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| Sunday, November 22, 2009 |
| Report details abuse |
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Standing before officials this month, the target of Augusta County’s largest dog cruelty case called the state veterinarian’s investigation into his kennel an overreaction and a joke. Three months after authorities seized 99 dogs from his Stuarts Draft kennel, Kyle Brydge asked to keep the permit that allows him to maintain his operation there. The Zoning Appeals Board postponed a decision for 30 days to seek more information. Perhaps Brydge should have let sleeping dogs lie. Before the board now is state Veterinarian Rachel Touroo’ 200-page report detailing flea infestations, blindness, dehydration, dental disease and malnourishment in the sometimes-pregnant, small-breed female dogs kept at Oak Leaf Kennel on China Clay Road. Board members will consider that report, others from Augusta County animal control officers and prosecutors and a wave of letters from locals, animal-lovers and the Humane Society of the United States that beg the county to deny Brydge’s permit request. “In one case, a dog’s leg was so badly matted with hair and feces that ... circulation appeared to be constricted,” wrote Justin Scally, manager of the Washington, D.C.-based Humane Society’s Wilde Puppy Mills Task Force. He traveled to Stuarts Draft on Aug. 21, when the animals were seized. “The smell of the pus and infection ... was extremely overpowering ...
Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.
Labels: abuse, animal cruelty, Stuarts Draft
by Tony Gonzalez @
: comments: 0
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| Monday, November 16, 2009 |
| Down town |
To get the funds, they had to face the facts. More than a third of the building space in downtown Waynesboro is vacant. One in four buildings is in substandard condition. New shops frequently fail.
Such findings play prominently in an unprecedented downtown inventory recently completed by city officials pursuing a master plan for downtown revitalization and up to $1 million in federal money for construction.
The thoroughness of the inventory and its testament to downtown challenges convinced the state Department of Housing and Community Development this month to commit $35,000 in federal money to the city through the Community Development Block Grant program.
Getting the grant money is just the beginning.
Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.Labels: city beat, development, downtown, Waynesboro
by Tony Gonzalez @
: comments: 0
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| Sunday, November 01, 2009 |
| Man arrested for fatal fight |
When the fight broke out in the Dollar General parking lot, Chad Fields caught a fist to his face and a can of chili to his head, witnesses said.
Armed with a pipe, he fought back against former friend Russell “Rusty” Huntley, who moments later slammed Fields’ head into the store wall.
Two days later, those blows caused brain hemorrhaging that killed Fields, 26, Augusta County authorities said. Deputies Thursday morning arrested Huntley, 24, of Verona, for voluntary manslaughter.
News of the arrest brought relief to Fields’ wife, Katherine, who said she hasn’t gone out much since her husband died, for fear of running into Huntley.
“They both fought. They both were in the wrong,” she said by phone.
Read the full story and folo at NewsVirginian.com.Labels: crime, fatality, manslaughter, Verona
by Tony Gonzalez @
: comments: 0
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| Sunday, October 25, 2009 |
| Mohawk to close |
WAYNESBORO — In from the frigid morning air, employees at Mohawk Industries caught a second cold shock early Monday when officials informed them that they will be without jobs by the end of the year.
The carpet-backing plant will close Dec. 18, employees said, leaving 120 without jobs.
“To come in on a Monday morning, they hit you with it at 7 a.m.,” said 17-year plant worker Cathy Dofflemyer, of Waynesboro. “It’s just hard.”
The company released a statement saying the plant on 901 S. Delphine Ave. will close. Officials could not be reached for comment.
Dogged by the continued slump in the housing market and dwindling demand for carpet, Mohawk eliminated 40 Waynesboro jobs in August, on the heels of 73 layoffs in January. Companywide layoffs surpassed 1,000 in 2008. The company news release explained the closure as “driven by the necessity of aligning production capacity with market demands.”
Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.Labels: breaking news, development, employment, industry
by Tony Gonzalez @
: comments: 0
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| Wednesday, October 14, 2009 |
| Cultivated Niche |
HERMITAGE — Looking beyond the black fences of his horse paddocks, Craig Nargi can see a poultry farm, two dairies and rolling Augusta County hills in every direction.
Within his 15 acres, he envisions a seamless continuation of that agricultural landscape, but with additional amenities to attract tourists.
Nargi’s Hermitage Hill Farm and Stables is one of the first Augusta County farms designed for agritourism and advertised accordingly. While the stables function for traditional horse boarding and training, much of Nargi’s business plan anticipates educational trips by school groups, riding lessons and visits from hobby horse riders.
County officials consider Hermitage Hill far ahead of the local agritourism curve, but while Nargi enjoys the unique position, he’d rather not be alone in his endeavor for long.
So Hermitage Hill on Thursday will play host to the area’s first agritourism networking event.
Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.Labels: agriculture, agritourism, feature, Waynesboro
by Tony Gonzalez @
: comments: 0
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| Friday, October 09, 2009 |
| Treasurer again gets failing grades |
For the fourth time in as many years, the Waynesboro city treasurer’s lack of office control, tardy accounting and sloppy recordkeeping have raised red flags in a state audit report.
Sandra “Sandee” Dixon, “continues to not maintain sufficient internal control over state funds or comply with state laws and regulations …” leaving her office “at risk of accounting and other bookkeeping errors,” state Auditor Walter Kucharski writes in a letter to Mayor Tim Williams. “We have issued essentially the same audit findings over the last four audits.”
Under Dixon since 2005, the Treasurer’s Office has botched the handling of about $400,000 in city and state money: about $300,000 in tax and fee collections were not sent to the state in a timely manner, and the city lost $55,000 in revenue and interest income, according to state audits and city officials. ...
“Most of the things I can come back in here and correct right away,” Dixon said of auditors’ suggestions. “I knew I had a lot to learn … This is an ongoing thing … There’s always room for improvement.”
Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.
Folo 1
Folo 2Labels: city beat, election, The News Virginian
by Tony Gonzalez @
: comments: 0
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| Wednesday, September 09, 2009 |
| Woman killed, man in custody |
GROTTOES — As Virginia Lynn Ware lay in her gravel driveway, her boyfriend stood over her, lowered a gun and fired, neighbors said Tuesday.
They heard the couple’s shouting match in Blackrock Trailer Court but didn’t look until the shots.
Then, as mothers pulled children into backrooms and others dialed 911, John Franklin Myers, his screaming teenage daughter and her friends ran off in different directions, witnesses said.
Moments later, a neighbor came to Ware’s side.
“He put his hand on her to see if she had a pulse and said she was dead. Dead,” said neighbor David Morris, 57.
Read the full story at NewsVirginian.com.Labels: crime, Grottoes, murder
by Tony Gonzalez @
: comments: 0
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