More than 30 years after the disappearance of Williamsburg-area teenager Jennifer Lynn Pandos, her case remains a mystery. Now, a new HBO documentary series, “Burden of Proof,” is putting the case into renewed focus.

On the morning of Feb. 10, 1987, Jennifer’s parents woke to find their 15-year-old daughter missing from her room and a note left at the end of her bed.

The note, scrawled out in messy, childish lettering, was just one of a number of things that didn’t add up, raising questions about whether she had left on her own, had been taken — or worse.

“Your daughter’s with me. She’s fine,” the note begins. “She’s having some problems and needs time away.” Then, continuing in the same handwriting but switching to first person: “I’m fine, I just need time to think.” At one point, the note instructs Jennifer’s parents not to call the police. If they do, “I may never come back home,” it reads.

The four-part documentary, which is set to premiere June 6, follows Jennifer’s brother, Stephen Pandos, as he attempts to unearth what happened to his sister. Filmed over the course of nearly eight years, the investigation takes a series of turns as Pandos and the documentary team search for answers.

“(I wanted) to give some context to the nuances and complications of trauma,” Pandos said about why he wanted to do the documentary. “And to find justice for my sister, Jennifer.”

When Jennifer disappeared in 1987 from the family’s home in the James City County neighborhood of Kingsmill, Pandos was away at college. Throughout the documentary, he attempts to uncover the mystery of what happened, spurred by the conviction that his parents, Margie and Ron, know more about what happened than they’ll admit. When the series begins, Pandos is estranged from both of his parents.

Director Cynthia Hill became involved in the project when Pandos, who now lives in North Carolina, reached out to her while seeking an avenue to tell his family’s story.

“I had just released a film about domestic violence and so he was able to find me based on that,” she said during a telephone interview. “He was interested in trying to tell the story about his sister’s case, and he thought that we would potentially be a good match because of my experience with domestic violence.”

Underpinning the investigation is a narrative that details how the family has been torn apart.

More than just a simple story about who-done-it, Hill said she was interested in exploring “the lingering effects of trauma and how this has affected this one family.”

At the beginning, “we honestly felt as though the part about who’s responsible was sort of understood,” Hill added. “We thought that the parents probably had something to do with it when we first started, just because the police seemed to think that. So we weren’t necessarily challenging that but we wanted to understand how they came to that conclusion. That was really what was motivating us initially.”

Throughout the course of the show, this conviction is tested as more information comes to light, and what had seemed like a easy answer becomes more convoluted. After beginning the series completely estranged from his mom, Pandos comes to accept that she was not involved. In the final episode, they begin to tentatively mend their relationship.

Now, months later, it’s still “going,” he said. “We’re working on it. I think that’s where I am.”

Pandos also commended the work done by the James City County Police Department and the Commonwealth’s Attorney office.

“My experience with (them) for the last 14 years or so has been excellent,” he said. “They’ve really been good to me and kind to me and I’m deeply appreciative of all their efforts.”

The case is still considered open and has an investigator assigned to it, according to county police spokesman Tayleb Brooks.

In a media landscape saturated with true crime stories, Hill said she believes their series stands out because of how much time and investment they were able to give it.

“We had a good partner with HBO, who understood that this story required that kind of investment,” she said. “It’s a really important story, and I think that (with) missing girls and missing children in general — after the fact, people sort of just abandon the story, and for these families, it’s always ever-present, and I think that’s important for us to know.”

After nearly a decade of blood, sweat and tears, Pandos said he feels “some peace” with the documentary coming out.

“(I believe) that I’ve done all that I can do,” he said, “and (there’s a feeling) of being at peace with that.”

Learn more about the case at jenniferpandos.com and the “Finding Jennifer Pandos” Facebook page.

Sian Wilkerson, 757-342-6616, [email protected]

Larry Boone, Norfolk’s former chief of police, has accepted an offer for the same position in Urbana, Illinois, a little over a year after he retired as Norfolk’s top cop, though his appointment must still pass a vote by the City Council.

