The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Dr. Hayes Named Acting ACPS Superintendent; Mark Beliles Interview (Central VA 250-Year Committee)

Episode Date: June 17, 2026

The I Love CVille Show headlines: Dr. Chandra Hayes Named Acting ACPS Superintendent Hayes Previously Served As One Of Dr. Haas’ Lieutenants Did School Board Make A Mistake With Hayes Appointment? Supervisors Should Commission 3rd Party ACPS Investigation Mark Beliles Interview (Chair, Central VA 250-Year Committee) How Is Our Community Celebrating The 250 Year Anniversary? Intersection Of History, Tourism, Economic Growth In CVille Area? Tiger Fuel Spends $4.6 Million On 1311-13 Carlton Ave Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air Mark Beliles, Chairman of the Central VA 250-Year Committee, joined me live on The I Love CVille Show! The I Love CVille Show airs live Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The I Love CVille Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible, Rumble and iLoveCVille.com.

Good Wednesday afternoon, guys. I'm Jerry Miller, and thank you kindly for joining us on the I Love Seville Show. It's a pleasure to connect with you guys on the water cooler of content and conversation for Charlottesville and across Albrough County, Central Virginia, the Covenwealth, the country, and the world. Today's talk show is one that is a microcosm of what we're trying to do. We take topics that are important to the community, and we take deep dives into those talking points and into those topics in a long-form content platform. This is the only long-form content platform in Central Virginia. There are no commercial breaks. We spend an hour-plus Monday through Friday here at 1230 talking about the stuff that matters to us, matters to you. Some of this talking points and content matter is about the economy. It's about politics. It's about homelessness.

It's about tourism. It's about small business, real estate investment, venture capital. It's about nonprofits, humanitarianism, philanthropy. Some of the stuff is incredibly awkward and uncomfortable. And over the last week, some of the stuff we've been talking about kind of fits in that category of uncomfortable, awkward, just terrible. And it's this Almore County Public School story where there was a social and emotional learning coach at Holly Mead Elementary that was unfortunately given access to the most

vulnerable kids at an elementary school and with very little oversight. He had an office that had no windows, an office with no cameras, an office where the door could be locked from the inside, an office in a clandestine portion of an elementary school. He was given a walkie-talkie where he was able to track the communication of administrators in the school, their whereabouts, while on the walkie-talkie, and he was giving a list of the most vulnerable kids as the social and emotional learning coach in the entire, elementary school and was given the opportunity to meet with these kids in one-on-one settings in this windowless, cameraless, locked office in a nook and cranny of an elementary school. And he was, had no oversight. I mean, the more I spend time on this story, the more I talk about it with my wife, the more I consider it through the lens or through the possibilities,

the terrifying possibilities of our eight-year-old son and our three-year-old son, the more of my heart breaks here. There's a story in the Daily Progress today written by Hall Spencer. Hawes is one of the best journalists in the community. Hall Spencer is all over the courts and crimes beat for the Daily Progress. And he's got a story in today's Daily Progress outlining the extent as of now

of the sex crimes that Mike Sweeney allegedly committed. And the imagery, the word choice is applicable and on point, but it's graphic and horrifying. And I will leave it to you to read

the allegations what this Swiny fellow, Sweeney fellow's been accused of right now and what he's facing in court. It is gross. And that's to say least. We have news that's broken this morning about an acting assistant superintendent. Matthew Haas is right now on a messy divorce track with the Almore County public school system

and the Almore County School Board this past Thursday asked Dr. Haas to resign. Dr. Haas, as he probably should, is making sure the resignation comes in a way where the rest of his contract pays him out, where his retirement is not impacted, and where he could probably have an exit strategy where his professional brand is not tarnish, should he want another job. So that's part of the messy divorce that's happening right now with Haas and the school board and ACPS attorneys, and Dr. Haas's attorneys, for that matter. The news that broke today is Dr. Chandra Hayes, the current assistant superintendent of instruction, will be the acting superintendent for Almore County Public Schools.

Frankly, I was flabbergasted by this move. I understand time is of the essence, and I understand this is an interim or acting superintendent. But why I was flabbergasted is this is Dr. Haas's right-hand person. aid in assistant superintendent. This is a lieutenant to Dr. Haas. And if the school board has demanded Dr. Haas's resignation because of either educational malpractice, leadership malpractice, failure to maintain accountability standards with educators in his school system, why would you then basically promote the embattled superintendent's direct lieutenant's, tenant to replace him.

I'm sincerely asking you the viewer and listener of that question. I was confused, I was then infuriated, and then I'm left asking questions on this show. Why school board, if you're trying

to instill confidence from a community, a community that's been rocked by child sex assault allegations, do you promote the direct right-hand person to the man you're trying to boot or kick out of the school system. I think that's a fair question.

Furthermore, Dr. Chandra Hayes is the flag waiver, the flag carrier, the champion and the proponent of equity grading. We've talked about equity grading on this show, something that Dr. Matthew Haas pushed with his ACPS, with this Almore County Public School System. There's no failing of tests. There's unlimited retaking of exams and tests. Participation is no longer prioritized. Skipping school is no longer really punished. Equity grading seems to be one of the direct culprits

of the demise of an otherwise championed and celebrated school system. Almaro County Public Schools were so renowned, so established, so high performing prior to COVID that Almar, that communities like Crozay and Old Trail got attention and were developed and home values went through the roof. People were flocking to Old Trail to Croze, to Grey Rock, to the neighborhoods in Crozee, because they knew that Henley and Western and Brownsville and Crozee Elementary Schools, Murray and Ivy Elementary were so renowned with their performance. That's how good this school system was before COVID.

