Editors’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect the version that appeared in our weekly print edition.
Some women in Athens County have varying degrees of acceptance toward Hillary Clinton as the first female presidential nominee from a major political party.
Members of the Susan B. Anthony Memorial Unrest Home Womyn’s Land Trust gather for a group discussion on presidential candidates, feminism and environmental issues. | Emily Matthews
Though women in Athens might have varying feelings about Clinton, M. Geneva Murray, director of the Ohio University Women’s Center, said Clinton’s campaign is still historically significant.
“Hillary Clinton being on the ticket means we’ve potentially moved on to a point where we can see a woman as president,” Murray said. “Whether it’s Hillary Clinton is a different story.”
The rest of the country showed similar views after a Langer Research study in August showed about 58 percent of women favored Clinton for president after the Democratic National Convention, compared to 35 percent of women planning to vote for the Republican candidate Donald Trump.
The women of the Susan B. Anthony Unrest Home, a local women’s commune, often come together to discuss feminism during a potluck dinner.
In the last discussion, the group shared concerned for the environment and wondered if Clinton has the same thoughts.
“(Clinton) is not where I’d like to her to be environmentally … but I think she’s been great for women’s rights around the world,” Sabra Robinson, a member of the group, said as she sat near a metal sign that read “even cigarette butts are litter.”
After dinner, the women gathered to talk about Clinton and the effects of feminism on the 2016 election.
“My hope is that some of her maternal instincts will seep into Capitol Hill somehow,” Molly Blair, a resident of the commune, said.
Though the entire group spoke in favor of women’s rights, the women held differing opinions about Clinton and how she rose politically.
Blair said she thought Clinton may have played “a man’s game” during the race and wondered how much Clinton has compromised who she is.
As the storm prevailed, each woman grabbed a folding chair, turned on a flashlight and shared her feminist hopes and qualms.
The groups suggested everything is connected to feminism, connected many aspects of feminism to politics.
Jan Griesinger, co-founder of the group, said feminism is about a whole lot more than many realize.
“We’ve got the best government that money can buy,” Griesinger said, grasping the book that describes her friend’s life and accomplishments.
Griesinger held up a book with a picture of her best friend Mary Morgan, who also co-founded the group, holding her favorite protest sign (“U.S. Congress for sale”) on the cover, written about Morgan’s life.
Morgan died in January 2015, unable to see Clinton rise as the first woman candidate for a major political party, leaving her friends to discuss what the historic event means for future women during what would have been her 91st birthday.
Some members of the group attributed the conditions of the current election cycle to Clinton’s success.
“Even though I’m terrified of Trump, I honestly believe that his running against her is the only way that a woman would be elected at this point,” Cindy Zeck, a member of the Susan B. Anthony Memorial Unrest Home, said.
At the end of their conversation, the women were hopeful for change, but they were aware that more work will be needed in the future.
“I do believe more women will be elected (to the presidency),” Blair said.
OU’s Women’s Center, which is nonpartisan, would be “remised” if they didn’t recognize that Clinton being on the ticket was significant, Murray said.
“It always helps us to see to see people who look like us holding office,” Murray said.
She used President Barack Obama as an example of that, being able to say you can be a black man who holds the highest office in the U.S.
Murray added that society still has sexism and racism that needs to be addressed, but Clinton’s campaign is an opportunity to tell other women that they can think about politics in their future.
“You can do this, you can wear the shirt when you’re five that says future president and be female,” Murray said.
Pen Druid isn’t just a brewery to the people of Rappahannock.
Lain (left) and Van Carney chat up customers at the bar | Luke Christopher
For the three brothers, Jennings Carney, 38, Van Carney, 36, and Lain Carney, 33, it’s also been a place that’s attracting other young people to the area, some driving over an hour just to have a beer at the brewery, which is a little under a year old.
The brothers made a long trip back to Rappahannock as well, traveling back to their hometown to open a business in 2015 after spending 10 years touring the U.S. and Europe with their neo-psychedelic rock band, Pontiak. After producing 11 albums, they decided to open the brewery about a mile and half from Woodville — the town where they grew up (on a family farm named Pen Druid).
“It was really important for us to come back here to start the business,” Van said.
“It’s been nice after spending so much time on the road touring, to kind of shift focus in terms of creativity and what it is we’re doing,” Jennings said.
Van said he hopes one day he and his brothers will be able to live in Rappahannock again, but for now they live in Fauquier County, mostly due to the housing prices in Rappahannock.
“We’re trying to live here, there’s not a lot of housing stock here, it’s expensive, it’s hard to live here,” Van said.
Van and his brothers aren’t the only ones who want to move back. Jennings said he’s come across people from his generation that want to come back to Rappahannock, but can’t because of limited resources.
