Press Rewind podcast
No time to read our weekly recap newsletter? Then listen to this. It’s the Press Rewind podcast, which will catch you up on top headlines in five minutes or less.
The week’s top stories
-The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has issued Caroline County a permit to withdraw 9 million gallons of water per day from the Rappahannock River for residential use in the towns of Port Royal and Bowling Green as well as other parts of the county. But the site where the water intake facility for the project would be is the subject of a legal battle between Caroline and a farmer who objects to the locality taking his land through eminent domain. Taft Coghill Jr. has the latest in this ongoing story.
-Spotsylvania County’s Board of Supervisors last week implemented design standards for data centers. But the regulations, which stipulate matters such as how far the technology businesses must be from homes, may not last long. That’s because the vote in favor of the rules was 4-3, and the dissenting trio will be joined next year by a new supervisor who also believes data center regulation should be handled by granting permits on a case-by-case basis, Coghill reports.
-In other data center news, the Fredericksburg Planning Commission agreed unanimously Wednesday to recommend City Council deny a data center project proposed near Cowan Boulevard, Route 3 and Interstate 95. The action was actually the second time the commission has recommended disapproval. A previous application for the project came before the body in July, Joey LoMonaco writes.
-Spotsylvania’s School Board voted last week to spend $1 million to buy weapons-detection systems for the county’s seven middle schools. The move follows similar systems being purchased for the locality’s five high schools as well as the Spotsylvania Career and Technical Center and the John J. Wright Educational and Cultural Center. Spotsylvania also has placed systems at high school football games and at school board meetings, Coghill reports.
-A recount on Tuesday confirmed incumbent Spotsylvania Supervisor Chris Yakabouski defeated challenger Baron Braswell in the election for the Battlefield District seat on the county board. The margin of victory was a mere 16 votes as Yakabouski finished with 3,913 votes to Braswell’s 3,897. The opponents had a cordial conversation after the race was finally decided, Coghill writes.
Go figures (numbers in the news)
1 — Number of mechanical bulls in downtown Fredericksburg after a restaurant called Stockyards opens next year. The business will feature the bull, dancing and live music in the former home of Jay’s Downtown Sports Lounge. Bill Freehling has more on this and other business news in Biz Beat Roundup.
What they’re saying
“The audience doesn’t realize how tiring ballet can be. One thing you learn as a ballerina is to make it look easy when you are exhausted.” –Ashley Cleaton, choreographer for “The Nutcracker.” Elizabeth Johnson-Young goes inside the Fredericksburg Ballet Centre’s version of the holiday classic in Free Time, our weekly arts and entertainment newsletter. If you want to go to the show, though, don’t dawdle. The last performance is this afternoon at 2.
Pressing on (a look at the week ahead)
-The Virginia Department of Education released its 2024-25 accountability data last week, and we’ll have a brief explanation of the new system that’s being used for evaluation along with a rundown of how each Fredericksburg-area school division performed.
