Following a successful implementation of the tourism industry and local knowledge training program in the spring, the Winchester-Frederick County Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) will be offering a second round of its popular Tourism Ambassador training program on Wednesday, October 3 from 2-4 pm at the Bright Box Theatre.
The City of Winchester's Tree Division has teamed up with Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative (SVEC) and Reading Landscapes, Inc. to create the Right-Tree-Right-Place Street Tree Canopy Program.This program is aimed at creating a safe, healthy, and attractive tree canopy through replacement of over-mature, declining trees in the public right of way that are in conflict with overhead electric lines.
The City of Winchester will begin its annual street repaving program on Monday, September 17 (weather permitting). The Fiscal Year 2019 program includes repaving on 25 different streets with an overall distance of approximately 10.17 lane miles (see list below and map attached). The streets selected for paving are based on an annual review of all streets in the city and criteria that includes the classification of the street, traffic volumes and the current physical condition.
UPDATE: Postponed until October 20 due to weather
Don't miss the City's Green Neighborhood Expo in Old Town Winchester on Saturday, September 15 from 11 am-3 pm. Stop by the Loudoun Street Mall in Old Town Winchester to learn about:
There will be educational displays, interactive demos and experts available to answer your questions about green living.
Stop by Bridgeforth Stadium in Jim Barnett Park on Tuesday, September 11 at 8:45 am to honor our local first responders and those that made the ultimate sacrifice during the 9/11 tragedy 17 years ago. May we never forget.
Apparatus that responded to the scene in 2001 will also be on display and Starbucks will be serving beverages onsite.
Free and open to the public.
The City's social media campaign created last year by the Communications Department to enhance public safety personnel recruitment won a City/County Communications and Marketing Association (3CMA) Silver award for best use of Facebook.
The successful campaign featured several photos of local officers and firefighter/paramedics and the reasons why their service makes a difference in the community or why they chose Winchester. Both campaigns resulted in more applications being received by qualified applicants which filled many vacancies for both new and hard-to-fill positions.
Data released by the United States Travel Association (USTA) reveals that all regions in Virginia posted an increase in tourism revenue last year, including Winchester-Frederick County.
Tourism was an important contributor to the local economy in 2017. Tourism revenue for the combined Winchester-Frederick County area reached $259.1 million, a 4.3 percent change over 2016. Local tourism-supported jobs totaled 2,456 while local tourism-related taxes were $8.2 million.
The City of Winchester will operate on the following schedule the week of September 3, 2018 in observance of the Labor Day holiday:
Virignia Governor Ralph Northam announced on August 2 that Winchester will receive a $10,000 Downtown Investment Grant. Old Town Winchester is an original Virginia Main Street Community and has been in the program over 30 years. As an accredited program, we were eligible to apply for a Downtown Investment Grant. We submitted the grant application in March 2018.
National Night Out will be hosted by the Winchester Police Department (WPD) on August 7, 2018 from 5:30-8:30 p.m. on the Loudoun Street Mall near the Old Court House. The nationwide event, now in its 35th year, is a “community-building campaign that promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to make our neighborhoods safer, more caring places to live,” according to the National Association of Town Watch.