Welcome back to Lynchburg Field Notes, a column that arrives in your inbox on Wednesdays with quick news updates from the past week and previews of what’s coming up next in the Hill City and surrounding communities.
Centra Health, a nonprofit health care system that provides medical services in central and southern Virginia, opened a new rehabilitation hospital in Lynchburg last week. You’ll get a peek inside the modernized space in this edition, plus an update on recycling efforts in the region and an invitation to an upcoming event that continues the celebration of America’s 250th anniversary.
Let me know what you’d like to see in next week’s roundup by reaching out at emma@cardinalnews.org.
What’s inside
Centra expands, modernizes rehabilitation care in Lynchburg
Centra has a new rehabilitation hospital for adults recovering from strokes, brain and spinal cord injuries, neurological disorders, amputations, and other conditions and surgeries.
The hospital, which opened Thursday, is on the Simons Run medical campus, across from the recently completed Centra Behavioral Health Hospital. The development of the campus is part of Centra’s multiyear modernization plan focused on expanding specialty care and advancing health infrastructure to meet the region’s evolving needs.
The new hospital will operate as a collaboration between Centra and Lifepoint Rehabilitation, which manages more than 300 hospital-based rehabilitation units and 45 inpatient facilities across the country. During remarks at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the hospital, Centra’s president and CEO, Richard Tugman, said the partnership combines Centra’s local expertise with Lifepoint’s specialized rehabilitation expertise.
“In assessing where investments would deliver the greatest benefit to our region, it became clear that a partnership approach was the right path forward in providing both inpatient behavioral health and rehabilitation care for our community,” Tugman said, referencing Lifepoint’s partnership at both new Simons Run locations.
“Lifepoint Health is Centra’s partner of choice because of their expertise, extensive experience of developing and managing these facilities, their dedication to high reliability care, and their leadership in clinical outcomes.”
Rehabilitation services were previously offered at Centra’s Virginia Baptist Hospital, a century-old building where care is slowly being phased out as part of Centra’s ongoing modernization plan. The new facility more than doubles Centra’s capacity for rehabilitation care, increasing the number of beds from 20 at Virginia Baptist to 50 at Simons Run. As of last week, the rehabilitation unit at Virginia Baptist has closed, and all programs have been shifted to the new location.
“As we build, quite literally, on the legacy of compassionate care first established at Virginia Baptist Hospital, we are providing an expanded environment best suited to advance rehabilitation needs, which was designed with both patients and their care teams in mind,” Tugman said.
Along with the bigger space, the new hospital offers advanced technologies and amenities including multidisciplinary therapy gyms, outdoor courtyards that encourage movement, and wearable robotic technology that helps patients learn to stand and walk after serious injuries and surgeries.
The rehabilitation hospital “is intended to serve as a place where members of our community may not only recover physically, but also regain a sense of hope for a healthy and productive life,” Tugman said.
Revolutionary history on display in Lynchburg this Saturday
The celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States continues this weekend with an event at the Jones Memorial Library, an independent genealogy and history library in Lynchburg.
At the “Archives Are Revolutionary” open house, visitors can view maps, newspapers, photographs and books in the library’s collection that date back to the Revolutionary era. Archives that document how Virginians have commemorated past anniversaries of the American Revolution will also be on display, according to a news release from the library.
The event will be held Saturday at the library’s Memorial Avenue location from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The open house is free, and no registration is required.
Library staff will also lead tours of the stacks, which are normally off-limits to visitors, to share highlights from the collection and explain how historical materials are preserved.
Visitors can make history, too, by recording their memories of how they celebrated the 250th anniversary of the country in the library’s oral history lab.
Other features of the open house include crafts and a raffle for a bundle of local history books.
“This open house is a chance for our community to connect directly with original documents and artifacts that tell the story of who we were 250 years ago and how we have celebrated America since its founding,” said Deborah Smith, executive director of Jones Memorial Library, in the news release. “We want Lynchburg residents to connect with that history — and to have a great time doing it.”
Recycling opportunities expanded in Campbell County
Campbell County residents don’t have to sort papers from plastics anymore and can now deposit co-mingled recyclables at the Concord, Altavista, Evington and Livestock Road convenience centers.
The expanded service was made possible with a grant from The Recycling Partnership, which has provided nearly $50 million in grants to 370 communities to improve drop-off access, according to a county news release.
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality records recycling rates for the state’s localities, which measure how much material has been recycled and include credits for various recycling and waste reduction programs. In 2024, Virginia’s overall score was about 40%, and the score for the region of Lynchburg and Nelson, Appomattox and Campbell counties was 18%, according to the most recently available Virginia Recycling Rate Report.
The state’s overall recycling rate has been steadily declining since it was about 46% in 2020. A lack of funding, limited access to recycling programs and vendors, and a shortage of knowledge of best practices can all stand as barriers to a locality’s recycling goals, according to a report from the state’s department of general services.
“This expanded service not only makes recycling much easier for residents and families but also serves to keep more reusable waste out of the disposal process,” Brian Stokes, Campbell County’s director of public works and community development, said in the news release. “We’re truly appreciative of the support we’ve received from The Recycling Partnership, Elite Recycling, and our Public Works and Public and Employee Relations county teams as we continue to grow our recycling program.”
More information about recycling in Lynchburg and the counties of Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford, Campbell and Nelson can be found on each locality’s website.
