The new WMRA …

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] Some changes are in store at WMRA. WMRA-90.7FM will become the home of a host of NPR-produced news and culture shows that are currently airing on sister station WEMC-91.7FM. “Many listeners have been asking us for NPR’s ‘Fresh Air,’ ‘Talk of the Nation’ and other information programs,” said Tom DuVal,…

Downtown vs. The West End: Is economic development a zero-sum game?

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] It wasn’t that there was much left downtown, but Phil Lemons knew that whatever traffic there had been before the West End took off with the opening of Wal-Mart in Waynesboro in 2003 was pretty much going, going, gone. “Having experienced it in other towns, whenever a shopping center comes…

The more downtowns change, the more they stay the same

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] Somebody asked Don Morris to sign a petition protesting the pending arrival of Wal-Mart in Waynesboro six years ago. That the longtime Downtown Waynesboro business owner didn’t is an indication of where his thoughts are on economic-development issues. “That to me was a no-brainer. Staunton had a Wal-Mart, Staunton had…

Groups file suit to block 81 widening

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] A lawsuit is not a great option when your goal is to get government to reconsider what it’s doing relative to a road project. But the group that filed suit in federal court in Charlottesville on Monday to block further movement toward a massive reconstruction of Interstate 81 in Western…

I-81, taxpayer-funded ambulance rides, UVa. research

Chris Graham

Winners and Losers column by Chris Graham [email protected] PUSH: VDOT and I-81 I dunno – seems to me that when citizens groups are resorting to filing lawsuits to try to block something that a government agency is doing, they must be feeling that the political process isn’t working the way they want it to. |That’s…

Center worries about long-term impact of improvement schedule on 81

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] The short-term worry is about a planned seven-mile improvement project on Interstate 81 in Rockbridge County. The longer-term worry is about the rest of the 325 miles of I-81 in Western Virginia. “That’s the biggest concern that I have – because this seven-mile project, while it is overly broad, and…