Author: Calvin Pynn
Page 4/8
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.
New free clinic to open in Harrisonburg
A little over three months after the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Free Clinic closed, a new free clinic will soon begin serving low-income and uninsured area residents. The Blue Ridge Free Clinic will launch during the Remote Area Medical (RAM) Clinic, held April 10-11 at the Rockingham County Fairgrounds.
Area environmental groups hoping for boost from Biden executive order
Even as the details for implementing President Joe Biden’s executive order establishing a Civilian Climate Corps are still being hammered out, crews from the Appalachian Conservation Corps (ACC) are out planting trees in the Rappahannock watershed. Zach Foster, founder and director of the Harrisonburg-based ACC, said the group’s work exemplifies what the newly created national effort is trying to achieve.
The Virginia Breeze looks past pandemic doldrums
It’s a quiet January Tuesday at the public transit hub outside of James Madison University’s Godwin Hall, where in more normal times, students would be waiting with bags loaded for the Virginia Breeze to take them back home. These are not normal times, though; no one is waiting for the bus, and the only breeze around is the bitter winter sort.
Sen. Obenshain, Del. Wilt discuss legislative agendas – and the wild news cycle
Next week, State Senator Mark Obenshain and Delegate Tony Wilt, both Republicans, will head to Richmond next week for the 2021 session of the Virginia General Assembly. On Thursday, The Citizen spoke with both of Harrisonburg’s state legislators about the bills they’ve already introduced, their expectations for the session, and the political chaos unfolding in Washington, D.C. and more.
First COVID vaccines administered at RMH
After the Monday night arrival of a first shipment of Pfizer’s COVID vaccine at Sentara RMH, Mark Nesbit, an emergency medicine doctor, volunteered to get his shot right away. He didn’t realize until he arrived at the hospital’s employee health clinic on Thursday morning, however, that he would be the very first person at the hospital to receive it.
Area health officials plan impending initial rollout of COVID-19 vaccine
Anticipating that the first COVID-19 vaccines will be administered locally in the next several weeks, the Virginia Department of Health is working with hospitals and healthcare associations to plan the initial distribution. According to Dr. Laura Kornegay, director of the VDH’s Central Shenandoah Health District, several criteria still must be met before people begin receiving vaccines. One is a final Emergency Use Authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for two vaccines produced by the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna