Helping out during the holiday season is a community effort in Cumberland County. A Christmas Mother committee of 14 leads the effort, but residents, civic organizations and businesses all chip in to do their part. Alice Metts, a lifelong resident of Cumberland, is the committee chairwoman. She has a history of working with youths in the county, first as a social worker in the school system; she currently works with at-risk youths.

During the day-to-day drama in his courtroom, Judge Robert Bruce Spencer Jr. would peer over half-frame reading glasses as he heard cases from speeding tickets to landlord-tenant disputes. “When those glasses would slide to the tip of his nose, lawyers and defendants knew there was going to be trouble,“ said his son, Robert Bruce Spencer III of Powhatan County.

A 78-year-old Cumberland County man drowned yesterday morning while fishing in a private Goochland County farm pond. Goochland Sheriff James L. Agnew said Harold G. Sutton of Ampthill Road in Cartersville, was fishing with a friend when their canoe capsized about 25 yards from shore. Sutton attempted to swim to the shore. His companion, a 20-year-old Goochland man, tried to help him but was unable to prevent him from going under the water.

An 80-year-old Cumberland County man died early this morning in a private Goochland County farm pond after his canoe capsized, tossing him and another fisherman into the water, according to the Goochland County Sheriff’s Department. Sheriff James L. Agnew said Harold G. Sutton, 78, of Ampthill Road in Cartersville, and his friend launched their 17-foot canoe around 7:30 this morning at the pond off Sandy Hook Road in central Goochland County.

Central Virginia is on pace to record more homicides this year than last, a trend largely driven by more killings in Richmond, suburban Henrico County and Petersburg. Forty-eight slayings occurred during the first six months of this year in the 24 localities that make up the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area, compared with 42 during the same period last year.

A Powhatan County man accused of fatally stabbing and beating two Cumberland County residents was seen near the scene of the slayings out of breath, sweating and stained with blood about the time of the killings, court documents say. Authorities also say Tyrone Tyree Roads, charged with capital murder in the deaths of Ricky Thurston and Barry Shaver, was treated in Powhatan for a laceration to his hand sometime after the slayings.

Tyrone Tyree Roads, 21, of Powhatan was arrested without incident in Richmond and charged in connection with the slayings of Ricky Thurston and Barry Shaver, whose bodies were found Saturday in Cumberland County.

Cumberland County authorities say they are seeking Tyrone S. Roads, 21, a Powhatan County resident whom they describe as a person of interest in a double slaying Saturday night. Authorities said a man and a woman were found dead in the Lakeside Village area of Cumberland near Cartersville. Both suffered injuries consistent with knife wounds, but a cause of death is still being determined by the state medical examiner’s office.

The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office and Virginia State Police are investigating a double slaying in the Lakeside Village area of the county. According to a news release, two people were found dead yesterday morning in Cartersville, and police are searching for a “person of interest” who may have information about the deaths. The sheriff’s department was withholding the identities of the victims until the families could be notified.

Henrico and Powhatan counties announced they are withdrawing from the Cobbs Creek Reservoir project after negotiations stalled with Cumberland County. Although the $200 million project has received its state and federal permits, officials in the counties have been unable to agree on annual payments that Henrico and Powhatan would make to Cumberland for hosting the 1,107-acre facility.

CUMBERLAND—Three men are being held without bond in a drive-by shooting in Cumberland County, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office said. Donnell D. Smith, Yusuf A. Johnson and Michael L. Baker, all of Cumberland County, were arrested Wednesday and are being held on two counts each of attempted murder, aggravated malicious wounding and use of a firearm, Capt. S.L. Godsey said.

CUMBERLAND—The Cumberland County Board of Supervisors has adopted a $28.4 million budget for the 2010 fiscal year. The board had intended to adopt a $28.9 million budget but ended up adopting the smaller budget Thursday because that was the one that had been advertised. The advertised budget did not include some of the county’s debt services on the new middle school/high school complex that opened this academic year, county officials said.

The Cumberland County Board of Supervisors has adopted an unchanged real estate tax rate but has decided to continue working on its 2010 budget. The board was scheduled to adopt a $29.2 million budget during its Tuesday meeting but put it off at the request of two members. The board decided to hold at least one more work session and is scheduled to adopt a budget April 30. State law requires localities to adopt a school-system budget by May 1.

The Cumberland County Board of Supervisors is considering a $29.1 million budget that does not call for a tax increase. No residents attended Tuesday’s public hearing on the county’s proposed fiscal 2010 budget. Jill Matthews, assistant county administrator, said this was a difficult budget year. “We are faced with reductions in state and federal funding, unanticipated project delays and expected revenue reductions due to the ailing economy,“ she said.

Cumberland County school district has adopted a $16.4 million budget, Superintendent James Thornton said. The school budget, adopted Thursday night, calls for $10.6 million from the state, $1.9 million in federal funds and $3.9 million from the county. Cumberland supervisors had hoped to provide $4.1 million—the same amount as last year—but recently ended up having to reduce the county’s allocation by $150,000, Thornton said.