Press Rewind podcast
No time to read our weekly recap newsletter? Then listen up: It’s the Press Rewind podcast, which will catch you up on top headlines in five minutes or less. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
The week’s top stories
-Rep. Eugene Vindman, in Stafford recently to celebrate a federal grant for the county sheriff’s office, gave a withering review of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address. And, in doing so, he offered words that now seem prescient. “We could be literally days away from a major war in the Middle East,” he said. That was one day before the U.S. and Israel began an assault on Iran.
-The Stafford County Board of Supervisors last week agreed to advertise a real-estate tax rate of $0.985 per $100 of assessed value for the next fiscal year, up from the current figure of $0.9236. The $0.985 rate was what County Administrator Bill Ashton proposed last month when he presented a $1.12 billion local government budget for fiscal year 2027. But the supervisors’ vote wasn’t the final word on the tax rate. It just sets a rate ceiling. The board can later approve a lower levy but not a higher one.
-The Fredericksburg School Board voted last week to approve Superintendent Marci Catlett’s $68.4 million proposed education budget for the next fiscal year. It represents a 5.7% increase from the current spending plan, and it will now be presented to Fredericksburg’s City Council, which has the final say on the municipality’s overall budget, Joey LoMonaco reports.
.-The Massaponax High School boys basketball team saw its season come to an end Friday night, losing to Norview in the state semifinals. Devin Payne has the story of the last Panthers’ victory of the season.
-Sisters Jenna Bowen and Sandra Duff recently traded students for sweets. They left jobs with the King George County schools to open a Kilwins candy and ice cream franchise in Fredericksburg after falling in love with the brand at a Charlottesville location. Kathy Knotts has more on this new downtown delicacy in Free Time, our weekly features newsletter.
Go figures (numbers in the news)
1,612 — pounds of unused, packaged food left behind at the retcently closed Logan’s Roadhouse at the Spotsylvania Towne Centre. Cafaro, the owner of the mall, donated the food to the Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank. Bill Freehling has more on this and other business news in Biz Beat Roundup.
What they’re saying
“They voted on it in 2022, so we wouldn’t have to deal with this crap again. But here we are.” -William Davis, vice chairman of the King George County Board of Supervisors. He was talking about the last vote on congressional redistricting in light of a new referendum that could allow the boundaries to be changed again.
Pressing on (a look at the week ahead)
-The Fredericksburg City Council will take up its Fiscal Year 2027 budget for the first time Tuesday, and we’ll be there to let you know the economic news.
