If you’ve ever wondered about Richmond’s Military Retiree Club at the corner of Sledd Street and Chamberlayne Avenue (just north of School Street), the Richmond Free Press is ready with some answers. The Free Press, which posts its content online as PDF documents, recently profiled the club’s president. (A tip of the hat to John Murden at Church Hill People’s News for the info.)

Webster G. Ballard believes that retired military veterans should have a place to enjoy themselves. That’s why he’s so dedicated to the Military Retirees Club on Richmond’s North Side.

The retired chief counselor with the Navy has been a member for 25 years of the club at the corner of Chamberlayne Avenue and Sledd Street. Remarkably, he also has served 13 of those years as president. That’s longer than anyone else among the 105 members, all of whom spent 20 or more years on active duty or in the reserves.

The 68-year-old Maryland native recently was elected to his latest two-year term as president. He took a four-year break before running this year. When he completes his current term, he will have served 15 years as president.

“I felt I had more to offer,” he says of his decision to seek his latest term.

Since leaving the Navy in 1982, he has spent much of his time teaching automotive technology classes at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College after receiving an associate degree at JSRCC.

He taught full time until 1999. He continues to teach part time. In the upcoming semester, he’ll teach car repair to Cumberland and Goochland high school students who are dual-enrolled for college credits. He also loves driving his Corvette.

However, Mr. Ballard frankly says the club, where he spends about four hours a day, “is my favorite place.”

His main reason: The camaraderie. “I was in the Navy, but here I get to talk with people who were in every branch of the service.”

Mr. Ballard also is proud to be part of an organization that gives back to the community.

He ticks off a list of events the club hosts to benefit others. Among them is the annual benefit dance to raise money for college scholarships. Last year, he says, the club presented a total of $10,000 in scholarships to 10 area students. Each received $1,000 for higher education.

Every year, club members also provide a Thanksgiving Day feast for the homeless and a Christmas party for underprivileged children, he says.

And the club is a popular place for community groups, including the Richmond Crusade for Voters, to hold meetings and social events.

While the region’s homicide rate dropped dramatically in 2007 — lead by a decline in slayings in the City of Richmond — a large clusters of the city’s homicides were clustered in North Richmond communities just east of Chamberlayne Avenue. The Times-Dispatch’s recent report on the homicide death toll in 21 of Central Virginia’s localities notes that Chesterfield and Henrico counties saw a spike in murders, even as Richmond’s numbers dropped.

The website of Richmond-area artist Duane Keiser has gained some measure of fame for its daily posting of still-life and other paintings; A Painting A Day recently featured another of Keiser’s artistic homages to North Richmond.

The Times-Dispatch’s Michael Paul Williams recently wrote about a residential development planned at the former St. Elizabeth’s School in North Richmond’s Highland Park community. Apparently, neighbors are concerned about the scope of the 68 apartment project:

Jeanne Boisineau and her husband were dazzled by the craftsmanship of the two-story brick colonial in Highland Park. But they were not enamored of the view.

“When we saw this place, we thought, ‘God, it’s just too good to pass up.’” she recalled. “But I was really nervous, because the place across the street looked like crack heaven.”

Across the street was the former St. Elizabeth’s School, which closed in 1982. Four years after Boisineau moved to the North Richmond neighborhood, the abandoned, weather-battered school remains an eyesore.

But relief, in the form of a proposed $8 million residential development at the Fourqurean Lane site, has been greeted with wariness by residents of the Highland Park enclave known as Green Park.

The developer, United Methodist Urban Ministries of Richmond, wants to move forward on Chestnut Hill Commons by spring or summer, said the Rev. N. David Cooper, the organization’s executive director.

Original plans called for 68 one-, twoor three-bedroom apartments with rents ranging from $600 to $900, aimed at a “work-force” clientele with incomes between $27,000 and $41,000. The project also would include a community center with meeting space and a computer lab. The plan’s density and lack of owner-occupied dwellings met with community resistance.

“We have a great deal of respect for [Cooper] and what his mission is,” said Boisineau, president of the Green Park Civic Association. “It’s just the scope of it and the scale of it is just too large for our neighborhood.”

