Water Damage Restoration in Chesapeake, VA

CHESAPEAKE, Va — In one year, a solar farm will call Chesapeake home, however, the thought of it is already creating mixed reactions among residents.

Scott Weatherly is the owner of 'Glenn Weatherly Farms' on Long Ridge Road in Chesapeake.

Like many other businesses, Weatherly says farming has fallen on hard times because of the economy and the cost of production, equipment, and animals.

Watch: Solar sheep? The alternative way Dominion Energy is cutting grass

"Trying to pay these taxes for the city of Chesapeake is kind of tough and trying to farm is tough it's either feast or famine there isn't anything in between," explained Weatherly.

Recently, Weatherly was asked by a company known as "ESA Solar Energy" to use some of his 134 acres of land for a solar farm.

While it's good news for Weatherly, some people living nearby don't feel the same way.

"I had one lady tell me her property values were going to go down I tried to explain to her that if the city taxes don't go down her property value wouldn't go down," said Weatherly.

Watch: How dozens of sheep keep Virginia solar farms 'lambscaped' with solar grazing

On Tuesday, News 3 Reporter Danielle Saitta visited some people living nearby in the Green Haven neighborhood.

Janet and Brian Lomax told her that they empathize with how people living near the solar farm feel. Three years ago a solar farm was almost put behind their home. They explained why they were against it.

"I've not heard of a solar farm that has come into a neighborhood that increases the value of the neighborhood so that is a concern for us," explained Janet Lomax.

Watch: Two new solar farms light up James City Co., Gloucester

Others like Blaizen Bloom argued that a solar farm is better than other developments that could make this area its new home.

"It's better for the city and it's better for our farmers that they can keep their land and maybe in 20-30 years that land can go back to being farmed as opposed to when you build on top of it with infrastructure creating un-affordable housing without any access to our city's resources that eliminates that farmland from being used in the future," explained Bloom.

For Weatherly, sharing his land is less about the money and more about being able to pass down his business.

"I'm pushing 60 this year and I'm looking for some security and something I can hand down to my daughter down the road," said Weatherly.

A 2,200-passenger cruise ship is no longer planning to anchor in Virginia’s York River, a temporary win for some residents of Yorktown, who opposed it. But the group has since expanded its area of concern to include the environmental impact of all cruise ships pulling into Virginia’s coastal and Chesapeake Bay waters.

They are now asking the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to consider enacting a broader suite of regulations that would apply to “ocean-class” passenger cruise ships in state waters.

“Mega cruise ships are like floating cities that generate power and discharge waste on a scale far exceeding that of other vessels,” members of the group called Protect Virginia wrote in an op-ed for the Newport News Daily Press.

Their petition to the state, which is open to public comments on both the air and water implications until Nov. 11, asks the environmental agency to require cruise ships in state waters to use low-sulfur fuel and to ban the use of open-loop scrubbers, technologies that one report said “take harmful pollutants out of the air and dump them into the water.”

The petition, which will be considered separately by both the air and water boards of the agency, also asks the state to restrict discharges of “graywater, blackwater and other environmentally detrimental waste products” coming from the ships. It suggests that requiring cruise ships docking near cities to tap into the local power grid could reduce near-shore emissions coming from the vessels while they are idling at ports. Cruise ships are subject to some international and federal regulations, but some reports have found enforcement and monitoring to be lacking.

“Virginia should have tougher regulations than the federal standards,” Yorktown resident Elizabeth Wilkins said. “Several states have done that as well.”

Virginia’s cruise ship traffic is currently concentrated in Norfolk but has been growing as the industry recovers from the coronavirus pandemic.

Carnival Cruise Line has been visiting Norfolk since 2002 but began continually operating out of the port from May to October in 2023. About 250,000 cruise passengers visited the city that year, according to Leisure Group Travel. And, starting in 2025, the cruise line’s 3,875-passenger Carnival Sunshine will begin sailing out of Norfolk’s port on the Elizabeth River year-round.

Princess Cruises, a smaller subsidiary of Carnival, had planned to bring a ship carrying 2,000–3,600 passengers up the York River to call at the historic city of Yorktown this year. But the cruise line cancelled that plan in February, opting instead to bring the ship to Norfolk.

Frank Wagner, a former state representative and current lobbyist for Princess Cruise Lines mentioned in an August op-ed the cruise industry’s ongoing interest in bringing more tourists to the state, especially to historic sites. And he indicated that the company’s hopes to travel the York River, though cancelled for now, have not waned.

“Our current traffic situation precludes running buses from Norfolk to these locations, which opens up opportunities for cruise ships to call on Newport News or on the York River,” Wagner wrote. “Cruise schedules are put together a year or two in advance. The time to act is now.”

