4H Members headed to Louisiana

Six young ladies, Hannah McDonald, Bridget Murray, Morgan Strickler, Anna Shortt, Rachael Getts and Deanna Madagan will be traveling to the Southern Regional 4-H Championship Horse Show in West Monroe, Louisiana this summer to represent Frederick County and the great state of VA. They are all members of the Golden Horseshoe 4-H Club here in Frederick County.

 These girls will be participating in various competitions and have spent many hours riding and training their horses for this wonderful opportunity to showcase their 4-H Projects.

 Three of the riders, Hannah McDonald, Anna Shortt and Rachael Getts competed in the Horse Bowl this year and are the new state champions.

 Needless to say the 4-H club is very busy trying to raise the funds to get these girls and their horses there. They are holding various fundraisers to raise the $8000.00 needed to make the trip. One coming up is a Basket Bingo Friday May 31st at Gainesboro Fire Hall.Please contact Leader Rose McDonald for tickets or anyone of these six girls or if you want to help these girls complete a 4-H dream. Also one will be at Ledos Pizza Monday night May 20th 5:30 to 7:30pm Stop by and get your dinner, part of the proceeds will go towards the girls.

 We are very excited for these 4-H members and very proud of their accomplishments. Ladies, we wish you all the best in Louisiana and look forward to hearing about your trip when you return.

SHENANDOAH VALLEY ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE WARNS OF GREEN DOT PAYMENT SCAM – AND “SPOOFING” OF SVEC PHONE NUMBER

 MT. CRAWFORD – A Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative (SVEC) member recently lost a substantial amount of money as a result of several calls from a Green Dot Visa card scammer.  Apparently, in this instance, the scammer was able to manipulate their phone number so that it appeared the call originated from a legitimate SVEC phone number.  The Cooperative wants to make its members aware of this form of fraud, called “spoofing,” which has added another dimension to the scam.

 The scammer called the member, with a “spoofed” SVEC phone number, stating that they were an employee of the Cooperative, and that the member needed to pay the delinquent amount owed on their SVEC account immediately by purchasing a Green Dot Visa card.

 “First and foremost, we want our members to know that no representative of the Cooperative will ever mention a specific credit card or payment method, and our employees will only communicate about potential termination of electric service with members through a mailed notification, not through a phone call asking the member to pay for their service by credit card,” SVEC President & CEO Myron Rummel said.  “Unfortunately, a member of Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative has fallen victim to this crime.  The local authorities have been notified and will follow up as necessary.  We want our members to be aware that correspondence of this nature will not be generated by the Cooperative.” 

 Rummel suggested that if members have any questions about their account, they can call their local office for more information.  “Furthermore, if one of our members does receive a call like this, we suggest that you contact our office to verify your account status and contact law enforcement immediately,” he said. 

 In Augusta County, the numbers are:  941-0011 Ntelos, 515-0011 Shentel, and 213-0022 Verizon; in Frederick County, 450-0111; in Highland County, 468-0011; in Page County, 743-1100; in Rockingham County, 434-2200; in Shenandoah County, 477-1077, in Warren County, 635-1110; and in the city of Winchester, 450-0111.

Budget discussions and worksessions are now underway for FY14 (July 1, 2013-June 30, 2014). What are your thoughts or concerns? Contact me with any ideas or strategies you think are importatnt.

What is that boom?
Would you believe the electrical power lines? The Mt. Storm-Doubs 500kV Rebuild Project. Beginning later this month, crews will be working intermittently in Frederick County until May 2013, pulling cable between the structures in the right-of-way.
After the cables are pulled into place, they will then be “spliced” (joined together) using a safe, reliable, and highly efficient technique called implosive splicing. This technique utilizes a sleeve containing a small, engineered implosive charge that is wrapped around another specifically-designed metallic sleeve. Upon detonation, the charge creates an implosive compression, seamlessly joining the two conductor (wire) ends. The split-second detonation creates a loud "boom" that may be heard in the vicinity of the work. To view a video of this technique, visit our website www.Dom.com, keyword “MSD” and look under Construction Updates.
Dominion and our contractors will contact property owners in the immediate vicinity of implosive splicing work and contact local law enforcement and 911 call centers prior to causing these noise disturbances. Please also check our website for frequent updates.
Thank you for your patience as we continue this work to enhance safe and reliable electric service in the region. Please maintain your distance from construction sites and transmission easements for your protection and to allow our crews to work safely.
If you would like to contact Dominion Virginia Power regarding this project, please send an e-mail to us anytime at powerline@dom.com, or call 1-888-291-0190 from 7 AM to 5 PM, Monday – Friday.

FARM FAMILIES will always need FARMLAND!
...yet in Virginia we lose over 100,000 acres of farmland annually, and another 17,000 acres of forestland.

This tidbit of information caught my attention when I attended a very enlightening presentation on June 18 at the Farm Credit building on Valley Ave. A Land Conservation Education event was hosted by the Frederick and Shenandoah Conservation Easement Authorities, featuring speakers from the Conservation Partners, LLC. The focus of the event was to raise awareness of the options available for protecting land for future generations.
If you would like to find our more about preserving your farm or land and its associated benefits there are several agencies that can help provide the answers to your questions. Although we do not endorse any one agency or company a good place to start your quest for information is on the website of the company listed above. Click on the name to be taken to their website.

If every household in the Northern Shenandoah Valley spent just $10 a week on local foods, the area's economy would benefit by more than $171 million per year. That was the finding of a recent study by the Virginia Cooperative Extension.

So remember the next time you shop for food, your money can go to a huge corporation someplace or it can go to local farmers and stay here in our community.

The County Finance Department has posted Financial forms that gives some very good detail on our fiscal standing and other interesting news. You can find them here.

Agriculture and forestry are Virginia’s first and largest industry, but Virginia’s farms and your food could become threatened if we don’t all take steps to preserve them. Find out how you can become a member of Virginia Farm Bureau to put your support behind the farms that produce your family’s food.