Pool problems at VCU’s Cary Street Gym have lead to a scene with the Virginia Commonwealth University police and Richmond firefighters, including a hazmat crew.
The facility has been closed down while they figure out what is going on.
From the Times Dispatch article:
The gym was evacuated as a precaution, said Richmond Fire Battalion Chief Christine Richardson, adding that at this time they don’t believe there’s any immediate risk to anyone in the area.
From FaceBook event page:
A Joint Event with the support of the Central Virginia Section of the American Society of Mechanial Enginners (ASME); the American Society of Metals (ASM), the Richmond Joint Engineers Council (RJEC), and the Penninsula Engineers Council (PEC), and the American Civil War Museum.
Several professional mechanical engineering societies have come together to sponser an evening of industrial history in Richmond!
The evening starts with a brief tour of Historic Tredegar, begining at 4:30 PM; attendees are free to explore the grounds until 5:30. The tour will be given by Nathan Vernon Madison, an historical consultant to the museum and co-director of The Richmond Economic History Project, a non-profit organization concerned with researching and digitizing the industrial, economic and infrastructural history of Richmond.
At 6:00 a social, with beverages, snacks, and Bottoms Up Pizza, will be held at VCU’s School of Engineering, with a lecture and presentation begining at 6:45, by Mr. Madison, regarding the history of Tredegar and its machinery, as well as the James River and Kanwaha Canal and the power it brought to the myriad of industries across Richmond in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Thursday, September 21, 2017
Historic Tredegar
500 Tredegar St.
RichmondVCU School of Engineering
401 W. Main St.
23220 East Engineering Hall, Room E1232
Richmond4:30 – 5:30 PM Walk the grounds of Tredegar
6:00 – 6:40 PM Dinner/Social at VCU
6:45 – 8:00 PM Presentation at VCUTour at Tredegar is free, as is attending the lecture. A $15 fee is requested for anyone wishing to attend the social and partake in Bottom’s Up Pizza.
From Times Dispatch article:
Outdoor sirens will sound, digital signs will light up and alerts will be sent to phones and computers when Virginia Commonwealth University conducts a test of its emergency communications and alerting systems.
The full test will be conducted Wednesday at noon. In addition to sirens, it will include text messages, mass emails, desktop alerts, and notifications through social media and VCU’s website.
…
In addition to the semester test, monthly checks of the siren system are conducted at noon on the first Wednesday of each month.
More info on this previous post:
https://www.oregonhill.net/2017/06/23/put-schools-first-breaking-records-and-the-status-quo/
Open High School has been awarded a 2017 Board of Education Excellence Award.
This is the second tier in the Virginia Index Of Performance Awards. The VIP incentive program recognizes schools and divisions that exceed state and federal accountability standards and achieve excellence goals established by the governor and the board. This means Open High also met all state and federal accountability benchmarks and made significant progress toward goals for increased student achievement and expanded educational opportunities set by the board.
Oregon Hill is lucky to have such a great neighbor, which can trace its history (and protection) back to Grace Arents’ legacy.
Hopefully, this will add pressure to put ALL schools first. It would also be great to see Open High’s aging building get more fully renovated in a historically sensitive manner.
From Richmond Police Department:
For August 2-
00 Blk. N. Cherry Street between W. Main St. & Floyd Ave will be CLOSED. The hours of closure will be from 6 AM to 6 PM. VCU has requested this closure.
Miles in his Shoes is a new video series produced by University Student Commons and Activities (USC&A) in order to showcase many of the premiere locations in Richmond, VA. The series is hosted by Miles Hopkins, marketing assistant for USC&A and a creative and strategic advertising senior. This series will give new students a chance to explore the city vicariously through Hopkins, a Richmond native.
While some Richmonders discuss how to deal wth the past, others are acting on its future.
The Richmond Crusade for Voters (a historic black civil rights group) gathered over 6,000 signatures on primary election day, which may be a new record for petitioning on one day! The signatures are for www.PutSchoolsFirst.org, a petition for a future voter referendum to make school modernization first priority in the City budget planning. It’s important to note that this is revenue-neutral and allows for proper adjustment with City Council’s input. For the petition language, please visit the website.
In addition, The Sierra Club Falls of the James, an (almost all white) environmental group, is supporting the www.putschoolsfirst.org petition/referendum campaign, adding that school modernization should include green building and solar energy (other Virginia localities like Charlottesville and Arlington are doing it, why not Richmond?).
Despite some of the projections in the local corporate media, this school modernization effort is not ‘against’ anyone, not Mayor Stoney, not his ‘Education Compact’. It is neutral other than stating that the status quo is unacceptable.
It’s worth noting the grassroots aspect of this and it comes after many previous grassroots movements, including from Oregon Hill’s Open High School.
Right now, the Richmond Crusade for Voters is reaching out to black churches across the City, and the Sierra Club is reaching out to like minded environmental organizations. Hopefully more progressive groups will reach across racial lines and join this very important school modernization effort. To paraphrase Dr. King again, If not now, when?
From a parent:
At Open High, students are grouped into families. As a school, we will be hosting an Art and Talent Show, to be held on from 5:30-8 pm on Thursday, June 1, at Clark Springs Elementary School.
We will have food, art work for sale, a fashion show, a hair show, dancing , spoken word, a taco bar and dessert for sale… all wrapped up into one evening with musical accompaniment.
PROCEEDS FROM THE AUCTION GO TO SUPPLIES FOR THE ART DEPT. AND PROCEEDS FROM THE FOOD GO TO THE OPEN HIGH PTSA.
Writer Anna Journey was recently interviewed for VCU News. A VCU creative writing alumna who now teaches at University of Southern California, she is becoming well now for her poetry and essays. Her latest work, “An Arrangement of Skin”, is receiving a lot of praise.
In the interview, she is asked about her time at VCU-
Living in Richmond, too, profoundly influenced my development as a writer. I moved from Northern Virginia to Richmond when I was 18 and left for my doctoral studies in Texas just before I turned 27. So I came of age in Richmond, became more of my adult self there. I don’t think I recognized how thoroughly the character of the city shaped my sensibility until I’d moved away. I lived for a number of years in Oregon Hill, just three blocks down from the Sothern Gothic sprawl of Hollywood Cemetery, so that landscape — of mortality, of lavish visual and historical density — lodged itself in my consciousness.