Aug. 12 Newsletter: This old boat
Weather: High of 92 with another chance for afternoon storms.
On this date in 1995, Hurricane Connie dumps 9 inches of rain on the city, one of the largest single-day totals ever.
Today's newsletter sponsored by Virginia Commonwealth University. As a top 20% global university, Virginia Commonwealth University is an unparalleled powerhouse of innovation and creative problem solving. VCU attacks challenges as opportunities. It's truly a university unlike any you’ve ever seen.
For sale at Richmond marina: One of the last surviving WWI boats. Needs work.
The Katie doesn’t look like much at first sight — relatively small, weatherbeaten, very obviously showing its age, which is roughly about 110 years. Yet the boat’s history is among the more unique in the U.S.: It is reportedly among the scant few World War I-era U.S. Navy ships still afloat today.
The boat is cheap ($5,000), but its owner says needed repairs will take at least $20,000. He's hoping to find the right person to bring it back to life. Read more here.
Fired RPS facilities director is hired by one of the district’s contractors
Ronald “Bobby” Hathaway, the former director of facilities for Richmond Public Schools, is now working at Temperature Control Mechanical Services, an HVAC company based in Hanover County that has done contracted work within Richmond schools.
RPS said Hathaway’s new employers were informed that he is not allowed on RPS grounds. Read more here.
ALSO IN EDUCATION: Free CPR certification program offered for RPS educators
City posts map showing hundreds of planned road safety projects
Richmond’s newly formed Department of Transportation says hundreds of “quick-build safety improvements” are coming to city streets this fall and posted a neighborhood by neighborhood map showing what residents can expect.
- In one example, intersections along Arthur Ashe Boulevard will be painted, and no parking signs will be installed near the crosswalks.
The city’s online map currently lists 244 projects and will be updated as the work progresses. Read more here.
As NASCAR joins the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, we took a look through the museum's closet
NASCAR makes its annual stop at Richmond Raceway this weekend, but first the track donated a chunk of its historic asphalt to the Virginia Museum of History and Culture.
The Richmonder asked the museum what other sorts of unusual things we might find in the collection, a list that included the scarf that inspired UVA to switch its colors from red and gray to blue and orange in the late 1880s (above). Read more here.
Today's sponsor
VCU researcher Carolyn Hawley shines the light – and leads the way – on the national challenge of gambling addiction
Carolyn Hawley, Ph.D., professor in Virginia Commonwealth University’s College of Health Professions and director of the Virginia Partnership for Gaming and Health, helped create one of the nation’s first comprehensive systems for treatment, recovery and prevention of gambling addiction.
Read more about how Carolyn Hawley is creating a lifeline for countless people grappling with gambling addiction – and establishing a framework that has allowed Virginia to emerge as a national model for gambling health infrastructure.
Coach Loretta Watson has been cheering on Richmond’s girls for 30 years
Watson has had a 30-year legacy coaching cheer within RPS schools, beginning in 1996 at East End Middle (Now Franklin Military Academy) before heading over to MLK Middle in 2005.
“I grew up in the same projects that they're from. I know what it's like. I absolutely know what it's like to live in the projects and things happen,” she said. Read more here.
In other news
- Public housing board member resigns, citing ‘loss of confidence in leadership’ (Times-Dispatch)
- RRHA's board Chairman said Barrett Hardiman's public comments calling for the CEO to resign "impacted the order of the board."
- Spoiled for Choice: Born out of the pandemic, the microschools movement takes off (Richmond Magazine)
- Parents and educators fed up with remote learning began to rethink education altogether, building on an undercurrent that had been growing for years.
- Giant hummingbirds land at Richmond International Airport (Axios Richmond)
- "Travel Companions," the 24-foot-tall sculpture, features the state flower and a trio of hummingbirds, and sits between the two parking garages.
The editor's desk
The first stop on our Chesterfield tour is in the books (Mugshot Coffee). New Report for America corps member Eleanor Shaw and I will be at Perk! in Bon Air today at 2 p.m. See more stops here!
Michael Phillips, founder
mphillips@richmonder.org
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