BRIEFS: NEWS NEAR YOU

By Staff Reports

Published: November 23, 2008

NEWS NEAR YOU

Caroline To help compensate for a $2.7 million shortfall in budget projections, the Caroline County Board of Supervisors has asked for 15 percent cuts in most county operations. The cuts will include schools, but not at the full 15 percent rate because that would push the county below the state's minimum level of school funding. An exact cut in school funding is still under discussion. The county has also imposed a hiring freeze and is prepared to put off capital purchases until after 2010.

Bowling Green The Caroline County town's Mall in the Hall extravaganza will be held Saturday from 4 to 7 p.m. with more than 20 merchants setting up shop in Town Hall. Admission is free and the event is family-oriented. Three restaurants will set up to serve food. There will be a wine and beer tasting, a kids corner and door prizes. For details, call (804) 633-6212.

Hopewell The Hopewell School Board will meet tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. at the School Board office, 103 N. 12th Ave., for a work session to discuss the budget and a salary study.

Cumberland The Cumberland County Planning Committee will meet tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. in the Old Clerk's Office Conference Room. On the agenda is continued discussion about development of a land-use-policy document.

Richmond Work to repair persistent settlement problems at Shockoe Plaza is set to begin Tuesday and continue through February. Richmond plans to spend about $1.1 million to stabilize the ground under the plaza near the city's parking deck. Officials say the deck's stability is not a concern. The initial work, involving high-pressure streams of grout, is expected to create moderate noise and vibration and some traffic delays. The parking lane and one westbound travel lane on Canal Street between 12th and 13th streets will be closed, and 13th Street from Shockoe Plaza to Canal Street will be limited to southbound traffic.

Hanover Because of the holiday this week, the Hanover County Board of Supervisors will have its regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday at 6 p.m. instead of Wednesday evening. The meeting will be in the same place, the county administration meeting room at 7515 County Complex Road at Hanover Courthouse.

Louisa The Louisa County Board of Supervisors appropriated $40,560 in proffers received from the Spring Creek development near Zion Crossroads for the wiring and infrastructure needed for an emergency generator at the new elementary school under construction. Moss Nuckols Elementary School is designed to be an 85,000-square-foot building housing 700 students off state Route 208 about a mile north of Interstate 64. The supervisors voted to apply the money at their meeting last week.

Colonial Heights The Colonial Heights City Council on Tuesday approved the appropriation of $7,500 for a public-safety campaign to combat underage drinking. The funds were from a grant from the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board.

AROUND THE STATE

Fredericksburg The U.S. National Slavery Museum raised 50 percent more money in 2007 than the previous year and ended the year in the black. The nonprofit group's latest tax return, obtained by The Free Lance-Star of Fredericksburg, showed that it raised $577,173 and earned $4,567 on its investments, but museum expenses consumed all but $54,690 of its income. The opening of the museum has repeatedly been pushed back. Executive Director Vonita Foster in June 2007 that she needed to raise $10 million by fall of 2007 to open a portion of the museum this year. The tax return shows less than $1 million was raised for the entire year.