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Llezelle Dugger and Sean McCord intend to announce their campaigns for the Charlottesville School Board, the Daily Progress reports today. Sean made his interest known in mid-May, but this is the first time that Llezelle’s name has come up. (I’m friends with both Sean and Llezelle, and should be considered utterly biased in their favor.) Llezelle is an assistant public defender for the city and a mother of two young kids. If both declare, that would finally mean that there are enough candidates to fill the four seats that are open. It would be better still to have some competition in the race, though. The filing deadline is June 12. (Via Democratic Central)
Five people have applied for an interim appointment to the school board, Matt Deegan reports in the Progress, a number one greater than the people who have filed to run for the four open seats. One of those applicant is Grant Brownrigg, who is simultaneously seeking election to the school board. That maneuver is not prohibited, but the five and a half month head start would seem to give an unfair advantage to an applicant who is also a candidate. Of the other four candidates, two (Susan Lewis and Charles Kollmansperger) have said they’re not interesting in running, and the other two (former board members Byron Brown and Muriel Wiggins) couldn’t be reached by the paper.
City Democrats chose Satyendra Huja, Holly Edwards and Mayor David Brown as their nominees for Council, Bob Gibson writes in today’s Progress. The really surprising thing was how the numbers came in: Huja received 304 votes, Edwards 279, and Brown 261. Linda Seaman and Jennifer McKeever came in with 188 and 149, respectively.
Huja as top voter getter is particularly surprising because he has absolutely no history with the local Democratic Party which, I think, speaks very well of those who showed up to vote. Traditionally, the party wouldn’t give the time of day to a candidate who hadn’t “paid their dues.” I have to speculate that he was the first choice of few, but second or third choice for an enormous number of people, which paid off handsomely. This remarkably diverse ticket will make a formidable team for the general election, although it looks like local Republicans can’t even muster a single candidate to go up against them. If they’re not going to field candidates, maybe it’s time to give a thirty party a default place on the ticket (the Green Party?) and make Republicans gather signatures on a petition in order to secure a place on the ballot. Peter Kleeman, who is basically a Green, has secured enough signatures to appear on the ballot, so this may well just be a four-person race.
In today’s Daily Progress, Brian McNeill looks at traffic data and finds that high housing costs are putting enormous pressure on a few roads that lead to the surrounding counties. VDOT’s numbers on travel time (516k PDF), comparing 2005 to 2001, show that traffic from the west on 250 increased by 25%, traffic from the north on 29 increased by 33%, and traffic on 53 doubled from 3,300 to 6,600 trips per day.
Dr. Barbara Haskins has filed to run for City Council as an independent. Charlottesville Tomorrow reports that the 26-year city resident is running because she was “outraged” with the last budget process, while Democratic Central reports that she’s a Democrat. Satyendra Huja, Holly Edwards and Mayor David Brown are the Democratic nominees for the three seats, and Democrat Peter Kleeman is also running as an independent.
Both Brian Wheeler and Lloyd Snook reported this on their respective blogs three days ago, but I’ve been on vacation, so I’m a little behind the times.
The planned interchange at the corner of 250 and McIntire will likely pave right over the Dogwood Vietnam Memorial, Seth Rosen explains in today’s Daily Progress, and some veterans are upset about it. The memorial was the first such Vietnam memorial in the nation, established in 1966. The city has offered to move the memorial, but some Vietnam vets aren’t buying it. Also in the path of the interchange are the skate park and the rescue squad. For more about the planned construction, see the city’s interchange website.
Wal-Mart is going to open a 153,000 square foot location near the 29/33 intersection in Greene County, Brian McNeill writes in the Progress. The company figures that enough people drive down to the location on 29N, in Albemarle, that they’d get even more business with another location 11 miles north. Though Greene is “ecstatic” about the new jobs, Wal-Mart actually destroys more jobs than they create, since they put locally-owned companies out of business by undercutting them, and those jobs at Wal-Mart pay less and provide less benefits. Local retailers, in fact, describe themselves as “afraid,” as well they should be.
Wal-Mart recently announced they’d be opening a Louisa location. They also operate a distribution center in Louisa, which was subsidized by the state with a $500,000 grant, a strange thing to do for the nation’s largest private employer.
Tom Loach will not be running for the Board of Supervisors, Brian Wheeler revealed on Coy Barefoot’s show yesterday. It was just five weeks ago that Loach announced his candidacy. Apparently he got enough signatures to get on the ballot, but was presumably concerned that he’d split the vote with Democratic candidate Ann Maleck, who announced back in January. The incumbent is Republican David Wyant, who is just finishing his first term.
Preston Coiner’s plans to develop his protected historic property in Woolen Mills has his neighbors upset, but it looks like Council isn’t going to step in. A typographical error on the part of the city removed the land’s Individually Protected Property designation. Coiner bought the land after that time, believing he had the right to build on it. The accidental misclassification of the property wouldn’t seem to remove the designation, but the Board of Zoning Appeals just isn’t sure what to do. City Council has heard enough about this that they considered taking it up at their last meeting, The Hook writes, but they seem to regard the situation as impenetrable as the BZA did. On the one hand, the city wants to be fair to Coiner but, on the other hand, presumably there are still-intact reasons that the Timberlake-Branham house was protected in the first place.
Video of the meeting can be watched on the city’s website.
