And the ones we will be watching in 2024.
by Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
“Best of lists” on New Year’s Day are passe, predictable, yet eternally fascinating. Let us fulfill our duty, then, and point to the most important stories the team at FXBG Advance covered this year.
Rather than ranking them, however, we’ll do it by category. We’ll let you rank the top stories (VOTE HERE).
Housing
Despite inflation. Despite fears of recession. Housing prices kept climbing in 2023, and show no signs of abating. Here are the stories around this issue we covered last year.
Alternative Dwelling Units – With housing prices continuing to climb beyond the reach of many in our region, and the supply of existing homes well below the demand for them, one would think that a modest proposal to allow families to build an ADU on their property would be a welcome proposal. ADUs were never going to be a serious solution to the housing crunch, but every little bit helps. That wasn’t the case, as city residents rose up against the idea and help defeat the proposal. The issue will be back, however. In what form remains to be seen.
Neon – Not all the housing news was bad. While the city shut the door on ADUs, it finally welcomed Silver Company’s long-awaited Neon project. ( See here and here.) It brings more than 750 new housing units to the city, as well as about $3.4 million in annual tax revenue. It’s a major victory for residents – and soon-to-be residents – in the ‘Burg.
Special use Permits – With housing tight, it’s no surprise that changes in zoning bring out tensions. Such was the case this year when St. Mary’s Catholic Church sought to consolidate its special use permits among the multiple buildings it owns off William Street. Neighbors rose up, the Church laid low.
Families
Housing prices certainly affected families, but that was far from the only issue.
Methadone Clinic – Tara Durant, Meg Bohmke, and the Stafford administrator were just some of the people who have had to deal with the fallout from a proposed methadone clinic in Stafford County that caught local residents off guard. With passions still high around this issue, be sure that we will be watching it in 2024.
Childcare Crisis – Housing isn’t the only problem in our community. Childcare is crushing family budgets. In the first installment of our story about this issue, we explored how two highly educated parents are juggling lives, careers, and children in ways that are hurting all three.
Elections
OK – Elections are a big story every year in the commonwealth, where elections come every year. But this year’s were significant. We saw Glenn Youngkin’s presidential aspirations crushed when he lost both the House and the Senate in the General Assembly (perhaps now he’ll actually focus on running Virginia? Something he’s ignored since winning office.) Locally, both House and Senate races were hotly contested; but nothing rivaled the tomfoolery, blatant efforts to deceive voters, and the war for the School Board that erupted in Spotsylvania County. Hold on to your hat. This is a long list.
Signatures – The rules surrounding collection of signatures are clear – unless you’re a member of the Tea Party. Nick Ignacio (running for Clerk of Court in Spotsylvania) and Steve Maxwell (running for sheriff) began collecting signatures a day before allowed, filed them, and Kelli Acors approved them. The Advance broke the story, Acors conceded that she erred and the signatures should not have been accepted, and Ignacio and Maxwell moved on to the Election Day ballot. The piece stirred up legislatures in Richmond. As it turned out, the issue didn’t matter. Both Ignacio and Maxwell were crushed in the November 7 election.
Durant wins seat – While the Dems broke a lot of Republican hearts on election day by capturing the Senate, which many Republicans assumed they had locked up, at least in Senate District 27 Republican Tara Durant was smiling. She will be in Richmond representing our area starting this month. The Advance wishes her success in Richmond.
Spotsylvania School Board Flips – Where to start? How about at the end, where voters said ENOUGH! following two years of inept Board leadership, bungled policy decisions, a mass exodus of teachers, a felony charge, a superintendent search that raised a tornado of objections and concerns, and open discussions of burning books. On November 7, the people who brought all that chaos saw themselves swept out of power in a convincing manner. Nowhere more so than in deep Red Livingston where Megan Jackson crushed Kirk Twigg – whose chairmanship kicked off two years of chaos – by a nearly 2-to-1 margin. It was a big night for public education in Spotsylvania. But rest assured, 2024 will be one to watch in the county, as this school system has a lot of work ahead of it.
Spanberger Announces Run for Governor – After winning three tight races in Republican-leaning Congressional District 7, and gaining a reputation in Washington for working across the aisle while bringing millions back home to the district, Spanberger is setting her sights on a new challenge – moving into the governor’s mansion. The election isn’t until 2025, but the battle is already building toward the 2025 primary. As we have throughout her career, the Advance will be watching and reporting on our representative’s run for the highest office in Virginia.
Schools
We could fill up a month’s worth of issues with links to all the stories we have published about the Spotsylvania School System this year. Every time we felt things couldn’t get worse, they did. Among the more than 100 pieces we wrote, however, one stood out:
The Fools, Fabulists and Toxic Behavior in Spotsylvania – This piece served as a grand roundup (to that point) of everything that had happened, and left with one grand question. Why do we wait for dysfunction to take our responsibilities as voters seriously?
