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Nineteen young performers showed our community that they can come home again. These actors and singers, current and former students of the Chester Performing Arts Studio (CPAS), came back for a special camp reunion. This two-week celebration culminated with a performance of “High School Musical, Jr.” held July 22 at Thomas Dale High School. The teenagers began planning this event while attending last summer’s camp session. Many of them have gone on to become strong contributors to such programs as Thomas Dale’s Specialty Center for the Visual and Performing Arts and the Appomattox Regional Governor’s School for the Arts and…

Halfway through the 2016 competition season, the father-son team of Greg and Matthew Flaherty are successfully campaigning their Moss-sponsored Miata as Flaherty Racing. These men are neighbors to Moss’ Petersburg facility, and Moss is excited to have a racer so close to our East Coast home. Greg is a former late model stock car and drag racer, but son Matthew decided he wanted to race on road courses. Once they got connected with NASA (National Auto Sports Assoc.) they saw a perfect opportunity to get into Spec Miata racing. Currently, Matthew has worked his way up to HPDE (High Performance…

Meadowbrook, under the direction of Bill Bowles, had long been a consistent winner and contender, bringing home a state championship in 2006. After several successful years under Troy Taylor, former Amelia coach Adam Tiller took the reins in 2015. The result was another 5A South playoff berth that ended at the hands of top-seeded team and eventual state champs Highland Springs. The Monarchs were 2-4 six games into the season. After a tough loss to Hopewell, emotions were boiling. That could have been the point where the wheels came off, but Meadowbrook made a 3-1 rally to finish the regular…

First year head coach D.L. Johnson entered his first season with a goal of achieving a .500 record. His team outperformed that goal, finishing the regular season 7-3 and earning a playoff berth in an ultra-competitive 5A South. While they fell to then three-time defending state champions L.C. Bird in the postseason, the Warriors brought back excitement in the program. They scored three quality victories, defeating Thomas Dale, Dinwiddie and Cosby on a Hail Mary from quarterback Justin Ford to wide out Terrence Whitfield. “Beating Thomas Dale was a big win for the program,” explained Johnson. “But winning the Cosby…

Chester was experiencing a growth spurt 18 years ago, just before we reached into the new millennium. Some believed that 2000 would be the end of the world. But, as it turned out, it was only the beginning of the Village News. In August of 1998, the new kid on the publishing block was the Village News. Working from the dining room table the first year, 12 months later we moved to an office. As we sit in our office on the Village Green in Chester we know the some of the dreams of those in Chester have come to…

Hello and welcome back to the wonderful world of the Dogpound. I had an interesting weekend…I went to my first body building contest. Whoa! Better back up before you bust a gut…I did not enter the contest…my middle daughter did…I was just there for moral support. She has recently gotten back into getting into shape and some people at the gym were urging her to enter the physical fitness part of the bodybuilding show that was being held in her home town of Knoxville. So she got a coach and really got into it; special meals…gym at 5am in the…

Guy Rose began reading comic books at the age of seven. By the time he was 11, he was a collector and from that time his collection grew like the cast in the latest X-Men movie. Rose, 62, has been collecting comic books for 53 years. His involvement in what is now a phenomenon has brought him from hobbyist to seller to a Comicon promoter. According to the VAComicon website, Rose was the original founder of VA Comicon way back in 1986 when it was called CRCC for the “Chester, Richmond Comic Club.”  Even though he has passed the mantle…

As the rain gave way, the grillers at Bensley Community Center bravely cooked 550 hot dogs, preparing for the National Night Out crowd to arrive. Fortunately, the elements saw fit to grant mercy on the community and the sun soon was shining. “With everything going on in the country, it’s time to come together,” said Chesterfield Sheriff Karl Leonard, addressing the audience. “National Night out is all about working with the community. We realize we couldn’t do our job without you; it’s a team effort.” National Night Out was also special because it featured the dedication of two futsal fields…

Chesterfield County has received two achievement awards from the Virginia Association of Counties (VACo). The VACo Achievement Awards is a competitive program open to local government members of the association. Held annually, it recognizes local government programs in awards criteria that include innovation, cooperation, and model practices. Chesterfield County’s winning programs follow. Library as Lifeboat: ALibrary and Emergency Management Partnership – Prior to 2011, Chesterfield County employed a standard emergency management approach that placed the primary responsibility for the community’s emergency response on the police, sheriff, and fire departments, on parks and recreation, and on general services. While not a…

A listing tugboat rusts in the brackish water at the Dutch Gap Conservation Area. There is more than one tugboat sinking or sunk near what was once a rock quarry. The Dutch Gap trail, with its trail head at Henricus Park, circles the quarry and Farrar’s Island as well as a piece of the old James River channel. Farrar’s Island was once part of Henrico County. The island, actually a peninsula until the end of the Civil War, became an island when the Dutch Gap canal was built. The Farrars, who owned 2,000 acres including the island and surrounding areas…

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