[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 178 (Thursday, December 20, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2386]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO FERRIS BELMAN

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JO ANN DAVIS

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, December 20, 2001

  Mrs. JO ANN DAVIS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to 
a distinguished constituent and public servant whose more than 30 years 
of service will come to a close at the end of this month.
  Ferris Belman of Stafford County, one of the jurisdictions within the 
1st District of Virginia, is a retired businessman who has devoted much 
of his adult life to serving the people of both the city of 
Fredericksburg and Stafford County.
  For 13 years he was a member of the Fredericksburg City Council and 
has served as a member of the Stafford Board of Supervisors for 18 
years, twice as a board chairman. He was also just recently the 
President of the Virginia Association of Counties.
  Mr. Belman has served on numerous committees and commissions over the 
years and played a leading role in promoting economic growth and 
development in both in the city and county.
  Ferris is a man of great honesty and character who has worked 
diligently on behalf of the people of Virginia. As Stafford County 
Administrator C.M. Williams notes, Ferris Belman helped insure that 
Ferry Farm in Stafford, the boyhood home of George Washington, would be 
preserved intact. He was also largely responsible for the county's 
acquisition of Government Island, the site of quarries that provided 
the stone for construction of the United States Capitol building and 
the White House.
  Ferris Belman will leave office with the grateful appreciation of the 
thousands of people whose lives he has touched through his service. He 
will be remembered as a public official who always found time to listen 
to the concerns of his constituents, and went the extra mile to do all 
he could for those he represented. Ferris, who once owned several 
grocery stores, always said he thought of himself not as a politician 
but ``an apple peddler working for the people.''
  I would like to thank Ferris Belman for a job well done. His 
selflessness and devotion to his constituents and Virginia are to be 
commended, and his service will be missed.

                          ____________________