The Stauntonian: Volume 1, Issue 29 | Firearms, Fumes & Founding Doctors
An injunction scrambles Augusta County’s gun-law standoff. Wildfire smoke drifts into the Valley as Waynesboro debates 25 tons of new air pollution, two local history pieces uncover Staunton’s past
This Week at a Glance
Smoke from Canadian wildfires reaches Virginia today, and the haze hanging over the Blue Ridge through Friday is the week’s most visible story. The legal fight over Virginia’s new gun laws lands on every law enforcement agency in the state come Tuesday. A permit that would let a defense contractor release hazardous air pollutants a few miles east gets its one public hearing next week. And The Stauntonian went digging through two centuries of the city’s history, coming back with a president, a pioneering surgeon, and the strangest case of mistaken identity in town.
New From The Stauntonian: Staunton’s Medical Past, in Two Parts
We published two stories this week that fit together like halves of a diagnosis.
The Asylum on the Hill traces Western State Hospital from its first patient in 1828, a teacher admitted for “hard study,” through two centuries that swing from the most humane treatment of the era to one of its darkest chapters. The piece follows founding superintendent Francis Stribling’s therapeutic gardens and Jeffersonian architecture, the eugenics crusade of Joseph DeJarnette and the roughly 1,700 involuntary sterilizations carried out at the hospital, and the campus’s strange afterlife as a prison and then a boutique hotel. It also settles, once and for all, the mix-up that fools even lifelong residents: the decaying “haunted asylum” near the Frontier Culture Museum was never the asylum at all.
The Doctor Who Made Staunton a Medical Crossroads starts at a historical marker most people walk past on South Augusta Street. Behind it stands Alexander Humphreys, an Edinburgh-trained Irish immigrant whose “elaboratory” beside the courthouse functioned as a small medical school in the 1780s and 90s. His students included Ephraim McDowell, who went on to perform the first successful ovarian tumor removal in surgical history, Samuel Brown, who vaccinated more than 500 Kentuckians when vaccination was still a radical idea, and a young William Henry Harrison, three decades before the presidency. Humphreys is buried at Trinity Episcopal, mostly forgotten.
Lead Stories
Augusta County’s Gun-Law Standoff
Two weeks ago, Augusta County Sheriff Donald Smith announced that his office would not enforce Virginia’s new gun laws. As of next Tuesday, a judge’s order means no one else in Virginia will be enforcing the most contested of them either, at least for now. Untangling how the county got here takes a calendar.
The General Assembly passed and Governor Abigail Spanberger signed Senate Bill 749 this spring, banning the sale, purchase, import, manufacture, and transfer of assault-style firearms and limiting magazine capacity, effective July 1, per WRIC. Legal challenges landed before the ink dried. A Lancaster County judge blocked the Virginia State Police from enforcing the bans on June 25, and Washington County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Campbell issued a broader preliminary injunction on June 29 in a suit brought by the NRA and argued by State Senator Bill Stanley.
The night before the laws took effect, Sheriff Smith posted a lengthy statement declaring his office “committed to upholding the Constitution in its entirety, regardless of state law,” and saying he would not enforce the new gun-control measures, as Augusta Free Press reported. Attorney General Jay Jones answered with an advisory to local law enforcement that the laws “remain in force” in the 126 localities not covered by the injunctions, a list that included Augusta County, per a follow-up from AFP. AFP’s editor has been sharply critical of Smith in a series of opinion pieces; the sheriff frames his position as a constitutional obligation, and his statement encouraged residents to stay engaged while the courts work.
Then the ground shifted again. In a July 7 letter opinion, Judge Campbell clarified that his injunction applies statewide, barring every law enforcement agency and Commonwealth’s Attorney in Virginia from enforcing the assault firearm and magazine bans while the case is litigated, per WRIC. The order takes effect Tuesday, July 21, a delay built in so every agency in the state can be formally notified, WSET reports. The Attorney General’s office called the statewide declaration wrong, arguing it “reaches far beyond the case before him,” and says it will appeal; Stanley says the dispute is headed for the Supreme Court of Virginia either way.
What it means on the ground here: beginning Tuesday, the assault firearm and magazine provisions are paused everywhere in Virginia, which makes the sheriff’s refusal and the AG’s advisory moot on those laws for as long as the injunction holds. But the pause covers only the enjoined bans. Other measures that took effect July 1, including background-check requirements for private firearm sales, are not part of the injunction, per a legal analysis of the case, and the sheriff’s stated refusal extended to those as well, per AFP. The laws have not been struck down. These are preliminary orders holding things in place while the courts decide the merits, and a stay from the state Supreme Court could put the bans back in effect on short notice. We’ll track it.
