Near West End

John Sarvay of Buttermilk & Molasses provides excellent insight about the upcoming Downtown master plan workshop.

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This one kind of burns me up, probably because my wife and I have our daughter enrolled in the autistic program at the excellent Mary Munford school. When I read over this article, I felt a surge of rage. Where on earth is the city getting off that it’s right to spend money to move the school board out of City Hall? Can’t that money be better spent elsewhere such as increasing the programs for our children’s schooling? I don’t care if the school board or the mayor’s office is paying for it; bottom line is that this is OUR tax dollars.

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If you have something about the city, perhaps an issue, suggestion, etc. you’d like to ask Mayor Douglas L. Wilder, tune in to KISS-FM 99.3 and 105.7 starting tomorrow and continuing the first Saturday of every month from 9 - 10am.

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If you’re looking for activities for your kids to do before and/or after school, check out Richmond Public Schools Before & After programs. Registration takes place Sept. 4th through the 7th from close of school to 5:45pm each day.

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Interested in how to make your downtown Richmond a better place to live? Want to be directly involved in the shaping of our city? If so, make time to attend the Downtown Master Plan Workshop on Sept. 27th from 6:30 to 9pm at the Renaissance Conference Center (107 W. Broad St.).

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When you are making plans for the beautiful Fall days that will be gracing us shortly, don’t forget to save Oct. 12-14 for the National Folk Festival.
Once again, the Folk Festival staff have selected a very diverse and great group of performers. This is the last year the Folk Festival will be in Richmond, next year we’ll claim it as our own music festival and rename it.
Some highlights include:

The Kotchegna Dance Company
Ivorian dance and percussion ensemble
The Holmes Brothers
Blues, gospel and R&B
Jason Samuels Smith & Pandit Chitresh Das - Masters of Percussive Dance
African American tap and North Indian Kathak dance
and Doyle Lawson
Bluegrass and bluegrass gospel

Click here to read more about who’s coming.

Arts Around the Lake, a juried fine arts show, comes to the University of Richmond Robins Center, Sunday, September 30, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Some of the areas best painters, jewlery makers, craftsmen and illustrators display and sell their work. The show benefits UR’s Greater Richmond Alumni Chapter to benefit its scholarship fund.

Altria Group announced today that it intends to spin off Phillip Morris International into a separate company, which could be great news for the Richmond area. The Near West End is already home to Philip Morris USA, the domestic branch of the company.
The Richmond Times Dispatch reports:
Philip Morris USA and its sister company Philip Morris International are planning to split up, and the result could be a new Fortune 500 headquarters for the Richmond area.

How many jobs that might add to the 6,000 already here is up in the air.

Special thanks to North Richmond News for this important post:

The Richmond police department recently put out a survey to better focus their efforts. Unfortunately for the 21st century, it is a paper survey. Jon Baliles at River City Rapids wrote about it and posted a PDF link to the paper version. Ross Catrow at Pharrout and West of the Boulevard went a step further and created an actual online version of the survey.

Take a moment to take a bite out of crime in Richmond by completing the simple SurveyMonkey survey — data will be compiled anonymously and delivered to the Richmond police department.

The Times Dispatch reports Henrico has just receivadditional dollars dedicated to combat underage drinking.

Henrico Henrico County’s Division of Police this week received $5,000 from the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to help pay for overtime as part of the police initiatives to combat underage alcohol use.

Henrico County parents can feel a bit better about their children’s safety when it comes to being alerted via several means of communication for emergency issues.

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This weekend marks the last one of the season for Richmond city public swimming pools.

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Richmond Public Schools will hold a “Safe Schools: Safe Communities” festival today from 3 to 7 p.m. in the parking lot of Southside Plaza at Belt Boulevard and Hull Street Road.

Lots of great University of Richmond sports reports from various sources this morning:

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The Times Dispatch reports Henrico County has just received additional dollars to combat underage drinking.

Henrico Henrico County’s Division of Police this week received $5,000 from the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to help pay for overtime as part of the police initiatives to combat underage alcohol use.

Cmor offers many special events this Fall. Here are some highlights of ones that don’t include an additional admission fee, unless otherwise noted. Regular admission is $7 per person, Annual Family Membership is $100, also the museum offers reciprocal admission to more than 100 children’s museums in the U.S.
Also, don’t forget: The Children’s Museum will close Sept. 4-7 for cleaning and maintenance.

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Henrico County will be reimbursed for $3 million dollars for money that it spent on Huricane Isabel Cleanup. NBC12 reports that is about three quarters of what it spent cleaning up debris on roads and other public areas.

A man allegedly stole $700,000 from Environmental Supply Co. in Henrico County. The investigation is still ongoing. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports:
Police say the bookkeeper for a Henrico County-based safety equipment supply company apparently had a side job: clean-out artist.

Henrico police arrested John Nicholas Sacco, who faces grand-larceny charges involving the embezzlement of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The parent company of Henrico’s Hamilton Beach/Proctor-Silex will not spin-off the small appliance maker as an independent company as previously stated, The Times-Dispatch reports.. In April, NACCO Industries Inc, the parent company, said it planned to spin off Hamilton Beach, which would have provided opportunities for growth.

Richmond City residents, the Richmond City Police are asking for your help. They want citizens to fill out a survey and send it to them detailing problem areas in the neighborhood. Or, Click Here for an online survey.
The West End is in the 3rd Precinct (sector 311) Lieutenant Sybil El-Amin 646-1412 is our point of contact. The Richmond Police will be hosting a neighborhood meeting in each sector to discuss concerns. Meeting time and date are yet to be announced.
Richmond Police Chief Rodney D. Monroe has done alot for the city and he is trying to do more.