You look at the data post-COVID coming out of the pandemic and the SOL scores are down. The average spend per pupil at Almore County Public Schools is one of the highest of any school system in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The bloat atop of the payroll at the administrative level is unquestionably concerning. So here we have a school system coming out of COVID that has slipped performance-wise, academically wise, a school system that is trying to ramrod equity grading into classrooms, into households, despite the concerns of parents, a school system that is spending one of the most amount of monies per pupil in the entire Commonwealth of Virginia on kids, a school system that has tremendous blow at the

administrative level, and a school system that's been rocked by sexual assault allegations at not one but two elementary schools, a school system that is looking to replace a superintendent and the principal at one of those elementary schools, and now a school system that's that has promoted the embattled superintendent's right-hand person to replace it. I mean, make it make sense, right? Make it make sense. I want a studio camera and then two-shot Judah Wickhauer. We'll highlight partners of the show, Charlottesville Sanitary Supply and Charlottesville Swimming Pool Company.

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Judah, Chandra Hayes, Dr. Chandra Hayes, the acting superintendent? I mean, part of me understands the thought behind it. Part of me understands that I think what they were going for here was an easy transition. They've got someone who's in the system. They've got someone who knows what's going on. They've got someone that isn't going to need a lot of training or acclamation to the school. It's systems, the people involved from top to bottom. And in that regard, I think she's not a bad choice. Can I, I'm going to respectfully but emphatically push back on your word choice.

Okay. Easy transition. Do the parents that are watching this program want an easy transition with the school system right now that is facing these kind of allegations? I agree. And the Daily Progress story that Hall Spencer penned, the headline is, Al Morrow School Stafford charged with child sex crimes,

tries to obtain taxpayer-funded lawyer. Viewers and listeners, I'm not even going to read from this story. I read it this morning over breakfast and was absolutely disgusted with what Mike Sweeney's accused of doing. No doubt. Like the bottom of the barrel type of behavior, that you cross your fingers and pray, you only have to interact with in a movie

or documentary type of setting on Netflix. Certainly not real life. So respectfully, I tremendously respect for you, as you know, as the viewers and listeners know. Easy transition is the opposite of what should be happening here. I'm not saying that it's a great choice. I'm not saying that it's not perhaps tone deaf. I don't know if that comes into the discussion for the people making these decisions.

But I'm just pointing out that from their perspective, this is probably, you know, an easy insertion into the school. They've already got her in the school. It's not they're not doing a nationwide search. They're not, it's, you know, bam, bam, bam. done. And that right there has got us into this predicament. The school board, my opinion, showing a lack of long-term leadership with the promotion of the embattled superintendent's direct lieutenant. You are taking the same ideology and mindset and you're putting it in the top position of power. Here's Hank Martin watching on one of the 27 social media platforms this show,

is airing upon. He says this, handsome Hank Martin's photo on screen. Admiral County Public Schools want you to believe they're hitting the reset button. They want you to think they've finally heard the outrage over safety failures, zero transparency, and a total collapse of accountability. You don't rebuild shattered community trust by promoting the architect of the very policies that helped to tear this school system and community apart. To be clear, Hayes was the public face and chief defender of equitable grading, and the no zero's policy that's been implemented into the school system.

Teachers have repeatedly warned that this rewards zero effort and enshrines poor habits. Parents begged for real academic standards only to watch the administration tried to quietly slide this through until the public backlash became too loud to ignore. This is not a reset. This is a double down. To the Alboro County School Board, you don't extinguish a fire by promoting the person who was holding the matches. And Carol, you're 100% right.

This is an interim or an acting superintendent. The real proof is in the pudding will be who is hired long-term and permanently. But I was of the mindset that the entire superintendent's office, or at least a large portion of it, should have been cleaned. House should have been cleaned. You had a teacher go from one elementary school, to another, and a rumor mill of the worst kind of allegations followed that educator from Woodbrook to Hollymead. Where was the oversight?

How were they allowed to go into another elementary school? And viewers and listeners, today at 3 o'clock is your first opportunity to speak before the Almer County Board of Supervisors. Headline on screen, if you could, please. There's two comment periods today with the Wednesday Board of Supervisors meeting viewers and listeners. There's one at 3 p.m. and there's one at 6 p.m. I would encourage all the viewers and listeners, the taxpayers, the citizens, most importantly, the parents of Alboro County public school students, to go to the supervisor meeting today, either at the 3 o'clock or the 6 o'clock public speaking portals. and insist, if not demand that supervisors commission their own third-party investigation into what has transpired here.

We know the Almar County Police Department is currently investigating what's happened, but Almar County's police department is looking at this from a criminality standpoint and what can be prosecuted in court. The gray area that will not show up in a police department investigation is absolutely. important as what shows up in the Almore County Police Department report. The Almore County Police Department is not going to answer this question. How does a man go from Woodbrook Elementary where allegations of assault took place to Hollymead Elementary? We should know that answer. 3 p.m. today, 6 p.m. today, and the board of supervisors that are watching the program,

a few of them. Ned Galloway interacted with the show yesterday on LinkedIn. Mike Pruitt watching the program right now. I see police officers watching the program right now. The supervisors that are watching the show, if you commission an investigation like this of the third-party variety to audit and investigate the school system, you will forever be seen as a leader by this community.

