Fan of the Fan

The Richmond Parks and Recreation Department is starting a new adult sports league and first up is football – flag and two-hand touch.
“The department has focused primarily on giving children in the city the opportunity to play sports, but the addition of this new league will give adults the opportunity to get out and have some fun playing sports too,” said department Director J.R. Pope.

Registration for a team of 15 adults is $600, or $15 per player. Additional team members will cost $30 each, and individuals can register to play for $45.

There will be two divisions of play: one for co-ed flag football and one for two-handed co-ed touch football, which will be less competitive and more social. The games, including playoffs, will be played on Saturdays from April 10 through June 5.

Adults age 21 and older and teams of adults are invited to register for co-ed flag and two-hand touch football on March 3 and March 4. Registration will take place between 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Blanton House, located at 700 Blanton Ave. near the Byrd Park tennis courts. All checks or money orders should be made payable to Richmond Parks, Recreation & Community Facilities. No charge cards will be accepted.
For more information, call 804-646-1441.

This morning, many Fox Elementary parents were picking up signs made by teachers that read, “Save our Schools”. These will be held by parents, teachers and children at tomorrow’s VEA rally. The rally will be held from 11am-noon at the Capitol Square grounds.

From the flyer:

Stand up for public education. The General Assembly is preparing to cut $1.8 billion from public education funding. This means approximately 30,000 education employees or 1 in 6 educators will lose their jobs. This will destroy public education as we know it! Many senators and delegates claim that these cuts are what their constituents want. As a citizen and a tax-payer, is this really what you want? Don’t sit quietly while it happens. Make your voices heard! Everyone is encouraged to attend!!

rvanews has the info on the new restaurant at 204 N. Robinson (Sushi Ninja’s old home).

Before Monday, the law just specified “excessive noise” as being unlawful. Now that term has been explained a little bit more in detail. Thanks to Charles Samuels.

Here are some highlights. Personally, I don’t really mind too much what noise is made during normal hours of the day, it’s more the nighttime ones that I appreciate. I hope my neighbors are reading this. . .

• Between 7am and 11pm you can’t play music, TV, etc. inside your home so loudly that it can be heard outside your home or 50 feet away from the device (stereo, computer, TV, etc.) (Note: the word “phonograph” was actually in the ordinance – they know it’s 2010, right?)
• Between 11pm and 7am sound from such equipment (stereo, TV, etc.) can only be loud enough for the person playing it to hear it
• • Between midnight and 7am you can’t make noise in your home that can be heard in another home, apartment, etc.
• • It is unlawful to let an animal or bird be so loud that it can be heard at least once a minute for 10 straight minutes from a neighbor’s home or 50-feet from the barking dog, chirping bird, etc.
• • You can’t play your car radio so loudly that it can be heard 50 feet from your car
• • You can’t drive a car so beat-up that it rattles so loudly it can be heard 350 feet away from the car
• • You can’t honk your horn just to honk, it needs to be used as a warning of on-coming danger
• • You can’t make lots of noise taking out your trash between 10pm and 5am
• • You can’t make lots of noise doing yard work between 10pm and 7am
• • You can’t make lots of noise doing home improvement stuff between 7pm and 7am
• There are exceptions to the noise rules like special permits, religious services, and sounds made by police cars.

(thanks to CBS 6 for the condensed version)

Punishment is class 2 misdemeanor charges – confinement in jail for up to six months and a fine of up to $1,000, either or both.

What do you think? These laws sound reasonable? Too much? How about the punishment?

read entire noise ordinance

On top of the new budget cutting funds to RPS, now there is talk of Governor McDonnell unfreezing the Local Composite Index. While some schools could benefit (Culpeper schools stand to gain money), some schools, like RPS will lose additional money.

The VDOE defines the LCI:

The Composite Index determines a school division’s ability to pay education costs fundamental to the commonwealth’s Standards of Quality (SOQ). The Composite Index is calculated using three indicators of a locality’s ability-to-pay:

True value of real property (weighted 50 percent)

Adjusted gross income (weighted 40 percent)

Taxable retail sales (weighted 10 percent)

Here’s an email from Fox kindergarten parent Jennifer Smith-Slabaugh:

Fox Elementary FRIENDS – Please take a minute and make your voice heard if you agree with the information below and forward to anyone else that you can in the FOX family.  The vote will occur this Sunday so please act now.

Richmond Public Schools will LOSE an additional $11 Million if Gov. McDonnell’s Composite Index Proposal is Approved. This would increase the City’s anticipated shortfall to $28.8 M for the upcoming school year.

What is the Composite Index?  A measure of how much a locality can afford to pay for K-12 education and is determined by three factors: the local real value of property, adjusted gross income and taxable retail sales.