Visitors of all ages visit the rustic scene of Pen Druid, which has been open for a little under a year. | Luke Christopher
Only about 12 percent of the county fits into the Carney’s age group — residents between the ages of 20 and 34, according to the U.S. Census for 2010, when county residents between 50 and 64 accounted for 26 percent of the population. In the Foothills Forum’s recent Rappahannock Survey, about 17 percent of respondents were in the youngest category of 18 to 34 years old; 49 percent were 55 or older.
The biggest challenges young people face in the county is housing, work and communication, Van added, pointing to internet access as a need for everyone in the county.
“People increasingly really require the internet … to work, to make money, I mean paying your bills online, it really helps,” Van said.
In the Foothills survey, about 57 percent of respondents said internet was very important to their business. The three brothers were already aware of the need, and Van said they were able to get the Comcast to install a hub nearby for their own business.
The brothers also knew they wanted to keep the production aspects local. They ferment their beer with yeast from right outside their production area, using wild, naturally occurring yeast and bacteria to produce the beer. About 90 percent of their malt comes from across the street at Copper Fox Distillery, and do their fermenting in wooden barrels they obtained from Copper Fox and local wineries, Van said.
“My 20-year goal is to be getting all of these things that you make beer with … from, if not the county, locally,” Van said.
Everything that’s produced in their manufacturing plant is what’s sold to their customers, Van said. Since opening in August 2015, they’ve produced about 34 different beers, but Van said the brothers will focus on producing about a dozen different brews.
The varying brews attract young people from out of town to have a beer sitting on the brothers’ German- and Czech-style picnic tables, which are narrower than American picnic tables, Van said, and bring people closer together.
Not everyone will drive an hour and a half for beer and atmosphere. But Erica Olmsted, 31, of Arlington, and Mark Saylor, 34, of Manassas, said they have made the trip four times.
“There’s a lot of great breweries in Northern Virginia in the area where we’re from and none of them do anything quite like this,” Saylor said. “It’s definitely unique.”
Saylor added that when he and Olmsted plan a drive out to Pen Druid, he looks forward to it all week. The Carney brothers’ personalities, and their willingness to talk to each customer, is a big draw, too.
“It’s worth the destination because they’re doing something different,” Olmsted said.
Reporter Julia Fair’s internship is underwritten by Foothills Forum.
Emily Little was shocked that she had cell service when she moved onto a college campus. She grew up in Rappahannock County, where very little of that has been available.
The 22-year-old Little noticed how often her fellow students used their cell phones and laptops to check if classes have been cancelled, to turn in assignments and to stay in touch with their peers through social media accounts.
Out of necessity, millennials in Rappahannock have developed other habits.
Across the U.S., about 51 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds check their smartphone a few times an hour for a variety of reasons, according to a 2015 smartphone usage survey conducted by Gallup Panel, a research-based consulting company.
In its county-wide survey last winter, the Foothills Forum found that broadband internet access and cell phone coverage were the top two topics of concern identified by community members — and of most concern among respondents in the 18-to-34 age group.
“I’m very used to not having cell phone service,” Little said, adding that her family only got satellite internet a year ago.
Now that she commutes an hour and a half to Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg from her Rappahannock home, Little finds ways around the lack of resources to complete her school work.
“I’ve adapted my sleep schedule, unfortunately,” Little said.
The internet provider at her house has a data cap, but it offers unlimited data from midnight to 5 a.m. When it nears midnight, Little said the service speeds up, making it a good opportunity to upload any assignments due the next day.
When an assignment needs to be turned in by midnight, Little finds herself driving 25 minutes to Culpeper to use the Wi-Fi at the local library or coffee shop.
Little added that she’s also started to email her professors in advance to warn them about her internet connection dilemma, opening the dialogue for them to confirm that they’ve received her assignments.
Aside from school work, all college students try to find time to hang out with friends. In Rappahannock, Little said, that also takes a little more effort.
“I know a lot of people communicate with apps like Whatsapp or Kik that run off of Wi-Fi and not cell service,” Little said.
She also takes advantage of the Facebook Messenger app, which acts as a texting tool, to keep in touch with her boyfriend when he’s on the way to her house, Little said.
While Little is at work at the Thornton River Grille, she said she gets more cell phone service because of a cellular-over-the-web signal booster at the restaurant.
“[The boosters] feed off of the Wi-Fi and they boost any sort of residual signal you might have,” Little said. “With that booster I get three bars of 3G and I can make a call from there.”
She added that she, along with the many in Rappahannock, uses a Sprint phone because of the carrier’s cell towers spread around the county.
