All of our local schools — Turner Ashby High School and Wilbur S. Pence Middle School along with John Wayland, Ottobine and Pleasant Valley Elementary Schools — have made Adequate Yearly Progress under the No Child Left Behind testing provisions. Here’s a link to the complete file at the Virginia Department of Education. VDOE authorities explain: “Schools and school divisions that meet the annual objectives required by the federal education law are considered to have made adequately yearly progress (AYP) toward the goal of 100 percent proficiency of all students in reading and mathematics by 2014.”

The Barack Obama presidential campaign has opened an office at 401 N. Main St. in Bridgewater, near the intersection of Virginia Avenue and Main Street. Details on the office at the Obama for Virginia website are pending.

Bridgewater has been good fund-raising territory for Obama and for Republican rival John McCain, but not for Obama’s former rival for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton. Figures obtained by the Washington Post showed a decided edge for Obama and McCain in Bridgewater-area fundraising.

Bridgewater Town Council will have a hearing on Tuesday, September 9 at 7:30 at the council chambers in the town hall on Bridgewater College’s request to host an AT&T telecommunications antenna on a heating plant smokestack. Check the Daily News-Record’s coverage of an earlier proceeding. Property owners were notified this week of the public hearing in a mailing. The notice describes the subject of the hearing as a special use permit that “would allow the installation of a cellular antenna on the College’s existing smoke stack located on the property.”

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Rockingham County students return to the classroom Tuesday, August 26. Because of the early football schedule, there has already been one Turner Ashby High School home game, which the Knights won 56-14 over Waynesboro. Here’s a link to the County school calendar. Among the fall highlights of the calendar are:

• Only four days of class before the Labor Day weekend.
• A four-day weekend off because of teacher work days October 10-13.
• A nice Christmas break, with students leaving on Friday, December 19 and not returning until January 5, 2009.

Rebuilding of the Mt. Crawford Avenue-Main Street intersection is on schedule, with VDOT saying the project should be done by the end of September. Rocktown Weekly has an article on the ten-year history of the project. The September estimate doesn’t include completion of traffic lights but they are to be installed shortly after the road work is finished.

Gasoline prices have dropped again in Bridgewater. They’re now 10 percent below their July peak near $4. For perspective: Gasoline prices averaged $2.65 per gallon in Virginia one year ago. Up-to-date gasoline prices are available on this page in the box at the lower right, courtesy of gasbuddy.com.

Bridgewater College graduate G. Steven Agee, 55, has moved up to the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond. This court is only one level below the U.S. Supreme Court. Agee graduated from Bridgewater in 1974 and also has law degrees from the University of Virginia and New York University. He most recently served on the Supreme Court of Virginia. Here’s the Washington Post’s story.

Bridgewater is set to elect three Town Council members on November 4 from a field of four candidates, listed alphabetically below:

Roscoe E. Burgess, Sr.
Rosetta W. Harris
William D. Miracle
Steven A. Schofield

Mayor Hallie D. Dinkel is unopposed. Bridgewater’s town newsletter, the Current, notes that petitions containing at least 125 supporting signatures have to be filed with the Registrar’s office by 7 p.m. on the second Tuesday of June in election years. It reports that the four council candidates and one candidate for mayor all successfully qualified.

If you’d like to have a look at the 2007 state crime statistics that show Bridgewater to be a very safe place (lowest crime rate among Virginia towns), here’s the link. Bridgewater’s line looks like this (click the image for a bigger version):

That’s 48 total incidents for a population of 5399, with lots of zeroes indicating no serious violent crime. Thanks are due to all who had a hand in this: our police department, law-abiding neighbors, and all those who keep their eyes open as they walk, bike or ride around our neighborhoods, just giving the general impression that we look out for each other and this isn’t a good place to commit a crime.

Mt. Crawford farmer Joe Wampler shows off his horse to John Neff and other visitors at the Church of the Brethren’s Annual Conference in Richmond last week. Wampler is a member of the John Kline Memorial Riders, who tour on horseback in memory of the Brethren figure. As the crowd scene shows, the horses and riders drew a lot of attention.

There’s more at the conference website.