Urbana’s City Council will vote on his appointment and the details of his contract, which confers a $205,000 annual salary, on Monday, according to Mayor Diane Wolfe Marlin. Boone was the only finalist they brought to the city over their yearlong, nationwide search for a new chief, Marlin said, adding the community’s response to him had been “overwhelmingly positive.”

Boone met with the police department, council members, community stakeholders, other area law enforcement officials and emergency response officials earlier this spring. He also participated in two town halls with the public, according to Marlin.

“At the end of the day, based on his qualifications and his experience, especially with his approach to community-based policing and willingness to try new ideas … he just emerged as, we believe, the candidate who was the best fit for the city,” Marlin said in an interview Friday. “He’s, I think, a progressive chief and that’s what we’re looking for. So, I was impressed.”

Boone said he felt welcomed and “championed” by Urbana’s city government, police department and community. Getting support from all three was rare throughout his job search, he said.

“They made it clear they had followed me, they had researched me and they saw how I was able to … engage the community, address crime as well as be transparent, promote diversity, and hold officers accountable,” Boone said. “Because of social unrest the last couple years, that’s the new paradigm and cities are trying to find a way — ‘how do we navigate that without upsetting that small fraction … within the police department that may not be ready for a progressive, reform-minded chief.’”

Marlin said she expects the council will approve his appointment.

If approved, Boone will go from managing a police force of 757 in a city with more than 235,000 people to a city with 59 officers and a population of 38,600. But the job of chief doesn’t really change based on scale, he said.

“Policing is policing,” Boone said. “That’s one of the things I’ve learned, I’ve interviewed with cities with 8,000 policemen to 50 policemen — they all have the same concerns … The only difference tended to be the level of crime. That’s a real difference, Urbana doesn’t have the same challenges as Norfolk.”

During one of the town halls he participated in in Urbana, Boone had an interaction that was critical to his decision to accept the job. He said a white woman who was with a group of others wearing “Back the Blue” and “Thin Blue Line”-themed shirts approached him as he was leaving. The woman, who turned out to be the mother of an officer in the department, grabbed his hand, looked him in the eyes, and said, “You’re amazing, everything you said is true, we want you here,” according to Boone, while the others in her group nodded behind her.

“I was shocked, I wasn’t expecting that,” he said, because he’s had experiences where people wearing those types of shirts didn’t agree with his approach to policing. “She was very passionate about what she was saying. I’m an imposing fella, it’s kind of hard to look me in my eyes, and she meant it and it just moved me to a point where I was like, ‘Man, I gotta come here.’”

Urbana began an 18-month public safety review in January to evaluate their response model for police and fire calls for service with the goal of eventually looking at implementing alternatives, Marlin said. The city had a spike in gun violence in 2021, in line with nationwide trends, the mayor said, and while violence decreased in 2022, it’s still a concern.

Urbana is near full staff, though Marlin said they’re expecting a significant amount of retirements in the next six months, but Boone said he wants to expand their staff in order to accomplish some of the goals city leadership wants him to achieve.

Boone’s retirement came suddenly last spring in the weeks following a pair of high-profile shootings downtown Norfolk. In an interview Friday, Boone said he took six months off before trying to find a new job and now feels, “I’m where I’m supposed to be.”

“It’s refreshing to be wanted somewhere where city government wants you, the community wants you as well as the police department,” Boone said. “In this current environment and the type of chief I’ve been and will continue to be, it’s refreshing.”

Norfolk’s former top cop said he will “always cherish” his 33 years with the Norfolk Police Department and commended the city for its recent steps to address crime with more advanced technology.

“During my tenure I had the pleasure of working with some of the finest women and men and professional staff members that are merely trying to do the very best they can under some very difficult times,” Boone said. “To the community, I always tried to center the community in every decision I made, particularly those communities that didn’t always have a voice.”

Gavin Stone, 757-712-4806, [email protected]

As we get closer to summer, several noteworthy events are taking place, chief among them a new musical created right here in Williamsburg.