Next to the Thornton River Grille is Rudy’s Pizza, where a few more millennials work their day jobs, but also work around the sparse internet and cell service.
John Strew, 19, lives in Madison, but drives to Rappahannock for his job at Rudy’s. He has AT&T as a cell provider, so he has to find other forms of communication.
“Most of the time it’s Facebook Messenger or Snapchat because you have to use Wi-Fi,” Strew said.
Planning ahead is essential to staying in touch with his peers, he said.
“It’s kind of painful when you think about the cell service out here,” said Cory Massey, Strew’s co-worker, who grew up in Rappahannock.
When he was at Rappahannock County High School, Massey said, there was almost no way to do his homework at home because his family had dial-up.
“I work off of a hot spot now but back then there was nothing,” he said.
At the time, Massey did all of his work at school or the library.
He added that he hopes the future of Rappahannock includes more cell service.
“It can be very very beneficial to the county,” Massey said. “It doesn’t have to be perfect cell service, you just need cell service for the kids.”
Rappahannock County is home to 397 farms, each with different agricultural products, farming techniques and backgrounds, but they’re all trying to do one thing — keep their farms sustainable and profitable.
Those efforts to keep the farms successful fall on the shoulders of a diverse group of future farmers. Some increasingly rely on symbiotic relationships, between landowners and young families who move to Rappahannock to lease farm’s acreage. Others have family members to whom the land, equipment and know-how will be passed on, in hopes of keeping the farm both in the black and in the family.
Whether the farm operations are centuries or a few years old, all share a common hope to preserve the land that feeds them — and the rest of the community. It’s a common concern among Rappahannock’s residents — in the Foothills Forum’s recent Living in Rappahannock Survey, “maintaining family farms” was the fourth-rated overall concern. Of those surveyed, 1,346 answered how concerned they were about maintaining family farms and about 50 percent rated it to be very important to them.
Beneath the fertilized fields, meanwhile, answers are being unearthed to questions of financial stability and who will be the farmers of the future.
In the view of the Social Security Administration, the earliest one can retire in the U.S. is at age 62. In Rappahannock County, that’s about the average age of the individual in charge of the majority of the farmland: 61, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2012 census.
Manfred Call, owner of Muskrat Haven Farm, with his youngest son Hunter, who will eventually take over the Amissville operation.
Manfred Call, the owner of Muskrat Haven Farm in Amissville, recalled that he had a heart attack just as he reached that statistical age group. He was 63.
“If I drop dead, it can happen to anybody at anytime . . . you don’t know when the bell’s going to ring,” Call said, remembering the fate of his farm at the time of his health scare.
Heart problems now kept at bay by medication and activity, Call is now 78 — and able to oversee his hay baling business, his cattle, sweet corn, berries and soy beans, among other products that the Amissville farm produces on 130 acres. With a diverse range of products being produced, Call has a plan set in place for what the business will be for his kids and grandchildren.
“I’ve got those four kids to take care of,” Call said. “Every day I look at assets and how to split ’em up, to put them in the right place so their lives don’t get interfered with taking on another project.”
Call added that he doesn’t know what he would do without Hunter Call, his youngest son, who will take over Muskrat Haven Farm with his own son once the time comes.
“You always try to plan for the future, you never know what two steps will take you,” he said. “I might not wake up one morning, and that’s fine, I’m comfortable with where I am and what I’ve done.”
Planning for the future also includes being prepared for accidents that can happen any day on the farm to Call’s expensive equipment.
“I had one tractor destroyed,” Call said. “Someone ran right into it, tore the tractor all to hell.”
A similar incident happened two years ago, Call added, when someone using their cell phone while driving ran into the back his trailer on the highway.
To protect himself against incidents like those, Call insures every farming vehicle he owns.
“We count on [the equipment] for income, a lot of income,” Call said. “You’ve got to have equipment that works when you want it to work.”
Each year, Call said, he buys between $15,000 and $20,000 worth of equipment for the farm, either replacing the old or buying additional equipment, to keep the farm running.
Farmers throughout Rappahannock County take that measure to try to turn a profit. In 2012, though, the average farm in the county reported losing about $6,000 while trying to make a living, according to the agriculture department’s 2012 census.
Before Call bought his farm in 1986, he invested in the stock market, and still relies on that to bail himself out whenever his farm faces financial problems.
“If you don’t think ahead, you’re going to get behind,” Call said.
A sampling of the pasture-raised livestock samples a pasture at Heritage Hollow Farm in Sperryville.
Cliff Miller III of Sperryville has been thinking ahead for a long time about the future of his family farm, Mount Vernon Farm, but his family’s acreage, family-operated for more than 100 years, likely won’t see his children atop tractors.