And I think the man to do it is Mike Pruitt. He is a leader on this board. Supervisor Pruitt, bring it up during the supervisor meeting this afternoon, this evening, and explain on the record that our board is managing a 750 million roughly yearly budget, and the number one line item on that budget is public schools, Al Morrow. It is our responsibility as the allocators of this sizable amount of, money to make sure the school system we're allocating the money to, at bare minimum, has the safety of children as their first priority.

A lot we're going to cover. Comments continue to come in. We're 24 minutes into the program. There's other elements that I want to talk about on the show here. If you want to put me on a one shot and welcome our guest to the show as we shift gears on the show, viewers and listeners, we're going to welcome Mark Belial's to the the program who's an absolute institution here in Almore County in central Virginia, a Renaissance man, a man that I find incredibly interesting. First, I'm going to mention a comment from some of

the viewers and listeners, some comments. This is from Carol Thorpe. They have to have someone perform the superintendent duties typically performed over the summer to prepare for the new school year. I think you may see that house cleaning once the new superintendent comes in and establishes his or own staff. Carol Thorpe, I hope you're right. And I think your analysis is very good. The Queen of Jack Jewett watching the program. Aaron Davison is just infuriated that this shifting is happening. It's just terrible. Courtney Wilson Wood is infuriated. I see dozens of parents on the feed right now, flabbergasted that Dr. Haas's lieutenant would be promoted to this position. Maybe Carol Thorpe is right that this is a band-aid or stopgap. Time will certainly tell.

We're going to continue this discussion at the bottom of the show, along with some real estate news, with Tiger Fuel making a sizable purchase on Carlton Avenue, north of $4 million. Before we get to that discussion, can we go to the studio camera, then a two-shot as we welcome front of the program, Mark Beliols. The more I spend time with Mark Belioles, the more I realize how institutional Mark Beliols is

in Almar County in Charlottesville and Central Virginia. First, I want to thank you for joining us on the program, Mark. Glad to be here, Jerry. It's a great privilege. It's our honor to have you here. Why don't we start with the open-ended question we ask all our guests. Introduce yourself to the viewers and listeners. Okay, great.

Yeah. I've been involved in this community since 1980, and I've moved here to start a church. I was a pastor for 30 years in the community. But really, my passion has always been a lot of local history and culture, which I always loved about this community. And I liked getting to know more about it and to tell the stories of our local history. So my involvement in the community, first off, began just to lead a lot of church pastors, groups, city. We kind of shared a lot of things in the 1990s in that regard.

But then, and I got involved at the 250th anniversary of the Almar County in 1994, and I did a big program run Quartz Square and then led tours around the county, talking about a lot of the history, especially the religious history of the community. And from there, organized, created a movement, a festival called the Jeffersonian Thanksgiving Festival. It happened every year for 18 years, finally ended in 2012. And that was a huge event, thousands of people co-sponsored with the city, sponsored it and others. And we really did a lot of living history in many other ways to celebrate a history. And then I also served, was appointed by the city to serve on the city's historic resources committee for a dozen years.

I was chair of that, succeeded to Coy Barefoot and others who had been there before and chaired that, just finding ways to tell our history locally, markers, all kinds of events. And then later on, it was eventually then appointed as co-chair of the city's 250th anniversary in 2012. So helped organize all that, all that. And then after that, I was so exhausted as well as my job taking me a lot of travel overseas. So I haven't been as involved in the last decade. But for a short period thing, right after the 2017 violence that happened here, I organized a lot of pastors, leaders together to have gatherings downtown in the amphitheater and things,

to bring healing to our city, praying for our city. and bring in discussions and bridges of peace. And then after that, anyway, I haven't been involved as much until now. He is Mark Belials, and a lot of people are watching the program. Conan Owen, Michael Guthrie, Georgia Gilmer, Tom Sturgilgil, the Golden Apple Award winner. Logan Wells Calelo watching the program, print radio and television, Neil Williamson, watching the program.

Philip Dow, who we've dubbed the Mayor of Scottsville watching the program, John Blair, he's 46 years in this community, viewers and listeners. 46 years. And if you're living under a rock, the 4th of July is the 250-year anniversary of the United States of America, it also coincides with the 50-year celebration of the Charlottesville downtown mall. This summer is one of the most significant summers in Charlottesville. Charlottesville's history.

It is. The 50-year celebration of the mall and the 250-year anniversary of our country and Charlestville in this community is rich, woven into the fabric of those 250 years. I'll follow your lead here. 250 year celebration, Almore County, Central Virginia, Charlottesville. What are we expecting? What's on the agenda? What's on the itinerary?

What can we look forward to? Well, I personally was looking at what all was being organized locally, and so I was disappointed. I thought so much more should be happening to educate our community. and so I organized this ad hoc committee, Central Virginia Committee for the 250th anniversary. And so a number of officials, leaders from Scottsville, Almar County, and Louisa joined the committee,

and so we've been organizing events. The main thing on July 4th that we've planned is to have just at 3.30, right near UVA there in front of the statute where Thomas Jefferson is holding the Declaration of Independence. We're going to have a public reading, of the Declaration of Independence. We're going to have a few remarks about some of the famous patriots that made

independence possible that we today forget about. Jefferson is well known, but even in our own local community, he's often downplayed today for a variety of reasons. But there's so many other great people like George Gilmer and John Harvey and many other patriots that we want to make mention of, let people get to know about some more of this history. So that's going to be a program on the 4th of July. By the way, UVA, I must say, is doing one great thing.

