After the town of Gordonsville abruptly ended a decadeslong sewer contract with the Rapidan Service Authority, key billings questions are going unanswered as the town’s mayor directs the public to his own wife’s blog for information and responded to at least on press inquiry with an unrelated soundbite from a Baltimore politician. … Details have been sparse in public notices regarding the termination. The Rapidan Service Authority sent a letter to residents on Feb. 5 claiming the town has not shared enough billing information to make the switch-over possible. An undated statement on the town’s website promises the switch-over will occur March 30 regardless. And a Feb. 1 post on Mayor Ron Brooks III’s Facebook page blames unnamed critics for “considerable misinformation” circulating in the community and encourages residents to visit his wife’s blog for an “accurate summary” of events.

Fortunately, Virginia FOIA law has a citizen enforcement mechanism that allows residents of the state to petition a judge to intervene and determine if public records are being unlawfully withheld. I decided to take Spotsylvania County and Stafford County to court to obtain this information. I drafted a petition to explain to a judge that “the provision of a public utility is an activity of government. A private company cannot claim to own a government service or activity and keep it secret.” When I shared my petition with Spotsylvania County and gave my intent to sue, the local government quickly responded by sharing three complete and unredacted water service agreements. In Stafford County it looked like the case might actually go before a judge. But on the day before our court date this past Tuesday, the County sent me the previously redacted data center water service agreement that it previously refused to share.

The large online genealogical research sites and repositories — Ancestry.com, for example — get a great deal of attention. People see them on television and in online ads all the time. What gets less attention is that less than 20% of the records genealogists would like to have access to are online, and some of the records that are available through internet searches are not indexed. This means that they cannot be searched by a word, location or name. The vast majority of genealogy records are found, instead, in local archives, libraries, courthouses, microfilm, manuscript collections and in millions of attics and basements.