Tag: pandemic
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Court Square Theater prepares for its revival
After nearly a year and a half of being closed, Court Square Theater is planning to reopen, starting with an open house this weekend, followed by the Hispanic Film Festival at the end of September.
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Courts pack the dockets and beam in some defendants to help dig out of backlog
In the third floor courtroom, Rockingham County Circuit Judge Bruce D. Albertson worked his way through a docket of 28 criminal hearings. About a third of the way through the docket on that hot morning in late July, Albertson extended the length of one woman’s probation because she could not yet finish paying restitution she owed from a 2018 case, when she pleaded guilty to felony drug possession.
UVa demographer: 2020 Census appears to undercount city by more than 2,000
Immediately east of Interstate 81, between the Stone Spring bypass and Reservoir Street and split down the middle by Port Republic Road, Census Tract 2.07 is the heartland of JMU off-campus housing. According to figures from the 2020 Census, released last week, the tract was home to 6,088 people on April 1 of that year.
Just how much did last year set the city’s budget back?
Larry Propst, by his own admission, is not an economist. His job, as city director of finance, is to help set the city budget — he calls it “entirely different” from the work of an economist. And on March 14, 2020 — a Saturday — Propst watched as the city of Harrisonburg declared a state of emergency as COVID-19 spread nationwide. Over the next several months, Harrisonburg administrators — Propst’s office included — would watch the city’s finances plummet as tax revenue from restaurants, hotels and other businesses shriveled. Within weeks, millions of city tax dollars vanished.
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.
How the pandemic has affected the area’s criminal justice system
People reported fewer crimes overall in Harrisonburg over the last year. And fewer defendants stayed in jail as they awaited trial. At the same time, though, many of those trials have been delayed, forcing the courts to put in overtime in order to catch up on the backlog of cases. Harrisonburg and Rockingham County’s criminal justice system — like many facets of life — has operated a little differently since the pandemic began, in some cases prompting prosecutors and judges to adapt and make exceptions they wouldn’t normally do.
City and school division bank on federal funds to restart high school project, make up for revenue decline
Money that Congress approved last month to help local communities in the wake of the pandemic could help restart construction on the new Harrisonburg high school soon and is expected to fill revenue holes in the city’s budget. Money from the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law in March, could reach Harrisonburg in the coming weeks in time to resume building the high school even before the city approves its budget for the coming year, said Harrisonburg City Public Schools Superintendent Michael Richards.
September 8, 2021
School board gets pushback over vaccinations, as well as policy regarding transgender students
The vaccine requirement protocol and covid testing for unvaccinated school staff also prompted passionate arguments from educators, staff and parents during Tuesday’s school board meeting’s public comment period, as did the recent adoption of a model policy from the Virginia School Board Association regarding treatment of transgender students.
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