Clifton Forge, VA (Sept. 9, 2025)— During Tuesday night's Clifton Forge Town Council Meeting, "701 Mound Street Park" was renamed "Jada Callender Park" in honor of late Jada Celeste Callender. Callender was a staple in the Alleghany Highlands who served on the Alleghany Highlands Community Service Board for 22 years, worked as a Child and Adolescent Case Manager Supervisor, she was a brilliant photographer, and a dedicated member of the Clifton Forge Community Gathering Team to name a few of her accomplishments. The renaming of the park is both monumental and momentous in that, in the history of the Alleghany Highlands, no park has ever been named after a single person. Jada Callendar is the first.
In addition to this historic moment, several other items were included during tonight's scheduled meeting. This included approving the minutes, the department reports, approving an amendment to enact a portion of Chapter 78—Taxation, Article IX—Transient Occupancy Tax, approving the request from Michael Foster to close Rideway Street between Roxbury and Commercial for the Clifton Forge Craft Beer Fest from 10 a.m. until 9 p.m. on September 20 as well as granting him use of the Town's stage, approve a request from Glenn Perry to grant the Clifton Forge Shrine Club a resolution to conduct the annual Fall Foliage Festival from October 17-19 (with town set-up beginning Thursday, October 16th at 5.p.m), approve a request from Carl "Shorty" Wolfe of Loving Life Fellowship Church to have the lower end of Rose Street between Church and Main closed for the church's annual Halo-Ween event on October 31st between the hours of 3:00 p.m.—10:00 p.m., and consider the appointment of Wilma McClung's (now-expired) term to the Architectural Review Board and reappoint her. All aforementioned requests were approved.
Additionally, Town Manager Chuck Unroe provided several updates on the town during his manager's comments. The entirety of his comments can now be viewed on the Alleghany Journal's Facebook page.
There were two public comments from Raymond Austin and Mar Jimenez. While Austin addressed council about his water bill steadily climbing, Jimenez asked why the request for her sign approval had not yet gone through. For Austin, it was recommended he make an appointment with Town Manager Chuck Unroe and Finance Director Wendy Biggs to further discuss his bill and options. For Jimenez, she noted that she had been waiting over twice as long as she should have been waiting to be approved and suggested that her business name, "Silver Prick," was the reason for the delay. "...It is not obscene," Jimenez stated on Tuesday night. "Silver Prick," if approved by council, will be a downtown business near Jack Mason's Tavern that will specialize in the sale of plants and hand-crafted jewelry fashioned by Jimenez herself.
|  | Courtney Howard addressed council to discuss renaming "701 Mound Street Park" to "Jada Callendar Park" during Tuesday night's Clifton Forge Town Council Meeting.
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