Their library, their special collections is doing from that day earlier for about four hours, the opening of their library that has the original copies of the Declaration of Independence. That's fantastic. And other events that will be happening there. So our event will happen after all that. It's not officially connected. We're just going to gather the city people to say, let's read it, let's talk a little bit about it, and then we'll do other things on subsequent days,

the day after in Louisiana in Scottsville, simultaneous public reading in Scottsville on July 4th, down there in their city council helping to organize. Great. So this is some of what we're organizing. I absolutely love what you're doing. I love that you're driving community engagement around milestone anniversary of days on the calendar.

I love that you're creating opportunities for families and community members to get off their phone and experience life, while living life in person, in a real life scenario. I love that you're bringing volunteerism back. I love that you're bringing community engagement back. I've been here not as long as you. 26 years for me in August.

Came as the first year at the University of Virginia and went from Bachelor looking to get into trouble to engage to my wonderful wife, to two boys running a business, the whole gambit of maturity here, probably much like you, frankly. I mean, you've been here 46 years. put into perspective what you've seen in those 46 years in Charlestville and Almar on Central Virginia

from a community engagement standpoint, a volunteerism standpoint. When I first arrived here, we had the Dogwood Parade. I mean, heck, it's not even when I first arrived here in 2000. Before COVID, right before COVID, 2018, 2019, Dogwood Parade. Fourth of July fireworks in McIntyre Park. McIntyre Park for the Fourth of July, you know this, was the place to be. True. Got there hours before we set up our chairs or picnic blankets.

We saw everybody. The dogwood parade here on Market Street, the second floor of our building here. We'd go up there. We'd have a party off the balconies as the floats went by. It was the best. Who were the guys in the little cars that drove around on Market Street? You know what I'm talking about? I'm not sure if it was.

The Shriners? The Shriners. It was the Shriners. It was awesome. What has happened, Mark, to community engagement, volunteerism, patriotism. Where's it going? Well, I think it's something you can see happening slowly. First off, I think a lot of our own local city leaders have been kind of torn.

They don't know how to celebrate our history as much as they used to. They feel in the modern era that we can't really celebrate maybe some of what our kind of white founding fathers did. You know, they think that's kind of not politically correct today or whatever. And so there's some of that, so that's downplayed, a lot of our local history that, you know, 50 years ago, incredibly prominent. You know, we had the Queen of England come here for the bicentennial and the president, Gerald Ford. They were all here, and there was thousands celebrating. But now it's like a little bit pushed toward to the side. we don't want to celebrate that so much.

We want to make money off of it if we can, but it's not, but really we're living off of the past in terms of that. And then in the interim, there's a lot of just sort of bifurcation, kind of very isolated groups, and it doesn't bring the people together in a volunteerism basis

in a way that unifies and mobilizes people working together like it used to. That's what I see is happening. So it's all special, more special interest. It's kind of small focused areas, which it's kind of like majoring on the minors. And when you do that, you lose a lot of people that might otherwise work together. That's my observation. I think your observation's on point. I'll add to add a little color to it. Since COVID, Charlottesville and Elmore County has become much more transient, maybe even nomadic. The opportunity for white-collar professionals to work from an internet service provider in their basement or at their home

while maintaining a job or a career in a big city elsewhere. A paycheck from a firm elsewhere is extremely prevalent. We know that a lot of families have moved here during COVID because of some ties to the University of Virginia. They wax nostalgic, one of the parents of the best four years of their life at UVA as an undergrad. or as a graduate, and now have the opportunity to no longer do the rat race in Northern Virginia, Boston, Chicago, Manhattan, wherever it may be and say, oh, my four years in Charlottesville at UVA were awesome. Why don't I sell this two or three million dollar home in Northern Virginia in McLean or Arlington come down to Charlottesville, and if I just trade houses, look what else I can

get. Look how much I can save. So there's less commitment to Charlottesville and Almaro County because of that transient nature. I think there's also 100% of what you said with the leadership. We interviewed former Mayor Nakaya Walker on this show, and I asked her about Thomas Jefferson, and she said if it was up to me, Thomas Jefferson would be completely eradicated and removed from Charlottesville and from the University of Virginia.

Yeah. That's the thinking. Yeah. That's the problem. A perfect example of this. Another example, another example of this is the Blue Ridge Health District. The Blue Ridge Health District faced so much criticism for being called the Thomas Jefferson Health District during the pandemic that they rebranded during COVID, during COVID to the Blue Ridge Health District. Imagine at a time when we're facing a generational pandemic that priority and effort was putting to rebranding away from Thomas Jefferson.

Then, and I'll get out of your way here, you know this certainly better than me. How about the tours given? at the University of Virginia by the student tour guides. And the crossfire these tour guides have faced while giving these tours to prospective parents and students considering UVA, where instead of just talking about Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia and keeping it, you know,

admissions friendly, if you may, they go down the rabbit hole of Jefferson's history and Sally Hemings and who he ordered to build this university. and that became a soap opera, the tour guides. Anywhere you want to go on this topic. Yeah, this is part of the problem. It's first like, you know, I just, I've traveled a number of other cities even just this year in the 250th, Boston, other places. And I've seen that, you know, Thomas Jefferson, of course, is talked up highly in other cities around the country.

