THE AGENDA: City council meetings, potential park renovations and more.

Allie Pitchon, Petersburg Progress-Index

26 March 2024 at 4:45 am·4-min read

Welcome to The Agenda! This weekly feature will cover all the public meetings in Petersburg, Hopewell and Colonial Heights that may be important to you.

Regular city council sessions are on the books this week for Hopewell and Petersburg, with an additional special closed city council session regarding the discussion of personnel matters. A school board meeting is on the agenda for Colonial Heights.

In Hopewell, the Keep Hopewell Beautiful (KHB) Committee - a forum to influence residents of Hopewell to keep the city clean and aesthetically appealing - will be meeting at the library to plan litter cleanup and education events. The KHB Committee just hosted two cleanup events this past weekend and has an Earth Day cleanup planned for April 19.

Also in Hopewell, The Community Development Block Grant Committee will be meeting on Tuesday to consider the reallocation of funds from their 2023 CDBG budget to renovate Westwood Park. The Community Development Block Grant Federal Program provides annual grants to states, counties and cities - including Hopewell- "to develop viable urban communities by providing decent housing and a suitable living environment, and by expanding economic opportunities, principally for low- and moderate-income persons." Hopewell's Community Development Block Grant Advisory Board - which serves as a recommendatory body to the City Council - reviews application for CDBG funding, conducts public hearings and makes recommendations to the City Council regarding requests for projects to be funded from the city’s annual CDBG fund.

Among other requirements, HUD stipulates that recipients of CDBG funding spend approximately 80% of their grant money by May of that fiscal year. One of last year's CDBG funds recipients, the emergency home repair non-profit Rebuilding Together, was not able to meet this goal. On Tuesday, Chris Ward, Hopewell's Director of Development, will be presenting a proposal to the CDBG committee to defund Rebuilding Together as they were not able to meet this goal and potentially refund them with this upcoming fiscal year's CDBG grant money. Last years' funds from Rebuilding Together would be reallocated to renovating Hopewell's Westwood Park, Ward told The Progress-Index, as these renovations can be finished quickly before the May deadline. These renovations include the purchase of new all-access playground equipment for children of different abilities. After Ward presents this proposal to the CDBG committee on Tuesday, the CDBG committee will make a recommendation on the matter. Ward is tentatively set to present the CDBG's recommendation to City Council on April 9th.

Furthermore, Hopewell also has approximately $31,000 of CDBG funds leftover in grant money from the pandemic, said Ward. On Tuesday, Ward will present a proposal that the city fund two different projects with that money. The first is the allocation of approximately $15,000 on a software package to help the city provide services to Hopewell's homeless population. The second is the allocation of approximately $16,000 to the Hopewell-Prince George Healthy Families Program (HPGHF) to serve as crisis funds for Hopewell's homeless population, including funds for emergency housing.

Tuesday, March 26

Colonial Heights School Board regular open session meeting, 6:30 p.m., audio-visual room of the Technical Building at the Colonial Heights Technical Center.

Hopewell Community Development Block Grant Committee meeting, 5 p.m., Municipal Building (City Council Conference Room) 300 N. Main St. Hopewell, VA 23860. Inquiries? Contact Chris Ward, Director of Development, at (804) 541-2221.

Hopewell City Council regular meeting, 7:30 p.m., Municipal Building (City Council Chambers) 300 N. Main St. Hopewell, VA 23860. Inquiries? Contact Brittani Williams, City Clerk, at (804) 541-2408.

Keep Hopewell Beautiful Committee meeting, 6 p.m., Appomattox Regional Library Hopewell Branch 209 E. Cawson St. Hopewell, VA 23860. Inquiries? Contact Kelly Davis, Senior Planner, at (804) 541-2269.

Wednesday, March 27

Petersburg City Council meeting, special closed session regarding the discussion of personnel matters, 8:30 - 10 a.m., Petersburg Area Transit,100 W. Washington Street, 2nd Floor Conference Room. Additional information regarding the special session may be obtained from the Office of the City Manager, City Hall, or by telephone at (804) 733-2300.

Thursday, March 28

Economic Development Authority meeting, 6 to 8 p.m., Multipurpose Room at the Petersburg Public Library.

Petersburg Board of Zoning Appeals meeting, 2 p.m., Small Conference Room, Petersburg Public Library. For the Agenda, see here.

Hopewell Water Renewal Special Commission meeting, 9 - 11 a.m., Hopewell Water Renewal GRTC Building, 231 Hummel Ross Road Hopewell, VA 23860. Inquiries? Contact Amber Davis, Administrative Support Manager, Hopewell Water Renewal, at (804) 541.2210 ext. 501.

Tuesday, April 2

Petersburg City Council Work Session, 5 - 6 p.m., Multipurpose Room at the Petersburg Public Library.

City of Colonial Heights Planning Commission meeting, 6 - 8 p.m., City Council Chambers, 201 James Avenue Colonial Heights, VA 23834.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: THE AGENDA: City council meetings, potential park renovations & more.

