Top 10 stories for 2011 [Daily Press, Newport News, Va.]

Jan. 05--April tornado

On the night of April 16, a tornado packing winds up to 165 miles per hour bounced across Gloucester, sowing an 8-mile path of destruction that left two residents dead; a third man perished when emergency crews couldn't reach his home due to downed power lines and trees and other debris.

The tornado destroyed or damaged about 200 homes in Gloucester, causing an estimated $8.4 million in damages. Parts of Page Middle School were also destroyed or heavily damaged, prompting school system officials to close the campus for good and move students to Peasley Middle School.

Some residents are still rebuilding from the tornado. Killed in the tornado were Richard Ingram, a resident of Shelly Road, and Pericles Koutsombinas, who lived on Hummingbird Lane. Cecil Wray Page Jr., of Shelly Road, died of a medical emergency.

The tornado also sliced through a small section of Mathews County before tearing across Middlesex County, alighting with particular fury on Zoar Baptist Church and other nearby homes and structures in Deltaville.

The caged girl

While residents of Gloucester were recovering from the aftermath of a violent tornado, a collective shock coursed through the county at the end of April when a 6-year-old girl was discovered living in a modified cage in a darkened bedroom of her parents' single-wide trailer.

The girl was found by Gloucester Sheriff's deputies and investigators who had gone to the residence of Brian and Shannon Gore the evening of April 28 to look for stolen gold bullion. In a bedroom, however, they found a naked, emaciated girl living in squalor, trapped in a modified cage.

The girl's blond hair was matted and she was missing chunks of it. She was also eating bits of her own flaking skin.

At a court hearing in December, a judge certified to a grand jury charges of attempted capital murder and felony child neglect stemming from their treatment of their daughter, now 7. An additional charge of felony murder related to the death of their infant son -- his remains were found in a pine box buried beneath a shed in the Gores' yard -- were dropped.

A cause of death hasn't been determined for the boy, who was born in 2007. The girl, now 7, was placed in the care of a foster family and is doing well, even recently visiting Disney World.

Brian and Shannon Gore are awaiting trial on charges that include attempted capital murder and felony neglect.

Page Middle School

The tornado that destroyed and damaged extensive portions of Page Middle School on the night of April 16 threw the county's middle school population and parents into a period of upheaval.

Middle school students were out of classes for two days while school officials, administrators and teachers scrambled to accommodate the influx of Page students at Peasley Middle School in a split schedule. The transition was relatively seamless and classes continued for the two months remaining in the school year.

Over the summer, portable classrooms were installed in a Gloucester High School parking lot to be home to the county's 8th-grade students. The county's sixth- and seventh-grade students are at Peasley Middle School.

In November, the Board of Supervisors approved borrowing $18 million to build a new middle school. The Gloucester School Board approved in December building a new middle school for grades 6-8 at a site on T.C. Walker Road.

The school system will also use $8 million in insurance proceeds for construction. Superintendent Ben Kiser has set a completion date for the new school of Aug. 1, 2014.

The next issue to tackle for the School Board and Board of Supervisors is what to do with the remaining structures still standing at the existing Page Middle School.

Gloucester 40

Following nearly three years of legal wrangling, the Virginia Supreme Court in March sided with the "Gloucester 40" by relieving them of a requirement to pay fines of $2,000 apiece imposed by a judge.

The 40 Gloucester residents had attempted in 2008 to remove four members of the Board of Supervisors from office by civil petition. While the removal effort failed -- they were thrown out on technicalities -- a judge in the case imposed the fines against the 40 residents.

The $80,000 in sanctions were supposed to help offset Gloucester taxpayer-paid legal bills of about $233,000 rung up by former supervisors Teresa Altemus, Bobby Crewe, Michelle Ressler and Gregory Woodard. The four supervisors voted to have county taxpayers pay their legal bills to defend against the petitions and criminal charges that were ultimately dismissed.

The Supreme Court based its decision primarily on two points: That the petitioners were not active parties to the suit between the Commonwealth and the supervisors, and that non-active parties cannot be sanctioned according to Virginia law.

Steve Emmert, a Virginia Beach attorney representing the Gloucester 40, hailed the Supreme Court's decision and called Judge Westbrook J. Parker's imposition of sanctions against his clients "spectacularly wrong."

Gloucester elections

The Gloucester Board of Supervisors will have its first meeting of 2012 with a majority of new faces, with all four members of the group that were the subjects of the removal attempts by the Gloucester 40 in 2008 either leaving or voted out of office.

Supervisor Bobby Crewe was defeated at the polls by newcomer Chris Hutson in the Gloucester Point District and supervisors Michelle Ressler and Gregory Woodard decided not to seek re-election. Teresa Altemus had been defeated at the polls by Carter Borden in 2009.

Bob "JJ" Orth won the Abingdon District seat vacated by Christian "Buddy" Rilee, Ashley Chriscoe won the At-Large seat vacated by Ressler and Andy James won the Ware District seat that Woodard had held.

Sheriff Steve Gentry retained his office by defeating three candidates. After 17 years in office, Commonwealth's Attorney Bob Hicks decided not to seek re-election, opening the door for Holly Smith, an assistant Commonwealth's Attorney in Williamsburg and James City County, to win the seat.