Tags: cruise industry, cruise ship pollution, cruise ships, Virginia, Yorktown

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CHESAPEAKE, Va. — A hired photographer accused of making "inappropriate comments" to a student at Chittum Elementary in Chesapeake while taking photos at the school is no longer employed by the photography company she was with, according to Shutterfly.

Shutterfly owns Lifetouch, a family and school photography service with operations across the country.

Watch previous coverage: Photographer removed after making inappropriate comments to students

A spokesperson for Shutterfly confirmed to News 3 that the photographer involved in the Chittum Elementary incident was there in her capacity as a Lifetouch photographer. However, the photographer is no longer employed with Lifetouch, Shutterfly says.

The company shared the following statement regarding its vetting process for employees:

"At Lifetouch, our number one priority is the safety of every student we photograph. We have numerous policies and procedures in place to ensure that safety, including training and background checks on all of our photographers. We take any allegation about a photographer very seriously, and are conducting a thorough internal investigation. In the meantime, the employee in question has been removed from all photography duties."

News 3 spoke with Rachel Fjeld, the mother of a Chittum Elementary student, about the incident. Fjeld told us her son was sitting for his school picture when the hired photographer asked him, "Can I steal your identity?" and "Can I eat your soul?"

The photographer was escorted off school property for making "inappropriate comments" to students, Principal Bridget Outlaw said in an email to parents.

Watch: Chesapeake parent speaks out after photographer escorted out of school

Fjeld said the experience was concerning.

"You can say all the things you want to say about good vs evil, God vs the devil, or demons or whatever but at the end of the day what was said was not funny and it wasn't okay. It was a child in an uncomfortable situation," said Fjeld. "I know people are trying to say, 'oh she's just joking. It was just funny.' But it's not funny. That's not funny. And what that doesn't do is put any child at ease, it just scares them."

However, she commended the school's response to the ordeal.

"It went to the principal who is amazing, I will say. The school handled it – we so appreciate it. They were very quick they immediately escorted her off the premises, they called us," said Fjeld.

CHESAPEAKE, Va. — A Chesapeake parent told News 3 she's proud of her child's response after she says a photographer made inappropriate comments to her child. The principal for Chittum Elementary school confirmed a hired photographer was escorted off of school property earlier this week.

Rachel Fjeld said her son was sitting for his school picture when he met a hired photographer.

Watch: Photographer removed after making inappropriate comments to students.

"She asked him, 'can I steal your identity?' His response was just, 'no.' Her next question was, 'can I eat your soul?' And, you know, when he was expressing it to us he was crying, he was very upset and he said 'no, no," explained Fjeld.

She said the photographer mentioned being a demon.

"Her next question was, 'well, then what can I eat?' He told me, he said, 'mommy I didn't know what to say so I said the first thing that came to mind was, 'you can have noodles, you can eat noodles,'' and her response was, 'demons don't eat noodles,'" said Fjeld.

The whole experience was a concern to Fjeld.

Watch: Photographer escorted off Chittum Elementary campus after 'inappropriate comments' to students

"You can say all the things you want to say about good vs evil, God vs the devil, or demons or whatever but at the end of the day what was said was not funny and it wasn't okay. It was a child in an uncomfortable situation," said Fjeld. "I know people are trying to say, 'oh she's just joking. It was just funny.' But it's not funny. That's not funny. And what that doesn't do is put any child at ease, it just scares them."

She says her child told a teacher and wrote out a report.

"It went to the principal who is amazing, I will say. The school handled it – we so appreciate it. They were very quick they immediately escorted her off the premises, they called us," said Fjeld.

Watch similar coverage: 'After School Satan Club' meeting canceled by City of Chesapeake

Grateful of the school's response, she said that it confirmed her son did the right thing, especially as, she said, other kids said similar things.

"It's a very scary situation to be a parent and feel like, and know that your child was put in an uncomfortable situation. But then hearing that he was so bold to know this isn't okay, something isn't right, we need to say something. And he did," said Fjeld. "I have so much confidence now that if he is ever put in a situation that he doesn't feel comfortable, that he knows isn't right, he will absolutely stand up and say something."

She's hopeful the incident will encourage other parents to talk to their kids about saying something when things don't feel right.

"Whether it's good or bad, you have to have conversations, you have to have open dialogue. You have to teach them to stand up for themselves," said Fjeld.

The school's principal confirmed the photography company is investigating the incident.

In an email to News 3 Friday, Shutterfly, which owns the photography company Lifetouch, sent a statement on the incident.

Our number one priority is the safety of every student we photograph. We have numerous policies and procedures in place to ensure that safety, including training and background checks on all of our photographers. We take any allegation about a photographer very seriously, and have conducted a thorough investigation. The photographer in question is no longer employed with the company.