The Williamsburg Players

The Williamsburg Players opened the critically well-received musical “Spitfire Grill” on June 2 in the Playhouse on Hubbard Lane. An American musical based on the 1996 film of the same name, it deals with inspiration, fresh starts and redemption as experienced by fresh-out-of-prison Percy Talbott. She ends up in Gilead, Wisconsin, where the local sheriff helps get her a job in the town’s only restaurant. Music director is Kristin Mazzocca.

The musical — which goes through June 18 — runs Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and on Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. For information about the production or the Community Ticket Share Program and how to apply for free tickets, visit www.williamsburgplayers.org or call 757-229-0431.

Williamsburg Symphony Orchestra League

Following its recent successful evening of fine food at the Culture Café and music by the Poisoned Dwarf, the Williamsburg Symphony Orchestra League has its season finale Encore Affairs event on June 9 at the White Hall Flower Farm in Toano.

White Hall is a family-owned historical farm established circa 1790 by the Geddy family. The Flower Farm was established in 2020 and is owned by Sarah Geddy Wood, the eighth generation of Geddys in Williamsburg.

The Flower Farm grows rare varieties of flowers, heirloom flowers, flowers that would be too difficult to ship commercially and those that aren’t available in local floral businesses. The flowers are grown without chemicals and pesticides.

The 11:30 a.m. Encore Affairs event includes a small bouquet workshop with Wood and a boxed lunch at the farm. There are limited seats available; call Georgianna Avioli at 757-220-4854.

With this season’s Affairs soon to be over, the League has announced some exciting events for the 2023-2024 music season, starting Aug. 31 with a day at the races at Colonial Downs. Details for reservations will be coming soon.

Other events in the planning stages including another trip to Richmond for a Virginia Opera production.

“MADam LUCY, deceased” premieres

William Schermerhorn — W&M Class of 1982, creative director for Colonial Williamsburg’s Signature Events and two-time Emmy Award-winning songwriter — has reached into Williamsburg’s past to create a new musical about the life and afterlife of Lucy Ludwell Paradise (1752-1814). The result is “MADam LUCY, deceased,” which gets two public workshop performances at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on June 11 in the Wren Building’s Great Hall.

The musical is set in a salon in mid-19th century Williamsburg and focuses on Lucy Ludwell Paradise’s ascent into the fashionable world of 18th-century society, her interactions with prominent figures of the day, her descent and incarceration in America’s first public mental hospital and her role as resident ghost in the Ludwell-Paradise House on Duke of Gloucester Street.

According to Schermerhorn, the project “… began as a lark to dramatically musicalize the ghost story about Colonial Williamsburg’s most infamous spirit” and evolved into a deep look at the mostly unforgotten life of Ludwell Paradise.” It reflects pride in her Virginia heritage, sense of entitlement and her appreciation of an expensive lifestyle, along with her charm and temper, combining to provide an intriguing look into Williamsburg history and mental health theories of the 18th and 19th centuries.

In addition to having been the vice president/creative director for Macy’s Parade and Entertainment Group, Schermerhorn has written for such stars as Julie Andrews, Harvey Fierstein, Idina Menzel and Whoopi Goldberg. He’s also created and premiered works at such venues as Carnegie Hall, has written numerous holiday songs and song cycles, worked in the jazz genre and was invited to write “And That’s the Way It Is,” with music by Michael Feinstein, for legendary broadcast journalist Walter Cronkite’s memorial service at Lincoln Center.

Four W&M students appear in the production, along with Stephanie Scott (Lucy), who boasts credits from California to Vermont to Virginia in theater, film dance, singing and magic, as well as corresponding skills behind the stage and in instructional settings. She even took master classes with Bob Fosse and Tommy Tune.

Tickets are pay-what-you-can. Support for the workshop production is provided in part by the W&M Theater & Dance Performance Fund. To donate, visit impact.wm.edu/madamlucy. To secure seating, call 757- 221-2671.

