Open High’s Annual Arts Expo Approaches, On May 30

On Thursday, May 30, Open High School hosts its Arts Expo, from 5:30 to 7:30 pm at Clark Springs Elementary School.

This annual event includes an exhibition of student artwork, projects, and performances. There will be a Silent Auction with baskets, gift cards, plants, handmade ceramics, and a Taco Bar. Please join parents, students, and teachers to celebrate our wonderful school community. All proceeds will benefit the Fine Arts Department.

Letter To Council On New Market’s Threat Against The Canal

From letter:

Dear Honorable Members of the Richmond City Council,

It is devastating to learn that New Market has applied with the Corps of Engineers to backfill the historic James River and Kanawha Canal beside the American Civil War Museum at Tredegar. Burying the authentic canal, built when George Washington was President of the canal, undermines the city’s effort underway to rewater the canal. The canal, built with the sweat of slaves and Irish immigrants, provided the power for the Tredegar Iron Works and made Richmond an important shipping hub.

Here is a link to New Market’s deplorable application to fill the canal: https://webapps.mrc.virginia.gov/public/habitat/getPDF.php?id=20180983

A few years ago the Richmond City Council expressed its desire to revitalize the canal at this location by spending $385,000 for a bridge over the canal on the new 2nd St. connector to maintain the navigability of the canal. New Market’s proposal would fill the canal at the east side of the bridge.

Please take action to let New Market know that the Richmond City Council has devoted significant financial resources to protecting the canal, and it is not in the city’s interests to have the canal backfilled with dirt.

Below, also please find a message from the Dr. Bill Trout, the Curator of the Canal Museum.

Sincerely,
Charles Pool

From attached message:

I hope that we can do something to encourage NewMarket to work toward opening the canal at Tredegar instead of filling it in. A press release from the Virginia Canals & Navigations Society should go through our president Roger Nelson.
Here are some thoughts:

Don’t let NewMarket waste Tredegar’s most historic, dynamic and scenic resource.
The canal should be a major tourist feature at Tredegar because Tredegar is there only because the Kanawha Canal is there – for its transportation and for water power. Tredegar would come alive again by opening the canal for boat trips, and for powering waterwheels and turbines. Filling it in and putting up display panels won’t help. Can you imagine water flowing down a raceway and turning a big water wheel? Wouldn’t that be what tourists would photograph and remember? Tredegar means power!
At Tredegar is the only part of the canal in Richmond where there can be mule-drawn canal boat trips, because the towpath is there and gone everywhere else. People love boat rides. Ask canal parks in the other canal states if mule-drawn rides are enjoyable and educational and bring a canal alive. And how did Tredegar receive its supplies of pig iron and fuel during the Civil War? By canal! Tredegar means transportation!
The James River (now Kanawha) Canal was the first operating canal system with locks in the United States. The first part was open at Pump House Park in 1789 while George Washington was the canal company’s honorary president. He visited the canal, with great ceremony, in 1791. Don’t waste Washington’s canal.
So. Open the canal at Tredegar. A $385,000 arched bridge over the canal bed is already there, waiting for the water. Use your imagination, Richmond! Put your canal back to work, don’t fill it in!

Bill Trout
Curator, Virginia Canal Museum

p.s. The canal society has just published a new book, Amazing Virginia Canals, featuring the high points of our remarkable canal and river navigation network. Pages 26-27 are about the canal at Tredegar and its future. See www.vacanals.org/shop.

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 other news, save the date! Two events on May 18:

One event is the City of Richmond Special Recycling Collection Event
May 18 @ 10:00 am – 2:00 pm

The City of Richmond Department of Public Works , Richmond Clean City Commission and City of Richmond Stormwater Utility will be hosting a special recycling collection event on Saturday, May 18 at Elkhardt-Thompson Middle School from 10 am – 2 pm. For City of Richmond residents, only.

The event will include:
Document shredding: up to 5 boxes or 5 paper bags of personal documents ( such as taxes, bank statement, cancelled checks, credit card statements and receipts, financial accounts, medical and insurance records. NO COMMERCIAL BUSINESS documents accepted.
Electronics ( cash or check- no credit cards for *fees) *Click here for flier with fees
Hazardous Household Wastes: pesticides, herbicides and oil based paints in original containers
For more information on shredding and electronics call Darlene Mallory (804)646-8325 or for household hazardous waste call Jenn Clarke (804)646-8131.

