Westover Hills Elementary has been awarded a $3,000 Dominion Educational Partnership Grant for this school year. The school was one of 105 (and 2 in Richmond) winners among 400 who submitted applications.

Per the RPS release, “the grant will fund an outdoor learning center to provide students with fun, hands-on, multi-sensory math and science activities. The center will create a habitat for birds and butterflies and also include gardens for vegetables, herbs and flowers.”

The S&K Mini Mart wants to sell beer between 9PM & Midnight and has support from a City Councilman, but a group of residents from Woodland Heights & Swansboro isn’t crazy about the idea of late-night sales of singles. The T-D has the details, as an ABC decision looms.

A would-be robber was fatally shot by a clerk at the Stratford Hills Baskin-Robbins tonight.

Jess from the PH School Initiative passes along an update:

We are now in the process of editing our charter application! It looks like all is going according to our timeline of submitting it to the school board by mid September.

We have an exciting announcement for those of you who thought you might live too far out of our proposed radius of 1 mile from the school. According to the law, we have to offer admission to all Richmond residents if we do not fill to capacity. While we will strive to keep Patrick Henry School of Science and Arts a neighborhood school, we are gratified to know that many of our friends in surrounding neighborhoods will not be excluded from Richmond’s first true charter school.

So, what’s stopping you from getting involved? Your child could be in our first class of 2008! Come to our next meeting at the Berryman Center(W. 32ND /McDonough) every Tuesday at 8:00 p.m.

Channel 6 and the T-D are reporting the theft of various pieces of equipment, including 24 LCD TVs, from the PH/Norrell Elementary building. The official word from RPS is that “significant action” has been taken, but no names or details have yet been released.

Reader Mary sent along the following good news:

Thought you (and your local readers?) might be interested to know that Verizon knocked on my door today to ask if they could use my personal easement to lay fiber optic cable in my neighborhood, (I live sorta near Forest View rescue squad). I gave them permission, and they said that the area should have fiber optic tv and internet (and I guess phone service, too?) by Easter 2008.

FiOS combined with an effort such as Richmond Free Wireless could open up some interesting possibilities.

The T-D has a preview piece today as well.

A couple of questions from readers:

Where did the new crepe myrtles go along Forest Hill? They were in the ground one day and being removed the next day.

And one that I’ve been wondering myself, especially as I sat at the intersection for 15 minutes without movement this morning:

What’s up with the stoplights at Forest Hill and Jahnke lately? They’ve been on “flash” for most of the last few weekends and even some weekdays. I saw several near-collisions just [Sunday]. Even the City of Richmond wouldn’t be stupid enough to make this a full-time event, would they?

Via the Forest Hill Neighborhood Association, we’ve learned of an armed robbery on W. 47th Street last night, wherein “a black male approached a resident exiting their vehicle on 47th Street and displayed a handgun. After robbing the resident the black male subject took off on foot running northbound towards the apartments on Forest Hill.”

Anyone with additional information to add is urged to contact Noah Rogers at 358-8340 or noahrogers@comcast.net.

The 3rd Precinct’s Problem Solving Workshop was held yesterday at Lucille Brown Middle School. Adrian Bruns has this summary of the day’s events:

Other than the lack of air conditioning, the event was a success. There were several issues to address our area of sector 312, but we chose to tackle shed break-ins as an important, and solvable, problem in our neighborhood (also confirmed as a ‘gateway’ crime).

Why shed and outhouse break-ins as a focal point when there are several, more aggressive crimes that have taken place as of late? We defined, and confirmed with the local PD, the premise of minor shed burglary as deeming our neighborhoods vulnerable and acting as the catalyst to other, more serious crimes. The idea is to defuse any option of criminal activity and starting with the most prevalent (shed and outhouse burglary) will hopefully send us away from the top of the criminal target list.

Anyone is welcome and encouraged to join myself and others from the workshop next Saturday, Sept. 29, at picnic shelter #1 at FHP to take a first step (9 AM):

1. The Group and office Gracia (one of Lt. Booth’s team members) will walk about three blocks of alleys on both sides of New Kent, photograph the sheds, and identify those with obvious defects such as no lock or no lights.

2. Over the following 30 days, the group will contact the shed owners and encourage them to install, as appropriate, locks, lights, and alarms.

3. The goal is to eliminate shed break-ins in the selected area and, ultimately, to expand the project to other parts of the Forest Hill, Westover Hills, and nearby areas.

