The former owner of the Mount Jackson Farmers Market filed a lawsuit last Monday in an effort to correct what he described as an "arbitrary enforcement" of town codes that prevented him from operating the market this year.  Gerald Forsburg, of Mount Jackson, filed the suit in Shenandoah County Circuit Court against both the Town of Mount Jackson and Town Manager Charlie Moore. 

Plans are moving forward to tighten security at the Page County Courthouse, according to Sheriff John Thomas and Interim County Administrator Bill Rolfe. Rolfe and the sheriff have been working with an ad hoc committee that includes architect Lowell Baughan on ways to “harden” the building and restrict access to it in accordance with a 2010 order signed by Circuit Court judges James V. Lane and Thomas J. Wilson IV.

Local Pastor Matt Homer, since last December a full-time District Representative for Virginia Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-6th District), is a busy person. The 33-year-old remains as senior pastor at Redeeming Grace Church in Penn Laird. In addition, he was recently elected the chairman of the three-county Shenandoah Valley Young Republicans – an organization which stretches from Lexington in the south to the northern edge of Rockingham County. Homer also carries a full-time academic load as an on-ine student at Liberty University, and is a family man, with two children. All this is in addition to his new, full-time job as district representative in Goodlatte’s Harrisonburg office.

The town must have a plan for improving the quality of its drinking water before new federal regulations take effect in October. If it does not, the town may have to notify water customers that it is not in compliance with the regulations and may face penalties, Town Manager Steve Burke said June 6. Tests have indicated the possibility that the town's water contains cryptosporidium, a waterborne pathogen that can sicken people with weak immune systems.

Virginia Cooperative Extension is offering a special low rate for private drinking water testing this month. Residents of several counties including Warren and Shenandoah will be able to get any private water derived from wells, springs or cisterns tested for $5 per sample.