Turns out, a little ZIP code change can go a long way.
The news has spread coast to coast, and maybe beyond, on North Chesterfield, Va.
Haven't heard of it?
The people in the White House hadn't either, but Chesterfield County Administrator James J.L. Stegmaier let them in on the story.
When the White House people were scheduling President Barack Obama's recent three-day swing through North Carolina and Virginia, they wanted to visit a fire station in Chesterfield. The county offered Fire Station 9, which is in the Bon Air area just off Midlothian Turnpike.
"We got a call back from them saying they couldn't find it," Stegmaier said Wednesday, not long after the president had come and gone. "We had to tell them, 'You're looking in the wrong place. It's not in Richmond.' "
A year ago, it was. Sort of, anyway. The station was part of the county proper, but when it came to mailing addresses, the area was U.S. Postal Service-approved as either "Richmond, Va." or "Bon Air, Va."
In an effort to collect mail-order sales taxes — a minute collection, for sure, but something county officials thought might add up over the years — Stegmaier had his staff try to persuade postal authorities to add two ZIP code names to the county. The Board of Supervisors backed the plan and, in March, the county made an appeal. By this summer, it was official.
If things work well, tax revenue from North Chesterfield and South Chesterfield will now flow into county coffers instead of those in Richmond, Colonial Heights and Petersburg.
And even if the money is slow to come in, the county at least has some validation for its decision.
The news release from the White House listed "North Chesterfield, Va." as the dateline.
"We didn't have the president in mind, but it is a nice unintended consequence," said Supervisor James M. "Jim" Holland. "It's a community people can be proud of, and that's what we wanted to let everyone know."
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