One Hearing, 24.9 Tons: The Northrop Grumman Permit Gets Its Night
The biggest environmental decision facing the region this year comes down to a Thursday evening at Waynesboro High School. Northrop Grumman has applied for a state operating permit for its planned advanced electronics assembly and testing facility at 1001 Shenandoah Village Drive, and the Virginia DEQ holds its lone public hearing July 23 at 6:30 p.m. in the school’s auditorium, preceded by a 6 p.m. information briefing. The written comment window closes the same day.
The stakes cut in two directions, and honest coverage holds both. The facility is the anchor of a $200 million investment Northrop Grumman announced for Waynesboro, the kind of advanced manufacturing project localities spend decades chasing. The permit application, though, seeks allowance to release up to 24.9 tons of hazardous air pollutants, including volatile organic compounds and particulate matter, per Augusta Free Press, which has been covering the permit critically and campaigning for residents to challenge it. DEQ frames the permit differently: as the instrument that legally caps the plant’s emissions below major-source levels, per the agency’s notice. Both descriptions are technically true, which is precisely why the details matter.
The most striking material comes from the regulator’s own staff. A May 21 memo from Trevor Wallace, air permit manager in DEQ’s Valley Regional Office, notes that 352 planned senior apartments sit within a quarter mile of the plant, three schools and a hospital within four miles, and the Coyner Springs municipal water supply less than half a mile away, with the South River a half mile beyond that, as AFP reported. The memo states the proposed emissions “will affect the entire Shenandoah Valley,” along with the Blue Ridge Parkway and Shenandoah National Park. The Valley office is nonetheless recommending approval. That South River, for regular readers, is the same river our River Watch gauge sits on.
Residents on any side of the question have until July 23 to be heard. Written comments go to Debbie Medlin at DEQ’s Valley Regional Office, debbie.medlin@deq.virginia.gov or 540-217-7071, and must include the commenter’s name and mailing or email address, per the DEQ notice, which also links the draft permit and the engineering analysis for anyone who wants to read the source documents before speaking. Oral comments are taken at the hearing itself, which runs until the last speaker finishes or 9 p.m., whichever comes first.
The Water Isn’t Waiting For The Flood Plan To Be Ready
Ten days after a Sunday-night deluge put water across Gypsy Hill Park and more than four inches of rain on Churchville in an hour, it’s worth knowing exactly where Staunton’s first Flood Resilience Plan stands: closer to reality than many residents realize. The city released the plan’s full first draft this spring and collected public comment at an April listening session at the library, the second such gathering in a process that began last summer, per WHSV. Environmental programs administrator Willow Hughes said at the draft’s release that the city wants to hear about any remaining issues “so we can make that correction” before the final version goes to City Council for adoption.
The plan’s purpose is bigger than any single culvert. It’s a citywide roadmap for preparing for, responding to, and recovering from flooding, and formal adoption strengthens Staunton’s eligibility for state grant money to fund resilience projects, according to the city’s Flood Resilience Plan page, where the full draft is posted. Comments can still be sent to StauntonStormwater@ci.staunton.va.us. The city has already put pieces on the ground, including the new rain gauges installed to sharpen public flood alerts, which Hughes described after this month’s storm, per WHSV. Anyone whose street ponded over on July 5 has a document worth reading and an email address worth using before the council takes it up. For the 170-year backstory on why this plan exists at all, our Local History piece on the Wharf’s long fight with Lewis Creek is the companion read.
Quick Hits
Civic calendar, back in session. The Augusta County Board of Supervisors holds public hearings at its 7 p.m. meeting Wednesday, July 22, at the Government Center in Verona, per the county. Staunton City Council returns from its summer break Thursday, July 23, per the News Leader, the same evening as the DEQ hearing in Waynesboro. Civically inclined households may need to split up.
Mark the Dominion date. The State Corporation Commission holds its evidentiary hearing August 11 on how Dominion recovers roughly $1 billion in past fuel costs, the decision that determines whether the interim $8 monthly increase on your bill holds or gives way to a number closer to $22, per Cardinal News. Our full breakdown ran in Issue 28.
A month of soap and toothpaste. The League of Women Voters of Staunton, Augusta and Waynesboro is running a hygiene drive through July with the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, collecting items that SNAP benefits can’t buy: soap, shampoo, deodorant, toothbrushes, and more. Staunton drop-offs include the Habitat for Humanity ReStore and Woodforest National Bank, per WHSV.
