The Waynesboro City Council on Wednesday night approved the city manager’s request to fill five of 17 vacant full-time positions in city departments.

In September, City Manager Mike Hamp asked to fill six positions. Due to a hiring freeze in effect for city employees, Hamp must seek the council’s approval before filling vacancies.

The city has saved $76,719 by keeping the positions unfilled.

The Waynesboro City Council on Monday tabled discussion of the city manager’s request to fill six of 11 vacant full-time positions in various departments.

Waynesboro City Council members heard two proposals for the city library renovation and were unanimous in opinion as to which architectural procedure they preferred during a work session Wednesday.

Other council action: The Mill project advances with rezoning OK

Landing renovation money

Libraries are an essential element in the fabric of any community, and that’s certainly the case with the Augusta County Library in Fishersville. So it’s good news that bids on a proposed renovation there came in dramatically lower than the estimated cost of $2.4 million.

Way 2 Go Taxi received the unanimous approval of the Waynesboro City Council Monday to operate its taxi service in the city, but it still has hurdles to overcome to provide a full service.

It may be observed that the Wayne Theatre, that epicenter of local political unease, persists in standing, its shiny new façade overlooking West Main Street in Waynesboro. This evidently is the product of something otherworldly, since by now the old brick edifice should have crumbled to mortar and dust.

With much still to do, Wayne Theatre façade makes debut

Waynesboro City Manager Mike Hamp told the City Council at its Wednesday work session he would look into options to pay for the completion of the streetscape and Greenway projects.

It’s an expansion in spirit, if not deed.

Zahir Mahmoud, executive director of the Waynesboro Public Library, told the Waynesboro City Council at its Wednesday work session that even though the library is not expanding beyond its 28,000 square foot size, it will be able to accomplish the goals it originally set in a 2006 needs assessment.

With a machete in hand, and later a chainsaw, Waynesboro-born artist Mark Cline brought down his herd of fiberglass elephants Friday afternoon, three months after their appearance on April Fools’ Day.

Elephants evicted from landfill site on city concerns

The Waynesboro City Council heard from several representatives of agencies serving the city during a public hearing Thursday seeking to restore money that City Manager Mike Hamp has proposed be cut.

Mayor Tim Williams, along with Councilwomen Lorie Smith and Nancy Dowdy, expressed support for a 70-cent tax rate, not an equalized, 67-cent rate favored by Vice Mayor Frank Lucente and Bruce Allen.

Among the maladies affecting politicians are deprivations of senses along with sense. Some are deaf to the cries of constituents. Some can’t feel others’ pain. Some can neither detect the foul aroma of a particular policy nor its bitter taste. Vision? Some detest the very word. So comes Tim Williams, mayor of Waynesboro, absent an evident sense of himself.