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City BeatBy Emily Battle
Nov. 5, 2009 9:50 am
Leaves. With sunny days in the 60s predicted for this weekend, it's great weather for Holiday Prep. Next Monday and Tuesday, Fredericksburg police will hold seminars with city bar and restaurant owners on "managing the nightlife" as holiday festivities approach. Bill Freehling has details, along with some of the posters the department has created to promote responsible behavior, on his blog. These seminars have been conducted before, and are focused on educating bartenders and managers about occupancy limits, how to avoid over-serving, how to deal with intoxicated patrons and other issues.
Perma-link: http://www.fredericksburg.com/blogs/citybeat/index_html?blogger_id=20&p=1257432617
Tags: Morning Buzz
Election Results: Hicks won wards 1, 3 Nov. 4, 2009 9:05 am
Last night LaBravia Jenkins beat Joseph "Jeh" Hicks by 226 votes citywide, but on a ward-by-ward basis, wards 1 and 3 went for Hicks while 2 and 4 went for Jenkins. Ward 1, which includes many of the city's newer neighborhoods, including the developments along Cowan Boulevard, Great Oaks and Idlewild, voted more than 60 percent for Hicks. (Hicks won 673 votes to Jenkins' 434 there.) Ward 2, which includes the older residential neighborhoods between downtown and UMW, went 56 percent for Jenkins (She won, 558-436 there.). Ward 3, which includes College Heights and the Lafayette Boulevard corridor, was the tightest contest, with Hicks edging out Jenkins with just over 50 percent of the vote (Hicks, 553-543). Ward 4, which includes downtown, Mayfield, Bragg Hill and the Fall Hill Avenue corridor, hosted the biggest blowout. Jenkins won 70 percent of the vote there (Jenkins, 560-240). A very small number of votes can win a race in any of the city's wards, and those small voting groups will come into play this spring, when all four City Council ward seats are up for election May 4. So if you're going through withdrawal now because you won't have any robo-calls or glossy campaign mailers to greet you when you get home, there's always that. Turnout in the city yesterday: 34 percent.
Perma-link: http://www.fredericksburg.com/blogs/citybeat/index_html?blogger_id=20&p=1257343538
Tags: elections
Nov. 4, 2009 8:46 am
LaBravia Jenkins won the only contested local race last night, and will serve her first four-year term as Commonwealth's Attorney. Treasurer G.M. Haney, Commissioner of the Revenue Lois Jacob and Sheriff Paul Higgs also guaranteed themselves another four years in their jobs. They all ran unopposed. The empty storefront on Caroline Street that once housed Fredericksburg Historical Prints will soon be home to a Civil War souvenir shop, according to Spotsylvania reporter Dan Telvock. Telvock wrote in today's paper:
A preservation plan for the city will be up for discussion at a public meeting tonight hosted by the planning staff. The meeting starts at 7:30 p.m. in City Hall. You can see a copy of the draft plan they'll be discussing here.
Perma-link: http://www.fredericksburg.com/blogs/citybeat/index_html?blogger_id=20&p=1257342368
Tags: Morning Buzz
Commonwealth's Attorney: It's Jenkins Nov. 3, 2009 8:07 pm
With all six precincts reporting in Fredericksburg, Commonwealth's Attorney LaBravia Jenkins has won her first full term in the office. Jenkins beat Joseph Hicks with 52 percent of the vote, to Hicks' 47 percent. 226 votes separate the two candidates. Also in Fredericksburg, Creigh Deeds won 51 percent of the vote to Bob McDonnell's 49 percent (The AP has called the race for McDonnell.). Keep checking Fredericksburg.com for election coverage tonight, and pick up The Free Lance-Star tomorrow for more on this race.
Perma-link: http://www.fredericksburg.com/blogs/citybeat/index_html?blogger_id=20&p=1257296851
Nov. 3, 2009 8:23 am
ELECTION DAY. Polls are open until 7 p.m. To determine where to vote, go here. Preservation Plan. Fredericksburg will hold a public meeting on a preservation plan for the city tomorrow, more details here. HFFI has posted the draft of this proposed plan on its Web site. Click here to download a copy.
Perma-link: http://www.fredericksburg.com/blogs/citybeat/index_html?blogger_id=20&p=1257254580
Tags: Morning Buzz
Commonwealth's Attorney candidates debate statistics Nov. 2, 2009 11:02 am
As election day approaches, there are dueling messages about case statistics on the campaign Web sites of Commonwealth's Attorney LaBravia Jenkins and challenger Joseph Hicks. Hicks has one of his ads posted on his Web site, including some statistics and a message that includes:
Over the weekend, Jenkins posted a response to Hicks' claims on her Web site, and began circulating a similar response via e-mail. She claims that Hicks has inappropriately manipulated the statistics and taken them out of the context of what happens in the criminal justice system. Among other things, she states:
Read Hicks' claims about the stats here. Read Jenkins' responses here and here.
Perma-link: http://www.fredericksburg.com/blogs/citybeat/index_html?blogger_id=20&p=1257177761
Tags: elections, Commonwealth's Attorney
Nov. 2, 2009 10:27 am
School Board meets tonight. The Discipline Committee holds a closed meeting at 5:30 p.m. in City Hall, then the entire board holds a closed meeting at 6:30 p.m. in City Hall to talk about personnell and discipline matters. Then the regular, open meeting starts at 7:30 p.m. Word of the months is honesty. Agenda is here. Big problems. A woman left me a voice mail over the weekend saying the city needs to force stores to carry a wider selection of bar soaps. She is sick and tired of paying for shower gel, and having it stain her bath mats. Seriously, this is outrageous. I can't believe this hasn't come up in the gubernatorial race.
