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Vol. 32, No. 34 | Richmond Suburban News | December 30, 2015
STOPS AT EVERY HOME IN TOWN
U.S. 360 projects top story of year By Meredith Rigsby News Editor MECHANICSVILLE — The Virginia Department of Transportation’s two-year $22.2 million projects to widen U.S. 360 (Mechanicsville Turnpike) from six to eight lanes from Interstate 295 to Colony Drive and from four to six lanes from Colony Drive to Wynbrook Lane, as well as relocate Bell
Creek Road intersection with Mechanicsville Turnpike by 650 feet, takes the lead in the top stories of 2015. VDOT began the projects in the spring of this year and estimates they will be completed by summer 2017. Jessica Cowardin, communications coordinator for VDOT’s Richmond District, provided updates late last week
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Top 10 stories of 2015 1) U.S. 360 expansion 2) Superintendent 3) HCBOS races 4) R-MC enrollment 5) HCPS tuition policy 6) Ebola treatment 7) Education Expo 8) Park Service 9) HCBOS goes ‘live’ 10) Tomato Festival
on the bridge deck replacement on U.S. 360 at Interstate 64 and the widening at Bell see TOP, pg. 7
Meredith Rigsby/The Local
A massive expansion project of U.S. 360 (Mechanicsville Turnpike) topped The Mechanicsville Local’s Top 10 list of stories for 2015.
Town engineer gains new friend visiting Nepal By Meredith Rigsby News Editor
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SHLAND — During a recent trip to the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal, Ingrid Stenbjorn, Ashland’s town engineer, ventured to Street Dog Care Centre in Boudha Stupa where she met Submitted photo Ingrid Stenbjorn is shown with Lexi, who she and adopted a new friend — a dog that had been rescued from the streets – and brought brought back to Ashland.
her back to her home in Ashland. Stenbjorn left Oct. 23 for Nepal with her niece and traveled around the country with a group known as Yoga Nepal, which was made up of six other women from around the world, including France, the United Kingdom, Kuwait, Kenya and Australia. While in the town of Boudha Stupa, Stenbjorn and one of the women in her group made a trip to the Street Dog Care Center,
which was founded by Andrea Bringmann and takes in injured and sick dogs that are homeless and provides them with veterinary care. “We were given a tour of the facility and on the tour the woman was telling us, ‘This dog is going to Belgium, this dog is going to France, this dog is going to the U.K.,’ ” Stenbjorn said. The women also were shown two dogs that see NEPAL, pg. 14