BRIEFS: NEWS NEAR YOU

This daily column features short news items from some of the 20 localities that make up the greater Richmond area. If you have a news item, call 649-6990 or e-mail us at

NEWS NEAR YOU

Charles City The Charles City County Planning Commission will meet Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in the Government/School Administration Building, 10900 Courthouse Road. Discussion includes a review of the county's Comprehensive Land Use Plan.

Chesterfield The Chesterfield County Budget and Audit Committee will meet today at 3 p.m. in Room 502 of the Lane B. Ramsey Administration Building, 9901 Lori Road.

Colonial Heights The Colonial Heights Recycling Center, currently at 1000 East Roslyn Road, will move to a new location, 2701 Conduit Road, on Friday.

Dinwiddie The Dinwiddie County Board of Supervisors will hold a special workshop meeting tomorrow at 4 p.m. in the multipurpose room of the Pamplin Administration Building, 14016 Boydton Plank Road.

Hanover The Hanover Tomato Festival will take place Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Pole Green Park in Mechanicsville. Parking and admission are free. There will be games, food, live entertainment and contests, and Hanover County tomatoes will be for sale. The festival will be held rain or shine.

King William C. Thomas Redd III and Daniel L. Wright, the 1st and 2nd district representatives on the King William County Board of Supervisors, will hold a town-hall meeting July 14 at 7 p.m. in the boardroom of the Administrative Building at the courthouse complex. The purpose of the meeting will be to discuss household preparation for hurricanes and other emergencies. The county's emergency-services director, Steve Puckett, will be available to describe precautions and answer questions. Everyone is welcome, regardless of district.

Louisa The Louisa County Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing today at 7 p.m. in the public meeting room on the main floor of the county office building in Louisa. The board will discuss amendments to the county code related to the Board of Public Welfare and the Department of Social Services.

Petersburg The Petersburg City Council will meet tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. at the Union Train Station, 103 River St.

Powhatan The Powhatan County Planning Commission will meet tomorrow at 7 p.m. in the Powhatan High School auditorium, 1800 Judes Ferry Road. The commission will conduct public hearings on two amendments to the subdivision ordinance, one that governs how long property must be owned before a family division is requested and another requiring that new private roads to family divisions conform with the county's private-road construction standards.

Sussex The Sussex County Planning Commission will hold a public hearing today at 6 p.m. in the General District Courtroom, Sussex Judicial Center, 15098 Courthouse Road. Among the items on the agenda are amendments to the zoning ordinances to allow a sporting-clay field, a pistol range and a rifle range and to allow the storage of gravel and lime with a conditional-use permit on agricultural property. Residents have applied for conditional-use permits, which will be discussed at the meeting, to allow a rifle range at 22504 Stokes Road and to allow the storage of gravel and lime at a property at 21330 Blue Star Highway (U.S. 301).

AROUND THE STATE

Wallops Island Promoters envision the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Virginia's Eastern Shore as "the Cape Canaveral of the North." The Wallops Island facility is already stealing business and jobs from Cape Canaveral. Supply missions to the International Space Station are in the works. And a $10 million rocket-assembly building is soon to go up near a new launch pad. Maryland and Virginia, which operate the spaceport together, are touting its cut-rate location. It provides a shorter trip to the space station, which means lower bills for rocket fuel. Insurance costs less, too, because flights go almost entirely over water.

Chantilly Higher toll rates have led to less traffic on the Dulles Greenway, a private toll road. Daily weekday traffic on the Greenway fell nearly 8 percent over the first three months of this year, compared with the same months in 2008. The significant dip in traffic coincides with fee increases that took effect in January. Since the increase, average daily revenue has jumped 11.5 percent to more than $167,000.

Leesburg One of the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra's top violinists is fighting extradition to Loudoun County on charges he used the Internet to try to entice a 14-year-old girl into having sex. Luigi Peracchia was arrested in March on a warrant issued by the Loudoun Sheriff's Office. An August hearing is scheduled. Symphony President David Gross says Peracchia has been suspended and has taken a yearlong leave of absence without pay.

Gloucester Gloucester County taxpayers could face another $42,000 in legal fees of four supervisors whom residents tried unsuccessfully to oust last year. Attorneys for the supervisors last week filed a request for the additional fees, which bring the total cost of the supervisors' defense to more than $171,000. They said they incurred $42,146 since December, when Judge Westbrook Parker ordered the county and 40 of its residents to reimburse $129,000 in legal bills the supervisors incurred to fight the removal effort.

Suffolk A Franklin man was arrested in Suffolk last week after police say he raped an 18-year-old woman after offering her a ride. Thomas Lamont White, 31, was charged with two counts each of rape and sodomy and one count of abduction with intent to defile. Debbie George, spokeswoman for the city of Suffolk, said the woman is a Portsmouth resident. According to the police report, White drove her to the Cogic Square apartment complex in Suffolk and sexually assaulted her behind the buildings.