“My children loved this place, but aren’t particularly interested in farming,” said Miller, whose son, Cliff Miller IV, has built an extensive retail and restaurant complex — and a nine-hole golf course — at the family’s Sperryville Schoolhouse property.
Instead, the elder Miller decided to lease land to younger farmers, who may not have grown up in Rappahannock County but hope to make a living producing food.
“In Rappahannock County, you can’t hardly come here and buy land at the market rate and expect to make money farming it,” Miller said.
Miller had two operations sign leases to start their own agriculture-based businesses. One of them, Waterpenny Farm, has 25 years left of their 40-year lease, which gives them access to 30 acres of Miller’s land.
“The next generation is starting to take over and that’s exciting to me to see that happen,” Miller said.
For Miller, that next generation is also represented by Mike and Molly Peterson, who operate their business, Heritage Hollow Farms, on about 250 leased acres of Miller’s land, at $30 per acre per year.
In 2008, the farming duo moved to Rappahannock County, where Mike worked as a chef and a butcher and Molly worked as a professional photographer. On his way to work every day, Mike said he would pass by Cliff Miller’s farm.
“Here was this farm [working] every day and he was getting kind of . . . ‘burnout’ is not the right word, but close,” Molly said.
Molly Peterson tends to livestock at Heritage Hollow Farms.
After quitting his job as a butcher at the Inn at Little Washington, Mike took an internship as a farm manager with Miller, which led to a year of negotiations, planning out the five-year lease for him and Molly to open their business in 2013.
As Mike and Molly started raising grass-fed cattle, pasture-raised pigs and lambs, Molly said, Rappahannock community members often told them how glad they were to have a young couple around.
“The problem is, it’s not cost-effective for young people to live here,” Molly said. “If young people want to live here, they have to get creative, or they have to commute.”
Molly added that at one point, she and Mike were making a take-home pay of less than $1,000 a month. But, she said, since this type of food is important to them, they figured it out.
They have a mix of private and government loans, she said, including one from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which allowed them to buy some of their own breeding stock.
Mike and Molly aren’t the only ones taking advantage of USDA loans. In the past three years, seven home loans have been granted in Rappahannock County from the USDA ranging from about $130,000 to about $280,000, according to records from the Farm Service Agency.
“We love it here and that’s why we try to make it happen,” Molly said.
More young farmers are coming out to the county, Molly said, and if they hadn’t come here, there might not be as many farms in county.
Rappahannock County is home to 397 farms that range in size from one acre to 1,000 acres, according to the USDA’s 2012 census. The majority of farms in 2012 made less than $1,000 in sales and only one made $500,000 or more, according to the same census.
“Generations of families have kept it going and going and that’s so important and vital to the culture here.” Molly said. “Then we have the newer farming generation and are trying to make a go of it, usually on rented land.”
Some landowners in the county are coming around to the idea of renting land and benefiting from their land improving, Mike said, which gives them more land to raise cattle on.
“We need to be able to have the land we have here working and profitable to keep the next generation of farmers in the county,” he said.
The conservation crop
To keep farms profitable, many farmers turn for advice to David Massie, conservation specialist at the Culpeper Soil and Water Conservation District, which includes Rappahannock in its five-county area.
“It’s definitely a struggle for the younger generation if it’s not handed to you and you’re not in line to take over the operation,” said Massie, who also serves on the board of the Foothills Forum.
About 75 percent of Rappahannock’s farmers have reached out to Massie for help, he said. The advice he gives ranges from affordable fencing, water resources and how to utilize existing infrastructure.
“There’s a business-mentality end of a family farm that has to stay profitable,” he said. “So if they can make it more profitable, there’s a better chance that it’s going to survive down the line.”
As Massie helps local farmers make their businesses more profitable, they’ve developed deep relationships leading to other forms of advice.
“Some of the people I’m closer to . . . we talk about what’s the plan for the future,” Massie said.
Those conversations have lead to facilitating more land-lease agreements for other farmers, he said, similar to the agreement the Petersons worked out with Miller.
Sometimes those conversations lead to what farmers might need to build in order to sign into a conservation easement program, a tool to preserve farmland, and costs surrounding it.
“A lot of our work would come out of [the easement’s] requirements to build a buffer on the stream if it was in a pasture situation,” Massie said.
A conservation easement is put into place when a landowner signs away the rights for development on the land in order to conserve the land as it is, untouched, forever, no matter who owns the land in the future.
When landowners do that, they can deduct up to 50 percent of their adjusted gross income, according to Carolyn Sedgwick, Rappahannock & Clarke County land conservation officer at the Piedmont Environmental Council.
