The week’s top stories
-Many political observers thought she was a longshot to win, but win she did: Spotsylvania County School Board member Nicole Cole defeated Del. Bobby Orrock, the longest-serving current delegate in Virginia, on Tuesday in an election that also saw some history made in Stafford County. Taft Coghill Jr. and yours truly have the story.
-Tuesday also brought change to the Stafford Board of Supervisors. Democrats Maya Guy in the Aquia District and Kecia Evans in the Falmouth District won their races, which means their party will have a majority on the board next year.
-Not to be outdone, Tuesday’s election outcome in Fredericksburg means that, next year, City Council will have what is believed to be its first female majority. Joy Crump will also be sworn in as the first Black woman to serve on the council, Joey LoMonaco reports.
-Spotsylvania’s Board of Supervisors elections last week, meanwhile, saw data center critics win easily. Incumbent Lee Hill District Supervisor Lori Hayes and Berkeley District challenger David Goosman, who favor requiring a special-use permit for data centers in industrially zoned areas, both were victorious, Coghill writes.
-Micah Ecumenical Ministries’ Jeremiah Community project in Fredericksburg has received a $1.25 million grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta. The funding will go toward building 50 multi-family units at the $17.5 million development, Bill Freehling reports in Biz Beat Roundup.
Go figures (numbers in the news)
24 — Number of votes that separate the candidates in the race for the Battlefield District seat on the Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors. At the end of Tuesday night, incumbent Supervisor Chris Yakabouski led challenger Baron Braswell 3,856 votes to 3,832 votes, but at least 102 ballots were still to be counted last week.
What they’re saying
–“You had no idea where you were seated and what the seating arrangement was. It was pretty trippy.” –Lynn McFadden, owner of River’s Edge Healing Arts. She was talking about a concert where the audience was blindfolded. A similar event will be held next weekend at McFadden’s establishment, Stephen Hu writes in Free Time, our weekly arts and entertainment newsletter.
Sunday long read
Sixty years ago, “school choice” had a very different meaning in Virginia. Taft Coghill has the previously-untold story of the 15 Caroline County students — 13 high schoolers and two elementary school siblings — who integrated the school system in 1965.
