In an effort to get folks to grow more of their own food, and save some money in the process, Henrico County Extension Office is trying to encourage folks to plant their own gardens in a community plot in Lakeside.

Garden plots start at $5 and up for families in need.

As a Gardens Growing Families gardener, you and your family will attend FREE classes and workshop on: Importance of Fruits and Vegetables in Your Diet; Gardening: From Seed to Harvest; Integrated Pest Management and Pesticide Use; Food Preparation and Family Meals; Freezing and Canning; and Preparing for a Fall Garden.

Click here for a PDF of the Application.
Questions: call the Virginia Cooperative Extension  (804)501-5160 for a more information.

Henrico County will follow Richmond and Chesterfield in sending out assesment notices early next week. Increases in value should be modest this year.

Preliminary data indicates the value of reassessed homes will increase by less than 3 percent, officials said. Overall, the value of all properties, including reassessed homes, new construction and commercial sites, will increase by about 5 percent.

Last year’s overall increase was 12 percent.

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Property owners who want to contest their assessments will have until April 1 to file an appeal to the Board of Real Estate Review and Equalization.

Another school board dilemma, this time in Henrico County, illustrates how hard it is to run a school system that pleases everyone. The Times Dispatch reports that the Henrico School Board has made no move to extend Superintendent Fred Morton IV’s contract to remain superintendent. Because of an upcoming election, this means that no action will likely be taken until the new school board is elected and in place, in January. Morton’s contract expires at the end of June.
The T-D reports:

Typically, a board that is satisfied with a superintendent’s service in the last year of a contract will extend the contract before elections take place.

That would mean new board members would not be under pressure to make a quick decision about a superintendent they had worked with for only a few months.

Henrico’s board met this year in a closed meeting to go over Morton’s contract. Morton was not present at the meeting, and board members said afterward that no decision was made about an extension.

Henrico County now has a way for employees or citizens to report fraud in Henrico County government. The weblink, handled by Internal Audit, allows citizens to remain anonymous if they choose.