Amazingly, not here in his hometown. And there's a sense of that the, the life. of ability just to talk about why he's important. It doesn't mean you have to affirm any failures of any of the founding fathers. You can criticize those at the same time. But the whole point is the Declaration of Independence changed the world, not just America, but the world. And so to not understand the value of that by our own local leaders and maximize that,

market that like they used to, is, I think, a part of it, really needs to. to be re-evaluated. I think there's a clear, when I was on the cities for a dozen years, chairman of the City's Historic Resources Committee, there was always this effort by some people saying, let's, we've got to remove this, we've got to remove that

statute, we've got to remove, you know, this plaque or something, and, you know, remove names of things. And so, and that's, I understand the motivation, but my whole focus, what I was there, is let's just add to the story. Rather than take away,

And then you take away so many other people's interest by taking that away. Add to the story. It builds more volunteerism. It builds more interest. It builds more collective, you know, buy-in. The more you add to the story, not trying to diminish the story. And that's, you know, we put up many markers for a lot of the African-American history in our city. While I was chairman there, we did many other things that tried to add to the story.

And, you know, I spoke out when all the talk of removing a lot of the statues. I thought it's not the best approach going down the road. It tends to be an extremist approach to kind of remove things instead of just add to it and prove it, tell a better story. What's wild to me, Mark Bileilel's guys are guest. This guy is 46 years in this community. We're fortunate to spend, we're going to spend extra time with him on the show because he's on fire with somebody who's been here 46 years. It's wild to me

that there is no succinct strategy or plan of attack with Charlottesville City, Almore County, the University of Virginia, Monticello, Montpelier. Some kind of, at a loss for words here, I rarely am,

but some kind of like committee that brings in the leaders from each of those entities, maybe I'm missing one, that puts a plan of attack that's tourism, history, incremental economic vitality. I grew up in Williamsburg, Virginia, and if it wasn't for colonial Williamsburg, there would be no Williamsburg, Virginia. True. And history and the strategy of telling the colonial Williamsburg story is not just top of mind for city leaders,

but was for us as locals. We were proud of it. There's a similar approach that could be had here, maybe even one of more significance in the Charlottesville-Albore area with the University of Virginia, with Monticello, Court Square. I mean, what's Thomas Jefferson, the University of Virginia?

What am I missing here? Yeah, it's definitely a great resource. huge, you know, we're sitting on something that can be very much maximized. And it's not too late. We can do it. I think it's just about people willing to not just pander to certain only special small interest and think of the whole picture. And that's the key. You know, another thing I did when I was here earlier was I helped, I pitched the city and they, and the city council agreed to do all these renovations around Court Square. If you go up there now and you see this beautiful brick sidewalks and granite, you know, curbs and a lot of other things, some signage.

That was all, you know, my idea said, let's, here is one of the most historic courthouses in America, but nothing really was even put into, you know, maximizing its beauty and its place. These are things, and then I helped organize festivals that met there, using the space in a way, that people around the world, I think, would be interested to enjoy. Folks, the intersection of tourism and history and economic vitality seems to be low-hanging fruit for the city and county leaders that are watching the program right now. Some kind of committee that brings in these institutional brands and landmarks and destinations and puts the leaders all at the same table with a plan of attack to drive community

engagement is an absolute no-brainer and should be done. This comment comes in from Hank Martin. It's absolutely awesome to see Mark still active. The historical reenactments at Almore County Courthouse, the ride of Paul Revere, and the many sermon reenactments were absolutely spectacular in the fashion in which America's providential history was passed on to the community. You have this comment all over the feed right now of people interacting with you. and these type of reenactments and these kind of tours from the past year. Who's leading that charge now? Yeah.

Is anyone doing it? It's not being done. No. I mean, that's why I even just put together this little ad hoc central Virginia 250 committee because somebody, nobody was stepping up. So it's a very short-term thing that I did here.

But, hey, we need maybe a longer-term thought of a committee that will be working together that way. I think it can be done. and I believe it's important. I appreciate Hank's comments there, and remember Hank back then. We had a good time. I mean, we had thousands upon thousands coming to that Thanksgiving festival.

I want the viewers and listeners to think about this. We have a beer trail that is a trail, and trust me, I love craft beer, and I love celebrating local businesses. But there was a beer trail put together that encourages tourists and locals and students alike that are of age to visit the community and hop from one brewery to another.

We have the same for wine and vineyards. Wineries and vineyards. Why is there not a similar strategy for what? James Monroe's, was it Ashlaw? Yeah. Montpelier. Yeah. Monticello, UVA, Almore County, Charlottesville City, the downtown mall.

Yes. Some kind of passport that links, this is what you can do over a three-day long weekend in Charlottesville and Almorale County. Four or five hours here, four or five hours here, here's the path of attack for you to do it. And then the Charlottesville-Almore Convention and Visitors Bureau utilizes that as the foundation for a mid-Atlantic-wide or east-coast-wide advertising campaign to attract a new subset of tourists to the area that are, sophisticated, because they're into history, that sophistication likely yields a higher socioeconomic status, which means disposable income that can be spent within the community. And last that I heard, viewers and listeners, people visiting that want to come in here, stay in our hotels at a 13% lodging tax, eat at our restaurants at a 12 or 13% meals tax, spend money at our retail spots,

and then leave without taxing our infrastructure, are the best kind of people. We're that we want around here. Yes, we do. I think there's so much more, too. There's so many other stories besides just, you know, Jefferson and Monroe, whatever like that. I mean, on the 4th of July, we're going to acknowledge other patriots like George Gilmer was basically like the Sam Adams of the American Revolution here. He organized this Minutemen company who were ready to fight in a minute, and they marched to Williamsburg to, you know, against threats there. And today, most people don't realize, but out there at Penn Park, there's a cemetery to George Gilmer that no one even knows even he's buried there.

