In hopes of providing alternatives to incarceration, Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones and other officials traveled here last week to tour a former Flav-O-Rich dairy where drug offenders are treated and put to work. Richmond is looking at ways to prevent the planned new Richmond City Jail from becoming a warehouse for nonviolent criminals.

Chunks of Richmond’s history are being unearthed on East Cary Street. Yesterday afternoon, volunteers began lifting sections of asphalt in front of the Lucky Strike building at the end of Tobacco Row, revealing granite cobblestones underneath. The project, a partnership of the city of Richmond, the developers of the Lucky Strike property, various neighborhood associations and other civic groups, will restore cobblestones on about 300 feet of Cary Street ending at Pear Street.

Richmond’s budget woes extend beyond the national recession and are being compounded by permanent revenue losses from Henrico County’s decision to change some ZIP code addresses from Richmond to Henrico, the city’s top finance official said. Marcus D. Jones, deputy chief administrative officer for finance and administration, told the City Council’s Finance Committee yesterday that the ZIP code change is partly responsible for a projected $10.3 million budget shortfall for the current fiscal year, but he said an amount hasn’t been determined.

A 15.5 percent increase in Richmond’s construction permit fees may have been unnecessary, and it has failed to produce the promised improvements in inspection services, according to the city auditor. Backed by 32 development professionals and then-Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, the City Council raised the fees in 2007 so the city could hire 10 inspectors and related staff to make the operation more efficient.

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.

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.

The Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority has frozen rent subsidies for an additional 43 low-income families because of a federal funding crunch. The families were notified last week that housing vouchers issued to them no longer were valid and that they would remain indefinitely on a waiting list for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Housing Choice Voucher Program, known as Section 8.

The peace at Richmond City Hall has taken the urgency out of fixing flaws in the city charter that were at the root of legal clashes between then-Mayor L. Douglas Wilder and the City Council. While a commission is polishing its recommendations after months of review, council members are talking about not taking amendments to the General Assembly in 2010, as planned.

With a ballpark out of the picture, Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones wants a new, market-tested plan for revitalizing Shockoe Bottom. The city was preparing to issue yesterday a request for proposals for an economic strategy to guide development and redevelopment of city and private property in the Bottom. “At the end of the day, we want something that’s implementable and market-driven,“ said Peter H. Chapman, deputy chief administrative officer for economic and community development.

In July 2008, in the wake of conflicts between the Richmond City Council and the mayor, the council passed a resolution establishing a Charter Review Commission. The resolution directs the commission to “focus its work on correcting conflicts and ambiguities in the present Charter to provide greater clarity but not to change the fundamental powers and responsibilities of the Mayor and City Council.“ The commission recently published its preliminary recommendations and now invites thoughts and comments from the public.

About 200 people or more attended Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ first “Town Hall Meeting,“ in South Richmond last night, with discussion ranging from public safety to federal stimulus money to road improvements. Jones fielded questions during the forum at the Southside Community Services Center at Southside Plaza and referred residents to the city employee who best could answer each one.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine led a community pep rally to boost faster rail service as a priority as the region and Washington suburbs grow closer on the Interstate 95 corridor.

Crossroads Ford of Virginia sent a protest letter after the city had awarded the contract for 40 Crown Victorias. A city auditor and the dealer say proper competitive bidding procedures were not followed.

Byron C. Marshall, the lone finalist to be chief administrative officer of Richmond, is being brought back to town for another round of meetings with the City Council. Marshall, president and CEO of the nonprofit Austin Revitalization Authority in Texas, was expected to arrive last night for a series of private meetings this weekend, Tammy D. Hawley, press secretary to Mayor Dwight C. Jones, confirmed yesterday.