RICHMOND, VA – The City temporarily closed the pedestrian bridge under the Lee Bridge after receiving a report that concrete pieces were found on the pedestrian bridge leading to Belle Isle. The City and bridge engineer consultants immediately investigated the incident. It was concluded that the concrete pieces fell from an open joint of the Lee Bridge. Consequently, the pedestrian bridge located directly under the open joint had to be closed in an effort to protect the public.

After the bridge maintenance team removed all observed loose concrete pieces trapped in the open joint, the City bridge engineer and the consultants reached the conclusion that there is no imminent danger of additional concrete pieces falling over the pedestrian bridge. While bridge engineers are planning a long-term solution, the pedestrian bridge can reopen with a scaffolding protection system installed at a certain areas. The vendor will install the scaffolding tomorrow with completion slated for on or before Friday, May 20.

For more information, please visit us online at www.rva.gov/public-works or email questions to AskPublicWorks@rva.gov

We’re Social! For updates on DPW-related projects, activities and events visit us on Twitter @DPW_RichmondVA

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The City of Richmond Department of Public Works (DPW) is one of only 195 currently accredited public works agencies in the United States. DPW’s portfolio comprises a wide array of services to include leaf collection; street, sidewalk and alley maintenance; trash collection; recycling; grass cutting;  graffiti removal; parking enforcement; urban forestry; street signs; traffic signals and pavement markings and civil engineering. In addition, DPW maintains upkeep on most city buildings; issues permits for working in the city’s right-of-way; manages the RVA Bike Share program and maintains the fleet of city vehicles. DPW’s operating budget comes from the general fund of the City of Richmond.  For more information about DPW services, click here or call 3-1-1.

RICHMOND, Va. – New parking decals for residents of the Fan Restricted Parking District are on sale. They cost $25 each and are limited. Both mail-in and in-person renewal options are available for qualifying residents. The current Fan parking permit expires June 30, 2022.

Residents must display the Fan permit on their cars to park more than 1 hour from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Friday and, also on West Avenue, parts of Boyd and Birch Streets, and the 1600 and 1800 blocks of West Grace Street, the regulation is 1 hour from 7:00 a.m. to midnight, Monday through Sunday.

A resident is either the residing owner of record or renter of property located within the Restricted Parking District. A City of Richmond Residential Parking Permit Application must be completed and approved prior to decal issuance. To enable the Department of Public Works to verify residency, the following information and photo identification must be provided:

• Residential property owners must provide either a copy of their real estate bill or other information that verifies ownership of the property

• Renters must provide a valid written lease for the property in the Fan Parking District, and have the appropriate approval of the property owner on the application they present

A resident of the district is defined as an owner of record or renter of property in the district and members of their immediate family who reside with the owner or renter at the address in the District:

(1) Who are licensed drivers

-and-

(2) Whose domicile is the address for which they are seeking to obtain the parking permit

Annual Visitor Passes also are available and limited to two per house or building address at a cost of $35 each.

Annual Visitor Passes must be purchased at the same time the Fan permit is purchased and are restricted to residential homeowners.

Property owners and renters are required to comply with the residency requirements and the motor vehicle registration requirements of the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles.

Residents can get more information, verify residency in the Fan Parking District and download an application for mailing in on the City’s website: https://www.rva.gov/public-works/parking-enterprise

Fan decals and applications are also available at City Hall, Room 102, 900 East Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia. The office hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Please call 804-646-5700 if you have any questions.

For additional details, please use the 3-1-1 mobile app or online portal at www.RVA311.com or call 3-1-1.

For more information on Public Works, please visit us online at https://www.rva.gov/public-works or email us at AskPublicWorks@rva.gov

We’re Social! For updates on DPW‐related projects, activities and events visit us on Twitter @DPW_RichmondVA

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The City of Richmond Department of Public Works (DPW) is one of only 195 currently accredited public works agencies in the United States. DPW’s portfolio comprises a wide array of services to include leaf collection; street, sidewalk and alley maintenance; trash collection; recycling; grass cutting;  graffiti removal; parking enforcement; urban forestry; street signs; traffic signals and pavement markings and civil engineering. In addition, DPW maintains upkeep on most city buildings; issues permits for working in the city’s right-of-way; manages the RVA Bike Share program and maintains the fleet of city vehicles. DPW’s operating budget comes from the general fund of the City of Richmond.  For more information about DPW services, click here or call 3-1-1.

Mayor Levar M. Stoney today announced the recipients of Child Care and Preschool Stabilization and Expansion grants awarded by the City of Richmond.

The more than $619,000 in grants awarded yesterday follow previously announced grants of $500,000 to Smart Beginnings of Greater Richmond for child care and preschool expansion, and $200,000 to Family Lifeline to expand home visiting services to eligible families.

The mayor also announced a $50,000 grant to the Children’s Museum of Richmond to expand access for low-income families.  A $50,000 grant was also awarded to the Children’s Funding Project to study costs and financing strategies for universal preschool in the city. Additionally, the Mayor announced the hiring of early childhood specialist Daphne Bolotas in the city’s Office of Children and Families to support the coordination of efforts to provide universal preschool.

“High-quality, affordable and accessible child care and preschool continue to be vital to the overall health of our community and our economy,” said the mayor, who called on the Virginia General Assembly to increase investments in these areas.

“I am honored to stand alongside these heroes who have committed their professional – and often personal – lives to supporting the youngest Richmonders and their families,” the mayor said, surrounded by childcare advocates at the Children’s Museum of Richmond. “Together, we will accomplish so much for so many families across our city as we lay work together to ensure that all children across our city have the opportunity to thrive.”

