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May 7 Newsletter: Tax rebate check delay

Weather: A super pleasant week continues. High of 79.

On this date in 1979, Madison County wins its appeal and is allowed to keep its post office, which was scheduled for closure as a cost-cutting move by the USPS.

Breaking news last night: Richmond School Board extends Superintendent Jason Kamras’ contract for four years

Officials say correct tax rebate checks should go out by June 30

After being promised rebate checks late last year, city homeowners will have to wait a little longer to get them.

  • In an initial batch, about 8,000 checks were written to the same name, the "Hartshorn Community Council."
  • When those checks were canceled, some valid checks were also canceled, leading at least 69 people to bounce an otherwise valid check.
  • About 2,000 checks went to the current owner of the property, not the correct 2024 owner.

The city is waiting for the entire batch of initial checks to expire on June 16, and will reprint all the checks and send them out again at that time. Read more here.

As the city cracks down on nonprofit funding, one group got $250k outside of the traditional application process

City Council approved $250,000 last week for a group called UBU 100, which runs programming at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School.

  • The nonprofit never filed an application requesting money from the city
  • Despite receiving similarly sized grants in the past, it has filed a tax return each year certifying annual gross receipts of $50,000 or less.

Read more, including info on the group, here.

RPS, bus drivers clash over alleged strike and firing of five employees

Five RPS bus drivers were fired after the school district alleged they called out of shifts, causing the cancellation of some afterschool activities, to lobby the school board over an overtime pay policy.

  • The district is defining the action as a strike, which is illegal in Virginia
  • LiUNA Local 804, the union, said that while it encouraged members to come to the school board meeting to air their views, it did not organize the callout and it was not a strike.

The overtime pay policy has been a subject of disagreement for more than a year now. Bus drivers are paid two hours of overtime for any afterschool runs, even if they do not take that long. The school district wants to end the policy and only pay for time worked. Read more here.

(USGS)

3.0-magnitude earthquake was centered 55 miles west of Richmond

Yesterday's earthquake, which struck at 1:08 p.m., was almost three orders of magnitude less intense than the 2011 earthquake that struck in Mineral, Virginia.

  • It was the second of the month locally, though. There was a 1.6-magnitude earthquake in Short Pump last Wednesday morning.

In other news

The editor's desk

Tuesday morning it was an honor to attend the annual Communities in Schools Moving On ceremony, which celebrates some of the great work the nonprofit does in Richmond Public Schools. The stories, which will be posted here soon, were a reminder of the great work done every day in the city.

Michael Phillips, founding editor
mphillips@richmonder.org

Nominate a community hero for our 25 in '25 program, celebrating the best of Richmond. More info here.

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