Reminder

The rescheduled appearance of mandolin superstar Chris Thile and his world premiere work with the Virginia Symphony Orchestra will take place June 15 in the Ferguson Center. Start time is 7:30 p.m. Tickets from the cancelled May 19 performance have been automatically transferred to the June date. If you have any questions, call 757-892-6366.

Have information about the arts in the Historic Triangle? Contact John Shulson at [email protected].

By KEN SWEET (AP Business Writer)

NEW YORK (AP) — Customers of Chase’s online banking services saw double transactions, fees and payments in their accounts on Friday, in a glitch that was not fixed until late in the day.

Numerous Chase customers had posted on social media that their rent or bill payments were taken out of their accounts twice and reported hold times with customer service approaching more than an hour. The New York-based bank is one of the country’s largest financial institutions with millions of online customers.

Transactions over Zelle, the bank’s own peer-to-peer payment service, were also impacted with Chase customers.

Chase said late Friday that the bank had “resolved the underlying issue” and was in the process of issuing refunds or reversing transactions for customers.

Online banking services, while usually reliable, sometimes spectacularly fail or have temporary outages that tend to spook their customers. Banks typically will resolve an error in their services within hours, and no customer is liable for any errors in their accounts that occur when these happen.

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Florida men who stormed the U.S. Capitol with other members of the far-right Oath Keepers group were sentenced Friday to three years in prison for seditious conspiracy and other charges — the latest in a historic string of sentences in the Jan. 6. 2021 attack.

David Moerschel, 45, a neurophysiologist from Punta Gorda, and Joseph Hackett, a 52-year-old chiropractor from Sarasota, were convicted in January alongside other members of the antigovernment extremist group for their roles in what prosecutors described as a violent plot to stop the transfer power from former President Donald Trump to President Joe Biden after the 2020 election.

Both men were among the lower-level members charged with seditious conspiracy. Moerschel was sentenced to three years in prison and Hackett got three and a half years.

All told, nine people associated with the Oath Keepers have been tried for seditious conspiracy and six were convicted of the rarely used Civil War-era charge in two separate trials, including the group’s founder Stewart Rhodes. Rhodes was sentenced last week to 18 years in prison — a record for a Jan. 6 defendant. Three defendants were cleared of the sedition charge but found guilty of other Jan. 6 crimes.

Moerschel and Hackett helped amass guns and ammunition to stash in a Virginia hotel for a so-called “quick reaction force” that could be quickly shuttled to Washington, prosecutors said. The weapons were never deployed. Moerschel provided an AR-15 and a Glock semi-automatic handgun and Hackett helped transport weapons, prosecutors said.

On Jan. 6, both men dressed in paramilitary gear and marched into the Capitol with fellow Oath Keepers in a military-style line formation, charging documents stated.

“The security of our country and the safety of democracy should not hinge on the impulses of madmen,” Justice Department prosecutor Troy Edwards said.

Moerschel told the judge he was deeply ashamed of forcing his way into the Capitol and joining the riot that seriously injured police officers and sent staffers running in fear.

“When I was on the stairs, your honor, I felt like God said to me, ‘Get out here.’ And I didn’t,” he said in court, his voice cracking with emotion. “I disobeyed God and I broke laws.”

Moerschel was a neurophysiologist who monitored surgical patients under anesthesia before his arrest, though he’s since been fired and now works in construction and landscaping. A former missionary, he is married with three children.

Hackett similarly said he remembered feeling horrified as stepped foot in the Capitol that day: “I truly am sorry for my part in causing so much misery,” he said.

He originally joined the group after seeing vandalism at a commercial area near his house during the summer of 2020, when protests against police brutality were common, his attorney Angela Halim said. “He did not join this organization because he shared any beliefs of Stewart Rhodes,” she said.

Still, he later attended an “unconventional warfare” training, and in the leadup to Jan. 6 he repeatedly warned other Oath Keepers about “leaks” and the need to secure their communications, and later changed his online screen names, authorities have said.

“Taken together, his messages show he perceived the election as an existential threat,” said prosecutor Alexandra Hughes.

