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Write-in vote brings native sons to Hamilton council
Loudoun Valley High School classmates Tom Rollins and Ken Wine, both Hamilton natives, will bring a lot of local color and some new approaches to local government when they take office July 1 as Hamilton's newest council members.
Both were elected by a last-minute write-in vote at the polls May 6. The Board of Elections has certified the vote.
Rollins said he simply wants to represent the people of Hamilton, to be their "facilitator" to get things done in town.
The current council, over the last year, has moved aggressively to ticket home and business owners who violate various ordinances – lighting, upkeep, parking.
It might be better, Rollins said, to go talk to someone whose grass is 18 inches high and find out if there's another problem than to issue a ticket.
"I feel I am a very approachable person," said Rollins, 48. "Instead of six people going on what they think the community wants, maybe we need to go on what the community really wants. A lot of these folks don't know anyone on the council and have never met the mayor."
Rollins and Wine walked up West Colonial Highway May 9, three days after the election, and introduced themselves to Mayor Ray Whitbey.
"We learned, in a short time," Wine said, "how much the town does not have control of, as far as what the state and federal governments require of the town. You can have ideas why things aren't done, but a lot of it is out of their hands."
He will go door-to-door introducing himself to his new constituents, Rollins said.
"I agree with Tommy [Rollins]," Wine said. We have to listen to people, see what it is they want, and not base it on what one person wants."
Rollins is a fifth-generation native of Hamilton, on his mother's side of the family. He went to Jane's Kindergarten, then Hamilton Elementary School, played Hamilton baseball (he's a coach today) and graduated from Valley in 1978.
His maternal grandfather, Ricmond Ely, was mayor in 1937.
"Does that qualify me? I don't think so," he said.
Rollins and his wife live on East Colonial with their three children – a son at Blue Ridge Middle School, a daughter at Harmony Intermediate, and their youngest girl attends Dominion Academy in Leesburg.
If he hasn't been visible in community life, Rollins said, he's been putting in hours in the family taxi service to lacrosse and soccer games and practices.
Wine grew up just down Harmony Church Road, next to Dr. Joe Rogers' farm. He followed his father into the carpentry business, and has three enterprises going today – Wine Woodworking, Kenneth C. Wine Carpentry and the General Store (in partnership with Donald and Lesley Lowry) across from the post office on West Colonial. When he has time, he enjoys NASCAR racing. He toyed years ago with sponsoring a race car but found it "extremely expensive and ungratifying."
The family moved back to Hamilton in 2001 after an 11-year stay in Purcellville. Their son is a junior at Valley, and their daughter is at Harmony.
Hamilton resident Dimitri Kesari, one of the organizers of the write-in campaign, appeared at the May 12 council meeting to ask to be appointed to the two-year vacancy left by the resignation of Joylyn Hannahs. Kesari tallied 36 write-in votes May 6, three short of getting elected. Former council member Jim Moon advised against taking the recent election as guidance in the upcoming appointment.
Contact the reporter ssollinger@timespapers.com
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