“That’s essentially allowing a family farm to stay in place because you are getting a financial incentive to invest in the farm and the future,” Sedgwick said.
In Rappahannock County, she said, 30,000 acres are in conservation easement programs, the majority meant to preserve farmland. According to the national conservation easement database, there are 191 easements in Rappahannock County.
Easements are one of several tools in a conservation toolkit for preserving family farms, Sedgwick said. She added that they’re probably the method of preserving land that most community members are familiar with.
“It’s a big draw for the public,” Sedgwick said. “Just having these mountainsides or streams [and] farms preserved, and knowing that pressure to develop them is not ever going to arise.”
Whether it’s people born and raised in Rappahannock County or people flocking to area, they all have the opportunity to figure out a way to preserve farms and the way of life in the county, she said.
“These communities are not stagnant, they are constantly evolving,” Sedgwick said. “Some of this push is trying to figure out, where is the next generation of — not people, farmers, but of local food — where is that going to be coming from?”
Reporter Julia Fair’s internship is underwritten by Foothills Forum.
Before Kaitlin Struckmann started making them, there were no video records of local Rappahannock County government meetings.
After seeing the need, Struckmann started the Rappahannock Record, a public-service effort to record videos of public meetings for those who are unable to attend the meetings. Struckmann, 34, records all of the videos herself, all on a volunteer basis.
After a discussion of government transparency made its way through RappNet, a local email group list that connects community members with opinions and discussions, Struckmann took on the task of recording the meetings.
“I thought it was a simple thing to step up and do,” she said.
Kaitlin Struckmann, shown here behind the camera at Monday’s supervisors meeting, hopes to “show the whole truth” playing out at public meetings in Rappahannock. Photo | Julia Fair
Then, Struckmann looked to the community to help fund her mission. In the first month, $1,300 was donated to her gofundme.com campaign. With those funds, Struckmann has recorded 10 local meetings over the past two months. She hopes to raise $2,200 more, according to her gofundme page.
Donations are used toward gas money, vehicle maintenance, equipment upgrades and other costs associated with Struckmann’s project, she said. She commutes from her Flint Hill home to record each government meeting.
Meetings she’s recorded include Rappahannock County School Board and Board of Supervisors meetings, a planning commission meeting and a board of zoning appeals meeting.
So far, Struckmann says she has spent about 63 hours recording and editing videos and traveling 152 miles in the first month of the Rappahannock Record’s production. Struckmann’s first video has about 90 views, with more recent uploads reaching 30 to 90 views on her Youtube channel.
“I’ve gobbled up all of the meetings I can find out about,” Struckmann said. “It’s just a matter of me learning which meetings are being held but anytime I hear of one I try to go to it.”
Before coming to Rappahannock, Struckman was a deputy clerk at the Warren County Circuit Court. For five years, she saw how essential keeping correct records are for a courtroom.
“They don’t allow cameras in the courtroom usually, so I always felt like there was a little part of the record missing,” Struckmann said. “It’s different now, it’s the same concept but I’m actually able to show the whole truth of [meetings].”
Struckmann added that sometimes “nuances” are left out of written records such as body language and the tone in some individual’s voices.
“That’s the part that’s missing if you’re not there and you can’t watch a video,” she said.
Some individuals in the county would miss local school board meetings because they needed to stay home and watch their kids, said J. Wesley Mills, the board’s Jackson district member and chair.
“Initially, someone wanted the school to take videos . . . we had to make sure we were smart about it,” he said.
Members of the board thought about recording audio at the meetings to verify the written minutes taken with the clerk, Mills said, but that option wouldn’t serve the community.
“I wanted to do it economically, and [Kaitlin] does that,” Mills said.
Chris Parrish of Stonewall-Hawthorne district, vice chairman of the supervisors, sees multiple benefits to the Rappahannock Record as well.
“Not everything is covered in the newspaper,” Parrish said. “If someone wants to sit two or three hours to see what happened at least they have the option to do that.”
Sometimes, community members attend the supervisors’ meetings to gain approval for a permit, Parrish said. On the chance that it’s denied, they can go back, review what happened and reapply later in the year, he added.
Following the added support from RappNet, private emails and Facebook, Stuckmann plans to continue the service for Rappahannock.
“As long as the county needs it done, sure, I’d love to stay and do this,” Struckmann said.
What started as a joke between Lindsey Wangsgard, 36, and Donna Comer, 44 — the joke being that if no one else showed up, it would be just two moms and a boombox — has evolved into a group fitness class frequented by about 15 other moms and community members.
While the young sons and daughters of the class participants make their way around the dirt-covered bases at Stuart Field in Amissville, Wangsgard and Comer lead the classes inside a nearby shelter, calling their group Rappfit.