How the chiropractor and father ended up storming the Capitol, though, is “hard to wrap one’s head around,” said U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta. The group’s increasingly heated online conversations and false claims of a stolen election “can suck you in like a vortex make and make it very difficult to get out.”

Neither man was a top leader in the group, and both left shortly after Jan. 6. Both sentences were far lower than the 12 years prosecutors sought for Hackett and 10 for Moreschel.

Moreschel was in the Capitol for about 12 minutes, and didn’t do anything violent or scream at police officers, Mehta noted. He also handed his guns over to police.

“Sentencing shouldn’t be vengeful, it shouldn’t be such that it is unduly harsh simply for the sake of being harsh,” said the judge, who also imposed a three-year term of supervised release for both men.

Moerschel’s attorneys had asked for home confinement, arguing that he joined the Oath Keepers chats shortly before the riot and was not a leader.

“He was just in the back following the crowd,” attorney Scott Weinberg told the judge.

Defense attorneys have long said there was never a plan to attack the Capitol and prosecutors’ case was largely built on online messages cherry-picked out of context.

The charges against leaders of the Oath Keepers and another far-right extremist group, the Proud Boys, are among the most serious brought in the Justice Department’s sprawling riot investigation. Prosecutors have also won seditious conspiracy convictions in the case against former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio and three other group leaders in what prosecutors said was a separate plot to keep Trump in the White House.

Softball

Class 6 Region A championship

Kellam 2, Grassfield 1: Ava McMichael hit a walk-off RBI double in the bottom of the seventh inning to give the Knights the region championship Friday night.

McMichael’s game-winning hit scored Carson Griffith from first base for the Knights (22-1).

Kellam’s Abby Adamek fanned seven and permitted only four hits, and she singled in the fourth inning to set up Chloe Jackson’s RBI single that gave the Knights a 1-0 lead.

Grassfield responded in the fifth inning as Emma Joy’s double scored Cydney Lafon.

Boys soccer

Class 6 Region A championship

Kellam 2, Landstown 0: Carson Stretz scored both goals as the unbeaten Knights (18-0) completed a romp through the region after steamrolling the Beach District.

Matthew Yates and Will Stanley combined for the shutout in goal — the Knights’ fifth in a row and 13th of the season.

Class 5 Region B championship

Kecoughtan 2, Granby 1: Ryan Cho and Ubong Ekop staked the Warriors to a 2-0 lead on their way to the region championship.

Girls soccer

Class 5 Region B championship

Nansemond River 1, Maury 0: Nathalie Dupree scored her first goal of the season as the Warriors won the region championship at Powhatan Field in Norfolk.

Brooke Jackson registered an assist on the goal for the Warriors (14-3-2), who improved to 8-1 in their past nine games.

Class 6 Region A championship

Cosby 1, Kellam 0: The Titans handed the Knights their first loss of the season and snapped Kellam’s stretch of 12 consecutive shutouts.

Girls lacrosse

Class 5 quarterfinals

Deep Run 19, First Colonial 6: Ella Bowen finished with five goals and five assists as the Wildcats won a state quarterfinal.

Deep Run’s Georgia Swarr also scored five goals.

Maggie McConnell and Addison Kiser scored two goals each in First Colonial’s state tournament debut — the Virginia Beach schools’ first varsity season as a VHSL-sanctioned sport. Jada Holt and Kylan Carini also scored for the Patriots.

In another Class 5 girls quarterfinal, Riverside defeated Bayside 20-3. In Class 6, Battlefield beat Ocean Lakes 22-3.

Boys lacrosse

In state quarterfinals, Virginia Beach teams fell in their first appearance as varsity programs.

In Class 5, Patrick Henry of Roanoke topped First Colonial 22-9 and Douglas Freeman defeated Cox 12-5. In Class 6, Battlefield beat Ocean Lakes 13-1.

Restaurant entrepreneur Corey Bartlett has moved from Olde Towne Marketplace to the Roadway Inn at 5321 Richmond Road.

