RICHMOND — César Augusto Chumil, 59, a deeply ill mental patient hospitalized over a 30-year period in his native Guatemala and in Virginia, has died.

Chumil’s death came three weeks after he had been moved from Western State Hospital to a Northern Virginia mental facility, where he was able to live out his last days in an unlocked room, among other patients, and with daily visits from his family.

VERONA – The Richmond Road of the future could include a bicycle/pedestrian trail and better use of parallel streets to reduce congestion and increase traffic flow along the artery that serves both Staunton and Augusta County.

Groundbreaking on a new Western State Hospital in Staunton is one step closer after a vote Thursday by the Industrial Development Authority to go ahead with a land purchase and transfer.

Western State Hospital in Staunton will lay off 25 workers as part of nearly $2.5 million in budget cuts authorized by Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, hospital officials said Thursday.

Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s $1.35 billion budget reduction plan for the current fiscal year announced Tuesday will mean 929 layoffs and frozen state jobs, a one-day furlough for state employees and a net cut to higher education of almost 8 percent.

Pressed between hard places, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine is setting about making choices made of similar texture, saw in hand, as he labors to bridge a $1.5-billion budget gap.

All 690 workers at the state mental hospital in Staunton have been warned of potential layoffs as a result of Virginia’s budget squeeze.

Employees at Western State Hospital received a memo from the facility’s director, Dr. Jack Barber, advising that during previous rounds of state cuts, administrators had slashed spending “without laying off anyone who did not apply to go. This is our aim with this rounds’ [cuts] as well.”

The Staunton City Council unanimously approved on Thursday a resolution to issue $15 million in general obligation debt as a line or letter of credit .

Closure of $1.5B state budget gap on horizon

Though Staunton is required by the state to put forth an “irrevocable pledge” of $15 million to sign a development agreement for 266 acres of the current Western State Hospital campus, city Finance Director Jeanne Colvin told the City Council at its Thursday meeting that last-minute talks with attorneys could mean the city would not have to put forth any money up front.

Saxman praises Western State Hospital project announcement

STAUNTON — Staunton City Council unanimously adopted a memorandum of understanding at its meeting Thursday. The deal to build a new, smaller Western State Hospital — and thereby free up more than 250 acres along Interstate 81 and Route 250 for a land-locked city to develop — brings the project one key step closer to fruition.

A race wasn’t what drew Mark Jones to a 5K run/walk hosted Wednesday in Staunton by Western State Hospital.

It was about recovery.

STAUNTON — Staunton officials said Wednesday that the new Western State Hospital will be built in the city’s Virginia Crossroads Business Park adjacent to the current hospital.

The state’s commissioner of mental health yesterday agreed to develop a plan to transfer a longtime mental patient who has been held in various forms of seclusion and restraint since 1986 in a state mental hospital.