“We saw what we felt like was a basic need in the county,” Comer said.
The class meets every Monday and Wednesday at the Ruritan Community Building in Amissville. Photo | Julia Fair
She added that there’s a variety of specialized group fitness classes available in the county, but there wasn’t a general group fitness option. When the group first started meeting, they used the local elementary school, but had to take a break from holding classes due to scheduling conflicts with the space, Comer said.
“A participant who had been taking the classes at the school contacted us and said, ‘Let’s do it again,’ ” Comer said.
That conversation led them to their new location — rent free — at the baseball field’s Ruritan Community Building, where the fitness participants can be found every Monday and Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.
“We try to teach a basic fitness class, we don’t want people to feel like they have to come with a lot of equipment,” Wangsgard said. “We want you to feel like you can come even if you don’t have three dollars in your pocket.”
There is a suggested donation of $3 in exchange for participating in the class, Comer added. The donations then go back to the Culpeper Rappahannock Baseball League’s community outreach program.
In the program’s year and a half of operation, it’s raised about $3,000, Wangsgard said,
Christine Allen, vice president of the league, who also participates in the Rappfit classes, helps oversee the donation funds.
“Donna and Lindsey do wonders providing their services here for us so we’ve decided to, in turn, pay it forward and use it as our community outreach,” Allen said.
Allen added that the class is their own “little team of moms,” encouraging and supporting each other throughout the workout.
At a recent class in Amissville, Rappfit participants — including one who just had to be there with mom on her exercise mat — get their workout time in. Photo | Julia Fair
“We just want to live a healthy lifestyle,” she said.
The class activities vary week by week, Wangsgard said, recounting past class activities that have focused on cardio, strength, core exercises and back exercises.
One’s personal fitness level shouldn’t deter anyone from joining the class sessions, she added.
“We modify for people who might not be jumping as high as others,” Wangsgard said.
In the future, Wangsgard said they hope to raise enough money to buy weights for the group, as well as foam mats to lay across the concrete flooring.
“We want the program to better things for everyone,” she said.
There’s something special about the atmosphere surrounding a weekend fest.
Palmer Fest Police officers walk by a house filled with Palmer Fest partygoers April 9th, 2016. OLIVER HAMLIN | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
In the early hours of a fest, the average Athens resident can see a group of students carrying a bottle of orange juice while wearing their designated fest jersey apparel making their way down Court Street. Usually, the sunlight stretching its arms out to students pumps serotonin into their veins, prompting them to crawl out of bed earlier than they would wake up for their 8:30 a.m. class.
But, for Palmer Fest, the inviting sunlight was scarce, hidden beneath flurries of snow and temperatures in the low 30s.
That didn’t stop the always adventurous Bobcats from making the trek toward the street marked with the green and white “Palmer” street sign shaking from the vibrations of techno music around the corner.
As a reporter for The Post, I stuck out like a sore thumb in my pea coat, clutching my notepad and pen while the rest of my peers wore jerseys and pajama onesies while running around with an American flag.
Nonetheless, if you were at the chilly Palmer Fest this past weekend, there’s a big chance that you witnessed me or six other reporters asking questions about the fest.
“What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen so far?” and “Why are you out while it’s cold and snowing?” were some of the most common questions we asked.
If you tolerated our odd questions, thank you. Here’s a glimpse into the sights and sounds we saw, but didn’t publish.
One student found a creative way to carry his beer around Palmer Fest.
He called it a “beer tube,” and it was tubes he bought from Amazon filled with his roommates’ beer, and slung over his back for the fest.
One fest goer kept warm by wearing onesie pajamas, blowing bubbles during the fest and saying “(The bubbles) make us happy.”
Other onesies seen throughout the street included a cow, a panda bear, a regular bear and of course a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.
One student relied on a stuffed Finn doll from the show Adventure Time to keep him safe during the fest, keeping him on his back because “(Finn is) always watching my back.”
“I feel like they leave him in the house so much. He wants to get out,” the student said. “He wants to enjoy OU like the rest of us. So why not bring him out? You know it’s time for him to shine.”
Palmer Fest was the last street fest of the season. As always, it was an entertaining one. Thanks Bobcats, and we’ll have the same questions next year.
Some inmates are being turned away when they report for their jail sentence at Southeastern Ohio Regional Jail.
When individuals are charged with a misdemeanor, they may have to commit themselves to the regional jail in Nelsonville. A lack of bed space, primarily for female inmates, causes that rejection of inmates who show up for a misdemeanor sentence, which is no more than six months in Athens County Municipal Court Judge Todd Grace said.
Grace said he gives those inmates credit, which acts as a day spent in jail on their record. The jail serves Athens, Hocking, Morgan, Perry and Vinton counties.
