‘Conclave’ opens 2025 movie season The new year in RAAC movies at the Little Washington Theatre opens Friday, Jan. 10 at 7 p.m. with “Conclave,” the papal suspense film starring Ralph Fiennes and directed by Edward Berger. Nominated for Best Film, the movie is drawn...

Foothills Forum Staff Report
Articles written by Foothills Forum Staff Report

Rappahannock officials go to Richmond seeking more school funding
Dec 17, 2024 | Business, Education, Local Services, People, Politics, Real Estate
Putting ‘faces behind the issue’ RICHMOND — Rappahannock County officials traveled to Richmond last Monday to make an appearance before a subcommittee of the General Assembly as part of their efforts to receive more school funding from the state. County Administrator...

Rappahannock’s dark sky protectors worry as development marches west
Dec 15, 2024 | Business
On a moonless night in late August a cluster of people moved gingerly in the Rappahannock County Park shadows to take turns peering at the starry sky through amateur astronomers’ telescopes. The sun had slipped below the horizon an hour earlier. Dusk fell during a...

Banned books battle hits close to Rappahannock County
Dec 11, 2024 | Business, Politics
As Front Royal library faces closure, Rappahannock, Fauquier libraries oppose censorship While Rappahannock and Fauquier county libraries have not experienced book banning battles over the content of some children’s books, they stand with Samuels Public Library in...
Jeffery Dwyer to serve 2.5 years in child sexual abuse case
Dec 2, 2024 | Crime and Courts, Health, Local Services, Politics
Jeffery Dwyer, 61, a Warrenton man who pleaded guilty to sexual abuse of one of his nephews who came forward with allegations dating back to the 1980s — when he was a child and Dwyer was 20 in Rappahannock — was sentenced to serve 2.5 years of a 20-year sentence in...

Meet the managers of Rappahannock County’s trash
Dec 1, 2024 |
Willie ShanksWaste Management Consultant and Manager Willie Shanks at Flatwood Refuse and Recycling in Washington, Va. Willie Shanks Born and raised in Rappahannock, Willie Shanks built a career from the ground up. From “pushing a broom to running a crew,” Shanks...

From bears to better service: Rappahannock’s trash overhaul yields big savings
Nov 30, 2024 |
Managing trash in a rural setting like Rappahannock County can be a challenge. Locals who use the Flatwood Refuse and Recycling Center — better known as “the dump” — may remember an open pit of rubbish surrounded by barbed wire and covered with an often-malfunctioning...
Letter: Support the real news!
Nov 17, 2024 | Art, Crime and Courts, Education, People, Politics
Commentaries reflect the opinion of the writer(s), not the Rapp News. Comment below or by writing a letter to the editor: [email protected]. According to a preelection poll by Ipsos, a global market research firm, there was a direct correlation between voting...

Rappahannock County High School students build kestrel boxes for area nonprofit
Nov 16, 2024 | Education
Rappahannock County High School students taking the Building Trades and Engineering Technology class have constructed nest boxes for the nonprofit Shenandoah Valley Raptor Study Area (SVRSA) to assist in its efforts to protect kestrels. “I went into the classroom and...

Kestrels revisited: Local landowners provide new homes for the small falcons
Nov 16, 2024 | Agriculture, Business, Education
The new star of Rappahannock County is the kestrel, the colorful, feisty, falcon featured in this newspaper in August last year. The kestrel is North America’s smallest falcon. Its dwindling numbers have scientists mystified and now landowners in Rappahannock and...

Keeping up with kestrels
Nov 16, 2024 |
‘First-of-its-kind’ falcon tracking program took flight in Rappahannock It is fast, fierce and flashy, with a plumage of oranges and slate blues for males; reddish-brown hues for females. Chances are you have seen one perched on a fence post or power line, surveying...

Flint Hill: Fresh ideas, new vision. How residents see the next chapter
Nov 12, 2024 | Agriculture, Art, Business, Health
Over the last decade, Flint Hill has experienced an influx of residents bringing fresh ideas and new energy to the quiet community. Is renewal on the horizon for the village’s long and cherished history? Can residents overcome obstacles like pedestrian safety,...