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Shenandoah Valley free clinic highlights gaps in rural care
Sitting in a dental exam chair in the Augusta County Expo Center last month, Sora Knightley explained her situation to Dr. Harold Neal. … The pain in three of her bottom-left molars started about four months earlier and gradually worsened. After months of enduring because of dental anxiety and fears about the cost, the insured 19-year-old went to a dentist. They filled the main cavity, but she said they told her that insurance wouldn’t cover addressing the problems in the other molars. “It would have been around $2,300 just to get one tooth fixed,” she said. … Knightley was one of 402 people who visited Remote Area Medical’s Fishersville pop-up clinic that April weekend. The clinic offered free dental, vision and primary care, in addition to vaccinations, opioid reversal trainings and other services.
An amphitheater and a sports complex spotlight quality of life as an economic development goal
On a recent warm evening in downtown Lynchburg, dozens of residents and area officials gathered to break ground on an amphitheater anticipated to seat up to 5,000. Just over a hundred miles away in Pulaski County, county officials are preparing to develop a major sports and recreation complex in a former candle factory. The two projects are among the region’s recent examples of economic development endeavors designed to add jobs not just by directly employing people but by improving their communities’ quality of life, with the goal of contributing to further growth down the road.
Virginia Establishes Commission to Study Black Communities Uprooted by Public Universities
Spurred by a VCIJ at WHRO and ProPublica investigation, the recently approved Virginia budget includes nearly $60,000 over the next two years for a commission to study the disruption public college and university expansions have had on Black communities. The statewide panel will probe historic land acquisitions and consider potential redress for Black families and their descendants. The commission will work with public colleges and universities to examine property transactions in majority Black communities, and determine “whether and what form of compensation or relief would be appropriate,” according to the state budget.
Documenting and preserving Virginia’s largest, most revered trees
Virginia is home to nearly 80 national champion big trees, consistently placing the commonwealth in the top five states with the most documented champion trees, or trees that have grown to be the largest specimens of their particular species. The Virginia Big Tree Program, coordinated by the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation at Virginia Tech, maintains a register of the largest specimens of over 300 native, non-native and naturalized tree species in Virginia.