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Highwoods
development proposes moving baseball from the Boulevard to the Shockoe Center they plan for downtown. While
sensible, thoughtful development of the Boulevard (and Shockoe Bottom) is welcome with open arms, and the construction
of a new baseball complex is also more than welcomed, moving baseball downtown is NOT in the best interest of the
Northside community.
Northside
neighborhoods are forming a committee of neighborhood representatives to discuss the retail development of the Boulevard.
Whether the stadium stays or goes, retail is coming, so let's make it something we can be proud of. We are Northside,
not Short Pump. Add your voice to this important issue. Contact David Curtis ASAP if you would like to be a part
of this committee.
*****
STORMWATER MANAGEMENT
FEE INFO:
For the average home
in Rosedale, as the proposal stands currently, we will be paying $45 per year. This is HALF of what the original proposal
was when first drafted a year ago. A small price to pay if it will help fix the flooding problems we have in Rosedale.
Installing rain barrels
& replacing paved parking areas with water permeable pavers are ways to reduce that annual fee even more.
For more information,
go to the city's web site (on the "handy links" page of our web site), click on Dept. of Public Works, and click on Stormwater
Management. You can see the community presentation listed there.
*****
From
the Acting CAO, Chris Beschler:
A
press release was issued today announcing that we're lowering the Purchased Gas Cost (PGC) rate from $11.85
to $8.95, a 24% reduction. This is due to the drop we've seen in the commodity pricing for natural gas.
As I'm sure
you know, we are prohibited by law to mark up the commodity cost to our customers. We, like all gas companies, public and
private, must charge our customer only what we pay for gas with no profit.
Gas costs have come down a few months ago.
The reason there was a delay in us lowering the PGC was that last winter, natural gas costs began a dramatic rise in price,
peaking in April at about $14. They stayed at that level for several more months, but we continued to charge a below market
price of $10.75. (We didn't raise our PGC rate until August, 2008).
Our reason for holding the PGC was that gasoline
was around $4.00 a gallon and Dominion announced an 18% rate increase. We didn't want to add to the consumer burden of higher
commodity costs, hoping the natural gas markets would drop in price.
During this time, we ran up a $9 million shortfall
between what the utility paid for gas and what we charged our customers. We had to make this difference up, hence the delay
until now for us to lower the PGC even though natural gas pricing began declining late last fall.
*****
CITY CELEBRATES NEW STORE IN BELLEVUE
RICHMOND,
VIRGINIA—On Friday, December 5, 2008, at 3 p.m., City officials welcome Richmond’s newest consignment store,
ReFinery, Inc., which opens this month at 1221 Bellevue Avenue in North Richmond’s Bellevue neighborhood.
Roy
Reynolds, president of the Bellevue Civic Association, says, “It is my pleasure to welcome ReFinery to the retail
core of Bellevue. ReFinery is the newest addition to the retail mix that thrives in this vibrant and sought after neighborhood,
where patrons can walk to services. We wish Ms. O’Neal every success.”
***
New Webmapper Applications Available on the City Website
The city recently launched
new web-based mapping applications. We are excited to be able to offer this type of information to the citizens and
business owners of the city via our website.
The first, Parcel Mapper, shows every parcel in the city.
When a parcel is selected, the property search information displays.
The second, Zoning Mapper,
shows all zoning information citywide.
Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with
these new applications. Follow the link http://www.richmondgov.com/departments/gis/gisparcelmapper.aspx to get started. If clicking the link doesn’t open a web browser window, just copy and paste the link into the
address bar on your browser.
We hope you find web-based mapping useful. We
will keep you apprised as additional information tools are made available.
Mark E. Flanary
GIS Analyst, Department of Community
Development
City Hall, Room 510
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ROSEDALE HAS DONE IT AGAIN!
Due entirely to the generousity of the neighbors
of Rosedale and Christ Ascension Episcopal Church, Saturday, September 13 saw a record amount of school supplies and non-perishables
collected for Holton Elementary and the Central VA Food Bank!
The 535 school supply items, including everything from pencils to
backpacks, were donated to Linwood Holton Elementary to help out the homeless and low income population of students there.
There were so many supplies, they will be sharing the excess with some of the other elementary schools in the area.
Also, 481 pounds of non-perishables were collected to help out the
Central VA Food Bank! The bins at the bank are all but completely empty. The situation there is critical.
Remembering that people are hungry all year, and not just at the holidays, Rosedale has laid down a challenge to all area
neighborhoods and businesses: Hold a food drive NOW, and meet or (hopefully) beat our 481 pounds!
It's not hard! Just do it, and do it NOW! CVFB is located at the end of Rhoadmiller, off Hermitage
Rd., behind the Diamond. They'd love to see you with your boxes and bags of goods!!
This is Rosedale's 2-part food drive for CVFB each year.
We do this at the beginning of summer in June, when the kids get out of school, and now, at the end of summer, to help
replenish after the kids go back. Summer is when the food bank is hardest hit, so please keep this in mind when planning
your food drives at work. Thank you.
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Great News! Edgehill Civic and Sherwood Park
Civic have both signed on to partner with Rosedale in our food drives for '09, AND NOW SO HAS BELLEVUE!! Wonderful news
for our friends at CVFB! Stay tuned for more updates.
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