Editor’s note: This is the third 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.

 

May 1 — Executive Director Jackie Cherry announced she would retire from the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts after 12 years there in various capacities, including seven as executive director.

 

May 4 — A hushed crowd of several hundred at the 34th annual Suffolk Leadership Prayer Breakfast listened to the testimony of North Korea native and defector Ji Seong-Ho, who told the story of his escape from his native country and his salvation.

 

May 8 — Eight train cars and an engine derailed near the 300 block of Baron Boulevard at Shoulders Hill Road. Several nearby properties reported damages.

 

May 9 — Mayor Linda T. Johnson announced at the annual State of the City luncheon that Tidewater Builders Association Homearama would return to Suffolk in October and that The Neighborhood Harvest would expand its operations.

 

May 11 — Hundreds attended a farewell ceremony for Driver Elementary School, which closed at the end of the 2017-2018 school year.

 

May 17 — City Council voted 6-2 to approve the fiscal year 2018-19 budget that included a 4-cent tax increase.

 

May 26 — Nansemond-Suffolk Academy graduated 74 new alumni.

 

June 3 — Suffolk Christian Academy graduated eight new alumni.

 

June 5 — A 23-year-old Norfolk woman was found dead in the roadway at Dill Road and Bidwell Street. The death of Kiara M. Etheridge was classified as a homicide.

 

June 5 — Bon Secours announced its plans to build a new hospital in North Suffolk.

 

June 8 — Parks and Recreation Director Lakita Frazier left the city in June after a 24-year career to take the helm of the Richland County Recreation Commission in South Carolina.

 

June 10 — About 950 seniors graduated from Lakeland, King’s Fork and Nansemond River high schools.

 

June 19 — Sentara announces that it, too, plans to build a new hospital in North Suffolk.

 

June 26 — A bout of severe storms packing 75-mile-per-hour winds caused a lot of damage in the area.