Press Rewind podcast
The Press Rewind podcast would ordinarily catch you up on last week’s top headlines in five minutes or less. But this week, your podcaster has a cold — and almost no voice. So listen up next week, friends, when we should be back to normal!
The week’s top stories
-The Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors and county school board agreed on the importance of career and technical education at a joint meeting last week. But, with tight economic times, teaching positions in welding, culinary arts and health science were still cut from the latest schools budget proposal for the next fiscal year. Spotsylvania schools Chief Financial Officer Phillip Trayer said the division had to trim $3.4 million to balance its budget to the revenue it expects to receive from the board of supervisors and the state, Taft Coghill Jr. reports.
-In other Spotsylvania budget news, two school board members are upset that $100,000 for the schools to begin participating in the FBI’s Rap Back Service program is on the chopping block. Rap Back would give the school division real-time, ongoing notifications of criminal activity, such as arrests, charges and convictions for its employees, replacing one-time, manual background checks. Superintendent Clint Mitchell said he supports the program, but that the allotted funds wouldn’t have allowed the division to implement it fully, Coghill writes.
-Three Spotsylvania High School seniors were killed in a single-vehicle crash in the 5300 block of Lewiston Road on Friday night. Preliminary findings indicate a 2002 Mercedes coupe left the right side of the road and struck a tree, authorities said, and speed appears to be a contributing factor. The victims, an 18-year-old and two 17-year-olds were set to graduate in May.
-The Stafford Planning Commission voted 4-3 on Wednesday night to recommend the board of supervisors approve a rezoning for a Buc-ee’s travel center in the center of the county and a conditional-use permit for it to operate. The decision was somewhat of a surprise because the majority of speakers at a public hearing Wednesday were against the move, though Buc-ee’s is a popular national chain.
-The University of Mary Washington and its students, alumni and supporters got an early Easter present last weekend as the school’s men’s basketball team made the Division III national championship game. Coghill has the story and the Free Press will be highlighting the lead-up to the big game this week.
Go figures (numbers in the news)
7/1 — as in July 1. All Virginia food establishments are required to stop using Styrofoam containers by this date under legislation enacted in 2021 by the General Assembly. Violators could receive civil penalties of up to $50 per day. Bill Freehling has more on this and other business news in Biz Beat Roundup.
What they’re saying
“Our whole thing is, we want kids to not lose out on the magic of being a kid.” -Elisa Bonilla, executive director of Spreading Smiles. She was talking about volunteers filling and packaging about 860 Easter baskets for children to be distributed through school divisions in the region and nonprofits. Kathy Knotts has the whole story in Free Time, our weekly arts and entertainment newsletter.