Chestnut Hill Commons is being proposed amid a wave of redevelopment in Highland Park. Plans are afoot to demolish the low-income developments of Dove Court, Carrington Gardens and North Ridge apartments and replace them with mixed-income communities. But even as those communities are prepared for the wrecking ball, their stigma lingers in the misgivings surrounding Chestnut Hill Commons.

Read more about development plans in Highland Park in Williams’ article.

Holiday donations intended for North Richmond’s Scottish Rite Childhood Learning Center may have been lost in the mail, the Times-Dispatch reports.

Mail that was put on hold for a week and apparently stacked up at a North Richmond post office seems to have disappeared. U.S. Postal Service officials said yesterday that the matter is under investigation.

“It couldn’t have come at a worse time,” said Robin Olivier, executive director of the Scottish Rite Childhood Learning Center on Hermitage Road. The center has provided about $1.5 million in donated care since it was founded 16 years ago by the Scottish Rite Temple.

About 90 percent of the now-independent center’s $500,000 annual budget comes from grants, fundraisers and donations, Olivier said. The center provides treatment that often isn’t covered by health insurance.

And it’s at Christmas, also known as tax-deduction time, that the center’s $18,000 fall fundraising campaign reaches its height, she said.

But this most recent campaign had a disappointing end.

Letters, cards and even junk mail that were put on hold beginning Dec. 22 while the center’s office closed for the holidays are missing. So the charity is also missing its year-end donations — from checks to cash tucked away in holiday cards and letters of good will. Checks from insurance companies and other financial data also likely were part of the trove, Olivier said.

VCU urban planning students took a hard look at Henrico County’s Lakeside corridor stretching from Bryan Park to Lewis Ginter and saw green. The Times-Dispatch reports that the students have proposed Lakeside Avenue Revitalization Plan with dozens of environmentally friendly development recommendations:

The plan recommends improving pedestrian access and promoting the district’s small, independent retailers as alternatives to big-box chains. Lakeside is like many older commercial areas that have lost their edge with the rise of large retail centers.

“Lakeside was never built to be that way,” Accordino said. “The market has shifted.”

The VCU students found market potential in Lakeside for a 1950s-style diner and other sit-down restaurants, as well as a coffee and ice-cream shop, a small grocery store, a garden center and other retailers.

For years, Accordino’s classes have taken similar looks at other commercial districts in parts of Richmond, Hopewell, Chesterfield County and Petersburg.

He said the Lakeside plan echoes many of the earlier ideas, but it also offers new ones, such as marketing the district to local Internet blogs and establishing it as a “green” business zone. The students suggested expanding Henrico’s enterprise-zone incentives to encourage such practices as rain gardens, green roofs, permeable paving and energy-efficient lighting.

“It’s almost like Lakeside Avenue is a natural, with parks on each end,” Accordino said of a strong “green” theme.

The study comes as Henrico is wrapping up a $4.2 million project to build sidewalks, curb and gutter and a new median along Lakeside Avenue.

Area property owners also have been making good use of the enterprise-zone incentives. Since 2004, Henrico has awarded about 20 grants for design assistance and facade improvements there, said Mary Reynolds, a community revitalization planner. County officials are considering expanding their enterprise-zone incentives to offer grants for landscaping, paving, renovation and demolition projects.

Reynolds said it’s too early to say whether any of the plan’s recommendations will be embraced by the county, but she applauded the class’s efforts and insights.

One of the ideas has already taken root. The Board of Supervisors approved Francisco’s plan to establish an outdoor farmers market at the Lakeside Towne Center. Opening is expected this spring.

Style Weekly provides the nuts ‘n’ blots on Lakeside’s newest restaurant:

North Siders were a bit surprised when the casual, seafood-centric LA Grill closed suddenly last year, then became a short-lived Italian joint, Mento’s, for only a few weeks before going dark. Now the place, at 5516 Lakeside Ave., has another identity, New India, and new owners, cousins Santokh and Malkiat Singh.

