ROANOKE (WSLS 10) - A group pushing for fewer youth arrests... And closing youth prisons will be in Richmond today. The RISE for Youth lobby day is today the Virginia State Capitol. Formerly incarcerated youth and young activists will will visit lawmakers to let them know youth prisons don't work and to advocate for more investments in community-based alternatives to incarceration. This comes as a proposed juvenile detention center is being talked about in Chesapeake. It would hold 112 offenders and could be operating by February 2020. The detention center would cost about $47 million. Through a partnership, $36 million would come from Virginia, and $11 million from Chesapeake.
If you use Route 761, Straightstone Road in Pittsylvania County, expect changes this week. The road will be closed between Route 600, Cedar Forest Road and Route 639, Honeybee Road for replacement of the bridge over Straightstone Creek. The bridge was originally built in 1926. VDOT says it is structurally deficient. The project is scheduled to be finished by December 4.
Recommended Videos
You may see a helicopter in Roanoke County over the Western Virginia Regional Jail. This morning. An HVAC unit will be put on the roof by helicopter. People who live and work nearby shouldn't be effected but you may be hearing the helicopter. You will not be able to visit until 7 p.m. and no deliveries or traffic will be allowed today while the work is going on.
The 19th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday Breakfast is today in Lynchburg. It starts at 8:30 a.m. at Phase 2, 4009 Murray Place. Tickets are $30 each. Â "Celebrating the Drum Major Instinct" is the theme for the 2017 commemoration. The keynote speaker will be Lynchburg native Edward M. Barksdale, Jr. M.D., Surgeon-in-Chief at Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital. His career and civic perseverance has inspired individual responsibility, personal excellence and social justice that have positively affected youth and community.
Many people are spending today serving in the community in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. The Campbell County Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) and the Campbell County Youth Advisory Council, with other high school students, are holding an intergenerational National MLK Day of Service Project at the Historic Courthouse in Rustburg. Members of the Youth Advisory Council and other high school students will teach senior citizens how to use their electronic devices, including cell phones, iPads, tablets, laptops, and how to use Facebook and email. The older adults at the event will educate high school students about how the communities of Campbell County operated before modern technology.
Meanwhile more than 300 Radford University students, faculty and staff will volunteer across the New River and Roanoke valleys. This is the fourth year the university has participated in the campus-wide effort to honor the late civil rights activist. Volunteers will be at Feeding America Southwest Virginia, Boys & Girls Club of Southwest Virginia, Radford Clothing Bank and more. Classes start tomorrow.