As guidelines change, more Harrisonburg playgrounds and park amenities reopen … but not all of them
The start of summer 2021 might not look like “normal” at parks around Harrisonburg, but city officials say more amenities are reopening. And playgrounds and pools, though not as crowded as they once were, will start to resemble pre-pandemic operations.
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School resource officers are under scrutiny. Here’s how Harrisonburg’s program works.
As communities across the nation began more closely scrutinizing their police departments last year, so too is the city school district reevaluating Harrisonburg’s SROs – whether they should stay in the schools and, if so, what their roles and responsibilities should be. The officers — and data regarding incidents at schools — offer a glimpse into how Harrisonburg’s program operates.
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Rosetta Stone employees say they were blindsided by massive layoffs
The sweeping layoffs and gutting of the iconic Harrisonburg firm Rosetta Stone began Tuesday with a mandatory company-wide Zoom meeting. By the end, whole teams of people learned they would no longer have jobs.
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Dearth of charging infrastructure, lack of local readiness short circuits electric vehicle adoption
Michael Alexiou said he would love to see combustion engines become relics of the past.A driver of an electric vehicle since 2014, the Harrisonburg resident is not among those drivers who have had to wait in line for gas this week in the midst of the Colonial Pipeline crisis. But even as energy firms and governments push for electric vehicles, expansion of infrastructure — like charging stations — is slow — including in Harrisonburg.
Council moves to add funding for local organizations, leaves open debate over taxes
The Harrisonburg City Council on Tuesday approved adding $100,000 more than originally proposed to local organizations as part of the first reading of the city budget for Fiscal Year 2022. Meanwhile, the council will pick up a debate at its next meeting about potentially increasing the real estate tax in order to help cover bond payments on the new high school. And the mayor made an announcement about potential next steps with construction at Middle River Regional Jail.
Proposed rail-to-trail project could benefit from infrastructure bill
A plan to convert a 50-mile railroad corridor – stretching across the northern Valley from Broadway to Front Royal – has been in development for the past five years but could become a reality with the infrastructure bill currently being negotiated in the Senate.
Local initiative featured in national conversation on mental health and justice
Kelly Royston, coordinator of Rockingham County’s Crisis Intervention Team (CIT), represented the area on Friday in a live-streamed Congressional briefing discussing how communities across the country are working to improve mental health services in the criminal justice system.
Community Perspective: The Cicadas are Coming!
A contributed perspectives piece by Tom Arthur According to CBS News and other sources, “trillions of cicadas are about to emerge after 17 years underground,” in Harrisonburg as well as everywhere else. The insects have two pairs of wings, prominent eyes, (usually three of them), and can be up to 2 inches in size. Cicadas …
For graduates, it’s been tough. It’s been ‘weird.’ But it’s been ‘wonderful.’
This year, several contributors to The Citizen have been upper-level JMU students, who will graduate Friday as part of the class of 2021. They have weathered more than a year of social distancing, online classes and the constant threat of getting sick. So, we asked them to reflect on what it was like to finish college under the pandemic’s cloud, how they’ve been challenged, in what ways this has changed them and what they’re thinking about as they prepare to walk across the stage.
