In his characteristic quiet voice, new board of supervisors chairman Ned Creasey last Friday described the life journey that brought him to leadership in Goochland after an historic local election.

Born 68 years ago in Maryland, he grew up with his mom and dad and one sister in McDonough County in Illinois, about 90 miles west of Peoria. It was no Chicago.

“It’s a little different down state,” he recalls.

His parents ran a short order restaurant and Creasey learned the value of work helping out there.

After high school Creasey went straight into the Navy for three years.

“I wanted to be a Seabee but I made the mistake of letting them know I knew Morse code.”

He ended up as a communications technician with a Top Secret clearance, serving part of his tour at an U.S. Air Force base in Turkey.

After the service, during which time he met and married his wife Diana, he returned to Illinois, where he was a policeman for a couple years in Macomb County.

“I loved police work,” said Creasey, “but I just couldn’t afford it.”

And besides, what he really wanted to do was to get into the construction business, so he learned carpentry.

That career in the construction industry is what brought him to Goochland. He interviewed to work on the subway in Washington D.C. and while there went to work for Whiting and Turner.

“They sent me down here in 1971 when DuPont built an addition to make Kevlar,” he recalled.

His next job, which he said put him in the Richmond area for good, was on the Bank of Virginia. The family (he and Diana had five children) had found a home where they would stay.
“They loved the beach and I loved trout fishing,” recalls Creasey.

In Virginia, Creasey ran Lakeview Construction, which did mostly Post Office renovation work.

In 1991 Creasey hit the jackpot with the Virginia Lottery, winning a substantial sum.

Here in Goochland, the Creasey clan has become an integral part of the community. Two sons are deputies with the Goochland Sheriff’s Office. Diana, a registered nurse, was EMT instructor for Fire and Rescue for years. Ned drove the crash truck for years. He’s been on the Board of Directors of Fire and Rescue for 14 years.

“It’s a job where you do good things,” he said when asked why he joined.

His Fire and Rescue connections led him into politics, said Creasey.

“People came to me complaining about things,” he said. “Fire and Rescue people talked to me about running.”

Then he met Ben Slone, current chair of the Goochland Republican Committee.

Slone called Creasey “one of the greatest men I’ve ever met,” adding that the first time they met they talked for six hours straight.

Creasey tells it, “One thing led to another” and he ended up running against then board chairman Joe Lacy in 2007, winning the District 5 seat handily over Lacy and William Burnet.
He defeated Alan Turner to win a second term last November.

Why did he run?

“I wanted to help out Fire and Rescue and the Sheriff’s Office,” said Creasey. And he wanted to find out “how much was true about the county not being run right,” he said.
Creasey is still concerned about the public safety.

“The primary purpose of government is to provide a safe environment for the people to pursue happiness,” he explained.

Creasey never served as chairman or vice-chairman during his first term, which saw the board often split into two factions, with Creasey and Rudy Butler (former District 4 supervisor) often pitted against a three-member majority.

That was the case when Creasey and Butler moved to oust former county administrator Greg Wolfrey in January 2009.

Now in his role as chairman, Creasey is concentrating on “getting everybody to row the boat in the same direction,” as he puts it.

Creasey said with a new county administrator and a new board things can now get done.

He favors a mixed-used zoning ordinance to help with the development of West Creek Office Park and the Tuckahoe Creek Service District (TCSD).

“It’s got to happen,” said Creasey of the proposed zoning ordinance amendments, which were deferred by the planning commission last week.

“The longer we wait, the less choosy we can be,” he said, referring to the competition with nearby counties for development projects. “We’ll be left with whoever we can beg to come here.”

Creasey called the TCSD plan “flawed from the beginning,” with its 11 percent projected growth rate and decried the delay in creating the conditions that would foster growth in West Creek.

“It’s almost criminal,” he said, describing the slowness in the development of West Creek.

But Goochland has a lot to offer, in Creasey’s view.

“Goochland is a jewel with many facets,” he said. “We’ve got to get the right people to polish those facets.”

To that end he’s looking forward to the hiring of an economic development director and a replacement for assistant county administrator Don Charles, who passed away last year.

All the while, Creasey is fighting his own medical battle. Diagnosed with cancer just before his announcement for reelection, Creasey described his mood.

“I got mad at it,” he said. “I’m going to whip it.” Now undergoing chemotherapy, he looks good despite having lost his hair.

He’s also optimistic about prospects for the county, particularly the relationship between the supervisors and the new school board.

“The difference is like night and day,” he said, describing the atmosphere at recent school board meetings. “People had smiles on their faces.”

That optimism carries over to his view of the county as a whole, with his take on the mood of county citizens.

“I’m very optimistic,” he said, noting that the people are starting to have trust in their government again.