Mendota Residents Hope To Heal Rifts In Community

MENDOTA, Va. – More than a year after three organizations in this tiny Washington County, Va., community became embroiled in a legal fight over money, the major issues have been decided, and residents are hopeful – but not certain – fences can be mended.

Last year, a court issued a conditional ruling that $57,533 claimed by the Mendota Health Center Advisory Board belonged to the Mendota Community Association, but with a requirement that the money be used for health care-related expenses.

In February, a $6,071 dispute between the Mendota Community Association and the Mendota Community Center Steering Committee was resolved with the awarding of the money to the steering committee, a separate corporation.

Most recently, at a June 10 regular meeting, the Washington County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to allow the Mendota Community Association (MCA) to lease the Mendota Community Center for $1 a year.

For years, the center has been the site of an ongoing power struggle surrounding issues of who would run it and the clinic next door, and who would have access to the money.

Some residents, who declined to be identified for this report, said the political mess has been going on for so long in Mendota that most people just try to stay out of the fray. They said it’s too much drama for a community with fewer than 500 residents.

Now that some of Mendota’s internal disputes have been settled, members of all three groups say they hope people here can move forward – but not everyone is sure it can happen.

“My personal feeling is that it’s mired in the mess, and I don’t see any way out,” said Jim Mosier, a longtime president of the now-defunct health center board. “The last two times I got involved [on the MCA board] I thought maybe I could make a difference, but I couldn’t.”

Mosier said it all started when Hamilton School closed in the early 1990s and the community came together to convert it into a community center, then built a health clinic next door that opened in 1998.

He said the trouble started when the loan for the clinic had been paid off.

According to minutes from the MCA, it formally dissolved the health center board in 2002, though the board continued to meet.

Minutes of the Washington County Board of Supervisors reflect that around the same time, the elected members of that board completed a review of the community center’s management after receiving numerous complaints.

With politics ongoing in Mendota, the supervisors clarified in 2005 that the MCA, not the community center steering committee, would be responsible for the center. Members of the MCA board were elected by the community, but it’s been some time since an election was held.

Last year, MCA President Louetta Canter consolidated the other groups’ bank accounts into an account held by the MCA. Highlands Union Bank froze the assets, turning over the accounts and contents of a safe deposit box to the Washington County Circuit Court.

Now that the court has sorted out what belongs to whom and the community center is firmly in the control of the MCA, Canter said she invites members of the other groups to participate in meetings.

“We’re just putting everything behind and starting anew with what we’ve got,” Canter said. “And we have no hard feelings at nobody or whatever. We’re just going forward.”

She said three seats on the MCA board will be up for election by the community this fall and the remaining two seats will be up for election in 2010.

Improving the medical center is the group’s main priority, she said, followed by improvements to the community center building.

“We want to get new stage curtains and stuff, we want to get it painted, we want to get some of the windows replaced and stuff to try to get it more cost-efficient, more energy-efficient,” Canter said. “We’ve got a fitness room we’re trying to get ... going, and we’re hoping to get working with the library and get some things going with them.”

She said she’d like to see more people volunteer with community center activities.

Linda Sproles, chairwoman of the steering committee, said she too would like to see the community move forward, but she’s doubtful it can happen.

“The community will always be split because there’s been a great deal of damage done, hurt among people ... and that doesn’t heal overnight,” she said. “Words said in anger are often harsh, and once words are spoken you can never take those words back. And it’s going to take the community a long time to heal if it ever heals over this breach.

“At one time, we were a model example of a community center. People from other places that wanted to start a community center came to tour ours and see what we had to offer. And I think [in] that role, Mendota is no longer respected.”

Sproles hopes the community can rebuild, and she’d especially like to see the Little Is Much Food Pantry, where she has long been a volunteer, continue because present economic times mean more people are going hungry.

“Some people are trying to heal the breach and others don’t work toward that aim,” she said of the Mendota community. “As far as me personally, I try to get along with everybody.”

Ray Mullins, manager for the Mendota branch of the county library, said he’s tried to stay as neutral as possible through all the political wrangling.

“I just hope they all come to the library,” he said, adding that he’d like to see more activity in the community center from many groups.

“That’s my hope is that everybody will do what’s best for the community and put aside whatever past grievances they might have and look to the future,” he said. “I just have a general positive vibe that things are starting to come together.”

Mosier said Mendota has a long history of small-town political struggles – but he hopes to see the community at large have more say in MCA meetings. While he says he doesn’t plan to get involved again, he’d like to see the next generation do so.

“I think if we could get back to the point where we were when we started, that the people all worked together and the MCA was really an outreach group,” Mosier said. “Things will improve if they can work together and solve their differences or work out their differences in a peaceful manner.”

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