The second event is the Sierra Club Falls of the James/University of Richmond BIG YARD SALE, Saturday, May 18, 2019 at 8 AM – 12 PM, at the Robins Stadium (23B Boatwright Drive, Richmond, VA 23173).
Thousands of student discards have been collected and sorted and are now available at discount prices. Shop til you drop and keep all this good stuff out of the landfill and save money too – A win-win for you and our environment! This award winning annual sale benefits benefits the Sierra Club and the UR Green student group. Goodwill is a supporting partner.

One of things this sale does is try to keep “fast fashions” out of the landfill. What is not sold is sent to Goodwill for further recycling. Lower your carbon foot print and wear your clothes longer.

Wildlife Sounds In The Canal

frogsincanal from Scott Burger on Vimeo.

This movie was taken about a month ago from the bridge over the Kanawha Canal on the Brown’s Island Way/Second Street Connector. The camera faced west towards the Lee Bridge but you can hear on the audio all of the wildlife noises. If you listen carefully, you can also hear a rock cover band playing a song at a private function at Tredegar.

Oregon Hill neighbors recently learned that New Market corporation has quietly submitted (with Venture Richmond’s support) an application to fill the canal just east of this site, adjacent to Tredegar Iron Works. More on this later and in the meantime you can read about past struggles between those who went to destroy and those who want to protect the canal (including the “Fences Of Contention“), but for right now listen to the nighttime nature sounds while you still can.

Bee Swarm Not From ‘Our Bees’

Last week some neighbors discovered a “wild” swarm of bees in Oregon Hill. Local bee experts have confirmed that those bees were NOT part of the hive installed recently by Open High students in Linear Park behind the 600 block of S. Pine St. From their statement:

During the inspection yesterday we found the
—queen,
—newly laid eggs,
—larvae, and
—pupating new bees.
Our hive showed no swarm queen cells.
Our bees are happy and busy building new comb on our widens frames, storing up lots of nectar and pollen and doing what bees do.
Next week the students will install the second nucleus hive. Hosting and caring for two hives will double the odds we have bees next spring.

There will BEE more information soon as well as announcements for a couple of public bee workshops later in 2019. In the meantime, if there are questions, please contact Pine Street neighbor Stephenie Harrington. Her telephone number is 804-551-0603.

Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Exciting news today as bees arrived. Pine Street neighbor Stephenie Harrington had this to say,

Thanks to the dedicated teachers and volunteers who assisted with beekeeping instruction since last fall. Today we watched a wonderful group of confident students handle bees! #OpenHighSchool
We established one hive today and will receive the second hive in a few weeks.
I will be documenting activities and later this year we will offer some public workshops with Parks and Rec Dept so folks can learn more about this urban pollinator project and more things coming this fall.
Thanks to OHHIC (Oregon Hill Home Improvement Council), OHNA (Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association) and neighbors for your support.

More details and publicity soon…

Play Ball! 100 Years Of Baseball in Virginia At War Memorial

Tomorrow night, April 16, the Virginia War Memorial is holding a special event that starts at 6:30 pm.

Come to the War Memorial on April 16 to celebrate the long history of baseball in Virginia!

Join local experts and fellow baseball fans as we discover the intertwined history of baseball and World War I from the Virginia National Guard Command Historian Al Barnes. Al will also be available during the event to personalize copies of his brand new book “Play Ball! Doughboys and Baseball in the Great War.”

Jump forward to today with the Richmond Flying Squirrels’ Todd “Parney” Parnell, to learn how the Squirrels are redefining baseball in Richmond today. Come ready to ask questions and learn, and see a variety of baseball artifacts spanning back through a century.

This family-friendly event is FREE and open to the public, and baseball-themed snacks will be available for purchase!

Speakers:
Al Barnes, Virginia Army National Guard Command Historian
Todd Parnell (Parney), Chief Operating Officer and Vice President, Richmond Flying Squirrels
James Triesler, VWM Director of Education

Cost:
FREE