Out & About
Heifetz at 30, in Full Swing
The Heifetz International Music Institute’s Festival of Concerts is deep into its 30th anniversary season, with more than 50 performances running through August 1, per the Heifetz Institute. The weekly rhythm: Stars of Tomorrow student showcases Tuesday and Thursday evenings, free chamber music matinees at the Blackfriars Playhouse on Fridays, and the Friday night Celebrity Series faculty concerts, each preceded by the complimentary Happy Hour with regional wines and refreshments. Some of the world’s best young string players are in town all summer, and the free matinees remain Staunton’s best-kept midday secret. Full schedule at the festival calendar.
Stonewall Brigade Band, Mondays
The summer residency continues Monday nights at 7:30 at the Gypsy Hill Park bandstand, per Visit Staunton.
Praise in the Park, Tuesdays
The privately sponsored concert series runs Tuesday evenings from 7 to 9 at Gypsy Hill Park, per Visit Staunton.
‘Lightworkers’ at the Visulite, Saturday
The Democratic Party committees of Augusta County, Staunton, and Waynesboro host a free screening of the documentary “Lightworkers” at the Visulite Cinema this Saturday, July 18, at 10:30 a.m., with a discussion to follow, per Augusta Free Press.
Blackfriars Playhouse
The 25th anniversary summer repertory continues at the Blackfriars Playhouse, with As You Like It running through August 9 alongside Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. Shakespeare’s comedy argues that love makes fools of everyone worth knowing; Wilder’s play argues that the fools were the point all along. Dates and tickets at the ASC calendar, 10 S. Market St. Two hours of climate-controlled air has rarely been a better pitch.
River Watch
July on the South River is a moving target. Last week’s deluge sent a pulse of runoff through the watershed, and the season’s pattern of afternoon thunderstorms means conditions can swing between a lazy float and pushy brown water inside a single day. Before wading or launching this weekend, pull up the USGS gauge near Waynesboro for the live stage and remember that a storm upstream at Sherando can change your afternoon downstream long before the sky over Staunton says so.
The Sneeze Index
This week the sky itself is the story. Smoke from wildfires burning in the Canadian Rockies and central Canada pushes into Virginia beginning today, bringing hazy skies, reduced visibility, and a smoky odor to the Shenandoah Valley through Friday, according to AccuWeather senior meteorologist Thomas Kines, as reported by Augusta Free Press. The worst arrives tonight and runs through Friday, and the haze may linger into the weekend. Kines advises that people with respiratory issues, older adults, and children take precautions: “Staying indoors and avoiding strenuous activity will help those sensitive groups.” Weekend storms should scrub the air, though he cautions they could carry damaging winds and heavy rain of their own. The one mercy of midsummer holds: pollen stays Low, per IQAir, whose live Staunton page is worth a glance before any outdoor plans while the smoke passes through. This marks the fourth consecutive summer that Canadian wildfire smoke has reached Virginia, per AFP.
The Weekly Pump
The relief rally is over. Virginia’s average for regular stood at $3.748 Wednesday, with premium at $4.63 and diesel at $4.89, per AAA figures reported by WSLS. Prices jumped early last week and have held there since, a reversal WSLS attributes to oil markets rattled by the end of the U.S.-Iran ceasefire, though the pump remains well below the spring peak, when the national average touched $4.56 in May, per WSLS. The local silver lining holds: the Staunton-Waynesboro area ranked as one of the cheapest places to buy gas in the entire Commonwealth in early July, at roughly $3.46 a gallon, per AAA data compiled by Stacker. GasBuddy finds the low pump near you.
Real Estate Watch
The June statewide numbers arrive later this month; Virginia REALTORS’ monthly reports have been landing around the 18th to the 23rd, per the report archive, and we’ll bring the full read when it drops. The freshest signal in the meantime comes from the association’s Realtor Confidence Survey, conducted at the turn of the month: the Buyer Activity Index held at 42 on a 100-point scale, unchanged from May but down from the spring, and the Seller Activity Index rose to 45, per reporting on the survey. Translation: sellers keep listing, buyers are pickier, and May’s record statewide median of $452,060 still stands as the high-water mark. For specific recent sales, consult a local agent with MLS access.
Who’s Hiring
City of Staunton, Utility Service Clerk. Public Works is hiring for clerical and technical work maintaining the city’s computerized utility account files and processing payments. Apply through the city’s jobs portal.
City of Staunton, Recycling Attendant. A part-time role greeting residents and answering recycling and solid waste questions at the Recycling Center; forklift certification, or the ability to earn it within two months, is required. Apply through the city’s jobs portal.
Frontier Culture Museum, Visitor Center Assistant. The museum needs someone to welcome and orient guests, sell tickets and annual passes, and handle point-of-sale and recordkeeping. The listing is on Indeed.
The Stauntonian is independent local journalism for the Queen City. Questions, tips, or a story we should be chasing? Write to Brad at brad@stauntonian.com.