I-81 plans: A cautionary tale for all Virginians

Chris Graham

Op-Ed by Kim Sandum Just before Christmas, some of the people I work with sued the Virginia Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration over plans to expand I-81. It needed to be done. The story of I-81 is a cautionary tale for the rest of Virginia about a state agency that too often…

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…

Community group wants county, state to improve safety on Nelson highway

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] An accident that killed a mother and her two young daughters in Nelson County this summer happened 75 yards from the front door of Tommy Stafford’s office. “We knew we needed to do something,” said Stafford, the founder of Project151.org, a web portal that is serving as a launching pad…

‘Impossible’ hope

David Cox

Column by David Cox Not three months after we moved to the Valley in 1987, I got a call asking if our church could welcome, house, and support an exiled Ugandan bishop and his family of – get this – nine, in – get this – four weeks. “Impossible,” I thought. But the church, together…

Breaking down the 24th Senate race

Chris Graham

The Top Story by Chris Graham He had to fend off perhaps the fight of his political life in June with a party-primary challenge from Rockbridge County businessman Scott Sayre. With the change of seasons from summer to fall, 24th District Republican Sen. Emmett Hanger would seem to have if not the second-biggest fight of…