‘Affordable’ housing units to increase soon
Final inspections are ongoing for a Harrisonburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority renovation project that grows the number of affordable housing units in the city by 25.
The housing authority purchased 12 properties on Gay, Kelley, Johnson and Myrtle streets for $1.7 million in December 2010. Renovations began on nine of them — three others are vacant lots that remain empty — soon after, and they are now in their final stages, according to HRHA Executive Director Michael Wong.
The project is known as the Forkovitch renovation because the properties’ previous owner was Forkovitch LLC. They are a mix of quadplexes, duplexes, a single-family home and the vacant parcels.
The buildings were constructed in the early 1980s and total 25 units, Wong said. That brings the number of affordable housing units up to 129 in the Franklin Heights area, he said.
Of the 25 units, eight or nine are vacant. Wong said residents who lived in the buildings at the time of HRHA’s purchase either relocated, had vouchers to move elsewhere or stayed throughout the renovation.
New windows, exterior siding, appliances, paint, walkways and handicap-accessible entrances were a part of the renovation. Wong said the units will provide 3 percent in energy cost savings and are built to last 20 years.
Security cameras were also added.
Wong said another HRHA renovation, at the J.R. “Polly” Lineweaver Apartments on North Main Street, should be finished by the end of February.
Work there includes renovating entrances, adding new heating units and replacing the roof. The cost is about $750,000, Wong said.
The Lineweaver complex has 120 units.
Fire hits Summit Avenue home
Even during a tough-luck stretch, Tom Sawin can take solace in his neighbors.
Residents on Summit Avenue opened their doors to Sawin and his wife, Ruby, Jan. 20 as flames engulfed their home.
The fire — which likely destroyed the house at 908 N. Summit Ave. — came two months after Tom’s car was stolen around Thanksgiving.
“[Neighbor] Betty Brunk lent us her car for a two-week period. We went all the way to Boston and back during that break,” Sawin said. “You can’t have better neighbors.”
Neighbors called the Sawins, who were shopping at Harrisonburg Crossing, around 8:30 p.m. Jan. 20 to tell them that 25-foot flames were shooting out of their roof.
Nobody was inside the home and no injuries were reported.
Summit Avenue is located near Eastern Mennonite University on a hill overlooking Harrisonburg. The flames could be seen soaring into the snowy sky from Chicago Avenue.
Harrisonburg Fire Department Chief Larry Shifflett said the house is probably a total loss, estimating the damage at $500,000.
“There’s significant smoke and water damage,” he said. “I would not be surprised to see this house totaled.”
While the fire was knocked down in about a half-hour, pockets of flames continued to smolder nearly two hours later.
A wood furnace, Sawin said, might have started the fire.
Shifflett said it was too soon to pinpoint a cause, but he hoped to have an answer by Jan. 21. He noted that it appears the fire started in an attic space that shares a wall with where the heating system is located.
Car crashes into post office
A postal employee was injured Jan. 20 when a car came crashing into the New Market post office near the desk she was sitting at.
Police say the unnamed woman was taken to Rockingham Memorial Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries following the crash.
The driver of the car, Arthur Herbert, 85, of New Market, was not injured, according to New Market Police Chief Charles Peery.
Peery said Herbert pulled into the parking lot of the post office at 9444 John Sevier Road just before 2 p.m.
As he went to park, he inadvertently hit the gas instead of the brake and struck the brick building, knocking the employee three or four feet, the chief said.
“She had no life-threatening injuries, but she took a pretty good shot,” he said.
A Shenandoah County building inspector examined the post office and found the building to be structurally sound, Peery said.
Herbert was charged with failing to maintain control of his vehicle, the chief added.
“There was no malicious intent or anything like that,” Peery said. “It was just … an accident.”
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