The following organizations received grants:

• FRIENDS Association for Children has been serving children in Richmond for over 150 years. Following the Civil War, FRIENDS began as an orphanage in Jackson Ward dedicated to caring for formerly enslaved Black children who had been abandoned by their former slavers. FRIENDS will receive $100,000, which they will use to increase their capacity by 50 percent – effectively returning to their pre-pandemic level of service – across their two sites in Gilpin Court and Church Hill.

• Fulton Montessori is a grassroots organization that began serving children out of the Neighborhood Resource Center in 2018, after the NRC closed its preschool program, in order to meet the urgent need for affordable early education in the East End. Their $64,500 grant will allow them to immediately open an additional classroom as well as invest in capital improvements so that they can ultimately grow to serve 75 children total.

• SCAN is a longtime partner of the city in its effort to support survivors of child abuse and neglect. SCAN’s Circle Preschool Program provides intensive, year-round, trauma-focused mental health treatment both for young children who have experienced trauma and their caregivers through a preschool setting at its location in Blackwell. The $20,000 grant will allow them to serve two additional students and maximize their capacity, while ensuring that every child and their family benefits from a suite of intensive wraparound services.

• St. James’s Children’s Center has been serving Richmond families for over 30 years. For decades, they have remained committed to ensuring that all children, regardless of their families’ ability to pay, deserve access to the very best early childhood education experiences. The $50,000 grant will allow them to return to their pre-pandemic enrollment level of 75 students.

• Woodville Day Nursery has operated in the East End for over 60 years as part of the mission of Woodville Church of the Nazarene. Woodville provides low-cost child care and camps for community members who rely on them for safe, affordable care. They have been a Head Start and Early Head Start partner for going on six years. The $10,000 grant will provide retention bonuses to 10 staff members, and they will also receive technical assistance to support their operational success.

• The YMCA of Greater Richmond has served our region for 167 years, constantly adapting to meet community needs. The Y has been a particularly vital partner to the city over the past few years, in the effort to universalize access to elementary afterschool programs and to stand up emergency child care centers when the pandemic closed down schools. The $75,000 grant will support the YMCA to open two new preschools on the Southside, serving 100 3- and 4-year olds.

• YWCA Richmond has been leading efforts to empower women and children in Richmond for the last 134 years. Its child care journey dates back to 1891 when they opened a nursery to care for children while their mothers worked in local factories. In 1989, the YWCA opened the first and only preschool program in the city to care for homeless children.

Today, the YWCA operates the Sprout School, which provides a mixed income, full-year, all-day early education program in two locations: their Bainbridge Street school in Blackwell and two classrooms within the Children’s Museum. The organization is receiving $300,000 both to maximize the capacity of its existing program in Blackwell and to open a brand-new school in 2^nd Presbyterian Church, which was forced to close its long-running early childhood program during the pandemic. All told, YWCA will grow its capacity by almost 100 children with this grant.

To view video of today’s announcement please visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5pVNpBr628

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During the height of the pandemic in April 2020, the Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities (PRCF) limited traffic in Byrd Park on the weekends, using road closures to ensure the safety of individuals visiting the park. Gates were put in place on Stollers Lane, Westover Road, and Trafford Road to limit vehicular traffic and allow visitors to walk or bike safely.

Effective Saturday, May 14, 2022, PRCF will implement the additional following road closures in Byrd Park:
- S. Arthur Ashe Jr. Blvd. at Paddle Boat Lane;
- S. Robinson Street at Boat Lake Drive; and
- Lakeview Avenue at S. Robinson Street.

These new closures will be in effect through the summer. Parking is available at Rueger Field, located at Grant and S. Sheppard Streets.

For more information about the department, follow PRCF on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The City of Richmond Department of Parks, Recreation, and Community Facilities (PRCF) has received funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) program. These funds will support a two-year project called The Richmond Environment: Students as Teachers in Their Watershed (REST) whose primary objective is to give Richmond Public School (RPS) students a greater understanding and sense of ownership of their local watershed. The project’s key partners, James River Park System, Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, and RPS, will engage our community as a whole to develop an Environmental Literacy Plan (ELP) for RPS that is rooted in environmental justice and is specific to this unique urban landscape, fraught with historic inequity and gifted with wild land.   

 “We’re thrilled that this funding will continue the work of making environmental literacy part of every public school student’s education in Richmond,” says Chris Frelke, Director of PRCF. “This project aligns with Richmond’s existing initiatives to improve the health of each City resident through access to green spaces.”

Working closely with students, teachers, and community members, the key partners on this project will create an ELP for the entire RPS school district rooted at the hyper-local level that centers black and brown voices that have historically been suppressed throughout Richmond. This kind of comprehensive planning document will positively impact science education for all 24,000 RPS students in the years to come, seeking to determine what environmental literacy and justice mean for our community.

"We are excited at the scale and depth of work proposed by the REST Planning Team and specifically their commitment to advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice through the development of their Environmental Literacy Plan," said Elise Trelegan, B-WET Program Coordinator from the NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office. "Environmental Literacy Plans are an important strategy for documenting and codifying where environmental education experiences and teacher professional development occur as well as how partners support those efforts."

This project foregrounds the City of Richmond as a regional leader in 21st century environmental education. We are excited about the work ahead, and look forward not just to the next two years, but to a long future continuing our support of RPS as they give students knowledge and skills to spur them to civic action.

For more information about the department, follow PRCF on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.