Bartlett has leased the hotel’s former restaurant area, where Corey’s Chicken Shack is now operating. The large meeting area with its adjacent bar has become Corey’s Southern Catering and Events.

He has closed The Sammich Café and C&D Caribbean take-out restaurant formerly on Olde Towne Road. He operated Corey’s Country Kitchen from 2015-2018 when he repositioned it to Corey’s Chicken Shack.

Bartlett has also operated Southern Pancake & Waffle House at 1605 Richmond Road since 2008.

“You’re learning in the restaurant business every day,” said Bartlett, who for about 20 years worked with Williamsburg’s late Angelo Mageras, a Greek restaurant and hotel owner. “You have your ups and downs and your failures, but you move on.”

Mageras’ daughter Georgia Salih, general manager of Roadway Inn, call Bartlett one day and said she had an idea to talk with him regarding the inn’s restaurant and special events space. The result was Bartlett’s move to Richmond Road.

“I was looking for more visibility,” he explained, saying the Olde Towne Road location didn’t have much walk-in business in the evenings. We’re open here now from noon to 7 p.m., but will extend our evening hours later in the summer.”

Chef Arnell Moore of Isle of Wight County plans to lease the space previously occupied by Bartlett’s C&D Caribbean to operate his own restaurant — Hibachi Buddha — at 5242 Olde Towne Road.

According to Moore, the restaurant is scheduled to open on July 1 in time for the Fourth of July holiday.

The hibachi-style cuisine “will be cooked fresh, made to order” and will have steak, shrimp and chicken options along with other seafood, he explained.

Moore has been using the crowdfunding site GoFundMe to raise money to help start his restaurant. Currently nearly $2,400 has been raised toward his goal of $5,500. The money, he said, will cover his first two months’ rent and the necessary licenses and permits to operate his restaurant. Extra funds will be used for promotional material

Wagsters Magic Theatre begins new season

Brandon and Hannah Wagster are back with the second season of The Wagsters Magic Theatre with an entirely new show entitled, “Finding Magic.”

Beginning June 15, the season’s shows will be at 7 p.m. daily except for Mondays. A 2 p.m. afternoon matinee is scheduled for Thursdays. There will be a special Christmas/holiday show with different schedules later in the season. (There are select dates available before June 15.)

The couple has put about $20,000 into a new show with special effects, costumes and a variety of upgrades including seating, which has been increased from 63 to 79. Front row seats can now be reserved for premier seating and a VIP booth experience has been created for up to four people, who can enjoy free goodies and merchandise.

For general seating tickets, it’s $29.95 for adults 13+, $27.95 for seniors 65+ and active military, and $21.95 for children up to age 12. Premier front row seating is $29.95 for all ages. The VIP booth is $175.

The theater, which opened in June 2022, will have featured 200 performances by the time the new season begins . For the year, attendance averaged 58 of the 63 seats with many shows completely sold out.

“Last weekend on Memorial Day Sunday we had two sold out performances,” Brandon Wagster said. “The new seats allowed us to have 30 extra people on that day and that was a big deal.” Last week they also had their 10,000th guest.

He and wife Hannah agreed this show “is our best” with unique magic and illusions, including one that includes a television screen. The Wagsters are only one of two magical programs in the world to currently use that electronic device.

“This is more than a show,” Hannah Wagster stressed. “We’ve designed it as an experience.” Brandon Wagster added, “In almost any state you can find a magic show, but you’ll only find the Wagsters here. Some only focus to fool you, but we want you to escape from reality and have fun.”

Enterprise Center property is sold

Lovett Industrial of Houston, Texas, has purchased The Enterprise Center at Hazelwood Farms, a 328-acre parcel in western James City County, for $12 million.

Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer and Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices RW Towne Realty handled the sale negotiations on behalf of the three Hazelwood family members who owned the property.

The Enterprise Center is one of two parcels, including the 79-acre Village Center proposed by the family and approved last year from the county Board of Supervisors for development. The center is located on the southwestern side of Interstate 64, at exit 227.

