I have been visiting relatives in the Sperryville area for holidays for the past five years. I am told of how Massies Corner, where you get from Lee Highway to Front Royal, has had a high number of car accidents. I think I know why. It is because the view, when you arrive at...
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When Richard Lykes died in February 2009, he left the majority of his estate – about $2 million – to the Northern Piedmont Community Foundation. His only stipulation was that the money be used to benefit Rappahannock County, his adopted home. It is up to NPCF executive director Cole Johnson, and the rest of...
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The Virginia Department of Transportation will be replacing the bridge on Route 624 (Sunnyside Orchard Road) over the Rush River, a project that will require the closing of the roadway at this location from 7 a.m. through 7 p.m. on Aug. 16. The work will also require closing Route 622 (Harris Hollow Road) at...
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The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) will extend the closure of a bridge on Route 637 (North Poes Road) in Rappahannock County until Aug. 12. The bridge was closed July 15 after damage was discovered during a scheduled inspection. The bridge, which crosses the Jordan River 0.4 mile north of Route 647 (Crest Hill...
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Update: In a July 28 email to the county administrator, a VDOT spokesman now says the bridge will be closed into September, and also that scheduled repairs this summer to the Route 624 (Sunnyside Orchard Road) bridge will be delayed because of the North Poes Road repairs. The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) today...
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The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) has allotted Rappahannock County $28,188 for road projects during fiscal year 2011-12. At this month’s board of supervisors meeting, County Administrator John McCarthy described this amount as “nothing.” Furthermore, VDOT’s estimated annual allocations through 2017 is about $26,500. If the county puts all the allocations for the next...
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Wow, what a wonderful and pleasant surprise! Hats off to VDOT as well as to Rappahannock County and the diligent workers involved in constructing the great new bridge on Harris Hollow Road. The crew also deserves additional accolades for completing the work an entire week ahead of schedule. While the rest of Harris Hollow...
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Welcomed or not, the cell tower configuration for Rappahannock County is on course to be in operation as early as this fall. In its Monday night meeting, the board of supervisors approved the last of five AT&T cell facility applications.
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While I am thankful and grateful to the county and state for the replacement of the bridge on Harris Hollow Road, did it ever occur to the planning committee who orchestrated, funded and approved the project the dire, pathetic, and unsafe condition of Gid Brown Hollow, the only alternative route? The ruts, furrows and...
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Traffic developments, knitting classes, another friendly face at the post office, sweeping Sperryville clean and Earth Day notes.
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Thirteen items awaited the attention of the Rappahannock Board of Supervisors at its regular monthly meeting Monday afternoon at the county courthouse. Highlights included the audit of county finances, redistricting, improving pedestrian safety in Sperryville, reciprocal trash transfer site usage by Rappahannock and Culpeper residents and funding of local Civil War sesquicentennial events. Rappahannock...
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Rappahannock County Sheriff’s Lt. Tony Sisk watches the radar display — it ought to say 25 or less — on a recent morning in Sperryville, part of Sheriff Connie Smith’s stepped-up patrols directed at speeders in Sperryville, Flint Hill, Washington, Woodville and elsewhere. The effort netted 51 citations in four days last week, Smith...
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Kid Pan Alley is back home for songwriting residencies and a concert March 18; Cooter will be back with a "Hazzard Homecoming" in August; "Fiddler on the Roof" debuts at Belle Meade School; an aging bridge in Harris Hollow will be closed for repairs for a month starting March 14; Irish stamps will be...
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A visit with Sperryville's 12-year-old glassblowing master-to-be; Mount Vernon's inn-to-be; dates and driving speeds to remember.
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Centex's proposal to build upward of 800 homes at Clevenger's Corner has been dormant since it was approved several years ago, but a village designed for 125 acres across the road is moving ahead.
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The wheels of “progress” are now in motion at Clevenger’s Corner, just across the border in Culpeper County, and there is precious little that we in Rappahannock County can do to affect the direction or speed of such progress. Or maybe there is? In a savvy gesture of good will and smart politics, Jim...
