A vision for the future

Story by Chris Graham

Waynesboro city leaders concluded their first-ever visioning session on Saturday with a clear direction of where they want to see the city go over the course of the next 20 years.

The next step is to put what they spent the better part of three days talking about into a formalized plan of action. Read more

State leaders figuring up real costs of Isabel

Story by Chris Graham

This time last year, Gov. Mark Warner was working with state-agency heads to figure out how to chop hundreds of millions of dollars from the biennial state budget to account for an expected revenue shortfall.

This year, the governor and state leaders are busy trying to make sure that Hurricane Isabel doesn’t throw the Commonwealth into yet another fiscal tailspin. Read more

Looking back at Hurricane Isabel

Compiled by Chris Graham 

Tim Spears was surveying the damage wrought by the South River on his downtown-Waynesboro music store Friday afternoon.

“It could’ve been a lot worse,” said Spears, owner of Tim Spears’ Music City – which is located just a city block away from the South River.

Spears estimated the damage to his store in the area of $30,000. Read more

Calm before the storm

Story by Chris Graham 

Depending on whom you believe, Hurricane Isabel is either going to enter and then leave Western Virginia like a lion – or like a lamb.

Weather forecasters are offering predictions that rainfall amounts in the Shenandoah Valley associated with the powerful storm – which is on track to make landfall in Coastal North Carolina this afternoon – will end up anywhere in the range of 3 to 12 inches. Read more

Ready to rumble: Residents prepare for Isabel

Story by Chris Graham

Greater Augusta Regional Chamber of Commerce executive director Ben Carter was thinking of Hurricane Camille on Tuesday.

Many locals do look back at Camille whenever the region is in the crosshairs of a hurricane – as is the case right now with Isabel making a beeline for Western Virginia.

But Carter wasn’t in Virginia when Camille wreaked its havoc in 1969. Read more

The perfect storm: Region braces for Hurricane Isabel

Story by Chris Graham 

Hurricane Isabel could drop as much as 15 inches of rain on the Greater Augusta County area on Thursday.

Double-digit rain totals are likely if the storm continues on its current track, Virginia state climatologist Patrick Michael told The Augusta Free Press on Monday. Read more

81+11 equals …

Column by Chris Graham 

The Virginia Department of Transportation is staring down the barrel of a $6 billion gun with regard to improvements that need to be made to Interstate 81.

And the transportation folks are working with two private outfits – Fluor Virginia and Star Solutions – to look at how the project might best be accomplished. Read more