Columnist Michael Paul Williams from the Richmond Times-Dispatch will speak at the Author’s Night event at the Westover Hills branch library on Monday, February 8 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. The public is invited to attend.

The quarterly Fourth District meeting sponsored by City Council President Kathy Graziano is scheduled for Wednesday, February 10. It is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Saint Luke’s Lutheran Church, 7757 Chippenham Parkway.

Speakers at the meeting will discuss why it’s important to complete the 2010 U.S. Census (which will take place early this spring), the city’s real estate assessments, and drainage in the city.

If Richmond public schools are closed Wednesday, the meeting will be cancelled.

On Thursday, February 11, you can bring up your concerns – traffic, safety, sidewalks, whatever – at the Town Hall Meeting. The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Westover Hills United Methodist Church on the Boulevard.

The first 40 minutes of the meeting will be devoted to neighborhood concerns. An abbreviated business agenda will conclude the hour-long meeting. As with all regular WHNA board meetings, any Westover Hills resident is welcome to attend. So come let us know what’s on your mind!

The Forest Hills Neighborhood Association is sponsoring a community walk/run race through the Forest Hill Neighborhood on Saturday, Feb. 13. The race will start at 9 a.m. at the Stone House, and will go through the neighborhood on both sides of Forest Hill Avenue. Run it, walk it, or come out to cheer. Leashed dogs and strollers are welcome.

The cost to participate is $15. For more information and an application to participate, please visit the FHNA’s website. All applications postmarked by Friday, February 5, 2010, will be guaranteed a long sleeve t-shirt. Race day registration will be available beginning at 8 a.m. Official times will not be recorded.

Parking is available at Forest Hill Park (intersection of 42nd Street and New Kent Ave). Anyone interested in volunteering on race day can contact the This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Join the Friends of Forest Hill Park and expert birder Sue Ridd of the Richmond Audubon Society on Saturday, February 13, at 8 a.m. to participate in the 13th annual Great Backyard Bird Count. Novice and beginning birders are welcome to join the group that will gather in the parking lot by the picnic shelters. Last year, the FFHP counters spotted 31 species of birds including a Carolina chickadee and a yellow-bellied sapsucker. Most unusual was the sighting of a merlin, a small falcon. The information collected is submitted to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology which maintains a database. Bring binoculars, your birding book and a notebook and pen. For information on participating, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual four-day event (February 12-15, 2010) that engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are across the continent and in Hawaii. Anyone can participate, from beginning bird watchers to experts. It takes as little as 15 minutes on one day, or you can count for as long as you like each day of the event.

Yes, Westover Hills was supposed to get leaf pick-up by the city this week. The vacuum trucks are in the neighborhood, but the leaf pick-up has been delayed by equipment problems. Here’s a report from the Department of Public Works today:

We are experiencing serious equipment problems due to inclement weather. If you can remember, after the snow incident temps remained around freezing for several weeks which meant the leaves were also frozen. Once the leaves become wet and start to decompose, the material has an adverse impact on the vacuum trucks. That was the problem on yesterday, we had several trucks to go down.

All the rain and snow during November and December caused the city to lose several weeks of leaf collection activity. The schedule has been changed several times. Now, with snow predicted for this weekend, it’s likely that the vacuum leaf collection will be pushed further behind. The same equipment is used to combat snow and to collect leaves, and it takes about a day to install snow plows on the trucks.

DPW reports that, if weather permits, they hope to have leaf collection complete in Westover Hills by the end of next week. It’s frustrating, but be patient, folks!

You can still use the city’s Bag-n-Go Program to dispose of your leaves. Just put your bagged leaves in biodegradable bags. The city will pick as many as six bags on your regular trash day. Place the bags of leaves near your supercan.

For updates on the city’s vacuum leaf collection schedule, call 646-LEAF.