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A Huntly man died Dec. 29 after a single-vehicle crash on U.S. 522 in northern Rappahannock County.
Jerry Lee Gray Sr., 51, died of his injuries while being transported to a hospital in Warren County, according to Sgt. Les Tyler of the Virginia State Police.
Statewide, on the extended Christmas and New Year’s holiday weekends before...
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The Rappahannock County Planning Commission last Wednesday unanimously voted to recommend approval of AT&T’s application for the first of five proposed cell towers in the county. The matter will come before the board of supervisors for a final vote at its Jan. 3 meeting. The vote Wednesday night came after roughly half of the...
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All hail the things we can’t do without: the ice man, the “church key,” carbon paper, telegrams, spats, eight-track players, the outhouse, the truss, cell phones, whitewall tires and Wildroot Creme Oil. These were all things that people simply could not do without at one time or another; the latest craze, the badly needed...
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Felix was the darling of Main Street, a miniature dachshund who lived there with his “mom,” Ann Bellomy. Ann and Felix were walking on the sidewalk near their home on Main Street last Friday when a speeding van hit Felix and didn’t stop. A witness ran down the street until she caught up with...
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If things go as planned this week, Jim Epstein, chairman of Washington, D.C.-based EFO Capital Management, Inc., will submit preliminary paperwork to the Culpeper County Planning Commission for a commercial and residential development at Clevenger's Corner.
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A Boston, Va., woman was killed in a single-car accident on U.S. 522 at 10 a.m. Sunday in Rappahannock County near the border with Culpeper County. Amanda Gayle Kidwell, 24, was northbound on U.S. 522 when she went off the right side of the road, overcorrected, went across the centerline and overturned after going...
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VDOT in Rappahannock is ready for winter; a local farm photo wins PEC's photo contest; Woodville's John Hedrick elected president of the PATC.
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You’d be hard pressed to beat the events of 1919-1920: The Treaty of Versailles signed, ending World War I; the League of Nations formed; the U.S. Senate rejecting both the treaty and the league; President Woodrow Wilson in the White House with a stroke and many thinking the country was being run by his...
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From contributed reports The maximum weight limit on a bridge on Route 622 (Aaron Mountain Road) in Rappahannock County has been reduced to three tons following an inspection that found significant deterioration of the bridge’s supporting structure. The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) reduced the posted weight limit from 12 tons to three tons...
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Looking into Labor Day, gratitude for VDOT's lowering speed limits on the way into Sperryville, fiber fun for a good cause, and how to volunteer for Farm Tour duty.
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Two decisions in the coming days, seemingly minor in the larger scheme of things, will actually reveal what kind of world we wish to bequeath to our children and grandchildren. One decision will be made at the August 2 Rappahannock Board of Supervisors (BOS) meeting; the other, at the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT)...
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The following highway work is scheduled, weather permitting, in the Virginia Department of Transportation’s (VDOT) Culpeper District during the upcoming week: • U.S. 211 Business (Main Street, Warren Avenue) in the town of Washington Shoulder stone, paving and line-painting work is scheduled through July 30, weather permitting. Some alternate lane closures;. motorists should expect...
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Jim Rich, who lives near The Plains, last week returned to the Commonwealth Transportation Board (CTB) after a 12-year absence.
Republican Gov. George Allen appointed him to his first four-year term in 1994.
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We all delight in the tranquility and scenic beauty of Sperryville and Rappahannock County. Now those assets are well represented on the state film marketing Web site. Check out www.film.virginia.org, then search for Sperryville and you will find 66 photos taken in and around our little village. If you search for Rappahannock...
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A public hearing on Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) plans to replace one of the busiest bridges in the county is scheduled for Wednesday, March 24 at Rappahannock County High School. Like a separate planned bridge project on Rt. 729 at Battle Run (for which a VDOT public hearing will most likely be held...
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