What is the Issue?  This year’s funding formula is based on 2007 figures and does not reflect the current economic conditions of the City.  Most importantly, it does not fully account for our student’s needs or the services we provide to meet those needs.

One out of four Richmond residents lives in poverty and more than 70% of the RPS students are eligible for free and reduced lunch.

What Does this Mean for our Children?  Larger classroom sizes, loss of enrichment programs, longer bus routes, reduction in basic instructional programming, etc…

What can YOU Do?  Email or call your state legislators and tell them to VOTE …

NO to the Composite Index Change and YES to Public Education Funding.

How to EMAIL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES? Easy. Click the below link, plug in your address and zip code! Your VA State Legilators appear on screen, and you can send them a message from the site immediately.

http://conview.state.va.us/whosmy.nsf/main?openform

If you want to attend the rally, here are the details:

Save Our Schools Rally

Sunday, February 21st, 12:30 @ the Capitol Building

-Bring your kids and signs

-Wear school bus yellow if you can

- Let your legislators know you want them to freeze the LCI and stop the huge budget cuts!

More info over at RVANews

Despite the efforts of many parents at William Fox Elementary School, the school board has approved cutting the Spanish Immersion program. The program is also at Southampton Elementary School.

My son attends Fox and is in one of two (out of three total) kindergarten classrooms with Spanish Immersion. First grade has some classes as well. The program started last year with two kindergarten classes and those students have continued the program in first grade. The intention was to keep adding classes as the kids grew until the whole school was participating. Parents could request not to be in this program at the beginning of school and a lottery was drawn from the remaining students to see who would be placed in the program.

Being involved in Spanish Immersion means that my son has two teachers – one who teaches him Social Studies and Language Arts in English and another who teaches Math and Science completely in Spanish – this amounts to an hour and a half of Spanish every day. (Even though his Spanish teacher is fluent in English and Spanish, she only speaks Spanish).

It’s kindergarten, and early in my son’s school career, but he has loved learning Spanish and has been learning Math and Science effectively as well. Among many other things, this program has been a great exposure to another language that is sure to help him later on in his life.

Many parents argued that it would be foolish to cut the program before its effectiveness was fully known.

Along with this program, the cuts include long-term substitute pay and coaching stipends. The approved budget will increase class sizes, eliminate 138 positions and force employees to take three unpaid furlough days.

Read more here.

From the RTD:

One person remains in critical but stable condition at the VCU Medical Center after a Friday night shooting near the corner of West Broad and Lombardy streets in Richmond.

The shooting occurred about 11 p.m. in the vicinity of the BP gas station at the intersection, according to the city police. The location is about two blocks west of the Siegel Center, Virginia Commonwealth University’s on-campus basketball arena.

A police spokesman said officers were pursuing a number of leads but that no suspects had been taken into custody.

More info from RPD:

Officers with the Richmond Police Department responded to a call of a fight with shots fired outside the BP Gas Station, 1600 West Broad Street at 10:41 p.m. on 2/19/2010.

Upon arriving, they encountered a crowd of several dozen people and discovered one individual with gunshot wounds.  He was transported to VCU Medical Center where, at last report, he remains in critical but stable condition.

Anyone with information about this incident should call Crime Stoppers at 780-1000.

I know it isn’t technically in the Fan, but it’s the library a lot of Fan residents use. From the RVA press secretary:

The city of Richmond’s Belmont Library, located at 3100 Ellwood Avenue, will be closed on Monday, February 22, 2010, to prepare for substantial renovations. This one-day closure will allow for an inventory of library books and materials to be conducted.

Mayor Dwight C. Jones first announced the library renovations in March 2009 during his biennial budget proposal to City Council. More than $9 million, over the term of the project, has been set aside to complete renovations to all city libraries. Renovation funding is being provided through the “Building a Better Richmond” fund of the city’s Capital Improvement Plan.

The Belmont Library renovation will be in phase two, which is scheduled to start in the winter of 2010

This from www.tvjerry.com

Skirt Magazine and the Visual Arts Center of Richmond are presenting “Who Does She Think She Is?” on Sunday, 2/28, at 2 pm. This documentary follows 5 female artists and the director, Pamela Tanner Boll, was involved with the Oscar-winning “Born into Brothels.” A panel discussion with the artists will follow.

It’s been about a year since I applied for (and sent in a check–which has been deposited) for a tree from the City to be placed in an empty tree well in front of my house. But still no tree. They claim they like to plant between November-March so that the tree can get rooted during a less strenuous season. That window is closing (has closed?). So what’s the deal? It’s great that the city (and the Fan District) support shade tree replacement in the Fan, but the execution is poor. My neighbor bought two trees at Lowes and a got a couple of TreeGators a couple of years ago. Seems like that approach (like many things that involve Richmond City government) is more efficient.