photo courtesy of Deb SF

The News Virginian reports that Senator Mark Warner spent some time in the valley yesterday, stopping in Harrisonburg  after a visit to a health care facility in Lynchburg.  He remarked that on taking office in 2009, the economy was in an even deeper ditch than anyone realized. And the senator puts the responsibility on those from Wall Street to Main Street. “The American people have to look in the mirror. We were all too over-leveraged,” said Warner.  According to WHSV, the Senator visited Rosetta Stone while in the area, and finished up the day with a town hall meeting at the Spottswood Country Club that attracted nearly 50 people, speaking about the increasing focus on jobs in Washington, and bringing more high-tech, state-of-the-art companies like Rosetta Stone to the area.

• According to Virginia Business.com, jobless rates are up statewide but down in the city. Harrisonburg records an unemployment rate 6.9% in July, down 0.2 points, while nationally, Virginia’s 7.1% is the 14th lowest among the states and the District of Columbia. For some national context,  the Wall Street Journal reports that the  national unemployment rate ticked upward to 9.5% as more people entered the labor force to look for work.  The private-sector added 67,000 jobs on a seasonally adjusted basis, while overall, nonfarm payrolls fell by 54,000, as the U.S. cut 114,000 temporary Census workers and state governments also reduced employment.
• WHSV is reporting that two people were taken to RMH Wednesday after their  SUV crashed into a garage on Clay Street. The driver was charge with with reckless driving and not wearing a seat belt.
• The Washington Post and the NV Daily are reporting that Governor McDonnell has ordered the DMV remain open for longer hours Saturday. Some offices, including the Harrisonburg office, will be also open Sunday, and Labor Day to make up for the backlog due to the failure of a data storage unit outside Richmond that impacted a number of VA agency computer systems last week. Sounds like a perfect way to spend the weekend.
• Downtown welcomes a new store. Yarn Mountain, originally Massanutten Hookery out in McGaheysville has opened near Pennybackers on Water Street.

Photo by Randy Lowery, from the Hburg News Flicker Pool

What did we miss? What’s happening in your neighborhood? What do you want to discuss? Consider this an open thread. And wherever you’re walking, whatever you’re doing this weekend, have a great Labor Day.

In a somewhat related story, WHSV reports a new survey released by the Office of Children and Youth has discovered an increase in marijuana, alcohol and cigarettes use, as well as increased engagement in sexual activity among 8th, 10th and 12th graders in Harrisonburg and Rockingham county as compared to 2007 reported levels. The 2007 report is here; the most recent report is not yet posted on the OCY website.

Also related to JMU student activity, despite the publicity associated with Spring Fling in April, WHSV is reporting that the Harrisonburg Rockingham County Chamber of Commerce is working with JMU on new initiatives to keep JMU students in the area after graduation. The program is called Vision 2020, and includes in part a survey requesting community feedback on a draft of a vision statement describing the Harrisonburg/Rockingham County area in 2020;  link to the survey here.

Arts Council of the Valley, Smith House, 311 S. Main St.

Michael Hough, Sculpture, Sarah Byrd, Book Signing, and Kimmon Waldruff, Acoustic Sets

Arts Council of the Valley Satellite Gallery, Court Square Theater Marketplace

Bridgewater College Student Show

Arts Council of the Valley Satellite Gallery, former Jack Collins Shoe Store

Ashley McCoy, Painting

The Virginia Quilt Museum, 301 S. Main St.

Admission to the museum is free and the museum shop will be open, Virginia Quilt Museum Celebrates 15 years – Quilts from Our Collection

Asbury United Methodist Church, 205 S. Main St.

Trudy Cole and Bob Driver, Live music, Jim Harris and Kathy Pigg, Mixed Media

Harrisonburg League of Therapists, 312 S. Main St.

Erin Donnelly, Painting

Hardesty-Higgins House Visitors Center, 212 S. Main St.

The Valley Turnpike Museum and Rocktown Gift Shoppe will be open featuring work of Valley Artisans and the Art Gallery of Shenandoah Valley Watercolor Society. Light Refreshments will be served.

Linda S. Hoover, CFP, Financial Advisor, Ameriprise Financial, 165 S. Main Street

Michelle Krone, Photography, The WoodArt Studio, Woodturning and Carving

Clementine Café, 153 S. Main St.

Gwendolyn Garrett and Erin Kling, Drawings, Photography, and Mixed media

OASIS Gallery, 103 S. Main St.

Autumn’s Glory & the Color Purple

The Yellow Button, 192 S. Main St.

Erin Donnelly, Painting

Estland Design, 41 Court Square, Suite 4-D

The Cat’s Cradle, 124 S. Main St.

Kendall Charpentier, Painting

The Gaines Group, PLC, architecture + design, 107 S. Main St., Ste 2

Blueprints by Raymond Gaines and Charles Hendricks

*Reception catered by Shank’s Bakery

Laughing Dog T-shirts & Gifts, 825 S. Main St.

