Good morning, FXBG.
It's Halloween week, it's the last week of early voting, and three local governing bodies all picked tonight to meet. Somebody at City Hall is going to have a long day. Here's what to watch and where to take the kids.
In today's Rundown:
Your Halloween week cheat sheet, Thursday through Saturday
Fredericksburg's council triple-header: monthly water bills, a 300th logo and a youth violence plan
Stafford takes another swing at data center perks
🎃 Your Halloween week cheat sheet
Halloween lands on a Saturday this year, which means the big stuff is packed into one long day. Here's what we could confirm, in order.
Thursday: Spotswood Elementary hosts its annual Trunk-or-Treat. It's free and open to the whole community, with games, prizes and a vote for the best trunk. Costumes should be school-appropriate, so leave the chainsaw at home.
📍 When / where / cost: Thu., Oct. 29, 5–7 p.m. · Spotswood Elementary, 400 Lorraine Ave · Free
Friday and Saturday nights (teens and grown-ups): Halls of Hysteria, the fully indoor haunted trail at the Fredericksburg Convention Center, has its final two nights. Expect clowns, possessed dolls, a twisted cornfield, and actors who will follow you but won't touch you. Tickets are $25 and parking is free. Since it's indoors, rain won't cancel it.
Saturday morning downtown (the main event): The city's Scarecrow Fest ends with a full morning of free stuff. The Downtown Costume Stroll lines up at 8:30 a.m. at VRE Lot B on Caroline Street and heads down Caroline at 9:30. Strollers and wagons are welcome, but bikes aren't. Halloween at the Market runs 9 a.m.–1 p.m. at Hurkamp Park. The kid-friendly Haunted FXBGO! Bus is parked at Market Square from 10 to noon. And Treats on the Streets has kids trick-or-treating at participating downtown businesses from 10 a.m. to noon.
Right around the corner, the Fredericksburg Area Museum holds a Halloween Open House from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. There's trick-or-treating, a scavenger hunt, face painting and crafts, and Gus from the FredNats will be there for photos from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
📍 When / where / cost: Sat., Oct. 31, 8:30 a.m.–noon (FAM until 5 p.m.) · Caroline St., Hurkamp Park, Market Square and 907 Princess Anne St · Free
Full schedule → https://fxbg.com/find-things-to-do/scarecrow-fest/
FAM open house → https://www.famva.org/events/halloween-open-house
Saturday evening: Fredericksburg Church of Christ hosts a Fall Festival and Trunk-or-Treat from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at 336 Riverside Dr. The listing doesn't give a price, so check with the church before you go.
Pro tip: Saturday is also the last day of early voting. City voters vote at 601 Caroline St., the same building as the Visitor Center where Treats on the Streets is based, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. So you can vote in costume and grab candy on the same trip. (Stafford and Spotsylvania voters: your registrar's office has its own Saturday hours, so check before you go.)
City election info → https://www.fredericksburgva.gov/2216/November-3rd-Election-Information
🏛️ Fredericksburg's council triple-header
City Council meets three times today. Here's what's on each agenda.
4 p.m., with the School Board: The two boards meet at the Walker-Grant Center to talk about the city's Youth Violence Prevention Plan. The 113-page report was written by the consultant WestEd for a steering committee the city and school division formed in 2023, after two area teens were killed in separate shootings. Some of its findings are hard to read. One in four city students was chronically absent in 2024-25. And 62.5% of Walker-Grant Middle students say bullying is a problem. Young people who were interviewed didn't describe the city as scary. They described it as a place with "nothing to do." The plan lays out 13 recommendations over five years. Today is the first time council and the school board will sit down together to talk about next steps.
The Free Press explainer → https://www.fredericksburgfreepress.com/2026/10/01/explainer-preventing-teen-violence-in-the-city-of-fredericksburg/
5:30 p.m., with the Planning Commission: This one is a grab bag: the annual land-use update, plus cannabis, the city's nuisance ordinance, and rules for massage establishments. The agenda lists only the topics, so we don't know yet what changes are being considered.