When the project was first proposed, the Hazelwood family had stressed that they wanted one operator to buy the entire Enterprise Center and “not piecemeal it out,” according to Christopher Johnson, James City County’s director of economic development.

According to a news release, Lovett “plans to develop Class A facilities targeting manufacturers, importers and warehousing and distribution companies. The site was selected by the developer due to its close proximity to the Port of Virginia along the Interstate 64 corridor between Hampton Roads and Richmond.”

Geoff Poston, senior vice president at Thalhimer, said, “We look forward to the next phase of development and lease-up, attracting highly coveted industrial users to the region in support of the Port of Virginia.”

Wilford Kale, [email protected]

JAMES CITY — There are 38 unpermitted short-term rentals operating in James City County. That influx prompted members of the county’s Planning Commission to return to the Board of Supervisors at its business meeting recently to request more direction on how to evaluate these cases.

There were still no obvious solutions, but the discussion did shed more light on the problems. The commission has indirectly called for assistance from the board on this issue as recently as January, after the county began working with a consultant who discovered dozens of property owners operating rentals without a permit. These owners have been sent cease and desist letters, and some have responded by applying for special-use permits.

There are 354 short-term rentals being advertised in James City County, including timeshares and hotel units. Earlier this month, the Planning Commission debated some of these cases, such as in the area around Lake Powell Road. It had voted unanimously to deny two requests from a family of homeowners in the neighborhood who had petitioned for exceptions on the basis that the supplemental income from their Airbnb rentals would help them keep their houses and care for their elderly mother. ”Each one of these has an emotional piece to it,” said commission Chair Frank Polster at the May 23 meeting. “When you listen to the stories of the folks, trying to apply the guidance pieces that we have in a strict manner sometimes becomes rather tough.”

The county’s comprehensive plan sets some guiding principles for where short-term rentals should be allowed, prioritizing lots outside or peripheral to residential areas or along major roads. It also recommends the property owner lives on the property. Over time, planning commission members have raised doubts about how these rules come into conflict with other goals of the comprehensive plan, namely full-time employment opportunities and affordable housing.

Disagreements among commissioners and board members centered on questions of whether short-term rentals maintain affordable housing and whether rentals better serve local residents or corporations. Commissioner Tim O’Connor said the housing stock suitable for workforce housing and Airbnb rentals is the same market, as the governing documents for planned unit developments prohibit short-term rentals.

”A 30-year-old kid that used to work for me put an offer in on a house,” O’Connor said. “It was under 300 grand (and) somebody came in and outbid them with cash by over 20%, and they’re turning it into an Airbnb. So if our (comprehensive) plan tells us we want to keep our young people here and find a place to employ them and have them live here, then, you know, that’s some of the balance we’re up against.”

On the other hand, board member Ruth Larson said the extra income brought in by short-term rentals could help keep homes affordable.

”I don’t have a problem with somebody who is trying to be able to afford their house by dealing with this, but what I hear more often is, ‘Now I’ve got this house going, now I want another one,” board member John McGlennon said. “We’re gonna have a harder and harder time finding those starter homes that people are relying on.”

”Isn’t that the American dream to be able to build yourself up?” board Chair Michael Hipple said. “I mean not go, ‘Well, I’m not gonna build up (and) buy that house because it could be affordable.’”

Hipple floated one idea to limit the number of short-term rentals by lot as one possible solution, but there was still concern from other members that at some point, multiple short-term rentals turn into a different kind of venture.

”When you start getting someone who’s running three, four, five, 10 of (these rentals), that’s a commercial business,” board member Jim Icenhour said. “I’m more concerned about the corporate aspect of it.”

County Attorney Adam Kinsman said it would be difficult for the county to prevent corporations from operating short-term rentals in the area.

”Each application is considered separately as a land use issue. And so that’d be a tough one to sort of tie it to ownership,” he said.

At the end of the meeting, Polster concluded that the commission would have to learn from experience when considering the large number of cases coming its way, and then report back to the board in the future. The Lake Powell short-term rental cases are scheduled to be heard by the board at its June 13 meeting.