“It can affect the justice system,” Grace said. “There are always reasons why there is limited space, mostly financial ones. The funding streams are not robust enough.”
The inmates who are serving the short sentence terms are usually repeat offenders, violent offenders and people who are not following the rules of their probationary status, Grace said.
“The first time we find that jail is appropriate (for someone) would be a relatively short sentence,” Grace said.
When those inmates report for commitment and follow the orders the court has given them, it’s “not their fault” that there isn’t enough space at the jail for them.
“I do get entries that are prepared from individuals that have reported appropriately and were unable to serve,” Grace said. “I give them credit for the days that they reported.”
Female inmates have a higher chance of getting that credit because when space is tight, it’s usually with female inmates, Grace said.
“It’s more likely that there will be a female inmate that would not have bed space available. That’s true for all (affected) counties,” Grace said.
Teresia Trace, a correctional officer at the jail, said she sees problems stemming from not having enough beds for female inmates as well.
“They have to report the next day, they continue to report until there’s a bed open for them,” she said.
John VanBibber, the warden of the jail, said male inmates don’t get turned away as often, but it happens primarily with females because the facility is usually at capacity with female inmates.
That’s due to the number of female inmates increasing throughout the past 10 years, he said, adding that the facility has plans to expand, but final plans have not been decided.
In order to avoid one individual having a “benefit” of a credit of a day spent in jail over someone spending time in jail, Grace said he might have to lower the sentence duration across the board to keep the sentencing fair.
“I have people that are similarly situated. I want them to be similarly punished or try to get them in the same treatment systems,” Grace said. “It’s not ideal that there are times when they would go and be turned away for bed space issues.”
Grace said when bed space is low, there’s not another option for dealing with an influx of inmates.
The inmates being turned away are usually guilty of a minor crime, Vanbibber said.
“It would be more along the lines of DUIs, domestic violence, minor assault,” VanBibber said.
Those guilty of rape or child molestation aren’t given the chance to self-commit, he added.
The Ohio University Survivor Advocacy Outreach Program is no longer offering confidential counseling — a term it agreed to provide when it received state funding.
Lindley Hall Ohio University Survivor Advocacy Outreach Program is located in Lindley Hall 032. Alex Driehaus | FILE
Program directors agreed to offer confidential counseling as a “special condition” in order to receive funding from the Victims of Crime Act Victims Fund and the Rape Crisis Program Trust Fund, Catherine Wargo, OUSAOP program director, said.
Ohio University’s felony reporting policies were altered in January, which led to the confidentiality change and diminished services in the program.
“As an advocate, I believe that survivors of violence should have access to confidential services,” Wargo said in an email.
Wargo said one of the special conditions for the grants was that “the (awarded) organization must maintain confidentiality of client information as required by federal and state law.”
But Katie Quaranta, an OU spokeswoman, said the program still abides by those stipulations.
“SAOP maintains the confidentiality of client information to the extent permitted by federal and state law.” Quaranta said in an email. “Applicable law mandates reporting in certain situations, including: child and elder abuse, imminent threat of harm to self and/or others, and, unless there is privilege, felony reporting.”
However, there are exemptions to that statute, Katie Hanna, executive director of statewide advocacy group the Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence, said.
“One of the exemptions is for a bona fide program that is focused on supporting survivors of sexual assault,” Hanna said.
Those exemptions have historically been interpreted to be for rape crisis centers, Hanna said, adding that OUSAOP is considered a rape crisis program in Ohio.
Wargo said in order for any program to apply for and be awarded funding by the Ohio Attorney General’s office, it has to commit to providing confidential resources. With the change to the program, those resources aren’t offered.
The grant money the program currently receives is used to pay for the salaries and programming of OUSAOP, which is supported by Ohio University’s Office for Diversity and Inclusion, Quaranta said.
OUSAOP employs two full-time employees, a program coordinator and an outreach coordinator serving Hocking and Vinton counties, two part time student office workers and many volunteer advocates, Quaranta said.
Following the change in confidentiality, those employees now inform survivors of its reporting requirements immediately upon contact and suggest that survivors remain anonymous, unless they are interested in moving forward with law enforcement or legal reporting, Quaranta added.
“There are so many barriers that survivors face in reporting trauma of what has happened,” Hanna said. “A mandatory reporting of identifiable adult victim information can have a chilling effect on survivors seeking services.”
OUSAOP has served Athens, Gallia, Hocking, Meigs, Morgan, Perry and Vinton Counties since 2013. Prior to that, there was a gap in services in southeastern Ohio, Hanna said.
“When we see there isn’t a service provider or a confidential place to go, we often see a survivor may not even tell anyone,” she said.