Perma-link: http://www.fredericksburg.com/blogs/citybeat/index_html?blogger_id=20&p=1257175679
Tags: Morning Buzz
Oct. 29, 2009 10:48 am
Be a tree steward. Tree Fredericksburg is kicking off its tree stewards program this weekend with a Saturday tree pruning class from 9 a.m. to noon at Maury Playground. The group will also hold a tree planting session Saturday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Memorial Park on Kenmore Avenue. If you are interested in either of these volunteer opportunities, contact Anne Little at 540/207-4298. For more information on these and future volunteer opportunities, click here. The Great Pumpkin! The city's community police officers and Downtown Retail Marketing Inc. are hosting a movie night Friday in Market Square, along with trick-or-treating in select downtown shops. Trick-or-treating will be from 6 to 7:30 p.m., and two movies--"It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," and "Hocus Pocus" will play in Market Square from 7 until 9 p.m. Come in costume. Happy Halloween! (No Buzz tomorrow. And yeah, 10:45 is a little late for "morning." I actually wrote this at 8 a.m., but my computer didn't decide to wake up and post until now. It's taking a trip to the computer spa tomorrow, so let's hope it comes back in a better mood.)
Perma-link: http://www.fredericksburg.com/blogs/citybeat/index_html?blogger_id=20&p=1256827711
Tags: Morning Buzz
Courts presentation now online Oct. 28, 2009 3:01 pm The city has posted the presentation that Glave & Holmes and Perkins Eastman gave last night about potential plans for building new courts. View the presentation here. Read about last night's meeting here.
Perma-link: http://www.fredericksburg.com/blogs/citybeat/index_html?blogger_id=20&p=1256756517
Tags: courthouse
Oct. 28, 2009 10:07 am
Fredericksburg has taken the biggest hit in taxable sales in recent years, as Bill Freehling points out in today's business section. You should also check out the data Freehling has posted on his blog, tracking taxable sales in the area back to 2006. These data show that in the third quarter of 2008, Stafford County overtook Fredericksburg in taxable sales for the first time. The article states:
Downtown planners and developers are converging on Fredericksburg today and tomorrow for the annual Virginia Downtown Development Association meeting, which is being hosted at the Courtyard by Marriott. Read more here.
Perma-link: http://www.fredericksburg.com/blogs/citybeat/index_html?blogger_id=20&p=1256738843
Tags: Morning Buzz
New courts cost estimate: $35 to 40 million Oct. 27, 2009 8:45 pm
You can read more in tomorrow's paper about the options council members saw tonight for putting courts on the juvenile and domestic relations court and fire station sits on Princess Anne Street. One point the architects made tonight, though, was how important they thought it was that the city had chosen to keep the courts downtown. A few years ago, they looked at a proposal to move them out to Lafayette Boulevard near the Blue and Gray Parkway. "I think you have shown some wisdom in just trying to keep the courthouse downtown," said Randy Holmes of the firm Glave and Holmes, part of the team the city hired to look at court options. Another member of that team said, during a discussion about making the new building energy efficient, that keeping the courts downtown was "the most sustainable decision you could make" in the entire process. The picture above is of the process to repaint the windows on the historic Circuit Courthouse. It's not clear what the fate of this building will be yet, but it will be preserved in some fashion. City Manager Beverly Cameron has said it could work well as a ceremonial courtroom for swearings-in, appeals court meetings, civil trials and other occasional purposes.
Perma-link: http://www.fredericksburg.com/blogs/citybeat/index_html?blogger_id=20&p=1256690722
Tags: courthouse
Council: What do you want to give up? Oct. 27, 2009 8:12 pm
The City Council won't vote on whether to raise the personal property tax rate until after their Nov. 13 retreat, but several council members tonight urged people who say the city should just "cut its budget" to avoid raising the tax to consider what's really in the city budget. "I, like most people feel that frankly taxes are too high in this country today," Councilman Matt Kelly said. "However at the local level of government, we are service oriented." Kelly also said that the city had been more proactive in preparing for the economic downturn than Stafford or Spotsylvania counties. "We started making changes to our budget sooner than they did, so instead of going to layoffs, we have been able to leave a lot of positions open and have lost a lot of positions … due to attrition," he said. Kelly and several other council members also emphasized that the proposed car tax hike is not a way to bring new revenue to the city, but an attempt to make up for the $866,000 the city would lose if it kept the tax as-is because of declining car values. "I think this is an inevitable move," Councilwoman Mary Katherine Greenlaw said. Each year, when council members start looking at their budget, the things they can find to cut without eliminating major services like police and fire protection usually amount to tens of thousands of dollars apiece. Finding $866,000 to cut would require major changes in the level of services the city provides. "We're talking $866,000 this would generate," Councilman Brad Ellis said. "Find that in the budget." Still, Vice Mayor Kerry Devine said the city should start talking about what services should be on the table when it comes time to cut. She proposed that the council start that discussion at its Nov. 13 retreat, before voting on the tax increase.
Perma-link: http://www.fredericksburg.com/blogs/citybeat/index_html?blogger_id=20&p=1256688758
Tags: taxes
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That's more than $15 million lower than the price tag council members were looking at for courts this time last year. 
Emily Battle covers Fredericksburg government for The Free Lance-Star.
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