Trash/Recycling Pickup Tomorrow

This Wednesday is a “Red Wednesday”, which means trash and recycling pickup. Ideally, rolling recycling containers are stored and deployed in the back alleys along with trash cans. Please make sure you pick up containers after pickup tomorrow night.

If you have not done so already, don’t forget to sign up for your Recycling Perks.
In order to take your recycling to the next level, read this: 10 ways to improve your recycling.

In local recycling news, Prince William County Board of Supervisors is asking the Governor and Dominion to look at removal, recycling of power plant waste as alternatives to Dominion’s plans to cap and seal in place 4 million tons of ash that had been deposited in lagoons near Quantico Creek and the Potomac River. The ash, which contains a variety of pollutants, is a byproduct of decades of burning coal to generate electricity at the company’s Possum Point power station.

Also, more media coverage of Virginia oyster shell recycling. “Recycling Shells to Support New Oysters”.

In national recycling news, from recyclingtoday.org:

Closed Loop Fund (CLF), an investment fund that finances recycling infrastructure and sustainable manufacturing technologies to advance the circular economy, has announced its requesting for proposals (RFPs) for projects that collect, sort and/or process postconsumer polypropylene (PP) plastic.

CLF says there is an opportunity to increase recovery of PP with the proper infrastructure, driving cost savings for municipalities, increasing revenue for material recovery facilities (MRFs) and supplying greater volumes of high-value material into the manufacturing stream.

Stormy Night Problems

Neighbors reported various problems last night in the midst of stormy weather-

At 11pm Monday nite, at two Intersections, Traffic Lights completely dark. Corner of Belvedere & Idlewood Ave. and corner of S. Laurel St. & Idlewood Ave. Reported to SeeClickFix.

2:15am Power outage here 500 block S. Pine St.
Report all outages (888) 667-3000

Chimney fire on 600 block of S. Pine. Thank you RFD for a quick response.

Power out on part of 400 block Laurel.

Also, sometime between 8-10pm, there was an apparent hit and run on 1000 block of Idlewood. Looks like someone coming off expressway too fast hit two parked cars, knocking them into each other and up onto the sidewalk.

RPD: Suspect Sought in Belle Isle Sexual Assault

From Richmond Police:

Richmond Police detectives need the public’s help to identify the suspects involved in a sexual assault which occurred last week in Belle Isle.

At approximately 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 9, police received a report of a sexual assault which occurred between 2 and 4 p.m. at a heavily frequented area of Belle Isle. Police were told the victim was approached by three males, one of whom with a dog. The incident occurred near the Hollywood Rapids by the Porta-Johns on the north side of the island.

Police are seeking two suspects and one person of interest:

Suspect 1: Black male with a light complexion, possibly Hispanic. He is in his late-teens to early-20s, 6’0 in height, average build with short, dark hair. At the time, he was wearing a gray, long-sleeve crew neck shirt (i.e., moisture wicking, performance) and white tennis shoes.
Suspect 2: Black male with a light complexion, possibly Hispanic, with short, dark hair. He is in his late-teens to early-20s, approximately 5’7 in height, 200 pounds in weight. At the time he was wearing a red shirt and a gold watch.
Person of Interest: Black male with a medium complexion, possibly Hispanic, with short dreadlocks or braids, and some facial hair. He is in his late-teens to early-20s, approximately 6’0” in height with an average build. At the time, he was wearing a white T-shirt and khaki pants. He was last seen with a 6-week old grey and white pit bull puppy.

Detectives ask anyone with any information about this incident to call Major Crimes Detective P. Mansfield at (804) 646-6996 or contact Crime Stoppers at (804) 780-1000, online at www.7801000.com or by texting Crime Stoppers at 274637, using the keyword “ITip” followed by your tip.

Option 1 or Option 2 or…

So one thing that happened at the last Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association meeting (2/28) was a presentation on possibilities for new stop signs at intersections for neighborhood traffic.

This sort of thing has been requested multiple times before in regard to speeding and dangerous collisions, but for different reasons has never been acted on.

At the meeting, a City traffic engineer presented two options for stops. The proposed options are for a flipping of the stop signs at the circled intersections to give the east-west streets right of way and have the north-south streets stop. This way, no one direction always has right of way, and would need to stop at roughly every other intersection. This traffic pattern is called basket weaving, and has been used successfully in Maymont. These options are in no way set in stone, and are up for discussion and suggested alternatives. ‘Option 1’ suggests new stop signs at the intersections of Albemarle and S. Laurel, Spring and S. Pine, China and S. Laurel, and Holly and S. Pine. ‘Option 2’ suggests new stop signs at Albemarle and S. Cherry, Albemarle and S. Pine, Spring and S. Laurel, China and S. Pine, and Holly and S. Laurel.

Neighbors are asked to let the neighborhood association know which option they think is best as well as any other input. The plan is to discuss this more at the next OHNA meeting and then get back to the City traffic engineer and Councilperson Agelasto’s office with some thoughts and decisions.

Dominion’s Coal-Ash Ponds Leaking Into River; Go Solar!

There are reports that the coal ash ponds are causing more pollution in the James River. From Times Dispatch article:

“We can see things bubbling up, essentially, and our position is this is leaking from the coal ash. We’ve tested the water and sediment here. We found arsenic at incredibly high levels, 282 parts per million right here, which is higher than many Superfund sites that have really bad pollution problems,” he said.

Several rounds of tests in the past year seem to show leaking from Dominion ash ponds, including prior work by the James River Association and separate sampling by a Duke University-led team. The Duke team found unpermitted leaking from coal ash facilities in five states, including at Dominion’s Chesterfield and Bremo Bluff power stations.

Chesterfield officials don’t seem to care and continue to allow Dominion to burn coal.

With Dominion’s poison in mind, it’s more important than ever that area residents push for more renewable energy.

Tomorrow night, VaSun.org is hosting a Greater Richmond Solar Co-op Information Session at the Glen Allen Library.

From their webpage:

Community members across Richmond have formed a solar co-op! From Ruther Glen in the north to Petersburg in the south, Powhatan in the west to New Kent in the east, the Greater Richmond Solar Co-op welcomes homeowners from across the region. Greater Richmond Solar Co-op members can save up to 20% off the cost of going solar and have the support of fellow co-op members and VA SUN throughout the process.

Recent Crimes

From CommunityCrimeMap.com:

HIT AND RUN
5XX TREDEGAR ST
Mar 9, 2017 at 4:30 pm
Data provided by Richmond Police Department

FORCIBLE RAPE
X BELLE ISLE
Mar 9, 2017 at 3:45 pm
Data provided by Richmond Police Department

DRUNKENNESS
3XX S LAUREL ST
Mar 8, 2017 at 1:00 pm
Data provided by Richmond Police Department