It's one of the most famous or local patriot leaders. And it's one of the things this year we're going to do. We're going to be trying to put up new markers, signage, let people, we're going to clean up that cemetery. We've got people in our committee that are working on it right now. And we're going to be doing things to acknowledge also, but not just him, but there's others. His wife Lucy, great patriot woman who did things during the revolution. You have Shadrach Battles, a free black soldier who fought in the revolution. We're going to acknowledge Reverend Charles Clay, a patriot pastor.

John Harvey, he's a man who most people never heard of. He was, you know, the man, he's one of our founding fathers. He signed the Articles of Confederation that formed our government. And gave the land at Barrett's Road for the British Prisoners War that came here. You know, everybody sees Barracks Road. Why is it called that? Things like this, people don't even know why are these things called what they are today.

We need to tell the stories. We can do it. We can really, I think, really be an attractive thing to many people across the country, but also just for our own community's connectivity back to being, like you said, volunteerism, valuing and prising our community's history and heritage and culture and all its diverse facets. This is the stuff viewers and listeners that we need here. I'm going to be here long term.

We got our oldest son is in second grade. Our youngest son is three years old. My wife and I are proud to live in Alamaro County. We even had a conversation last week about should we consider buying some land if we want our boys to raise their families here? And obviously they're eight years old and three years old. So we have a long way to go. But as parents, what we love the most of life is having our kids around.

And we want a future where our sons and maybe their families long term are around us as we can all grow old together and help each other out, this generational type component that's becoming more prevalent in America today. But I see first night Virginia is gone. The celebration for New Year's Eve on the downtown mall that was an alcohol free. It was fantastic. It was fantastic. It was an opportunity for me, my wife and I are a perfect example to bring an eight-year-old and a three-year-old to the downtown mall in the safest circumstance possible, and it was not tied to getting crazy or alcohol. Just good, clean fun. Fantastic.

Fourth of July, McIntyre Park, the cleanest fun possible. Cleanest fun possible. The dogwood parade, I love the dog would parade. I used to take my kids there all the time. The Dogwood Queen, the high school gal that would be crowned the queen, they loved that. It was like they weren't with a sense of pride. That's God. And I think what Mark Belial's in his committee and his efforts stand for is the return of community spirit that I think somehow lost its soul coming out of COVID. We lost our focus in our way, Charlottesville and Almar. County coming out of this pandemic for a number of reasons. Maybe it was inflation, the transient

nature of the community, folks working from ISPs that moved into the community. Maybe it was the incredible cost that attended the University of Virginia and how that drove up the cost of everyone else that was local that around UVA. Maybe it was the loss of major employers like State Farm that really impacted our community. Probably all of those circumstances. The comments are coming in for you quickly. William McChesney, we've dumped him the mayor of McIntyre. He's watching over on McIntyre Road. He says, Jack Jewett's ride saved our nation.

The effort to erase him is deplorable. Jack Jewett rode further than Paul Revere. And now we're trying to erase him from Charlott's history. He says, how about, and can you guys speak to the contributions of Paul Goodlo-McIntyre? He was a force in creating a lot of the amenities of this community. We have lost a lot of tourism because of local policies. Paul Goodloe McIntyre is the McIntyre School of Commerce. He gave an entire block to the city here at McIntyre Park with three conditions.

One of those conditions was at Stay a Park. The second condition was this statue of Robert Lee Lee, stay in the park itself. The city, by removing the statue, literally, I mean, went against its word to the McIntyre family of why he gave this land to the city. Do you want to speak on any of that, Mark? Well, it's obviously, you know,

the danger of kind of popular movements shaping how a city runs and, you know, discusses things is important. I mean, it's kind of like this iconoclastic kind of fervor. Or we've got to

to remove things. We have to somehow and somehow through that is we bring, we give therapy that's going to help people to resolve the acrimony that's in our city. But it doesn't really ever do that. All it does is, is make a naked square that's not beautiful anymore and we can't unify around other things. I think what McIntyre did was absolutely incredible to make a world-class city with art, with parks, with things that we need people like that. again, but who want to do it for everybody's to be able to enjoy. Neil Williamson watching the program. Love Neil Williamson.

He's the president of the Free Enterprise Forum. The choice of public schools to no longer teach civics also has played a role in the lack of understanding and appreciation of community spirit. Vanessa Parkhill, the Queen of Earleysville, her photo on screen. I absolutely missed the Dogwood Festival. It even included a lacrosse tournament as well. I have great memories of the parade as both the spectator and participant with my daughter's Girl Scout troop. And Vanessa, you are jogging my memory.

The Dogwood Festival absolutely included a lacrosse tournament. You would watch, when I was working for Jerry Rackcliffe in college and fresh out of UVA, the Dogwood tournament had St. Ann's Bellfield and the Coveted School play like Western Amarro High School and Monticello High School. So the best teams played against each other. And I remember these student athletes, guys and gals, absolutely. like bringing their best efforts to this tournament because it was the only time the public schools and the private schools got to play on their own home turf in the community. It was the best. It was absolutely the best. Comments are flooding. Mark Belios, we've got to get you back on the program in here. They are flooding in. This is a good one here. If Mark Belios was elected to City Council or the Almaro County Board of Supervisors, what would he do differently? Wow, what a question. First off, please, I hope I don't have to face that question.

