A crowd of 1,200 people attended the memorial service last night that was held for Deputy Rodney Lee Davis, Jr., the Greene County deputy that was shot and killed last Tuesday. Although full details are not available, Davis’ partner got in a shoot-out with a suspected. Davis’ partner was uninjured, while Davis and the shooter were both killed. The service was held at First Baptist Church, with such heavy attendance that part of Park Street had to be closed off. The Rodney L. Davis Memorial Fund, to benefit Davis’ family, has been set up at the Stanardsville Bank of America. Braxton Williams has the story in today’s Progress.
Archive for September, 2003
Fluvanna resident Gary Dillon has set up a new area news website, FluvannaOnline.com. In addition to news of Fluvanna and Lake Monticello, Gary provides classified ads and, of course, discussion about each news item. The site runs on software that’s very similar to the software that runs cvillenews.com, so it should be familiar to most people. More news sources is good news — good luck to Gary.
As a part of Albemarle County’s strengthened emphasis on the use of technology, they have launched a mailing list service, which they call “A-Mail.” They would like to transition from costly postal mailings to e-mail-based notifications, a move that they feel confident in starting, since over 80% of Albemarle residents have Internet access. They are also making a pair of computer terminals available in the county office building for those who don’t have access at home. (Of course, people could also visit any of the country libraries.) David Dadurka had the story in yesterday’s Progress.
Belle writes: David Dadurka’s story on last night’s Albemarle Co. BOS meeting reports that electronics retailer Best Buy’s wish for changes to 29N is a fait accompli. Best Buy will get, as their initial construction plan recommended, a new intersection and traffic light on 29N in the space between the 250 Bypass interchange and the Angus Road intersection. Traffic studies by the company and the City suggest the new, lighted Best Buy intersection will not impede traffic. Today’s story reports that County supervisors remain highly skeptical.
The reconstruction of the Park Street bridge has altered city traffic patterns strongly, in part because many people have long used the street as the route from downtown to 29 north. The furloughed traffic runs through north downtown residential neighborhoods, and Marianne McKernan of Saint Charles Avenue has had enough. She’s launched a petition drive — seeking what, WINA doesn’t say — complaining that the increased traffic has had a negative impact on her neighborhood. The new bridge should be built by December. 09/09 Update: The Hook had a considerably more detailed story about Ms. McKernan a couple of weeks ago.
silkyzephyr writes: On Monday morning September 9, a Charlottesville citizen sat vigil on a car parked illegally in a newly-created police-only parking space, demanding the return of public parking. The sign on his car’s windshield said: “An Act of Civil Disobedience at Mr. Jefferson’s Courthouse.” “The Sheriff’s Office has been trying to grab this parking from us for years,” he said. “They took advantage of the confusion created by the courthouse renovation to try grabbing it again.”
He moved his car only after City Traffic Engineer David Beardsley personally came to the courthouse and agreed to change the signs. The City has now agreed to return two hour public parking to the west side of Jefferson Street, and to limit the hours of police-only spaces so shoppers and church-goers can park there evenings and weekends.
As of today (Tuesday) the signs have not changed. It is unclear whether cars parked in what is currently a parking “twilight zone” without any governing parking regulations will be ticketed.
Because of the new police-only parking, the entirety of Jefferson street was devoid of cars on Saturday, and local businesses were starved of customers. A passerby noting the new signs called them “absurd,” and remarked “this really is not good for the downtown.”
“Thank you for standing up for us,” said local business owner Candace DeLoach to the protestor. The problem pointed to by silkyzephyr’s story is one that the city has failed to resolve for years. As public parking spaces are slowly taken away, new ones are not being created. What’s to be done?
cornelious writes: “Just as the involuntary manslaughter trial of a University of Virginia professor began Tuesday, it ended with charges dropped because the prosecutor (Camblos) in the case did not subpoena a medical witness.” See the Daily Progress , 10 Sep 03 , for details about this sad story.
If memory serves, Jim Camblos has fumbled cases in a similar fashion at least a couple of times before. Camblos is running unopposed for reelection this November.
The current issue of the bimonthly Columbia Journalism Review contains an extensive overview of the recent lawsuit against WVIR by Jesse Sheckler, in which Sheckler was awarded $10M in May. The feature article, entitled “From Simple Story to Major Mess: The not-so-funny comedy of errors behind the largest libel award in Virginia history,” was written by Daily Progress alumnus and now New York resident Jake Mooney. The article is, of course, further evidence that Jake truly loves and cannot wait to return to dear old Charlottesville. Huzzahs to Jake.
silkyzephyr writes: As of 11:00am Wednesday Sept. 17, the National Weather Service Hurricane Center is forecasting the center of Hurricane Isabel to track through central Virginia and almost directly over Charlottesville. The storm is estimated to arrive here Friday morning around 6:00am, with sustained winds at that point of 50 to 70 mph. Updates are available at http://www.nhc.noaa.gov.
24 hours after Hurricane Isabel, Central Virginia is a mess. Outside of immediate downtown Charlottesville and a smattering of places nearby, electricity hasn’t been available for miles around for nearly 12 hours. Looking at Charlottesville from above tonight, it is completely dark, save for a dim glow from Main St. 1.4 million households in Virginia are without power, and Dominion Virginia Power says that the time frame for restoring power is “long-range”. Power crews say that there are hundreds of downed lines and poles in Charlottesville and Albemarle alone. Dominion is describing this as “the worst storm in the company’s 100-year history.” They’ve asked that customers notify them of damage by calling 1-888-667-3000. Of course, nobody in Charlottesville or Albemarle is able to read this, so I’m pretty much just talking to myself here.
Belle writes: Two UVa students were attacked while walking on 17th St. in the early hours of Sunday morning. One victim heard “confusing” racial remarks and thinks that physical injury, rather than robbery, was the attackers’ intention. Police responded quickly because they were already in the area investigating a “similar” assault. Christopher Jones has the story in today’s Cavalier Daily.
In today’s Daily Progress, Reed Williams has a story about an Earlysville family that made their generator-powered home available to dozens of neighbors during the extended power outage, providing showers, food, coffee, even a big potluck dinner. Did anybody else find that the lack of power resulted in strengthening of community? Anybody have any nice stories?
After the extended loss of power in the area (which continues for some Central Virginia residents) owing to Hurricane Isabel, an obvious question that comes to mind is that of why our electrical lines aren’t buried. Virginia Dominion Power says that it could cost “several million dollars a mile” to bury utility lines, but others argue that it couldn’t be nearly that cheap. Attorney Lloyd Smith has discovered that Charlottesville’s 1888 franchise agreement requires Dominion Power to bury the lines, if City Council so requests. Who is right isn’t clear, but it’s newly-obvious that something has got to change. Lisa Provence has the story in this week’s Hook.
In the spring of 2002, there was an annoying string of bomb threats at UVa, a dozen in total. Particularly given the sense of security that resulted from September 11th, each was taken seriously, with major buildings and surrounding buildings having to be cleared out until they could all be throughly examined. When it didn’t happen at all in the ‘02-’03 school year, the hope was that it was probably a student making the calls that had since graduated. But then, last Tuesday, came a call, and Ruffner Hall had to be cleared out. Nearly a week later, nobody has been caught. With a bomb threat protocol in place and a telephone system that makes tracing calls easier, one might think that it would be easy to nab the offender, but apparently not. Kate Andrews has the story in today’s Progress.
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