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Feb. 14 Newsletter: City report clarifies water plant timeline

Weather: Mostly cold this weekend, but a wild Sunday will bring brief warmth and storms.

On this date in 1929, T.C. Williams Jr. dies at his home, Agecroft, at age 64. Williams imported the home from England and created the Windsor Farms neighborhood around it to resemble an English village. (read more)

Report: Richmond water plant didn’t have copy of emergency manual during Jan. 6 failure

The first report by the group hired to look into Richmond's water crisis was released yesterday.

  • “Based on staff interviews, there are no established training procedures or written training manuals,” the report said.
  • The plant was running on a "winter mode" to save money by only using one of two power sources at the time of the outage.
  • Dominion was not notified of the power outage until an hour after it happened.

The report also provided the clearest timeline yet of what happened, including a brief power outage at 4:25 a.m. that hadn't been accounted for in earlier reports.

Read more and see the report here.

RPS offers $7,500 bonuses to attract new teachers

The bonus has been offered the last two years, but at smaller amounts. Teachers must commit by May 1 and agree to teach at a hard-to-staff school for three years.

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“We have a sense that it’s going to be a tight market this hiring season, and so we expect others to do the same,” said Superintendent Jason Kamras.

Before approving the plan, school board members expressed concern about signing off on the bonuses before a budget is finalized. Read more here.

With more than 70 bus drivers out, Richmond schools switch to virtual on Wednesday

After initially planning to have in-person school on a two-hour delay Wednesday, Richmond schools changed course in response to power outages and callouts by more than half of the district's bus drivers. Read more here.

Virginia Muslim Civic League organizes local Muslims for civic engagement

As part of a series of listening sessions at Richmond-area mosques, local Muslims were asked: What are your biggest concerns as an American and a Richmonder?

From healthcare to the public school system to the price of groceries to the ongoing devastation and death in Gaza, the answers reflected the concerns of a community consumed with worry about local, national, and international issues and livelihoods.

Read more about the organization, and its goal to create more civic engagement.

In other news

The editor's desk

Three days, three water reports, as Henrico, Hanover and Richmond all released versions of their after-action reports this week. Amid it all, freezing rain created power outages for a number of Richmonders, though the water plant remained online.

Michael Phillips, founding editor
mphillips@richmonder.org

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