7:30 p.m., regular meeting: The item that hits your mailbox is the final vote on monthly utility billing. Water, sewer, trash and recycling bills would come every month instead of every two months. The city says rates won't go up. Council approved it unanimously on first read Oct. 13. If it passes tonight, here's how the switch works:
Group B customers get a final two-month bill tomorrow, Oct. 28, and their first monthly bill Nov. 24.
Group A customers get one last two-month bill on Nov. 24.
The city expects about $40,500 in extra printing and postage costs, and says that number should drop as more people switch to paperless billing. Hint, hint.
The same meeting also has a few lighter moments. The Fredericksburg 300th Anniversary logo gets its public reveal, council introduces new Fredericksburg Area Museum director Svetlana Legetic, and Juanita Pitchford and Doris Buffett will be added to the city's Wall of Honor.
📍 When / where / cost: Tue., Oct. 27 · 4 p.m. Walker-Grant Center (210 Ferdinand St.); 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. City Hall (715 Princess Anne St.) · Free and open to the public
Want to comment but can't make it? Written comments to the Clerk of Council are due by 1:30 p.m. today.
Billing switch, explained → https://patch.com/virginia/fredericksburg/fredericksburg-plans-monthly-water-sewer-trash-bills-starting-november
🖥️ Stafford takes another swing at data center perks
Stafford supervisors hold their fourth-Tuesday work session tonight. Two data center items are on the list. The first would take data centers out of the county's technology-zone incentive program. The second would end their by-right status on M-2 (heavy industrial) land, which means new projects there would need a vote of the board. Supervisors have also asked staff to find out whether the county can get out of nondisclosure agreements with data center developers. Critics say those agreements can hide details like how much water a project will use.
Rock Hill's Crystal Vanuch has led the charge. "Why are we giving double tax incentives?" she asked at a Sept. 29 meeting. Falmouth's Kecia Evans pushed back that the board can turn down any application anyway: "We still can say no." Vice Chair Maya Guy said she wouldn't vote to drop data centers from the incentives. Garrisonville's Pamela Yeung wants every business tax break reviewed, not just this one. County economic development staff say no data center has ever applied for the incentive. That makes this partly a fight over a door nobody has walked through yet.
It's a work session, so don't expect a final vote tonight. Watch for where the majority lands.
📍 When / where / cost: Tue., Oct. 27, 5 p.m. · Board Chambers, 1300 Courthouse Rd., Stafford · Free; also streamed live
Also worth knowing…
🗑️ Spotsy's dump-pass vote is tonight, too, at 5 p.m. at the Holbert Building, with the Comprehensive Plan hearing at 5:45. We covered it yesterday, so we'll let you know how it turns out.
🏘️ Two-over-twos, round two: After its last meeting was canceled for lack of a quorum, Fredericksburg's Planning Commission holds its continued public hearing on stacked townhomes and lower parking minimums Wed., Oct. 28, at 6:30 p.m. in Council Chambers. Meeting notice
⛽ No Sheetz at Enon Road: Stafford supervisors on Oct. 20 denied a rezoning and permit for a Sheetz with gas pumps and a drive-thru on about 3.88 acres at Enon Road and Route 1. Potomac Local
🏫 Plan for a day off: Published school calendars show no school for Stafford students on Election Day (Tue., Nov. 3) and no school for Spotsylvania students Mon., Nov. 2 and Tue., Nov. 3. Check your division's calendar to be sure.
🕰️ Clocks fall back Sunday, Nov. 1, at 2 a.m. That's an extra hour of sleep, or an extra hour to sort the candy.
🌷 The Love Scrub is back Sun., Nov. 1, 10 a.m.–2 p.m. at Hurkamp Park. Volunteers will clean up the park and plant bulbs for spring. Free Press
Gee whiz: the bimonthly bill nobody will miss
Fredericksburg has about 8,600 utility accounts, and only about 2,300 are on autopay. Back in September, Councilor Will Mackintosh summed up the case for the switch: "Nothing else I can think of in my life is billed on a bi-monthly basis." He has a point. Even the gym only charges you once a month, and you never go.
Before you go
Where are you taking the kids on Saturday: downtown in the morning, your own street after dark, or both? Hit reply and tell me your go-to trick-or-treat spot. If we get enough answers, I'll put together a reader-sourced guide for next year.
Know a city neighbor who's going to be confused by a water bill showing up in November? Forward this their way.
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