It’s still a no-frills setting, but early raves for the food might indicate a level of stability in the food-conscious neighborhood. “We just want to let people know that we are here,” Santokh says, “and that we have clay oven and tandoori dishes and many vegetarian items.” They serve a lunch buffet daily as well as dinner, 5-9 p.m. 266-1170.

The drought is over and our regional cup runeth over. For now.

Inquiring minds want to know what’s the deal with the “Retail Space for Lease” sign in the window of Sammy’s Bakery on MacArthur Avenue? Is our favorite local bakery going out-of-business or relocating? Sammy and Titus have a sign up saying they are on vacation until January 14, but who wants to wait that long for news?

If you have the scoop, drop a comment so the rest of us can race up there and grab a last loaf or two!

The local weblog Buttermilk & Molasses (run by one of the editors of North Richmond News) has posted new details on the city’s plans for the large (60+ acres) tract of land surrounding the Diamond. For details, go to Buttermilk & Molasses.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the AAA affiliate of the Atlanta Braves could migrate south — from Richmond to Gwinnett — in time for the 2009 season, leaving Richmond without a minor league baseball team.

Earlier this month, we posted about a group of VCU urban design students and their analysis of the Lakeside corridor that extends from Bryan Park in Richmond to Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens in Henrico. Richmond.com has run an extensive article on the student’s proposal for the mile-long stretch of Lakeside Avenue:

The Church Hill People’s News has details on the city’s open enrollment schools — which include Ginter Park elementary:

Applications to attend one of Richmond City’s open enrollment schools for the 2008-2009 school year are due Feb. 8. Open enrollment elementary schools are divided into three zones. The Zone III elementary schools are Bellevue, Ginter Park and Woodville, Binford Middle School is the city’s open enrollment middle school, and the open enrollment high schools are Franklin Military Academy, Open and Richmond Community.

Applications are available at the schools. For more information, call 780-7811.

The comments at CHPN include School Board member Keith West’s thoughts on the process, and comments from a number of parents of Richmond school students.

The University of Richmond will partner with Habitat for Humanity, the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority and Boaz and Ruth to build an affordable hose in the Highland Park neighborhood of North Richmond.

North Richmond’s Kitchen 64 continues to draw a variety of reviews from local news publications and weblogs, including a recent review from local weblog Messy Cuisine:

Richmond Parks and Rec will present an African-American art exhibit, showcasing the work of more than 30 artists, in the Spotlight Gallery at North Richmond’s Pine Camp Arts and Community Center from February 3 through March 28. Each piece in the exhibit, titled “Friends and Mentors,” will be accompanied by an artist’s statement describing the influence of friends and mentors on their work as an artist.

The department also will host a forum at Pine Camp on “What Influences African-American Artists” on Sunday, February 3, from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm. Additional artwork from the “Friends and Mentors” artists will be the basis for discussion among the artists, the audience and the moderator to examine the role and source of influences on African-American artists.

“Friends and Mentors” will open the same day, Feb. 3, with a reception and live music from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. The events are free and open to the public.

Pine Camp Arts and Community Center is located at 4901 Old Brook Road. For more information, call 804-646-3674. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 10:00 am until 7:00 pm and Saturday from 10:00 am until 2:00 pm.

The Bellevue Civic Association General Meeting will be held this Tuesday, January 22, at Holton Elementary School. Dinner will be served at 6:30 pm and the meeting begins at 7:00 pm.

Due to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, the Friends of Bryan Park Board meeting will be held on Monday, January 28, at 7:00 pm. The meeting will be held in the Gatekeepers House at Bryan Park.

Northside District 3 Councilman Chris Hilbert will host his monthly District Meeting at 6:00 pm on Wednesday, January 23, at the Police Training Academy located at 1202 W. Graham Road (adjacent to Virginia Union University). This meeting will conclude the District Planning and Priority Process. All residents are invited to participate.

Residents of Bellevue, Ginter Park and Washington Park — keep your eyes open for NO PARKING signs in your neighborhood indicating scheduled leaf collection between January 21 through February 1.