It’s springtime, 2031. The dogwoods and redbuds are as spectacular as anyone can remember, and the machinery for preparing an annual county budget is churning out the numbers. The March presentation shows a balanced budget — as it must by law — and two months of refinement and horse-trading will yield a final blueprint before the summer humidity sweeps in.

Washington, Virginia — home to the celebrated Inn at Little Washington — is known for meals and memories so beautiful they can’t be forgotten. The difficulty involves the leftovers — wastewater, sludge and a 10-year-old town structure of pipes, tanks and grinders that has proved too expensive and too divisive to manage easily.

In February, at a public meeting that included the school board and Superintendent Shannon Grimsley, Hampton Supervisor Keir Whitson raised what he called an “elephant-in-the-room” question. He asked why the county’s cost of funding the public schools doesn’t reflect the district’s dropping enrollment.

Children have been less susceptible to the coronavirus, but for many, a year of social isolation and academic unpredictability has challenged their mental health.

Now that in-person classes are resuming four days a week in Fauquier and Rappahannock public schools, it might seem that things are almost getting back to normal. But the ripples of the pandemic won’t fade so easily. School counselors and social workers know this is yet another transition fo…

Eden is a junior at Rappahannock County High School. That’s not her real name, but she asked not to be identified. For most of this school year, she has been on a hybrid schedule of two days in school, three at home. Next week, she will start attending in-person classes four days a week.

These are stressful times, and it’s natural for a child to feel anxious in difficult moments. But it’s not natural for that anxiety to be prolonged and interfere with his or her ability to handle everyday situations or cause him or her to avoid things other children enjoy.

Gwen: Former two-term board member, Child Care and Learning Center; three-term board member of Food Pantry; volunteer for Rappahannock Association for Arts and Community (RAAC) Community Theatre and Art Tour; mentor,

The county’s new Broadband Authority hasn’t had its first meeting yet, but it’s already dealing with a setback.

‘What had been an important need has become a critical one’

Hal Hunter: Long time Rappahannock County volunteer and activist who has led community efforts in historic preservation, housing, education, transportation, conservation, senior services, and food security.

Part 3 of 3: Foothills Forum and the Rappahannock News look back on 2020 with a focus on COVID-19 as well as several key issues – schools, broadband and cellular, business, housing -- we have reported on throughout the year.

Part 2 of 3: Foothills Forum and the Rappahannock News look back on 2020 with a focus on COVID-19 as well as several key issues – schools, broadband and cellular, business, housing -- we have reported on throughout the year.

Foothills Forum and the Rappahannock News look back on 2020 with a focus on COVID-19 as well as several key issues – schools, broadband and cellular, business, housing -- we have reported on throughout the year.

Through a unique partnership, the Rappahannock News and Foothills Forum provide expanded local coverage

‘Close to 80 inches of rain fell on Rappahannock in 2018 … almost double the annual average’

Working with numerous private and public stakeholders on these programs, plus COVID concerns, keeps me pretty busy. But I welcome the variability and the challenge.

The bad news: A portion of the Rush River that runs through the Rappahannock County Park had earned a failing grade for recreational use for having unsafe levels of E. coli bacteria, which can lead to illness and infection in humans.

For the artist, tourist or weekender, the land needs to be a beautiful and evocative backdrop. Not so for most farmers and owners of substantial parcels. For them, the landscape is also an economic asset. It doesn’t only have to be protected; it also needs to generate income.

The fall has been good to many Rappahannock businesses, all things considered. The weather ushered in visitors eager to dine outside amid resplendent views of the changing leaves. And that made it easier for the county’s food and beverage establishments to make up revenue lost when operations closed or customers dwindled in the spring.

Foothills Forum and Rapp News will host a virtual discussion Nov. 17 at 7 p.m.

Ruth Welch: Vice President, Food Pantry; Board Member of the following: Rappahannock County Recreational Facilities Authority, Rapp at Home, and Rappahannock-Rapidan Regional Commission’s Aging Advisory and Food Policy councils; member, Old Rag Master Naturalists; Rapp Kids Coalition; John Jackson Blues Festival committee; retired Army dietitian; lives with her husband, Bryant, in Castleton.

For decades, Rappahannock has been able to preserve its natural beauty and stunning views. But more challenges are on the horizon.

Some might think being a school bus driver is no big deal, but seeing those kids every day, watching them and their siblings grow up over the years, and supporting them in different ways is very rewarding.

‘Rising prices are almost inevitable given the desirable place we’ve created’

Any day things could change. That’s the reality. No matter how much planning and preparation has gone into making classroom learning possible, one outbreak could shut everything down again.

Faculty and students reflect on their COVID-19 journey and the challenges they face going back to school. 

COVID-19 has proven to be a huge challenge because we cannot get together with our young mentee and we have had to scale back in other areas of service as well.

In the first week of April, only six cases of COVID-19 were reported in Culpeper. By the last week of that month, the weekly count was 10 times higher.

Biggest Challenge: Clearly it is getting access to needed services for clients, particularly finding affordable or supported housing for seniors in Rappahannock.

Rappahannock Nature Camp is set to open for a limited season Aug. 3-7. Instead of its usual two-week sessions held in June and July, five half-day morning sessions will be held for campers eight to 16 years old at its campsite along the Hazel River.

Officials assume in-person classes will resume in August: ‘We need to work out a lot of details in a very short amount of time’

Remember the opioid crisis? Not long ago, it was an awful reality of modern rural life, a relentless calamity destroying lives and damaging families. It still is. Last year, Virginia had more fatal drug overdoses — 1,617 — than ever before.

Biggest Challenge: Many experts believe stresses caused by COVID-19 have triggered a shadow pandemic in mental health, especially in rural communities like Rappahannock. 

By necessity, doctors and therapists have had to switch to telehealth to treat patients during the COVID-19 lockdown. But it’s looking more and more likely that “distance medicine” is here to stay. 

Faced with a myriad of requirements to combat COVID-19, Rappahannock’s restaurants and wineries continue to move ahead under the first phase of “Forward Virginia,” the state’s plan to re-open the economy.

Country Café Pit Stop is “doing very well,” said Huff, who dealt with his share of financial hardship in the months prior to the pandemic.

The Rappahannock Food Pantry has seen an outpouring of support through donations of time, money and supplies since emergency measures to arrest the spread of COVID-19 took effect in March.

At this point, most Virginia universities say they still intend to welcome students back to campus in a few months, although that could change if there’s a rise in COVID-19 cases as businesses in the state reopen and social restrictions ease.