DELIVER TO: Postal Patron Mechanicsville, VA 23111
Vol. 32, No. 15 | Richmond Suburban News | August 12, 2015
STOPS AT EVERY HOME IN TOWN
Business Council gets update on town By Meredith Rigsby News Editor ASHLAND – The future of the Ashland Theater and the work of the Ashland Main Street Association were among topics Ashland Town Manager Charles Hartgrove addressed last Wednesday during the Hanover Business Council’s Networking Breakfast. Hartgrove presented a “State of the Center of the Universe” to the crowd at Birdsong Hall on the campus of RandolphMacon College. With more than 16 years of local government experience, Hartgrove talked about the theatre, which was donated to the town in November 2013. He noted that the Main Street group has used the facility since it was donated for a variety of events. “As we’ve been working with state agencies and private sector partners to figure out how to renovate and bring
Prsrt. Standard U.S. POSTAGE PAID Mechanicsville, VA Permit No.141
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this building into 2015, modern times and technology, and also trying to figure out what it’s going to be, a multi-use
Meredith Rigsby/The Local
Anthony Whitaker, a teacher at Mechanicsville Elementary School, arrived to a cheery welcome Thursday morning after biking from Oregon. He had never visited the West Coast and chose to return by riding a bicycle that he named Shirley T. after his late grandmother. More photos on page 7.
CHARLES HARTGROVE Ashland town manager entertainment facility, Ashland Main Street Association has been showing movies, holding concerts. We’ve seen the jazz concert bands from all the public schools; we’ve seen bluegrass bands; we’ve seen movies like ‘Jaws’ and ‘Grease’ and a lot of other special events,” see BUSINESS, pg. 4
Mural helps teens through recovery By Meredith Rigsby News Editor ASHLAND — From April until mid-June, seven teens in the Hanover Juvenile Drug Court program worked together on a mural located on a blank wall in a newly refurbished kitchen at the Hanover Community Services Ashland
Office. At the start, the seven virtual strangers were unsure of the project and one another. But they decided to participate and came up with the idea of painting a mural that would directly mirror the journey and the struggle of going through recovery.
The mural provided them an opportunity to bond over their struggle and to help each other grow in ways that they previously may not have been able to. “None of us had ever really Meredith Rigsby/The Local talked much before. I mean we Ivy Sager, Hanover Community see each other three times a Services Board executive see MURAL, pg. 5
director, gave an opening speech at the mural dedication.
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