No one anticipates a fleet of moving vans rolling up again on City Hall at nightfall. Still, the relationship between Mayor Dwight C. Jones and the Richmond School Board has taken a turn for the Wilder. Jones recently unveiled an aggressive school-construc tion plan that calls for an $81 million replacement for Huguenot High School, as well as money for two elementary schools and a middle school.

The historic theater and adjoining Taylor Mansion on North Second Street could open by April 2011 as a live-music venue and theater known as The Hipp, according to a proposal submitted to the City Council.

Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones is jumping in to try to sway next Tuesday’s special election for the open 7th District seat on the City Council. After weeks of speculation, Jones is endorsing Cynthia I. Newbille in the six-candidate race to represent the East End. In a recorded phone message that went to district households Tuesday, Jones encourages people to vote for Newbille. Another round of calls is expected next week.

Bond Kenney Lewis Newbille Powell Robinson The political shuffling that began when Dwight C. Jones was elected Richmond mayor last year will end Nov. 3 with a special election for the 7th District seat on the City Council. Six candidates are vying to represent the East End: Ronald L. Bond, Clarence Kenney, Deanna Lewis, Cynthia I. Newbille, Garry F. Powell and Robin D. Robinson.

Richmond, which has stopped running and hiding from a fundamental facet of its history, is poised to give birth to a slavery museum that never should have been shopped elsewhere. The Richmond Slave Trail Commission unveiled plans Monday for a slave heritage site in Shockoe Bottom that would include a slavery museum. It’s hard not to examine what has been proposed by the commission, led by Del. Delores L. McQuinn, D-Richmond, and not sense that we’re at the portal of something transformative.

Richmond is tapping the brakes on a proposal to build roundabouts at four intersections in South Richmond and the East End. At the same time, a City Council committee moved a step closer to blocking a proposed roundabout at a busy intersection in North Richmond. The Land Use, Housing and Transportation Standing Committee voted 2-1 yesterday in support of a proposal to prevent a roundabout from being created at Laburnum Avenue and Hermitage Road. The long-pending proposal by 3rd District Councilman Chris A. Hilbert now moves to the full council at its meeting on Monday.

Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones unveiled an aggressive plan to build four schools in the city by 2014 and start construction on the first in a little over a year. Jones identified replacing Huguenot High School as a priority during a meeting last night with the Richmond School Board. “I really have a desire, or want to suggest, building a high school in the first phase,“ Jones said. “We have not built a high school in about 40 years. I can say without fear, Huguenot definitely needs to be replaced.“

The Richmond Slave Trail Commission yesterday released its vision to develop a $100 million to $150 million heritage site in Shockoe Bottom, including a slavery museum, an African-American genealogical center and a glass-enclosed Lumpkin’s Jail archeological site. Del. Delores L. McQuinn, D-Richmond, chairwoman of the commission, emphasized that plans for a 4.5-acre site between Main Street Station and Interstate 95 are preliminary but said she has begun to court prospective directors of a nonprofit to oversee the project. She cited Mayor Dwight C. Jones as a supporter and said someone of national or international prominence would be recruited to lead the project.

Richmond will consider building roundabouts at four intersections as controversy continues over one planned at the A.P. Hill Monument on North Side. The City Council is being asked to allow roundabouts at Belt Boulevard and Hull Street Road; Forest Hill Avenue and Roanoke Street in South Richmond; 25th Street at Fairmount Avenue and Nine Mile Road, and 23rd Street and Fairfield Avenue in the East End.

Former Richmond Chief Administrative Officer Sheila Hill-Christian’s work for the city won’t end with her recent appointment to the GRTC Transit System board. She’s also partnering with a Texas-based consultant on an economic-development study for the city. TIP Strategies of Austin tapped Hill-Christian as a subcontractor to conduct interviews with local officials and business owners and to organize focus groups, she said.

Richmond isn’t penny-pinching on leaf collection, even as revenues are falling with the leaves. The city is returning to two cycles of leaf vacuuming this fall and winter after fielding numerous complaints from residents about last year’s single round. The city saved about $300,000 by going with one cycle that was scheduled for December and January, but residents griped that leaves were getting picked up too early or too late.

Changes continue atop Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ administration. M. Stephen Fancher, who had been director of the Department of General Services, is no longer employed by the city, Tammy D. Hawley, the mayor’s press secretary, confirmed yesterday. She said Fancher’s exit was effective Tuesday but declined to elaborate. Bobby Vincent has been named acting director of general services. He had been chief of construction and permits for the Department of Public Works.

The days of mostly empty GRTC Transit System buses barreling around Richmond could be numbered. Under a proposal scheduled for public hearings beginning tomorrow, the Richmond City Council will consider eliminating or severely reducing six routes and scaling back three others to help GRTC save about $1.2 million annually. Of the routes in question, the No. 68 Lunch Time Express has attracted the fewest riders—an average of 12 per day in fiscal 2008-09, compared with 641 for Westhampton. Overall, GRTC has about 40,000 riders per day on its 40 routes.

A new, wooden fence concealed an ugly truth at 506 Chimborazo Blvd. in Richmond’s East End. Mosquito-infested brush, broken glass and construction debris were strewn in large piles across the yard behind the vacant, two-story house. Michael Evins, a grounds division manager in the Department of Public Works, paused in his vehicle off a narrow alley and said the yard appeared to be a dumpsite for much of the neighborhood. Then, he sized up the magnitude of yet another cleanup job—more than three large truckloads of debris, requiring a skilled crew and a Bobcat loader.

One of Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ top administrators is out of contention, but controversy still swirls over Richmond’s pending appointments to the GRTC Transit System board. The City Council is set to vote Monday to appoint former Chief Administrative Officer Sheila Hill-Christian, as well as current members Linda G. Broady-Meyers and James M. Johnson, to the GRTC board of directors. Chesterfield County, which jointly owns GRTC with the city, will tap the other three members.