Lynn Lough, Mixed Media Paintings and Sculptures, and live music by Kat & the Traveler/s

Downtown Wine and Gourmet, 41 Court Square

Wine Tastings and (periodically) Music

Cally’s Restaurant and Brewery, 41-A Court Square

Beer Tastings 

Artful Dodger, 47 Court Square

Trip Madison, Mixed Media

Downtown Fine Furniture, 20 N. Main St.

August Enterprise/T.J.’s Demagraphics, 91 N. Main St.

Greg Ballou and James August Warsing, Jr., Paintings and Sculpture

Wine on Water, 70 W. Water St.

Wine Tasting

Polished, Inc., 29 W. Water St.

*10% everything in the store

Adona Music, 34 S. Main St.

Child Advocacy Center (a program of the Collins Center), 165 S. Main St.

Open House to tour the CAC facilities, including the newly renovated forensic interview room, meet members of the multidisciplinary team working to respond to child abuse in our community, and view children’s artwork from the CAC April Awareness Art Contest

Cornett Jewelers, Inc., 49 W. Water St., Suite-E

Grand opening of new jewelers in downtown

Yarn Mountain, 25 E. Water St.

Open House to celebrate new store, Refreshments provided, 5-8 p.m.

Dancing with Karen

Library Courtyard

Swing and Tango

Classic Carriage Horse Drawn Rides, $5.00

Departs from the Hardesty-Higgins House

6:00pm to 8:00pm

Discover Downtown Tours, $7

Departs from the Hardesty-Higgins House

6 pm

For more information on the Arts Council visit www.valleyarts.org or call (540)-801-8779.

For a six-year-old starving for knowledge of what existed outside Rockingham County’s borders there was paradise behind the concrete steps that led to the glass doors surrounded by a brick facade that sat on Newman Avenue.

Unless you’re older than thirty and grew up in the days before the Internet you may not understand how important a library could be to a child. Back then, “Google it” was “microfiche it;” flimsy translucent cards stuck into a black box, strange numbers scrawled down on a manila note card and then down the Dewey Decimal rabbit’s hole into the musty smell of old paper and binding glue, impersonal grey steel racks and a cool tile floor on which to sit huddled for hours with a stack of books in the dim fluorescent light.

I couldn’t travel to France, but the Louvre was at my fingertips in giant color photos. I’d never had a conversation with a Buddhist, but the tenants of Eastern philosophy were carefully laid out in paragraph form. I found the history that my school books left out, the fiction my teachers never made me read, the ideas that would never come out of the mouth of anyone I ever encountered.

And the movies…a yellowing wooden shelf lined with book-sized VHS tapes that provided something that a set of rabbit-ears can never bring into a rural living room. Kurosawa, Bergman, Kubrick, Coppola. What does an eight-year-old get out of watching Citizen Kane? Nearby were cassette tapes that produced a sound that would never come over local airwaves. Racks held more magazines than could ever been crammed into my country mailbox. It was an overwhelming and seemingly endless deluge, uninterrupted by commercials, advertisements or flashing pop-ups.

Last week, Massanutten Regional Library announced that it would close two of its branches in the small communities of Bergton and Stanley, while reducing hours of operation at four of its other locations. In announcing its decision of triage the library’s Board of Trustees sited a quarter million dollars in funding that has been lost over the past three years in spite of the fact that nearly 6,000 new patrons have signed up for library cards during the same period.

Budget cuts erode an institution like weather strips paint from a house. First a few cracks. Then things start to look shabby. “We’d like to fix it this year but we just don’t have the money. Maybe next.” Then the wood is stripped bare. The foundation starts to crumble and before you know it the shell that’s left isn’t worth fixing.

As a society we endorse our values with our pocket book. So we’re left asking ourselves “Do public libraries still have value?” Are they merely archaic and dying institutions that are a needless drain on our limited resources in the tight times of the Internet Age or is it important that there is a repository of knowledge left that is not held captive by a power outlet, a wireless signal or a password and is available to anyone who is willing to spend the effort to pursue it? Is it better to put a book in a child’s hand or a golf club? Does everyone have the right to access the Internet or only those who can afford it? Are we more secure with smart weapons or smart citizens?

Can we afford to keep our libraries open? If not, what is the price of seeing an empty handed child standing in front of a set of glass doors marked “Closed?”

September 14 is the final day that the Bergton and Stanley libraries will be operational. Local patrons and members of those communities are still looking into alternatives that would keep the branches open.

Photos by Holly Marcus.

More information and links to registration can be found here.

The Summit has a number of stated objectives:

• To create stronger connections between residents, students, faculty, and school administrators in Harrisonburg.
• To meet and discuss issues related to working, living, learning, and serving in the same community.
• To connect attendees with local resources and networks that help them meet their goals
• To share best practices related to university- community relationships- what are other communities doing that is successful?
• To provide professional development opportunities for attendees
• To invigorate existing programs meant to strengthen these relationships, or begin new efforts

Representatives of Carrizo Oil and Gas Co. say the company is no longer “actively pursuing” a special-use permit to explore for natural gas in Bergton. Rather, Carrizo is focusing on sites in other states where it’s met less opposition . . .