But, I mean, I think I would do something like this, create an ad hoc committee to create, bring in, and really have every kind of sector of this community's voices heard to say, what can we do to help bring more unity to enjoy our history together instead of the isolated way of doing it? I would try to find out, get the most largest committee involved in that, and then see what they recommend, you know, because basically the talent in the community is incredible. It's just a matter of they're disengaged because they don't feel affirmed or validated in that way. So I would bring them together, validate them, and begin to see what projects and initiatives might emerge out of that. John Blair on LinkedIn, this shows airing on 27 social media and podcasting platforms at once. John Blair on LinkedIn says,

Please tell Mr. Beliales, we are thankful for his service on the committee. I know his son, Ben, and Mark has raised a fantastic, fine young man. Well, thank you. Wow. John Blair on LinkedIn here. Comments continue to come in on the program over here.

Jerry, I like your idea of having some kind of tourism passport that brings in all the landmarks, the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Almore, and the downtown mall. How can someone go about doing that? Can you ask your guest about this? You know, I'm not as involved connected with the existing kinds of, you know, organizations that do the tourism, organizing it. But obviously, they have the ability to bring all that together if they want to.

We just need maybe more opportunity. Maybe some citizens speaking up and going to them and talking about what we want to see, what we like to see included in that. I think that's the real key. This Connie Silvestra watching the program, and the Dogwood Parade was given up by the city. The city dropped the ball to let the dogwood celebration go. We hold folks, the whole premise of this program

is to talk about Charlesville and Almore in Central Virginia. And we talk about Charlesville, Almore, and Central Virginia, the good, the great, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Across the board. Long-form content. Allowing the fireworks to leave McIntyre Park was heartbreaking.

Allowing the dogwood parade to leave downtown Charlottes Market Street and through Charlottesville was heartbreaking. The first night Virginia travesty was heartbreaking. And it all happened in quick succession. It all happened post-COVID. Do you have an answer at all or an idea at all, why that's happened? Not really.

I do think a lot of the focusing on things that were created more acrimony and divisiveness has, I think, tampered enthusiasm for doing things that used to be traditionally popular. There's a sense of that going away from those things for whatever reasons

and majoring on the miners. And because of that, I think that's why these things have kind of gone to the wayside. Mark Belial's folks, if you want to follow him even more, has a fantastic substack and he produces content on there that I've

read that is absolutely amazing. Thank you. That you can find on substack folks. This from number one in the family, Deep Throat, he goes, he's one of the few that has a nickname. And he's watching the program. He says this, um, it's crazy that Charlottesville would not lean into Thomas Jefferson. The town next door to where I grew up, Horace Greeley once had a farm there.

Everything is named Greeley and they play it up shamelessly. And he's a nobody compared to Tom's a guy. Thomas Jefferson, an absolute nobody. Yeah. The washing of Thomas Jefferson from Charlesville's history is saddening. It is. And it's saddening because we're, folk, if someone would take a microscope or a magnifying glass on anyone's life, they would find aspects of that person's life that that person with the benefit of hindsight would not be proud of.

Yeah, exactly. Anyone. All of us. And his leadership with founding America and creating a society in a country that we call today the free world was documented and proven and should be championed. I mean, and I was absolutely floored when I heard a former mayor sit in the chair next to you and said, if it was up to me and I'm actively trying to do it, I'm erasing Thomas Jefferson from the city. And this is basically the kind of the dysfunction that is for at least a dozen years or more really has been here that has helped let all this happen. I mean, I was aware behind the scenes, but it still shocked me when in the dark and night, not only did they remove the Robert D. Lee statue and Stonewall Jackson statue, but also the Lewis and Clark statue and Sakagawaya, you know, there, gone.

and the canons and the canons and just Court Square and then also the you know the George Harza Clark statue all these things were just disappeared in the dark and night before anyone the public really could speak to that

in fact the city had it was so dysfunctional it had created a blue ridge kind of a blue ribbon commission to discuss should we even just remove these statues or not and their whole committee said no let's just add to the story but they ignored it and started creating just this trend

to remove things. And this is why we have not such a beautiful world-class city, in my opinion, that we used to think of ourselves. And so we need to recover that. We'll close with this. 35 minutes here with Mark Belial's with this long for a platform. You're on fire. We should bring you back. Seriously, we should feature on the show a historical segment that maybe we can do our part with the platform in conjunction with you and your committee to just drive positive attention. to Charlottesville. Can I just talk about the website also for the July 4th? So listen, if if you want to know more about what we're doing for the 250th, you can go to our website, it's central VA 250.com. Central VA, Virginia, 250.com. It talks about what we're doing on

July 4th, Charlestville and Scottsville, what we're doing July 5th in Louisa, what we're doing again a little bit later on in August. So there are a few things there. You can be part of that. It's all free. And, you know, we welcome your input, too. Maybe there's more things you want to do to help make all of these things even better. And then, you know, this is only intended to be an ad hoc committee just for the 250th, but who knows? If there's enough interest, we'll see. You know, I don't know if I want to volunteer myself. I might be saying more that I can bite off. But nonetheless, it's, let's discuss it. The central VA, it's central VA, it's centralva-250.com. This committee is, these are my words, has more firepower than the actual other, what's

the other committee called? We're not trying to throw shade on anyone here. But this, the, the, how would you describe your committee that you've put together? Just an ad hoc community. The ad hoc community committee is Mark Belial's. Is it Frank Crow, Jim Dylan Beck from the school board, Cynthia Murray, ladies and gentlemen, John Quisenberry, who's just at Rockstar. love Quisenberry.

