Editor’s note: This is the second of six installments of our Year in Review 2018, where we will look at the good and bad news of 2018, two months at a time. The date listed is the date of the edition in which the story ran.

 

March 1 — The Suffolk Department of Fire & Rescue begins staffing the Chuckatuck fire station around the clock, in response to a request from the Chuckatuck Volunteer Fire Department.

 

March 2 — Delegate Chris Jones stepped in to protect a woman during an altercation near his Richmond apartment during the General Assembly session. A man had thrown hot chocolate in a woman’s face and threatened her before Jones heard her screams for help and came to her aid.

 

March 9 — After much debate, the School Board voted to approve a rezoning plan that created student populations for the new Col. Fred Cherry Middle School and Florence Bowser Elementary School while leaving the rest of the division’s zoning untouched. They had the option of plans that rezoned the entire city at all three levels.

 

March 13 — A couple of inches of snow that fell during the day caused numerous accidents and wreaked havoc on the evening commute.

 

March 15 — About 50 percent of middle- and high-school students in Suffolk Public Schools joined a nationwide walk-out protest during their school day, mourning the losses of 17 students and educators at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., a month prior and calling for change in school security measures.

 

March 16 — Suffolk learned both of its Farm Fresh stores would close as the chain’s parent company, SUPERVALU, sold its locations to Kroger, Harris Teeter and Food Lion.

 

March 17 — Suffolk native DeAndre Shakur Harris was acquitted on charges stemming from the violent “Unite the Right” rally on Aug. 12, 2017. Harris was a counterprotestor during the event.

 

March 21 — The Suffolk School Board approved the 2018-2019 budget, which contained a $3,000 annual raise for teachers.

 

March 30 — Pioneer Elementary School teacher Katelyn Leitner is honored with the 2018 Citywide Teacher of the Year award.

 

April 6 — The Catering Place, owned by Corey and Jnel Duncan, is named the Suffolk Small Business of the Year by the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce.

 

April 10 — Suffolk officials honored Dr. L.D. Britt with the unveiling of a plaque in his honor at the Health and Human Services Building. Britt, a Suffolk native, was valedictorian of his Booker T. Washington High School class, graduated from Harvard Medical School and is acute care surgeon and chair of the Department of Surgery at Eastern Virginia Medical School.

 

April 12 — Blue Bell Ice Cream announced it would begin construction on a distribution facility in Northgate Commerce Park. It was originally approved in 2014 but was put on hold after a 2015 listeria outbreak in the company’s products.

 

April 27 — Suffolk World War II veteran Robert Ewald was honored by French President Emmanuel Macron at Macron’s address to Congress in Washington, D.C.

 

April 27 — Fire Chief Cedric Scott announced he would retire after five years with Suffolk Fire & Rescue.

 

April 28 — Suffolk marks 10 years since the devastating tornado of April 28, 2008, which injured 170 people, damaged or destroyed 456 properties in Suffolk and caused an estimated $28.6 million in damages.