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.
Local leaders gathered last week to raise awareness about online threats and urge everyone in the community to step up to protect against them. Learn more about the first-ever Internet Safety and Online Predator Awareness Day in this edition, plus find updates on an upcoming back-to-school event and the ongoing construction of a new tunnel in Lynchburg’s water system.
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Lynchburg area leaders discuss online safety
Del. Wendell Walker, R-Lynchburg, joined law enforcement officials, regional elected representatives and educators Friday to recognize Virginia’s first Internet Safety and Online Predator Awareness Day.
During this year’s General Assembly session, Walker passed a resolution that designates Aug. 1 as an annual awareness day for the growing presence of online threats, such as sexual exploitation, cyberbullying, theft and scams, extortion, and the general “misuse of technology that changes every day,” Walker said at Friday’s news conference.
The Lynchburg region has been a leader in tracking online predation of children for nearly 30 years, said Capt. Stephen Anders of the Southern Virginia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which is headquartered at the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office. Bedford was one of the first 10 locations in the country selected to spearhead the task force program back in 1998, when “the Department of Justice realized that there was a growing problem with the internet as more and more homes started to get internet access,” Anders said. Now there are 61 such task forces nationwide.
“The scope of the problem has changed exponentially” in recent years, Anders said, with 360 cases logged at the regional task force in 2008 and close to 24,000 logged in 2025. He attributes the rise in cases to the growth of opportunities predators have to communicate with children, ranging from computer programs to video games, social media and a “virtually unlimited number of apps on your mobile devices.”
“This is not a problem we’re going to arrest our way out of. Education is the key, and it is a collaborative effort. It has to be government, it has to be our elected leaders, it needs to be law enforcement, it needs to be the schools, it needs to be community groups, it needs to be the media, it needs to be parents. Education is the only way we can prevent our children from becoming victims,” Anders said.
The task force has seen victims as young as 8 years old, Anders said, so regular conversations in homes and schools about how to stay safe online, who to communicate with online, and the importance of reporting concerning messages are critical.
“Predators no longer have to be physically present in a community to target someone,” Walker said. “They can enter your home through cell phones, a tablet, a computer, messaging platforms, or social media accounts. They can build trust while hiding behind a fake identity. They can threaten, exploit, and intimidate children without a parent or teacher immediately realizing what is happening. That is why education and prevention is so important.”
Educational resources are available on the regional task force’s website.
Upcoming community event to provide free back-to-school styling
For teens who need a day of pampering before the school year begins, Lynchburg Beacon of Hope is partnering with E.C.Glass High School to provide free barber and salon services.
The event is scheduled for Tuesday from 12:30-6:30 p.m. in the McCue Gym at the high school. Services are available to students of Heritage and E.C. Glass high schools on a first-come, first-served basis, and no pre-event registration is required.
The lineup of complimentary services includes hair cuts, manicures and eyebrow waxing, according to a news release from Beacon of Hope.
“It’s about more than just appearances; it’s a way to boost students’ confidence as they head into a new school year. We’re so grateful to our community partners for making it happen,” said Dennis Coan, deputy director of Lynchburg Beacon of Hope, in the news release.
Lynchburg Beacon of Hope runs Future Centers in both city high schools, which guide students toward college and career opportunities. The director of E.C. Glass’s Future Center, Kara Douglas, will be at Tuesday’s event to answer questions and meet students.
“This event does more than help students feel their best,” Douglas said in the news release. “It also opens the door to conversations about careers in cosmetology and barbering, showing students what’s possible right here in our community.”
Progress continues for Lynchburg’s largest capital improvement project
The new month marks a new milestone for the construction of a nearly mile-long tunnel deep under the surface of Lynchburg.
The tunnel is the largest capital improvement project in the city’s history and the last major project in the city’s 45-year initiative to reduce the amount of combined sewer overflow, or CSO, that can pollute local waterways. Once completed, the Blackwater CSO Tunnel will be able to hold up to 4.7 million gallons of combined sewage and stormwater and move it to a treatment facility, where it will be cleaned before entering the James River.
Excavation of the tunnel was completed in July, when the final drill-and-blast process cleared the last feet of the path that rests about 100 feet underground, according to a city news release. The tunnel stretches from the bottom of Seventh Street in downtown Lynchburg to the area around Hollins Mill Dam, all along the path of the Blackwater Creek.
Now, crews are entering the next construction phase: lining the interior of the tunnel and building above-ground facilities, including a pump station at the Seventh Street site. The full project is expected to be completed in the summer of 2027.
