Crystal Graham: Your mission – be prepared for worst-case scenario

Crystal Graham

Story by Crystal Graham Kathryn McMillan has a good reason for urging others to prepare for every possible emergency situation. Fire, flooding, even a tornado, are all possible on any given day, at any time. When a fire struck her apartment in Staunton years ago, she thankfully wasn’t home. Nor was her husband, Tony. A neighbor…

Hanna: Storm could be headed toward Valley

AFP

Story by Chris Graham [email protected] Local emergency-services officials are keeping their eyes on the Atlantic as what is now Tropical Storm Hanna makes its way up the Eastern Seaboard toward a possible rendezvous with the Shenandoah Valley and Central Virginia this weekend. “We haven’t gotten any impact statements from the Weather Service or VDEM. The…

A couple of red herrings

AFP

Fear and Loathing in Waynesboro column by Chris Graham [email protected] Nice, provocative lede to the “Can’t just blame it on the rain” story on Day One of The News Virginian’s Stormwater Strain series. “Trash, cigarette butts, oil and antifreeze assault Waynesboro’s stormwater system,” writes the NV’s Jimmy LaRoue, making us think that these are the…

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…

Is the Valley safer?

Chris Graham

The Top Story by Chris Graham The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., were a wakeup call for those involved in the emergency-services community in the Shenandoah Valley. “The big thing that came out of 9/11 was the thought that, hey, we’ve got to look at our policies and…

Is the Wayne issue driving the city elections?

Chris Graham

The Top Story by Chris Graham   It has been seven months since Waynesboro City Council decided against acting on a proposal from the Wayne Theatre Alliance to have the city participate in a public-private project to renovate the 1926 downtown landmark. You’d think from listening to the rhetoric in this spring’s city-council elections that…

The Valley Responds: A Halloween to remember

Crystal Graham

(This is the second installment in a six-part series on The Valley Responds, an effort that links the Shenandoah Valley with residents of Long Beach, Miss.)   In Long Beach, Miss., children celebrated Halloween just like most children here in Virginia. At school, the children were outside getting their faces painted – with witches and…

Study in contrasts: Monroe, Reynolds vying for Ward B council seat

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham Tom Reynolds won election to represent Ward B on Waynesboro City Council in 2000 after receiving more than 80 percent of the votes cast in his two-way race with Blue Ridge Area Food Bank chief-executive officer Marty White. On Tuesday, Reynolds, a member of the faculty at Fishburne Military School, is…

Wide open: Six candidates up for four spots on Staunton City Council

Chris Graham

Story by Chris Graham Staunton’s all at-large election system should make for an interesting time on Tuesday. Six candidates – incumbent council members Dickie Bell, Dave Metz, Dick Robinson and Rita Wilson and challengers Doug Manning and James Welsh – are running for the four seats open on the seven-member public body.