A number of other candidates in Gloucester were unopposed.

In the 98th District race, Gloucester Pharmacy owner Keith Hodges won easily and will take over for Del. Harvey Morgan, who leaves office after 30 years of serving in the General Assembly.

Mathews elections

Longtime Sheriff Danny Howlett was voted out of office by challenger L. Mark Barrick in the Nov. 8 election, losing by just 77 votes out of 3,831 ballots cast.

Howlett left office by retiring on Dec. 1. Barrick is a former Newport News Police Department officer.

Howlett was not alone in getting voted out of office as longtime Commonwealth's Attorney John S. "Jack" Gill lost to Tom C. Bowen III. Bowen won handily, garnering 2,335 votes, or 62 percent of the vote, to 1,446 votes for Gill, 38 percent.

Commissioner of Revenue Raymond Hundley was also defeated. Leslie L. "Les" Hall received 1,899 votes, or 51 percent, to Hundley's 1,323 votes, or 35 percent. Douglas A. Critchell received 533 votes, or 14 percent.

Three incumbents on the Board of Supervisors turned back three challengers to retain their seats. Charles E. Ingram, Edwina J. Casey and Janine Burns all won enough votes to remain on the Board of Supervisors, turning back challengers Patrick J. Beattie, Ruth P. Litschewski and N. Haskins Ramos.

Three incumbents on the School Board also retained their seats. Jennifer M. "Jen" Little, John T. Persinger and Lanell W. Jarvis received more votes than challengers Jeanice A. Sadler and Robert C. Sherrill Jr.

County Treasurer Wendy H. Stewart defeated challenger Deanna L. Harris.

Hurricane Irene

On Aug. 27-28, Hurricane Irene barreled into Gloucester and Mathews packing high winds and heavy rains, though the storm wasn't nearly as ferocious as earlier forecast.

Almost eight years after Hurricane Isabel caused widespread damage and flooding, residents were well prepared before Irene spun ashore and lashed the region with gusting winds. Only one serious injury was reported in Gloucester and Mathews, that of a teenage girl who was riding in a van that was struck by a falling tree.

Across low-lying areas, residents moved their belongings out of harm's way in advance of the storm. Shelves in stores were cleared of water, batteries and other essentials for riding out a storm.

Though thousands of residents lost power, outages weren't as widespread and for as long as during Isabel.

"It was nowhere near like Isabel," said Guinea resident Willie Jenkins. "Nowhere near."

The massive storm was more than 520 miles wide, rumbling ashore in North Carolina at a Category 1. In the storm's wake, 40 people died across 12 states.

The storm followed a 5.8-magnitude earthquake that shook the region on Aug. 23.

Republican mass meeting

A mass meeting of the Gloucester County Republican Committee on a sweltering July night altered the course of local politics.

Supporters of local candidates crammed Botetourt Elementary School, with more than 500 people turning out to form a record crowd for the meeting. Holly Smith won the Republican nomination for Commonwealth's Attorney, defeating incumbent Bob Hicks, who had run as an Independent in previous years.

In another pivotal race, Ashley Chriscoe entered the race for the Board of Supervisors in literally the final hours and won the nomination for the At-Large seat over Patricia Cowan, a member of the Gloucester 40 whose husband, Carl Cowan, is chairman of the Gloucester Republican Committee.

Both Chriscoe and Smith would go on to win elections to the seats they sought. Neither incumbent At-Large Supervisor Michelle Ressler nor Hicks sought re-election in the Nov. 8 election.

In another race, Larry Rilee won the Republican Committee's backing for Gloucester County Sheriff over Ted Koehl. Rilee, though, lost the election to incumbent Sheriff Steve Gentry.

Gloucester murder

An investigation into the July 27 slaying of Karen Kay Kelly led to the arrest of Richard Earl "Ricky" Witcher Jr. on a first-degree murder charge.

The body of Kelly, 48, was discovered by a friend in the home she lived in on Hickory Fork Road. She died of a gunshot wound to the head.

Prior to the discover of Kelly's body, Witcher allegedly told acquaintances the "took care" of the victim an hour after he left his residence with a rifle. During the investigation into Kelly's murder, Gloucester Sheriff's investigators seized a .30-30 rifle, a .30-30 round, burnt blue jeans and a red duffel bag from Witcher's home.

Among the items seized by investigators from the residence where Kelly's body was discovered included a bloodstained pillow, bloodstained clothing belonging to Kelly and projectile fragments removed from her body.

Witcher is expected to face trial this year.

Road construction

After 2 1/2 years, a highway widening project on Route 17 in Gloucester Point wrapped up in August, spreading relief among business owners who had complained about slumping income as a result of the work and motorists grousing about delays and confusing traffic patterns.

Contractors widened the highway and built a raised concrete median, replacing a turning lane in the middle of the highway. A traffic signal was installed at the intersection of Camp Okee Drive and Greate Road, along with other work.

The concrete median was installed to lower the crash risk for motorists using the center lane.

While Gloucester Point businesses and travelers got relief, it was a different story in the courthouse when work began in the spring in the Main Street Colonial Courthouse traffic circle that continued into this year. The work prompted a detour through a residential area around the work and access to some offices and businesses was limited.

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