Come out on May 17, 2008 as the Petersburg Bureau of Police and the local motorcycle clubs partner up in the community initiative called Konnections. This is a free event — free food, drinks, games, face painting, & a lot of family FUN.
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1) Black and Gold SOL Round-up at Peabody Middle School, Saturday, May 17.
2) The Petersburg School Board will hold its 2008 Retirement Banquet on Thursday, June 5.

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The above comes from Zillow’s Home Value Trends in Petersburg. Not bad in a context of the 7.5% national decrease cited for single-family homes.

Another interesting page on their site: Zillow’s Quarterly Home Value Reports. The map gives a color-coded sense of how different areas in Richmond are doing — look for more details by hovering your mouse over the various diamonds on the map. To cite a few numbers, looks like the Fan has observed a 2.7% decline in values, while Mechanicsville has witnesed a 5.7% increase over the same period.

The American Cancer Society Relay for Life presents “Celebration of Life”. This is the 25th year of bringing communities together under the stars. The walk begins at 6pm at A. J. White Field on the campus of Petersburg High School.

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Nickel and Dimed, Joan Holden’s play based on the book “Nickel and Dimed: On (NOT) Getting By In America,” will open this Friday, May 16, at Sycamore Rouge. The play follows the story of Barbara, a middle-aged, middle-class journalist, as she tries to make a living working minimum-wage jobs. She asks: can she survive on $7 an hour?

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Occasionally the local police forward ‘Community Noteworthy’ reports. I’ve been thinking about how to present them without the site being dominated by such posts, and have decided to make a post for each calendar month under which I’ll beam up incomings every few days under the appropriate month in the comments. At least until a better idea is suggested or otherwise comes to mind.
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Click here to read the agenda for tonight’s previously advertised meeting of the Board of the Petersburg City Public Schools. This hearing, to begin at 6 p.m. in the School Board Office, concerns Section J of the Petersburg School Board Policy Manual. Section J concerns student issues and the items up for revision include but are not limited to: exclusions and exemptions from school attendance; student dress and grooming; student conduct on school buses; and student suspension or expulsion. This is a public hearing and speakers will be able to discuss anything that pertains to the subject matter of the meeting.

On Saturday, June 7 the Second Presbyterian Church, 419 W. Washington St, will be the site of lectures, music, and living history programs which will take visitors back in time to Civil War era Petersburg. From 10:00am-5:00pm, visitors can witness events that pay tribute to the soldiers and civilians of Petersburg who worked together to fight for the existence of a Confederate States of America.

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Per the P-I, folks called for full funding of police, full funding of schools, and a decrease in the tax rate. Once again (here, here, here, and here), the mandate seems to be: find a way to provide core services by making cuts elsewhere in the budget, liquidating assets, promoting business development, and/or ???, but not through an increase in real estate taxes. The article notes that in a similar context of rising assessments and an uncertain economy, Richmond has recently decreased the tax rate on real property.

This month’s Chamber Business Update Breakfast will be Tuesday, May 20, 7:30-9:00 am, at Old Towne Catering (9 W. Old St.). The guest speaker will be Ron Laux, COO of Workforce Success and Dr. Marshall Smith, John Tyler Community College. The topic of discussion will be the Military Spouse Training Program at Fort Lee, which Ron manages under a grant from Governor Kaine.

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You “Stand at the Threshold of the Infinite” and “the choices made propels you through the doorway to your destiny” was the advice given to local high school students by guest speaker Colonel (Ret) Larry Watson as the members of the Southside Virginia Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) gathered to honor the 2008 Roper Memorial Scholarship winners. Participants in the competition must be the child or grandchild of a former military service member in order to qualify for entry.
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What’s a “wassit?” you might ask? Tis this. Send in your Petersburg-specific photo submissions (with some sort of identifying info please) between now and June 15, to info AT pburgpn DOT net. Do it.

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The Historic Poplar Lawn Association will be holding a meeting Monday May 12, 7pm, in the basement meeting room of the library at Sycamore and Marshall. In attendance will be a city representative to discuss code enforcement concerns. Neighbors are invited to bring the addresses of problematic vacant houses that they would like addressed.

Lots of produce, sweet-scented goodies for the garden, eggs, sausage, maple trees, …. it’s all there. Saturdays, 7am to noon. Present location: ** NOT at the Farmer’s Market building at 9 E. Old St. as indicated on Google, but a block north and 1-2 blocks east on River St, under what Google gives as the Adams St./2nd St. bridge.

From the folks at JustChildren of the Legal Aid Justice Center: The Virginia Department of Education’s Draft Special Education Regulations make major cuts to parents’ rights to partner with schools. In addition to putting up barriers to family involvement, the draft regulations also create unfair rules and propose changes which will hurt the success of students with disabilities. The voices of families, teachers, students, and others who care about children with disabilities need to be heard at upcoming public hearings to ensure the draft regulations go back to the drawing board! Virginia needs to continue current protections and improve students’ opportunities for long-term success.
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On Saturday, May 17th volunteers from downtown businesses, the Phoenix Project, LISC, Elder Homes, Trinity Development, the City of Petersburg and Fort Lee will be joining forces to conduct two major clean-ups within the city.
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The Board of the Petersburg City Public Schools will hold a call meeting on Monday, May 12 from 6 to 7 p.m., in the Board Room of the Petersburg School Board Office, 255 E. South Blvd. The meeting will be a closed session, to complete the annual evaluation of the Superintendent of Schools.

The Historic Petersburg Foundation, Inc. announced its new officers and trustees to the board at its annual meeting on Sunday, April 27, 2008 at the Pathways building on West Washington Street. Officers for the 2008-2009 fiscal year are: Larry Tucker, President; Guy Becker, III, First Vice President; Patty Pritchett, Second Vice President; Ann Morriss, Secretary; and LTC Garland Tompkins, Treasurer.
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A number of people signed up to speak at this week’s City Council meeting (May 6) to call for a shift in city management’s priorities (in relation to the proposed 2009 city budget). As such, each person had only three minutes to speak, with the result that several individuals were not able to read their statements to Council in their entirety. To read the full text of the letter prepared by Jeff Munn, click here. To read the full text of the letter prepared by Kevin Brown, click here.

1) Saving Program for Entrepreneurs
2) Small Business Information Session
3) Who’s Looking at My Site?
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For increased clarity, the whole message has been updated: The Board of Education of the Petersburg City Public Schools voted on Wednesday, May 7 to have Vernon Johns Middle School become Vernon Johns Junior High School. This fall, the school will have students in eighth and ninth grades, rather than the current setup of sixth through eighth grades.

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Pamplin Historical Park & The National Museum of the Civil War Soldier combines learning, camaraderie, and fun at its three-day History Day Camps this summer.  Campers experience first-hand how people lived during the American Civil War, both as soldiers and civilians, and programs instill an appreciation of how teamwork and cooperation contribute to success.
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Some thin white dude with curly salt-pepper hair has been rearranging folks’ front doorways and otherwise raising the roof around town today (read below). He delivered this to our front doorstep (which neighbors said he was walking up the street with):

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There being a boatload of new photos in the Petersburg Flickr pool, lots of before/after stories are starting to emerge. Here’s just one:

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