Five people were injured, one severely, yesterday morning in a multiple-vehicle collision that snarled rush-hour traffic on state Route 36 at Fort Lee’s main gate. The crash at about 8:20 a.m. prompted police to close the area to traffic so a MedFlight helicopter could land. Marcia Jones of Danville, a Department of Defense civilian employee who was the most severely injured, was flown to VCU Medical Center. She was listed in stable condition yesterday afternoon, authorities said.

While Fort Lee’s expansion proceeds, Tri-Cities authorities are appealing to state transportation officials for funding to meet the expected traffic increase in and around the base. Petersburg Mayor Annie M. Mickens made the case for the Tri-Cities region at a recent Commonwealth Transportation Board hearing. Fort Lee, she said, is scheduled to double its operations in the next two years as a result of the 2005 Defense Base Realignment and Closure Commission plan.

This year will be a tough one for homebuilders, but if they can hang tight through 2009, next year should be much better. “Once we get out of the recession, we expect to see a bounce back,“ said economist Christine Chmura of Chmura Economics & Analytics in Richmond, a speaker at yesterday’s forecast meeting of the Home Building Association of Richmond.

Fort Lee’s growth in the next two years has the potential to bring economic and population growth to Richmond and other localities outside the Tri-Cities, a Fort Lee official told a small group of war veterans and Richmond-area residents last night. The 2005 Defense Base Realignment and Closure Commission plan is expected to bring nearly 15,000 new residents to the Tri-Cities and surrounding communities by 2011.

Aubrey Lee Lucas was described by one Colonial Heights resident as someone who speaks his mind whether he stands alone or not. Mr. Lucas said in 1967 that he endeavored “to take a stand for the people . . . to speak out against idealistic and grandiose plans made in the belief that you have to do what’s fashionable . . . with an utter disregard for the wage earner and those of fixed income who can least afford such thinking.“

More than 20 soldiers with the Headquarters and Headquarters Company of Fort Lee’s 49th Quartermaster Group were scheduled to deploy overseas in support of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan last night, according to a spokesman at the Army post. The 49th Quartermaster Group is the Army’s only unit tasked with petroleum and water supply, the spokesman said. The unit will provide oversight of the petroleum and water missions throughout the U.S. Central Command’s area of responsibility.

Soldiers at Fort Lee will soon be afloat on a “hero boat,“ thanks to local boating-industry companies. Rugged Marine Supplies of Chester is donating the 19-foot Cobia runabout to the Army post in Prince George County. “For what the armed forces are doing for us, I thought that was the way to go,“ said Jeff Warriner, Rugged Marine’s general manager.

The U.S. Army’s expansion of Fort Lee is helping Virginia weather the financial storms. “The entire economy of Southside Virginia rests on the back of Fort Lee,“ said James McNeer, a former Colonial Heights mayor and president of Richard Bland College near Petersburg. In less than three years, Fort Lee will double its population and facilities.

Three days ago, the youngest soldier at this Prince George Army post was called to the command sergeant major’s office. That’s not usually a happy event for a 17-year-old trooper. But Pfc. Maria Morgenstern found out she’d been tapped to help the governor of Virginia and a galaxy of generals cut the ribbon for Fort Lee’s $49million Sustainment Center of Excellence.

Korey Outerbridge was in Iraq when the idea came to him: He needed to write a children’s book. “We had phone tents when we deployed, for soldiers to call back to the states,“ Outerbridge said. Crossword-puzzle and race-car magazines lay scattered about the phone tents. Soldiers would thumb through them while they waited to contact to their families, the 29-year-old Newport News native recalled.

Korey Outerbridge was in Iraq when the idea came to him: He needed to write a children’s book. “We had phone tents when we deployed, for soldiers to call back to the states,“ Outerbridge said. Crossword-puzzle and race-car magazines lay scattered about the phone tents. Soldiers would thumb through them while they waited to contact to their families, the 29-year-old Newport News native recalled.

Henrico From today through Dec. 20, holiday shoppers at Henrico County malls will be under the watchful eyes of ACT NOW volunteers on Fridays and Saturdays from 6 to 9 p.m. ACT NOW (Awareness of Crime Today—Neighbors on Watch) is an award-winning crime-prevention program designed to increase awareness of holiday crime-prevention and shopping safety. The volunteers, dressed in maroon vests and equipped with cell phones and whistles, patrol mall parking lots and shopping areas. For details or to schedule a free crime-prevention program, call (804) 501-4838 or visit www.henricopolice.org.

Fort Lee’s Holiday Helper program is seeking volunteers to make cards for Fort Lee soldiers who will not travel home for the holidays and will be separated from their family and friends.

Fifteen thousand more people are coming to live in the Tri-Cities in the next two years. Churches need to be ready. That’s the message military officials gave clergy members this week.