are welcome to attend the meeting and presentation. If you can’t attend in person the presentation will be streamed live on Facebook.

Facebook Live feed

Learn more about wilderness Crossing at the links below:

Orange County rezoning application

Wilderness Crossing developer’s site

Piedmont Environmental Council concerns

Willow Drinkwater, founder of the hunger-relief organization Feed My Sheep, will be guest speaker at the February meeting of the Lake of the Woods Democratic Club.

The club raised $315 and a large collection of non-perishable food to donate to Feed My Sheep at its holiday luncheon in December.

The program will begin at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 8 in Classroom 2 of the Lake of the Woods Community Center. A social period will begin 30 minutes prior to the meeting.

A resident of Gordonsville, Ms. Drinkwater has been active in Democratic politics since the John F. Kennedy campaign for president while she was a student at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts.

She was involved in establishing the first health department in St. Lawrence County, New York, while she was vice president of the League of Women Voters in Potsdam, New York, in the 1960s.

She worked at Attica Prison after the riots in 1972, bringing community college courses into the prison. During that time she learned that 80 percent of the inmates were abused or neglected as children.

She moved to Gordonsville and worked at WJMA radio station in Orange, producing the popular programs “The Swap Shop” and “Monday at One.”

She founded the Feed My Sheep program 16 years ago.

“My mother taught me that giving is more important than receiving,” Ms. Drinkwater said.

Donations of money or non-perishable food products will be collected at the meeting for the benefit of Feed My Sheep.

Teri Vickery, president of the Lake of the Woods Association, will be the guest speaker at the club’s first meeting of 2023 on Wednesday, Jan. 11.

She will be discussing the LOW Board’s goals and budget and will respond to members’ questions about issues facing the community.

Teri, who is a long-time member of the LOW Democratic Club, has been a member of the LOWA Board of Directors since September 2020, serving first as secretary, then as vice president and currently as president. Prior to joining the Board, she was a member of the association’s Planning, Fitness and Nominating Committees. She is also a director for Friends of Lake of the Woods (FLOW), the LOW Lions Club and LOWLINC.

 The meeting will be held in Classroom 2 of the Lake of the Woods Community Center. The doors open at 1 p.m.. The program will begin at 1:30 p.m.