Fredericksburg Surprises – As public schools emerged from COVID, most showed little in the way of improvement on SOL tests. We commissioned an independent expert to analyze SOL data, and he delivered perhaps the biggest surprise story of the year. Fredericksburg City Schools made substantial gains, and look to be on a good track. To be sure, the city’s overall scores still trail far behind performance in Stafford and Spotsylvania, but while theirs flatlined, Fredericksburg’s climbed. There’s a long way to go, but the city looks to be moving in the right direction.
Stafford’s Growing Pains; Innovation – In a nod to the county’s growing pains, Stafford School Board requested more modular classrooms. Despite the issues, however, the district continues to innovate, offering the area’s first policies to manage the use of AI in the classroom. Miss that story? It’s coming this week.
Spotsylvania – Again – Unfortunately, the day before the end of the year, Spotsylvania Schools was again in our pages for all the wrong reasons. This time, a lone parent apparently creating havoc for everyone else on the Riverbend Swim Team. As of press time, it is officially the most-read story of the year.
Community Impact
We exist first and foremost to deliver the news you need. However, we also exist to do good in the community, and we were privileged to do that this year. There were a number of individual examples we could point to, but this one took the cake.
We found out on December 12 that Stafford Junction, a nonprofit that helps the children of struggling families, was in danger of not having enough to serve 64 of its children. On December 13, our intrepid Columnist Shaun Kenney penned a plea at the beginning of his column like only Shaun can. And did our readers ever deliver. They covered those needs in less than 48 hours. It says a great deal about our readers. For those of us here at the Advance, being able to help Stafford Junction reach this goal was the highlight of our year. In fact, we’re looking forward to helping out next year, too! And while we’re at it, Stafford Junction also sends kids to camp every summer. Help them get a start on fundraising by supporting them now.
Columns
Creating a public square filled with multiple voices on the issues that drive our community is central to the Advance’s mission. Here were our favorites of the year.
On Flowers Picked too Soon (or, The Great Tulip Massacre of 2023)
On the Lighter Side
Yes, there was a lot of tough news to cover this year (as there is every year), but there was also much to celebrate. Here are some of our favorites.
Clay Jones – Fredericksburg’s most-famous cartoonist returned to the area this year, and no one, it seems, was sparred. Can’t wait to see what 2024 brings.
Holiday Spotlights – Our readers really enjoyed the business profiles we put together before the holidays, and we had a ball doing them. Look for more local business profiles to come!
Twas the Night Before a Fredericksburg Christmas – Shaun Kenney put a new spin on an old Christmas Eve poem.
New Dominion Podcast
The FXBG Advance is about more than great writing. There’s also the podcast that Davis and Kenney produce weekly (though we did take this week off). There have been several excellent episodes this year. Below are three of our favorites:
New Media Company
Yeah, we’re blowing our own horn here just a bit. But we believe it’s significant that the Fredericksburg Advance became the newest newspaper in our region this year, and has grown as quickly as it has. We’ve hired the area’s top reporter – Adele Uphaus – and broke stories (see above) throughout the year. We’ve had so much to celebrate, and we owe it all to you – our readers – who have made it possible.
Enjoy this video of our ribbon-cutting. To those who have supported us financially, thank you so much. To those who support us by reading and sharing our stories, thank you so much.
We look forward to serving you in 2024, and far beyond.
Local Obituaries
To view local obituaries or to send a note to family and loved ones, please visit our website at the link that follows.
Become One of the Elite Eighty
W.P. Kinsella, author of Shoeless Joe Jackson Goes to Iowa (you may know it better as the movie “Field of Dreams,”) said it best.
If you build it, they will come.
This year we built the FXBG Advance, and readers have responded by coming in ever-larger numbers.
We thank each and every one of you who have made the Advance a part of your day, and we’re excited to say that more-exciting announcements are just around the corner as we continue to innovate and expand our coverage of the region.
The donations of individual donors are central to our success, and we’re hoping to add 80 more by the end of the year.
Where does your money go?
It goes to support the great journalists we have – like Adele Uphaus – and the ones we look to hire in the year ahead.
If you can spare $8 a month, we’ll be both grateful, and reward your trust in us with more journalism, more stories, and more connections to organizations and people who make our region a great place to live.
If you can’t, thank you for reading the FXBG Advance!, and consider sharing us with your friends.
In 2024, let’s build an even better Advance – together!
Thank you for reading and supporting FXBG Advance.
-Martin Davis, Editor