Category: Harrisonburg Issues
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Jail population swells much faster than recent predictions, creating more questions than answers
The number of people sent to jail has outpaced a 2014 forecast. The local jail population peaked well over 600 last year, seven years earlier than predicted in the 2014 community-based corrections plan. And no one can agree on why.
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Airbnb properties are one step closer to being regulated, and Council finally ends HEC commissioner saga
Short term rentals in Harrisonburg, including Airbnb properties and vacation rentals, will soon be regulated by special use permits – if a new proposed city ordinance passes its second reading at the next city council meeting.
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How one local restaurant decided to go green
Mr. J’s Bagels & Deli has gone green — and it has nothing to do with salads or even the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day celebrations.
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Tearing down walls: A trip through time in one of Harrisonburg’s first “new” public schools
In 1878, the school board decided that Harrisonburg needed a “large and more modern building” due to the “increasing number of scholars.” The old academy was razed and a seven-room brick structure went up in its place. The following year, a new brick schoolhouse opened on South Main Street. Cost: $5,000.
City school board announces Loudoun Co. administrator as new superintendent
Applause rained repeatedly down at Tuesday night’s unusually jovial school board meeting, where the city’s new schools superintendent was announced and raises for all city schools staff were proposed. The board voted unanimously to hire Michael G. Richards as superintendent, starting May 1.
‘Dream Hike’ up Kilimanjaro to honor legacy of EMU graduate and fund memorial scholarship
Rising more than three miles above the surrounding plain to 19,341 feet, Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest peak in Africa. Every year, thousands attempt to reach its peak and bag one of mountaineering’s “Seven Summits.” Beginning tomorrow, a group will begin hiking up Kilimanjaro with a bigger goal than just reaching the top. Each step they take will be in remembrance of Michael “M.J.” Sharp, a 2005 graduate of Eastern Mennonite University, and every mile they conquer will raise money for a scholarship established there in his legacy.
Following weekend rally, community criminal justice board picks new chair and talks some more about long-standing ‘asks’
On Saturday, more than 100 rallied downtown in support of eliminating the jail keep fee and hiring a community justice planner. On Monday, newly elected Community Criminal Justice Board chairman (and Harrisonburg City Councilman) Chris Jones spoke in favor of the justice planner, but said keep fee is the sheriff’s call.
After last-ditch effort to fund I-81 improvements this year fails, more study, another report, and lots of divergent opinions await
State Sen. Mark Obenshain went out on a limb with a bill to begin tolling on I-81 to pay for $2.2 billion in much-needed improvements to the interstate . Things didn’t work like he’d hoped, however.
“I’m deeply disappointed,” Obenshain said. “We had a commitment to a process last year, and, frankly, I did a pretty uncomfortable thing of taking the result of that process and carrying that legislation.”