HuffPost UK
Trevor Phillips Destroys Nigel Farage With One Devastating Question
The Reform UK leader rejected the accusation that his party is a home for racists.
HuffPost UK
Rishi Sunak Left Squirming As He's Confronted With Ordinary People's Lives In Tory Britain
The prime minister had insisted life was "better" now than when the party came to power in 2010.
The Telegraph
Old, rich and living on benefits: welcome to the state pension capital of Britain
East Preston feels an unlikely stronghold of benefits dependency. The genteel village on the West Sussex coast might be the closest thing that Britain has to a moneyed pensioner utopia.
The Independent
Led by Donkeys interrupt Nigel Farage speech by lowering huge Putin banner
Nigel Farage was initially unaware that the Russian president was on the poster, with the words ‘I heart Nigel’ written below
The Telegraph
Labour vote share falls to lowest in more than two years
Labour’s vote share has fallen to its lowest level in more than two years ahead of the general election, new polling shows.
CNN
Russia wants to confront NATO but dares not fight it on the battlefield – so it’s waging a hybrid war instead
When someone tried – and failed – to burn down a bus garage in Prague earlier this month, the unsuccessful arson attack didn’t draw much attention. Until, that is, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala revealed it was “very likely” that Moscow was behind it.
The Telegraph
Democrats creating path for Joe Biden to make ‘dignified’ exit
Democrats are laying the groundwork for Joe Biden to make a “dignified” exit from the presidential race.
The Telegraph
A Labour landslide would leave the UK unrecognisable
Until now, Sir Keir Starmer has carefully hidden the Labour Party’s radical, hard-Left agenda from the public. But on the brink of the largest majority in nearly a century, his mask has slipped.
The Guardian
‘Disbelief’ as US-UK trade deals under threat after Britain axes negotiators
Business community decries ‘act of arson’ as one-seventh of trade posts within British consulates in the US are scrapped
CNN
A year ago, she drank battery acid to escape life under the Taliban. Today, she has a message for other Afghan girls
Arzo survived a suicide attempt but now faces a new threat that could send her family – and millions like them – back to Afghanistan and a life that has become so intolerable for women and girls that some would rather die.
The Telegraph
‘Trillion dollar trainwreck’: US super stealth fighter is eating the next generation
All of a sudden, the US Air Force is considering cancelling a multibillion-dollar effort to develop a new stealth fighter. Citing the high cost of the so-called “Next-Generation Air Dominance” programme and the competing demands of other projects, USAF leaders have warned they may have no choice but to cancel NGAD – and find other ways of winning control of the air in future wars.
The Telegraph
Tory Remainers are the authors of their party’s defeat
The oddity of European politics is that Britain is moving sharply to the Left while most of the Continent is moving even further to the Right. In Britain, young people and even the middle aged are abandoning Conservatism. Elsewhere in Europe, the young are the pillars of a radical Right-wing upsurge. On the Continent, the cause is largely frustration with the consequences of being in the EU. In Britain, it is largely a backlash against being out of it.
Evening Standard
Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally ahead after first round of French voting
The far right party are in the lead after the first round, according to exit polls.
Manchester Evening News
'My mortgage has doubled... the country's gone to pot': The Greater Manchester neighbourhood where people want change
'I was born and bred here... I've never known the place be as big of a dump as it is'
PA Media: UK News
Rishi Sunak: I’ll still be Prime Minister on Friday
The Conservative leader defended his party’s record in government against what he described as a ‘declinist narrative’.
The Telegraph
The Conservatives are paying the terrible price for Britain’s lockdown amnesia
On Tuesday, the BBC led with a report about personal protective equipment (PPE) worth nearly £1.5 billion going unused. It was, we were told in scandalised tones, rotting away in warehouses.
The Telegraph
Marine Le Pen’s surge is a warning to Sir Keir Starmer
In the upper-echelons of the Labour Party, as they consider a UK run by them (and such is their confidence, the urinal-equipped chancellor’s loo is being reassessed ready for the first female occupant of the role), a name is whispered with a worried nod of the head and a concerned furrowing of the brow.
HuffPost UK
'On The Brink Of Destruction': Trevor Phillips Tells Oliver Dowden The Tories Face Election Wipeout
The party still trails well behind Labour with just four days to go until the election.
Associated Press
A private call of top Democrats fuels more insider anger about Biden's debate performance
A sense of concern is growing inside the top ranks of the Democratic Party that leaders of Joe Biden’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee are not taking seriously enough the impact of the president’s troubling debate performance earlier in the week. DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison and Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez held a Saturday afternoon call with dozens of committee members across the country, a group of some of the most influential members of the party.
The Independent
John Redwood accuses Rishi Sunak of helping to deliver large Labour majority as Tory blame game escalates
Exclusive: Former Conservative cabinet minister hits out at his party’s leadership days before polls open

Latest stories