Meet the candidates
Starting with this issue, the Caroline Progress will profile the candidates and examine the issues leading up to the Nov. 3 election.
Although their names may be less recognizable than those of supervisors or members of the School Board, the directors of the Hanover–Caroline Soil and Water Conservation District also play a key role in county governance.
Funded by both Virginia’s Department of Conservation and Resources and Caroline and Hanover counties, this district has existed since 1960 for the purposes of fostering stewardship of the land and promoting good conservation practices in both rural and urban environments.
The six-director board includes two directors elected from Hanover, two elected from Caroline, and two appointed at-large members, as well as associate directors, who can serve but not vote. Directors serve four-year terms and are elected in the general elections. The position is not paid, although members receive reimbursement for expenses. Both of Caroline’s director seats are up for election this year, with two candidates running to fill them.
Cynthia Smith
Cynthia Smith
Cynthia Smith, 58, is a 35-year resident of Caroline County who has been involved in agriculture most of her adult life, helming the former Smith Dairy Farms off the Golansville Road with her husband, the third-generation farmer Steve Smith.
Born in Spotsylvania, she grew up on a 13-acre “farmette.” After completing a two-year secretarial course at Germanna Community College, she worked for 13 years in a lawyer’s office before stepping down to raise her children.
She and her husband oversaw the dairy farm—Caroline’s last major dairy operation—until 2006, when they sold the business largely in response to increasingly tighter federal regulations that complicated its operation. Since then, they have transitioned to beef cattle, grains, and hay, and in 2006, they opened the Charity Hill Private Hunting Preserve on their grounds.
Smith is currently completing her first term on the board.
“I’m running to do my part for public service and to keep learning, because it’s constantly changing,” she said. “I think a lot of people don’t have any idea of what a soil and water conservation district is, but it is out there to help communities.”
Smith stated that she doesn’t see any “major issues” regarding soil and water conservation in Caroline currently, although it is involved in a range of ongoing initiatives.
Personally, she said she would like to see and help foster increased participation by Caroline in the district’s educational initiatives. The district, for instance, annually offers $5,000 college scholarships to students interested in issues related to environmental education and conservation, but the bulk of applicants come from Hanover, she said, and the quality of Caroline applications is generally low.
While Smith stated that she had no intention of criticizing the school system, she noted that “we’re not seeing Caroline being able to take advantage of some of what the district offers.” Consequently, she identified educational outreach as a priority she would have if elected to a second term.
In addition to her service in the Soil and Water Conservation District, Smith has served on the Board of Directors of the Farm Service Agency for nearly a decade and is also on the board of the Highway Assembly of God in Fredericksburg.
Joseph Stepp
Joseph Stepp III
Joseph Stepp III, 66, is a native of North Carolina who has lived in Virginia 31 years and been a director for the Hanover–Caroline Soil and Water Conservation District for 15 years. The current chairman of the Board, he first became involved in conservation districts while farming as a young man in the Henderson area of his home state.
He was not re-elected in the last election, but was appointed back by other members of the Board as an at-large member.
“I’ve always been an advocate of conservation,” said Stepp. “I always make sure all the t’s are crossed and i’s are dotted on our farm.”
Stepp has split his life between two pursuits: farming and the military. He spent 32 years as a National Guardsman, 20 of them active, serving as a staff officer at bases including Fort Belvoir, Fort Pickett, and Caroline’s own Fort A. P. Hill. While undergoing training to fly helicopters in Alabama, he met his wife, Suzanne Stepp of Rappahannock Academy, who later worked at A. P. Hill.
Throughout their marriage, Stepp and his wife have farmed their property, the 140-year-old, 301-acre Racefield Farm, in Rappahannock Academy, which they put into a conservation easement.
“We’ve always worked the land,” said Stepp. “I’m close to the land. I depend on it for a living.”
Stepp received an associate’s degree in agriculture from North Carolina State University and bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Mary Washington University.
In addition to his work with the conservation district, he sits on the Board of Directors for the Northern Neck Vegetable Growers Association and is a deacon at Bowling Green Baptist.
In general, he said, “I don’t really see any big issues that are not being addressed,” although “there’s always politics, and there’s always not enough money.”
He did note that he was “a little concerned” with the Environmental Protection Agency’s changing definition of streams and stated that he saw a continuing primary focus of the district as the fencing of bodies of water to keep livestock, particularly cattle, out of them.
“It’s being addressed,” he said. “They’re doing the best they can do, and we’re helping them do it.”