OUSAOP is still open, but the lack of confidentiality has led to some changes.
The biggest impact on services will be “person advocacy,” Wargo said, pointing to medical accompaniment situations and walk-in office advocacy.
“Advocates may not be able to support survivors fully, as identifiable and reportable information may be shared during in-person advocacy and accompaniment,” Wargo said in an email.
Research has shown that survivors of violence are more likely to come forward and seek services, including reporting sexual violence, when confidential resources are available, Wargo added.
“The lack of confidentiality could create an environment that deters survivors from reaching out for services,” Wargo said in an email.
Confidentiality also allows survivors and advocates to create a relationship of trust and safety that promotes survivors’ ability to make choices based on their own best interests, Wargo added.
Research also shows that when confidential services are offered, there’s an increase in survivors reaching out to access service, as well as following through with reporting to law enforcement, she said.
“Confidentiality allows survivors to access information and support from advocates who have been trained in trauma informed services,” Wargo said in an email.
Students eyes are glued to their phones, unable to escape the constant beeping and buzzing. With the need to keep connected, stalkers use that fact to their advantage when textually harassing their prey.
Widely known as “textual harassment,” it’s same kind of behavior that’s been happening offline for hundreds of years, Michelle Ferrier, associate dean for innovation at the Scripps College of Communication, said. As the behavior evolves with technology, it’s becoming difficult for law enforcement to track down the perpetrators, Ferrier added.
“Whether it’s on Yik Yak or whether it’s on other types of college platforms, let the police know and let others know that the activity is happening,” Ferrier said.
In 2005, Ferrier received racist hate mail through email and physical letters while she was a columnist at Daytona Beach News-Journal in Florida. A decade later, Ferrier joined the fight against cyber stalking when she launched her website, TrollBusters.
That website provides a support system for individuals being cyber stalked, as well as a way to track the “trolls” doing the stalking.
“There are going to be people who can brush that off and go on with their lives,” Ferrier said. “There are others who cannot.”
Sometimes, the alleged stalker can’t recognize the signals that somebody is not interested and continues to persist with texts and other forms of telecommunication, she added.
“When does it cross the line into being criminal, I think is an issue we continue to wrestle with,” Ferrier said.
Ferrier added that the person who feels attacked should be “very forthright” in letting the other person know that a line has be crossed, and that they don’t want to be communicated with anymore.
“If the activity persists after that, it becomes stalking,” Ferrier said. “In that case, the individual should immediately go to the police and report the activity.”
Law enforcement steps in
Context of the communication matters in an investigation, Athens Police Chief Tom Pyle said.
“If it goes toward the crime of stalking or harassment … all of it can be used,” Pyle said. “It’s more evidence to prove a crime.”
Stalking is one of the charges that can elevate depending on the circumstances, Pyle said. It can range from a fourth-degree felony to a fifth-degree felony. The maximum penalty could land the alleged stalker behind bars for six to 18 months and a $5,000 fine.
Those cases are directly referred to Molly Burchfield, Athens Police Department’s social worker, Pyle said.
The trickiest thing when investigating a telecommunication harassment case is figuring out which agency’s jurisdiction the crime is taking place under and making a report there, Burchfield said.
If the communication is coming from Cincinnati and the individual being harassed is in Athens, charges can be drawn up in either place, she added.
Regardless of where the communication is coming from, it’s best if the alleged stalker has been put on notice, Burchfield said.
“You can start by texting them back and saying, ‘Cease and desist, stop contacting me,’ ” Burchfield said.
If the situation involves excessive texting without any threats or a history of abuse, an officer can still make contact with them and inform them to stop contacting the other individual.
“If they don’t, then we’re definitely looking at telecommunication harassment,” Burchfield said.
The Ohio University Police Department handled 14 cases of telecommunication harassment in 2015, according to OUPD records.
That student sued the university in response to the suspension. The student’s attorneys said OU’s sexual misconduct policy violates free speech, according to a previous Post report.
If an OU student is being harassed over social media, the Office of Equity and Civil Rights Compliance office encourages students report harassment to the department and/or law enforcement, Jessica Cook, assistant director of Civil Rights Compliance, said in an email.
“If the reporting party perceives that the behavior in question may also be criminal in nature, we encourage individual to contact the Ohio University Police Department or the Athens Police Department to file a police report,” Cook said.
Cook added that if the social media harassment is unwelcome and sexual in nature, the behavior could be in violation of OU’s policy regarding sexual misconduct, relationship violence and stalking.
“Students may elect to strengthen their privacy settings on social media, but that is an individual choice depending upon the circumstances,” Cook said in an email.
Julia Fair - Journalist 