Don, is it Don Gritsko? Dan Gritsko. Dan Gritsko. Scott's Fletown. He, look, Judah's doing these. Judas's pumping his hand in the air off camera over here. Dan's on my church, too. Dan's at his church, too. I mean, Vicki Hart.

The Louisiana Town Council. I mean, you have rock stars here. Great people. You've put together rocksters. CentralVA250.com. CentralVA250.com. Mark Belios, you are a rock star. Thank you for joining us on the show.

Thank you for having me. And I sincerely, sincerely mean this. And I'll reach out to you, a reoccurring interview on the show. Well, let's celebrate the gift we have through our founding fathers for freedom that we enjoy. Amen. All right. Mark Belials, guys. Why don't we go, studio camera that one shot me, thank you.

Thank you very much, Mark Belial. A lot of items that I still have left to cover on the program, viewers and listeners, I want to remind the thousands that are watching the show right now that, today at 3 p.m. Thank you, Mark. Thank you. Today at 3 p.m. and today at 6 p.m.

You have an opportunity to speak before the Almorel County Board of Supervisors. Demand that the Almeral County Board of Supervisors insist, ask, push that they commission a third-party investigation. Deep Throat says Tim Heafie would be a perfect guy to hire for this third-party investigation.

He's done. several of those at much higher levels, and he lives here within the community. He's an attorney. He would be a fantastic guy to investigate the Almore County Public Schools. And for the viewers and listeners that are watching the program, I also share your anger and your fury with this interim acting superintendent that's been named. And Carol Thorpe makes a fair point. She says on the program, they need to

name an acting superintendent because of time and summer school, but let's see who they name is the permanent superintendent, and if the permanent superintendent they name comes in and clears house. That's why I was a huge proponent for Rick Verhovaq. Rick Verhovaq is the Henley Middle School principal, one-time football coach at Amaral High School. Why I pushed Rick Verhovac as the acting superintendent or the interim superintendent is he was not a direct Matthew Haas lieutenant. There were other options within the Amarral County Public School System that the school board could have appointed that were not direct lieutenants to Matthew Haas. That was my issue with it.

And if you want to get a feel for what really is happening or what has happened so far with this Mike Sweeney and these allegations, the headline of the story in the Daily Progress published this morning by front of the program and talented journalist Hall Spencer is this. Headline, Admiral School Staff for Charge with Child Sex Crimes tries to obtain taxpayer-funded lawyer. This story is the first actual account into what Mike Sweeney has alleged to have done to kids in our school, in our school system. And when I read this story over breakfast this morning, my stomach turned, sunk, and my blood boiled. And it literally, then I thought, do I tell my wife about this? Do I even mention these paragraphs from this story to her? Because I know it would crush her if she read this.

It is the definition of devilish, deplorable behavior. And it's gross. One other item out of the notebook, you put the lower third on screen, Judea Wickhauer. Is it Tiger Fuel? Yeah. What's the lower third? Read it on air. Are you two shot at us?

What? Two shot us. Are you on? I Love Seville subscribers, $8 a month for I Love Seville content on our substack, get you the Charlottesville real estate transactions. Here's a juicy one that we published today, and we publish them every day. Judah Wickhauer. Tiger Fuel spends $4.6 million on 1311 and 131313 Carleton Avenue, which was, hold on.

$4,600,000. The Sutton Family Tiger Fuel Company purchased 1311 and 1313-13 Carleton Avenue. That was home to... That's what I'm trying to remember. Just a second. I follow the real estate transactions extremely closely for Charlottesville City. That was Worksource Enterprises. Work Source Enterprises building.

The WorkSource Enterprises Building, folks. Tiger Fuel has now purchased 1311 and 1313 Carleton Avenue for $4,600,000. I follow the real estate transactions closely, and it's not often that you see transactions in Charlottesville City that are north of a million dollars. Georgia Gilmer says, great show today. Philip Dow says, Dan Gritsko is one of my best friends. Dan and Sunny, you cannot find a better family. No doubt. No doubt about that. Judah Wickhauer wants to offer some insight into Dan and Sunny. I mean, I don't have much more

to add than what he's already said. They're great people. I see them at church. They're active. They're wonderful. They've got great kids. And yeah, I mean, they're salt to the earth. Great people. That's the show. The gambit of content today. Dammit. Jerryism.

Death now. Gamut. Death nail. Death nail. Death nail. Watch ever those death nails, you step on one and you're done for. Mark Belial's was amazing. Engage with the community.

Let's return. Let's return. Let's return. to a Charlottesville where volunteerism is significant. Let's return to a Charlottesville where the Dogwood Parade and the Dogwood Festival, where an event in a week and an outing that we look forward to. We marked on our calendar. Let's return to a Charlottesville where first night Virginia was special and was remembered and was celebrated and was something we look forward to. Let's return to a Charlottesville where we brought out our foldable lawn chairs in a picnic blanket. And we got to McIntyre Park where we were surrounded by people we would see on the downtown mall

or at the grocery store or at church or around town. And we all laid on our backs on a red checkered picnic blanket with our hands behind our head, our children at our feet, our wives or our husbands on our side. And we looked into the sky as the evening was peppered with food. fireworks as we celebrated the 4th of July. It's returned to a Charlottesville where the tiny Shriner cars were running around Market Street. I'm like, how do they not bump into each other and run into each other and look how quick they are? Where a high school gal was crowned the queen of the dogwood parade.

Maybe I'm waxing nostalgic here, but that seemed like a special time. It would be part of Charlottesville and Almar County in Central Virginia. Judah Wickhauer, you're truly Jerry Miller. The I Love Sevo Show.