Richmond Free Press © 2015 Paradigm Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
Page B2
VOL. 24 NO. 41
VUU gets training edge
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
www.richmondfreepress.com
Savings vs. service
OCTOBER 8-10, 2015
City’s 2014 audit shows millions sent to rainy day fund despite critical needs By Jeremy M. Lazarus
By Fred Jeter
College and NFL football share some common ground on Richmond’s North Side. Virginia Union University has been given the g r e e n light to practice once a week at the Bon Secours Training Center. Mr. Taylor T h e Leigh Street facility opened three years ago as the preseason training camp for the NFL Washington franchise. It’s the latest effort to open the partially city-funded facility to the community for other uses. VUU is located on Lombardy Street, less than two miles from the Bon Secours facility. Coach Mark James’ Panthers are practicing free of charge at Bon Secours from 6 to 8:30 on Wednesday mornings. Other practices are held on campus at or around Hovey Field. “It was a long process,” VUU Athletic Director Joe Taylor said of finalizing a deal. “We went back and forth with many phone calls and we filled out a lot of paperwork. There were a lot of documents to sign.” Mr. Taylor said the whole process started in August when Coach James struck up a friendship with the Washington team’s chaplain, the Rev. Brett Fuller, senior pastor of Grace Covenant Church in Chantilly. He has served as the team’s senior chaplain for 13 years. Conversations with Rev. Fuller helped open the door to discussions. Please turn to A4
the essence of that building and staying true to the mission,” she added. Ms. Chambers says she has a special place in her heart for the museum. “I have been a volunteer there for at least six years,” she said. “I have attended the museum since I was 15 years old. “To me, it’s appropriate because I was elected class black historian in the sixth grade. To me, it’s like I’m combining my career with my passion.” Marilyn West, chair of the museum’s 14-member board, announced Ms. Chambers’ appointment last Friday. “The board is very excited to have Tasha
Is Mayor Dwight C. Jones saving too much money while starving City Hall of the monetary resources needed to provide services to Richmond residents? That question is starting to emerge as City Council members review the long delayed and finally completed audit of city fiMs. Cuffee-Glenn nances for fiscal year 2014. That’s the period that began July 1, 2013, and ended June 30, 2014. Richmond’s No. 2 person in charge, Chief Administrative Officer Selena Cuffee-Glenn, presented to City Council on Monday the audit report — known as the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) — that was due Nov. 30, 2014, for completion. While the city’s 2015 CAFR is awaiting completion, Ms. Cuffee-Glenn credits her new chief financial officer, Lenora Reid, and her financial team for overcoming previous hurdles and getting the 2014 report finished. One item sure to attract City Council’s attention is the amount shifted to a rainy day fund, particularly after council received a tongue-lashing from the administration for shifting $9 million from city departments to support academic improvement in Richmond Public Schools for the current 2016 fiscal year. According to a separate report that Ms. Cuffee-Glenn sent to council several weeks
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Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press
Bye, bye birdies Aidan Landers, 3, looks over his shoulder at the Canada geese flocking Wednesday in Fountain Lake as he leads his 2-year-old sister, Aaliyah, on a walk in Byrd Park. The siblings were on a sunny, autumn outing with their mother, Jayvonne Landers.
Black history museum taps new director By Joey Matthews
Jazz nights and poetry readings as well as interactive and traditional exhibits are among the plans that Tasha Chambers has for the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia when it moves into its new home early next year. “This new museum has so much history to celebrate,” said Ms. Chambers, who was introduced as the museum’s new director last week. “At one time, Jackson Ward was a booming area for black Americans,” said Ms. Chambers, a 34-year-old Richmond native and 2003 graduate of Howard University with a degree in public relations. “And we
are celebrating that history by reopening the armory that was a significant part of that history as one of the first armories built for black militia in Virginia.” The museum, which operated in Ms. Chambers the former Rosa D. Bowser School building at 00 W. Clay St. from 1991 until its closure in 2013 to ready for the move, will relocate in early 2016 to the reconstructed Leigh Street Armory, also located in Jackson Ward. “In our mission, we are staying true to
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Million Man March anniversary gathering Saturday A6, B5
Field of dreams
Armstrong High’s coach wants decent baseball field for team By Fred Jeter
and overgrown. “It’s not playable,” says Armstrong’s Athletic Director Ksaan Brown. “It holds water, needs a new outfield, infield, fencing — the whole nine yards.” Coach Day says the weeding process has begun. If you squint, you can almost see the original dirt infield starting to show through. By spring, he hopes to paint and repair the backstop and fencing along the foul lines and bleachers, bring in new dirt, erect a pitcher’s mound and dugouts, upgrade outfield grass and install portable “mesh” outfield fencing at home run distance. In other words, a total overhaul. And the cost?
“We need about $10,000 to make it happen,” said Coach Day. He said the Richmond Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities, which owns the field, has agreed to help. Coach Day’s right-hand man is Robert R. Raymond, aka “Coach Bob,” a CPA by profession and a Richmond baseball “lifer.” Coach Raymond’s coaching and organizing can be traced to the Blue Sox of the old All-America Semi-Pro League. Coach Day is hoping alumni, friends, community members and others will help with money and manpower for the effort. The school does not lack baseball enthusiasm, he insists. In fact, Coach Day also serves as coach and organizer of the Mosby Community Center Spartans, which also uses Lucks as its central field. Mosby Community Center, located in the Armstrong enrollment district, won all six age groups last spring in the Metropolitan Junior Baseball League. “In fact, baseball is more popular than basketball at Mosby,” Coach Day said. In 2012, Coach Day’s AAU Richmond Blue Sox, based out of Mosby, won the 11-12 age division of the MJBL’s Inner-City Classic national youth tournament held in Richmond. Among city schools, Armstrong High School has the dubious distinction of having the most run-down diamond. The new Huguenot High School is in the best shape, with brand new baseball and softball fields in the works for next spring. Thomas Jefferson High School has a playable facility, but no lights, grass infield or foul line/outfield fencing. John Marshall High School Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press has two fields behind the school,
Armstrong High School’s baseball program has a passionate coach, a covey of eager athletes and an East End pipeline suggesting more talent is on the way. What it doesn’t have is a decent field to play on. The Wildcats’ fourth-year Coach Lawrence Day is determined to turn the negative into a positive. “We want our field to be a jewel in the middle of Church Hill,” said the 56-yearold coach. Forgive Coach Day for dreaming big dreams. The more you speak to him, the more the word “playa b l e ” emerges as Coach Day the goal. “We haven’t played a home game since I’ve been here,” said Coach Day. “All we really need is a field nice enough to play on-campus games here. We’re the only school in the city without that.” The Wildcats were a commendable 8-8 last spring while practicing at Lucks Field, the adult softball diamond at Rogers and T streets, and playing some “home” games at Hotchkiss Field on East Brookland Park Boulevard. Located on Cool Lane in the East End, Armstrong High School can be seen by vehicles speeding by on Interstate 64. The Armstrong building, as we know it now, was formerly John F. Kennedy High School before Armstrong and Kennedy merged in 2004. There is a campus field, although “eyesore” might be Plans are being made to transform this worn-out baseball field at Armstrong High School. The field is considered a more apt tag. It is unkempt “unplayable,” but Coach Lawrence Day is leading an effort to transform it into “a jewel.”
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