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After a long prologue, library launches national search for new director
Massanutten Regional Library’s longtime director Lois Jones officially retired Aug. 31, and the job listing to hire her replacement went out the day before. That leaves the library to operate with a team approach at the top for the next few months.
New archaeology center aims to dig through the Valley’s past
nt years, Nash and her team uncovered that the Thomas Harrison House in downtown Harrisonburg was never inhabited by Thomas Harrison at all. She was also called on to talk about the lost history of razed buildings in January of 2020, when city officials considered the idea of demolishing the Denton building.
Few and far between, city crossing guards return for another year
“When I was your age, I used to walk to school everyday…uphill…both ways…” the old saying goes. Chances are good, if the person telling you that is over a certain age, at least the first part of that statement is true. According to the National Center for Safe Routes to School, “In 1969, 48 percent of children 5 to 14 years of age usually walked or bicycled to school.” By 2009, that number had dropped to 13 percent.
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.
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.
Neither time, nor the pandemic — not even the fire inspector — can end Downtown Books’ story
If there’s one thing to know about Bob Schurtz, it’s this: He never throws away a book. it’s this: He never throws away a book. That philosophy snowballed into Downtown Books, his legendary — albeit overflowing — bookstore on Water Street. Sitting at the front desk littered with packages, CDs and wall-to-wall books, Schurtz explained how he came to own the store 45 years ago.
State environmental news roundup – August 2021
A proposed Botetourt County wind farm in missed a deadline in the approval process; the developer appealed that determination. Offshore wind (OSW) is coming to Virginia and the State Corporation Commission has opened a docket anticipating a “coming application from Dominion Energy Virginia for its massive offshore wind proposal”; a blogger discusses pros and cons. OSW is under review for the North Carolina coast; if built, some of the energy produced would be sold to the Virginia market. Area residents differ in their receptiveness to the prospect of large wind turbines offshore.
Campus newspaper’s year-long quest for more JMU Covid data leads to court
According to court papers filed by James Madison University, it was not tracking COVID numbers in any kind of database during the largest peak of positive COVID-19 cases on campus at the start of the fall 2020 semester. That information came to light during a hearing between Jake Conley, editor-in-chief of The Breeze and an attorney representing JMU in Rockingham County Circuit Court on Thursday morning.