The week’s top stories
-A place where you used to go to get well is envisioned as turning into a place you call home in Fredericksburg, as the former site of Mary Washington Hospital would be converted into 242 apartments and commercial space. The project, however, needs city council approval, Joey LoMonaco reports.
-“Park Place” is no longer just for the “Monopoly” board game. The Vakos Companies are renovating the 26,000-square-foot, two-story building at 520 William St. in downtown Fredericksburg, and the development is called “Park Place on William.” Bill Freehling has this news and other business notes in Biz Beat Roundup.
-A dispute over stormwater management between residents of the Virginia Heritage at Lee’s Parke subdivision and Spotsylvania County officials continued last week with no end in sight. Taft Coghill Jr. has the details.
-Civil War re-enactors are a familiar sight in the Fredericksburg area, as are those portraying the Revolutionary War. But the amateur historians who make up the Rappahannock Whalers celebrate another piece of the past: the sea shanty. Kathy Knotts has their story in Free Time, our weekly entertainment newsletter.
-Live in Fredericksburg’s Ward 3 and want to be on the city’s School Board — at least, until the end of the year? You’ve got until tomorrow to submit an application. The position is opening because Ward 3 representative Jen Boyd has resigned because she’s no longer living primarily in the city, LoMonaco writes.
Go figures (numbers in the news)
122 — Size (in acres) of a proposed solar farm in King George on land owned by County Attorney Richard Stuart, who is also a Republican state senator. The project might never see the light of day, though. The King George Planning Commission voted 4-1 last week to recommend the Board of Supervisors deny it.
Scenes from the sideline
Photojournalist Jeff Kearney captured the action at Maury Stadium on Friday night.
What they’re saying
“Unless something’s wrong with you and you’re like, ‘I want everyone to be sick, unhappy and dying,’ everyone wants everyone to be happy, have a good life and succeed.” – Nick Ignacio, one of three candidates for the Battlefield District seat on the Spotsylvania County School Board. The others are Jennifer Morgan Craig-Ford and James King. Ignacio was talking about how people can have the same goal in mind but different ideas on how to approach it.
Forum footage
-The Free Press held the second of its local candidate forums last week at Germanna Community College’s Stafford County Center. Here’s video of the event, which featured hopefuls for Stafford Board of Supervisors and School Board:
From the editor’s desk
I think we should all be more like Michael.
Michael was one of my Uber drivers in New Orleans this past week, where I was in town to attend the Institute for Nonprofit News Awards. Our serial podcast, “The Tribe,” was nominated as a finalist for the Insight Award for Explanatory Journalism. (We didn’t win, but simply being mentioned in the same breath as some of the other superlative works was a triumph).
But back to Michael. En route to Turkey and the Wolf, a singularly scrumptious sandwich shop known for its fried bologna and collard melts, he told me a bit about himself. A lifelong resident of “The Big Easy” and a former shift supervisor at a plant, he drives for the ride-sharing service a couple of days a week in retirement, schleping tourists to jazz bars and gumbo joints.
“Just something to do,” he told me.
When I observed that everyone I’d encountered in the city, both in the shameless French Quarter and beyond, was incredibly friendly, Michael assured me that it was no coincidence.
Over the next three miles and 15 minutes, we bonded over a core shared value: Southern hospitality. Every interaction, we agreed, presents a fleeting opportunity.
You can either care enough to ask how someone is doing — a micro welfare check if you will — or not. The former option costs only a few seconds of time but has the power to change the trajectory of someone’s day.
Twenty years after Hurricane Katrina, it’s clear New Orleans hasn’t forgotten: All we really have are our neighbors.
—Joey LoMonaco
