Sunken Road Gate

To help with the traffic disruptions associated with the closing of Route One this weekend, the University will be opening up the gate at Sunken Road. This will mainly help manage traffic going to and from the basketball games at the gym held on the afternoons of the 16th and the 17th. Mr Hurley writes that the gate will be closed again once Route One reopens, probably by the end of the weekend. I anticipate that Route One will be a real mess this weekend, with work on the new foot bridge closing the road in both directions. I would stay away from there if at all possible (though I may take a walk up there to watch the construction if the weather improves).

Newspaper bags

I started subscribing to our local paper a couple of months ago and as a result have been inundated with insightful journalism and little plastic bags. I contacted the Free Lance and have been told that if I bring them back to the cashier's window that they can be reused, which seems preferable to tossing them and having them simply accumulate to form their own subcontinent out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Contact me if any of you do not in the normal course of your travels go by the Free Lance building during normal business hours, and maybe I can help you live the life of the environmentally righteous by taking your bags too.

Updates

1) The University will be testing its warning systems on December 17th from 9 AM-4 PM.
2) UMW has also announced today the purchase of three properties in College Heights, residences at 1214 Powhatan St. and 1217 Thornton St, as well as the Pizza Hut on Powhatan St.
According to the message I received, the Pizza Hut will remain a Pizza Hut (though I still recommend the pizza at the Parthenon). At our association meeting representatives of the University expressed no plans to acquire property in the College Terrace neighborhood.
3)The Master Gardeners report that they have planted a total of 16 trees at the Cossey Botanical Garden site this fall. Last week they also made a monetary contribution of $1000 to the designated Park and Rec account for the development of the Botanical Garden. Just a reminder to all, that private donations to the Cossey Botanical Garden are most welcome AND tax deductible. Checks can be sent to the Park and Rec Office on 408 Canal Street (Fredericksburg, VA 22401). Write "Cossey Park" in the memo line of the check. You should expect a written confirmation of your donation for your tax records.

Parking ticket breakdown

Of the 502 tickets written by the special parking enforcement officer, 62 have been written for violations in the College Terrace neighborhood. 58 on Sunken Road, 2 on Sylvania St. and 2 on Monroe St. The great majority of tickets are written in College Heights.
This could either reflect that the majority of violations occur in College Heights, or that the officer spends the great majority of his time in that neighborhood (or both).
Let me know if you think that our neighborhood is being underpatrolled in this regard.

Botanical Garden Work Day

The Master Gardeners will be planting more trees at Cossey on December 7th at 1PM.
If you are interested in helping out bring a shovel (and a digging bar if you have one).

Quarterly Town Gown Meeting News

Here are a few highlights of today's meeting of representatives of the city, college and local neighborhood associations.
1) University Construction Projects
*Eagle Village remains on schedule. This will represent an addition of 624 beds to campus housing. (The current breakdown is 2500 residential and 1500 off campus students).
*Construction of the foot bridge across Route 1 will cause a temporary blockage of traffic on Martin Luther King Day weekend (Jan15-17), with subsequent partial lane closures for weeks after that.
2)Parking Issues
*The parking enforcement officer (funded by a 50/50 city university partnership) has written a total of 502 parking tickets since the beginning of the semester, which represents a significant increase from the time we did not have a designated enforcement officer. I have requested a breakdown of this number to see how many were written for our neighborhood.
*Sunken Road parking deck is not at 100% capacity. The current breakdown of decks is level 1:residential students, level 2-3: commuters, level 4: visitors.
3) Additional City Police Reports
*This semester there have been 14 arrests of students, 13 for alcohol and one shoplifting.
There have been 61 calls for parties to a total of 41 different addresses, with 4 addresses having been responsible for at least 3 calls each. Letters are being sent to the owners of these 4 properties and officers called again to these properties will be informed ahead of time of their repeat offender status.
4)City construction update
*The work on the sanitary sewer under Kenmore has been delayed by rain. It is unlikely that work will reach the intersection with Sylvania this month. (estimating 2-3 weeks per block)
There will be additional work done on the sewer north of the Sylvania St intersection in the area of Cornell St. this spring, to prepare for increased flows from Eagle Village.
5)Martin Luther King Day Celebration
Poet Nikki Giovanni will be giving the MLK speech at Dodd on January 20th at 3 PM, all are invited.
Next Town Gown Meeting will be held February 25th at 3 PM - contact me if you are interested in attending.
Remember that we have a Neighborhood Association meeting on the 9th at 7 PM at Aggie's

Christmas Parade Volunteers

The organizers of the Christmas Parade are looking for volunteers to help collect trash.
Vounteers will walk the parade route twice as a group carrying trash bags. They will meet ahead of time at the Visitor's Center on Caroline St. at 4:15 pm on December the 5th.
If you are interested in helping out, please contact nesegarra@fredericksburgva.gov (372-1023, ext 249) so they can get a head count before the day of the parade.
Volunteers must be over age 12.