I hope you enjoy my latest column, a collection of weekly short news updates and future events to look out for, and arriving in your inbox as part of our NRV newsletter on Mondays. Here’s last week’s edition.
As your New River Valley reporter, I primarily cover Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Montgomery County and Radford, but aim to expand my reach throughout the rest of a bustling valley.
I aim to inform and meet people where they are at, but the valley is vast. So if you have thoughts on a developing story or ideas on how I can get to know your community better, you can reach me at erick@cardinalnews.org.
Montgomery County school superintendent expands roles for employees
To meet growing responsibilities while cutting costs, Montgomery County School Superintendent Kelly Guempel said he expanded the roles and salaries of five school district employees ahead of this new school year.
The employees and their new roles:
- Leah Bressler, director of organizational compliance and policy review.
- Matt Dunleavy, director of strategic innovation and grants.
- Michael Trussell, administrator of assessment & data analysis.
- Amanda Weidner, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction.
- Andrew Webb, administrator of communications, public relations & marketing.
“They had some title changes, which included a bunch of increased responsibilities, and really, that’s in lieu of hiring additional people,” said Guempel, who began his role in February after he served as chief of schools for Spotsylvania County Public Schools.
Bressler, for example, previously served as the district’s Title 9 compliance officer, who is responsible for ensuring the district complied with federal laws that bans sexual harassment and discrimination based on sex and gender. Her role has now expanded to include title 9 investigations, district-wide policy review, becoming the chief attendance officer, and becoming a member of the collective bargaining team.
“The bottom line is that everybody knows what their job is and they’re expected to do it and I have full confidence that they’ll exceed those expectations,” Guempel said.
Each of the employees received $15,000 to $35,000 annual salary increases with their new jobs, based on information the school system provided through an open records request. The salaries include: Weidner, $181,697; Dunleavy, $162,835; Bressler, $153,488; Trussell, $107,302; Webb, $98,196.
Blacksburg plans to improve downtown parking
Blacksburg officials plan to address concerns about parking availability downtown during Virginia Tech’s fall and spring semesters.
At the July 7 town council work session, Deputy Town Manager Matt Hanratty and Business Solutions Manager Angie Marcolini made recommendations to increase evening parking turnover during Virginia Tech’s fall and spring semesters.
“Back in 2015, we did a parking study and back then it was the old, you drop the coin in, and you crank the meter,” said Hanratty, adding that the study found people were parking in spaces downtown and “feeding the meter,” or consistently going back to add more quarters after their initial time had expired, decreasing parking turnover. “So fast forward to this year, really last year and we still have the parking turnover issue and we’re kind of looking at a few things.”
The recommendations include extending evening parking enforcement during the academic year, implementing a pay-by-plate mobile payment system, and replacing singlespace meters, according to Hanratty, as well as parking validation from businesses and an additional parking lot to be located downtown.
“The earliest we would do it is this winter when the students are gone,” said Hanratty about the town’s timeline to implement these recommendations. “I think the latest would be next summer. We’re in the process of putting all the logistics together behind the scenes.”
Heritage Day Festival set for Aug. 15
In commemoration of the state’s 250-year history, the Montgomery Museum of Art & History will host the Heritage Day Festival this Saturday.
Live music, historical demonstrations, local food vendors, children activities and more will be featured at this free community event, highlighting the historical and cultural significance of the county and the Appalachian region through the generations.
“Whether you’re originally from here or not, If you live here, it’s a community celebration,” said museum Executive Director Sherry Wyatt, who, along with two staff members and 15 volunteers, have been planning the event since January.
The festival is recognized as a keystone celebration of the county’s 250 years of history by the Montgomery County 250 committee, an extension of the Virginia American Revolution 250 Commission (VA250), said Wyatt. Festival attendants can also explore the VA250 Mobile Museum Experience, a traveling exhibit that brings the commonwealth’s history to communities across the state.
“We’ve been doing this for a very long time now, and we think that it’s really a large part of our mission to help share this history, help celebrate it,” said Wyatt.
The festival will be hosted at 4 East Main St., Christiansburg, and will run from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