J.W. Caterine, [email protected]

Princess Anne had an opportunity to walk away sweeping the region championships in boys and girls soccer Friday night but couldn’t quite get it done.

After the girls pulled off a dominant comeback win to start the night, the boys were kept scoreless and fell short of a region title.

In the girls game, it took a while for the Cavaliers to come aroundbut when they did, they took total control of it.

First Colonial jumped out to an early lead with a goal five minutes in courtesy of Joryn Wold. When the Patriots added their second goal of the game from Ava Bourne, it looked like the game was First Colonial’s to lose.

Princess Anne started its comeback a few minutes later thanks to a breakaway goal from Nina Murthy, cutting First Colonial’s lead to 2-1.

Murthy started another fast break with seven minutes left in the game and after her shot missed, Isabella Cobos slotted one into the goal to tie the game 2-2 going into halftime.

“Nina, she’s a catalyst for the team,” Princess Anne coach Dwayne James said. “Any game she goes in, everyone has to be aware of what she’s doing. So when she gets on the field, she easily commands two or three players and so that frees up a lot of space and we know how to play off of her and feed off of her energy and her dynamic movement.”

The first 25 minutes of the second half were quiet, but then Princess Anne broke it open.

The Cavaliers scored three goals in a span of three minutes to take the score to 5-2 in a blink of an eye.

Murthy got the scoring started with her second goal of the night and was followed by goals from Audren Barclay and Keeley Ferguson.

“We’re losing a lot of seniors this year,” Murthy said. “We want to get as far as we can, this is really important for us. I’m just so proud of this team. We worked harder than ever, with our new coach, just collaborating, working on new things, trying to do the best we can.”

The win is believed to be the first region title in Princess Anne girls history and comes in James’ first year at the helm of the program.

“I think it’s the first time,” James said. “It’s surreal. I can’t be more proud of the girls. They’ve done phenomenally and we’re just looking forward to getting everybody back healthy and then next week, we go onto the next steps.”

Princess Anne will face the runner up of Class 5 Region B championship game in the state tournament.

FINAL | Princess Anne 5, First Colonial 2

Princess Anne wins the Class 5 Region A girls soccer championship!@757teamz pic.twitter.com/7j1biW3JI5

— Michael Sauls (@mcsauls) June 2, 2023

The Class 5 Region A championship has eluded the Cox boys soccer team the last two years. Last year the Falcons won a state title, but couldn’t get it done on the region stage.

On Friday night, Cox and first-year head coach Santo Ripa finally won it.

“We’ve been talking about this since we started playing,” Ripa said. “We’ve been going game by game. Our mentality is 1-0 and we go game by game. When you get to this position, it’s win or go home and at the end of the day, that group earned this. Now, don’t get me wrong, it was ugly at the end and I’m not happy about it. But hey, the scoreboard read the same so we’re all right.”

The lone goal of the night came with five minutes left in the first half from Cox’s Dax Booth. It was all the Falcons needed to secure the victory.

Despite Cox’s one-goal advantage, the game felt even the entire way.

Princess Anne had several chances late to tie the game but never found the back of the net.

“It was a good game, (Princess Anne) is a hell of a team no matter how you shape it,” Ripa said.

Now, Cox will turn its attention to defending its state title and will host the Class 5 Region B runner-up in the first round of the state tournament on Tuesday.

“We’ve gone through some serious adversity this season,” Ripa said. “We have given away 2-0 leads left and right, we’ve given up goals that we should never give away and now that we’re entering that postseason mentality our system is more defined. It’s more established and we have more confidence when we do and I think that’s going to help with regard to those stupid mistakes and miscues and whatnot. So I think that’s our edge right now, we’ve endured a little.”

Cox head coach Santo Ripa celebrating with the team after the win.

With the win, Cox gets the region title that has eluded them the last two seasons.

Next up is a run at defending their state title. @757teamz pic.twitter.com/581ZacmRjB

— Michael Sauls (@mcsauls) June 3, 2023

Michael Sauls, [email protected], (757) 803-5775