According to the story, Brad Fisher, VP and CEO of Carrizo, said that the Rockingham County Board of Supervisors’ review of the process and impact of hydrofracking contributed to Carrizo’s decision. However, it’s unclear if that is a permanent decision. Fisher is also quoted, saying, “We’re going to have to take the time to sit down with the local officials and the concerned citizens and try to educate them on what we’re doing and explain how it’s not going to be an issue.”

On Monday, a coalition of Valley preservation groups warned of the negative environmental potential of drilling for gas in Bergton. The group included the findings of a report conducted by Mark Quarles of Global Environmental, citing the lack of a clean-up plan, “the well’s proposed location in a floodplain, and the risks posed by nearby abandoned wells as serious causes for concern.”

Carrizo told the DNR that they had decided to back off Bergton well before yesterday’s statements of concern.

State mining officials will not require emergency management plans for a proposed Marcellus Shale natural gas well near Bergton in Rockingham County despite growing reports of explosions and other accidents at similar wells in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. In the event of a flood at the site, Virginia’s Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy (DMME) acknowledges that the contaminated industrial waste, stored in pits in the floodplain, will be carried into the headwaters of the North Fork of the Shenandoah River.

A professional geologist’s review of the Bergton gas well application, just released by local groups Community Alliance for Preservation (CAP), Shenandoah Riverkeeper, and Shenandoah Valley Network, reveals a long list of environmental and public health concerns related to the proposed gas well.

The report, conducted by Mark Quarles, P.G., of Global Environmental LLC of Nashville TN, cites the lack of a clean-up plan, the well’s proposed location in a floodplain, and the risks posed by nearby abandoned wells as serious causes for concern. For example, the applicant, Houston-based gas company Carrizo (Marcellus) LLC, states that “a Spill Prevention Control and Countermeasure plan is not required” to deal with potential environmental impacts at the proposed mining site. If developed, such a plan would outline steps to control dangers and risks associated with gas mining near Bergton, such as water contamination or fires, as well as measures to clean up accident sites.

Shenandoah Riverkeeper Jeff Kelble said “If you look at what’s happening with accidents, explosions and spills in communities where shale gas drilling is booming, this is particularly alarming. No clean-up plan? Local residents and our river deserve better.”

The Bergton application, currently under consideration by the Rockingham County Board of Supervisors, would be the first natural gas well in Virginia to use the unconventional shale gas hydraulic fracturing process, which has been linked to industrial accidents and water contamination in several states. County planning staff have recommended a series of conditions on the special use permit.

Kim Sandum, director of Community Alliance for Preservation (CAP) in Rockingham, points out that a lack of federal or state regulations that protect water quality and drinking water supplies from the impacts of Marcellus Shale gas mining leaves local officials with a big responsibility. “Our County staff and Supervisors are really doing their homework, trying to understand the risks of this proposal with little guidance from the state or federal government. This is a complicated issue with serious consequences if things go wrong.”

In March, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in March launched a two-year study on drinking water impacts of hydraulic fracturing, with results expected in 2012.

According to Kelble, many of the risks outlines in the geologist’s report could be addressed if Virginia’s natural resource agencies, such as the Department of Environmental Quality, the Department of Conservation and Recreation, and the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries were involved. Currently, only the state DMME regulates the process. In response to a written question about the role of Virginia’s natural resource agencies, Deputy Director Bradley C. Lambert stated that “we are not authorized to admit other state or federal agencies onto well sites without the well operator’s permission.”

Accidents are not uncommon in unconventional natural gas mining. In Pennsylvania, 1,435 violations by Marcellus shale drilling/ mining companies were documented in two and a half years between January 2008 and June 2010. In Colorado, the Denver Post reported over 5 million gallons of drilling liquid and oil spilled in almost 1,000 accidents over a similar time period. A Marcellus Shale gas well exploded June 3 in Clearfield County, PA, spewing natural gas and toxic wastewater for 16 hours before it could be capped. State officials fined the operator, EOG Resources Inc., $400,000 in July for failing to provide sufficient controls at the well site and criticized the company for a three to five-hour delay before officials were notified about the blowout. A contaminated spring has since been cleaned-up. During the same week, a Marcellus gas well exploded in West Virginia, shooting flames over 70 feet high and injuring seven workers.

Kate Wofford of the Shenandoah Valley Network said that “the Global Environmental LLC Report highlights what many of us have suspected from the beginning. If the Bergton well is developed as it has been approved by the state DMME, there is a potential for devastating effects to nearby wells, the local streams, and downstream water users on the North Fork.”

Read their letter to Rockingham County Board of Supervisors.

Wofford, Kelble and Sandum conclude “that approval of the proposed Bergton gas well is not in the best interest of Rockingham County, its citizens, its natural resources, or downstream communities along the North Fork.