Tag: George Hirschmann
Council approves 4-cent property tax increase for new high school; Mayor says MRRJ expansion is 'off the table'
By Randi B. Hagi, Assistant Editor
The Harrisonburg City Council on Tuesday approved a four-cent increase on the real estate tax rate, which will help restart construction of the new high school — all part of the final version of the city's nearly $295 million Fiscal Year 2022 budget. Also in Tuesday's meeting, Mayor Deanna Reed announced why a proposed expansion of Middle River Regional Jail is a no-go.
Council members see need for investment but still not sold on expansion after MRRJ tour
By Logan Roddy, senior contributor
After a tour of the Middle River Regional Jail on Saturday, Harrisonburg city council members indicated that they still want to explore alternative options to the proposed $40 million expansion plans.
Council candidates discuss ALICE, transportation, and affordable housing
By Calvin Pynn, Contributor
The candidates campaigning for the three city council seats up for election on Nov. 3 participated in a virtual forum Wednesday night – the second such event this month involving all five candidates. Two incumbents, Mayor Deanna Reed (D) and George Hirschmann (I), and three first-time candidates, Democrats Laura Dent and Charles Hendricks, plus Republican Kathleen Kelley, largely agreed on topics ranging from how to help low-income residents in Harrisonburg to transportation priorities.
Hirschmann seeks a second term as an independent — and often dissenting — voice on council
George Hirschmann, the city council member running for re-election as an independent, cast one of the two dissenting votes when the council narrowly approved the high school's construction in December. And while he said he'd rather see the city build an annex than a separate new high school, it's not that he's against investing tax dollars in the community.
Pandemic prompts different schools of thought about new building
Almost six months since construction on Harrisonburg's second high school was suspended, the project remains in limbo, with no timeline yet established to resume work. COVID-19, though, has prompted competing takeaways about the wisdom of moving forward.
As city voting patterns change, two council candidates face an increasingly difficult task: win as non-Democrats
If a decade-long trend holds true, two candidates in this year's five-way race for three seats on the Harrisonburg City Council will face longer odds than the three Democratic nominees chosen earlier this year.
Reed says she's 'still in this race' after missing filing deadline; Democrats file extension request
Mayor Deanna Reed, the top vote getter in the last month's Harrisonburg City Council Democratic primary, said she still plans to run for re-election and for her name to be on the Nov. 3 election ballot even though her election paperwork wasn't submitted by Virginia's June 9 deadline. And the state Democratic Party has stepped in to ask the state for a filing extension in the wake of other election-related postponements this spring.
The petit goatee, and other peculiarities of local governance during a 21st-century pandemic
By Andrew Jenner, Publisher
It was the kind of content made for a city spokesman's Twitter account. Early in the city council's pandemic-induced exile to virtual meetings, Councilman George Hirschmann's cat jumped up onto his lap and, for all we know, into local history as the first cat to participate in Harrisonburg public policy-making.