hburgnews.com

Due to a combination of rising gas prices, greater awareness about carbon emissions’ impact on the environment, and individuals looking for healthier lifestyles, I’ve been seeing a lot more bicycles on the road and a lot more people walking. Although admittedly Harrisonburg doesn’t have the most ideal bicycle facilities (yet) and many neighborhoods were designed when cars dominated [...]

The City has just posted a video online titled “Your Trash”. The video has been shown at the Public Work’s session of Citizen Academy and it follows, literally, your trash.
Where does your trash go to after you put it out on trash day? What is the Resource Recovery Facility? How is recycling good for the environment and how [...]

While Rockingham County begins to rewrite its zoning ordinance, George Washington National Forest officials announced they will resume their land and resource management plan revision.
Roughly a quarter of Rockingham County is within the boundaries of the National Forest.

There’s an article in today’s Washington Post about the local poultry industry and federal immigration “reform.” It hits several of the same points touched on in past hburgnews and DNR articles (such as the effects of high grain prices on the industry).
Hobey Bauhan, president of the Virginia Poultry Federation, and Rep. Bob Goodlatte use [...]

Jim Gilmore, Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, made his way though the Valley today, stopping at a “high end retail apartment construction site in Harrisonburg” (from NBC29). It appears that the primary issue he’s hitting over and over again is drilling for oil off the Alaskan coast. Gilmore is touting Alaskan oil as the solution [...]

I don’t know how I missed this story yesterday (it was reported on WSVA). 12 protesters, including several JMU students, were arrested in Richmond Monday for blockading Dominion Power’s corporate headquarters in protest of their plans to build a coal-fired power plant in Southwest Virginia.

There’s a story in today’s DNR about “deathanol,” the federal mandate, and the impact of corn-for-fuel on the local poultry industry. I recently read an interesting article about “the seven myths of energy independence” in Mother Jones that touched on some of the same points.

Dominion Virginia Power just announced a plan to reduce energy by offering incentives for saving energy, and installing “smart meters” at every customer’s home or business.
Here’s a video that explains how smart meters work.

The first Shenandoah Buy Fresh Buy Local Food Directory (PDF, 6-pages) has been published and 40,000 copies are in print for distribution. This directory is part of a large effort by the Shenandoah Valley Area Local Foods Work Group to educate our community, help our local economy, help local farmers, producers, institutional and individual consumers [...]

We’ve written about the farmers’ market(s) and low mileage food here before, but with all the national media coverage over the attack of the killer tomatoes, there’s yet another reason to buy locally grown food.
The NV Daily reports that Virginia ranks 4th in nation for production of fresh-market tomatoes.

This site calculates the walk score of your neighborhood based on how closed grocery stores, parks, library, etc., are to you (and, interestingly enough, porn shops but not places of worship). Joe and I live off Central Avenue near Keister; our house has an index of 48 out of 100, which feels about right. [...]

Yesterday TV3 ran a story about stealing aluminum from residential recycling bins. The story claimed that, “the city makes money on the items it recycles, so if someone steals, that’s lost revenue for Harrisonburg.”
While it’s true that the city sells that used material to a recycling company, it’s not true that the city makes [...]

APVA Preservation Virginia recently released their list of “endangered historic sites.” Interstate 81 is on the list:
Increased truck and automobile traffic threatens many areas of the Commonwealth resulting in either an increased burden on already existing roadways or the call for creating new or widening existing highways, such as Interstate 81.

This week, May 12-16, is National Bike To Work Week and Friday May 16 is Bike To Work Day. Individuals are encouraged by a variety of agencies and organizations to ride their bikes to work instead of driving. On May 1, Deputy Secretary of Transportation Ralph Davis proclaimed from the Capitol steps that May is [...]