Last night’s City Council meeting, a tense affair from the beginning, resulted in City Council voting 8-1 to join the School Board’s lawsuit against the Mayor. 4th District rep Kathy Graziano is not exactly known for her fiery rhetoric, but her comment “To me, it doesn’t even sound like the United States.” is making the rounds of all the local media this morning. The 5th District’s Marty Jewell was the sole vote against joining the suit, but he may have summed up the whole situation the best: “It was just butt-ugly.”

How true, Marty.

A reader asked to have this missive posted. A similar guy walked by several times, but never approached, while I was working on the gutters this past Saturday…

I had a middle-aged African American guy, slight build, no taller than 5′9″
ring my doorbell this AM who handed me his business card and proceeded to
point out issues with my roof. The name on his business card is Thomas
Taylor and it gives several contact phone numbers. While pointing out
issues, he proceeds to climb up a ladder to show me problems on my side
porch 1st floor roof. At no point did I give him permission to get off the
ladder onto my roof. Next thing I know, he is on my roof pulling up my
chimney liner, showing bricks and slates that are unattached, etc. Long
story short, he wants to start the job immediately. I told him I would
speak to my husband and let him know. He didn’t put back any of the slates
he has moved and there is a brick at the top of my chimney that is sitting
at a precarious angle. I just wanted him off my roof. I now have a 1 foot
square area on my roof (that may very well need repair) that is exposed!
Needless to say, I chose not to go with him, even though the quote dropped
from $4000 to $2200 when I said no the first time. I don’t know that he is
a criminal per say, but he is ringing door bells looking for repair work to
do and he is fairly pushy(climbing on my roof without my permission)and
doesn’t want to hear no. As I said no to the roof work, he was still trying
to clean my gutters!! He claimed to have done work for my neighbor who I
confirmed doesn’t know him from Adam (he rang his doorbell as well).

My other neighbor called the police because she didn’t know what he was all
about and he had a big landscaper’s trailer he was pulling that didn’t have
anything on it. I just wanted to make others aware so they do not end up
like me with exposed roofing boards and bricks from their chimney sitting
precariously! He is driving an older model white van with no markings and
pulling a long black trailer that may have ladders but I didn’t see anything
on it! He has a guy with him but I was uncertain whether he may be biracial
or Hispanic. He is probably 10 years younger with facial hair cut in a trim
line around his chin. He is probably about the same height but weighs
~200lbs. The police were going to try to locate them and tell them to move
on.

I have called Paul Saunders roofing for potential repair work and as I was
sharing my story, the receptionist tells me of a guy named Thomas (she
couldn’t remember his last name) who used to work Windsor Farms in the same
fashion. We believe with the similarities to the story that this is indeed
the same guy!

Councilwoman Kathy Graziano, Richmond City Council, Fourth District, announced last night the scheduling of a 2007 Richmond Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day.

During the budget process this year, Richmond City Council mandated a Richmond Household Hazardous Waste Collection Program and earmarked $150,000 for its implementation. The new program directs the Richmond Department of Public Works to establish an internal program or hire an outside vendor to operate it. Details of the plan were presented last night during the Richmond City Council Land Use, Housing and Transportation Committee, chaired by Councilwoman Graziano.

“This is an important first step in the creation of a comprehensive hazardous waste collection program for homeowners,” says Graziano. “It will go a long way in helping protect Richmond citizens, families and children from the dangers of hazardous waste.”

In 2006 Richmond City Council adopted an ordinance, patroned by Councilwoman Graziano and Councilman Chris Hilbert, mandating the program, but the Administration refused to implement it.

The Richmond Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day is scheduled to take place November 17, 2007 from noon to 4:00 pm. This free-of-charge event is scheduled as a community drop-off and will take place in the front left parking lot of the Richmond Diamond. Entrance will be from the Avenue of Champions with an exit onto Boulevard. Disposal of household hazardous waste is open to Richmond residents only, no businesses or residents of other localities will be permitted. Each participant must bring proof of Richmond residency. The Day will also include recycling of electronics, which is open to participants from any locality, and includes a small fee.

For more information, please call David Hathcock, at 320-2454.

Tonight is the next community meeting to update the Downtown Master Plan, 6:30 at the Renaissance Conference Center (107 W. Broad). As I mentioned before, this process doesn’t directly relate to our neighborhoods, but it does impact us all in a greater sense.

If you missed all the hoopla the first time around, John Sarvay has a blow-by-blow archive of where we are and how we got here.