Blogger and C’ville election official Rick Sincere provides the listing of all official candidates for city offices on his blog. The latest additions include, for school board, Colette Blount, Kathleen Galvin and Lynette Meynig and, for the first-ever election for the city’s two Soil and Water Conservation District Director, the addition of Republican John Pfaltz to incumbent Democrats John Conover and Richard Collins. For a while it looked like there may be not be enough candidates for the open school board seats but, as it turns out, there should be some decent competition. The Republicans couldn’t muster a single candidate for the three City Council seats, demonstrating that even they now agree that Rob Schilling’s 2002 election was a fluke.
Remember the sinkhole that opened up on 29 near Hollymead last year? Remember that it had opened up the year before that? Last time around they repaired it in something like three days, and I’d suggested a week might be better if they could fix it for good. NBC-29 reports that that the same sinkhole has opened again. One lane of southbound traffic is shut down.
In a press release, UVa has announced they’re providing at least one benefit to same-sex couples:
Effective immediately, current full-time students, as well as faculty and staff members who are eligible for University benefits, will be able to sponsor one adult (18 years or older) who resides in the same household for a University Recreation membership. All other existing policies related to membership, including family membership, remain unchanged.
The Plus One program is being implemented as a result of a recent opinion — issued June 7, 2007 — by Virginia Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell. The opinion, which was requested by the University, states “the University of Virginia is authorized to provide a recreational gym membership to an adult who is not a spouse and who lives in the household of an employee or student.”
It looks like both the university and McDonnell are treating this gingerly.
Democrat Peter Kleeman launched his independent bid for election to Charlottesville’s City Council on Monday, Sean Tubbs reports for Charlottesville Tomorrow. In a ten-minute presentation in front of City Hall, Kleeman explained why he’s running and what he’d like to accomplish. He listed his top issues as public involvement, transportation challenges, growth & environment, and issues related to neighborhoods. With degrees from MIT and Harvard, Kleeman’s background as a transportation planner and his years as a fixture at City Council meetings will make him a formidable candidate.
Charlottesville Tomorrow provides video of his announcement:
Peter Kleeman is well-known and well-liked among progressive Democrats in Charlottesville. His candidacy will present a real conundrum for many Democrats, split between supporting the Democratic ticket and supporting an old friend running as an independent. At times like this, I’m glad I live in the county — there’s just no way that I could fail to support Peter, but now I get to rely on the “I can’t vote” excuse.
The Charlottesville Police want to install 30 cameras to monitor your every movement while downtown, Seth Rosen writes in today’s Progress. The two city councilors contacted for the story both expressed unease at the proposal, with Kendra Hamilton citing George Orwell’s “1984.” The cost of the cameras alone is estimated at $300,000. It’s my understanding that the crime downtown is quite low, in proportion to the population, a result of there being so many eyes on would-be criminals most of the time. Wouldn’t it make more sense to propose an CCTV installation in the areas with the most crime?
The director of operations at Whisper Ridge Behavioral Health System has pleaded guilty to attempted carnal knowledge of a minor in her care, the Daily Progress reported yesterday. Bianca Nicole Johnson has been sentenced to a year’s probation, and is cooperating in the cases against four other employees indicted on similar charges. The facility (formerly known as The Brown Schools, formerly known as The Millmont Center, and I think it was Charter before that) has been in trouble time and time again for sexual assault, an inability to deal with their own patients, even human rights violations.
And Whisper Ridge changes their name again in 3…2…1…
Pizza lovers rejoice: Christian’s will be adding three new locations around town, says today’s Daily Progress. (The story isn’t online.) Owner Christian Tamm had established a Corner location back when he owned Sylvia’s, but has stuck with his downtown location since he established Christian’s a few years back. Now he’s adding locations at Pantops, 29 N. and the Corner, all simultaneously. To keep quality high, he’ll make his best current employees into managers of the new locations.
Former CHS choir director Jonathan Spivey has pleaded guilty to indecent sexual liberties with a minor, Liesel Nowak writes for the Progress. Apparently, the sexual encounters were consensual, taking place in his office and in the choir robe chamber next to his office. The 47-year-old was first accused of sexual contact with his students last September, indicted in December, promptly committed to Martha Jefferson’s psychiatric ward, and then resigned his job. Spivey was also the minister of music at Mount Zion Baptist Church, though it looks like he may still hold that position, since he’s still listed as staff on the church’s website.
Just one week after UVa began offering gym benefits to domestic partners, Henry Graff reported for NBC 29 that Charlottesville is now extending the same benefit to their employees. There’s no indication of whether this is a coincidence, or whether the city is simply trying to stay competitive as an employer after UVa had one-upped them.
I just got done listening to a mighty strange discussion that took place on Coy Barefoot’s show this week. Coy had Charlottesville Tomorrow’s Brian Wheeler on for his weekly segment, to discuss growth issues, and they’d planned to have developer Wendell Wood call in for a discussion. Charlottesville Tomorrow has been looking into the unusual arrangement that Board of Supervisors member Ken Boyd brokered between Wood and the county. It was Jayson Whitehead at C-Ville Weekly who first blew this story wide open, revealing that Wood had convinced the county to rezone 30 acres of his rural-zoned land as a part of the growth area, saying that they just had to do it in order to convince NGIC to remain here, who Wood says was going to pull up stakes and leave.
Well, Wood decided not to call in for the discussion on WINA but, instead, he showed up in person and proceeded to take over the half hour discussion. Wheeler and Barefoot barely got a word in edgewise. Towards the 27 minute mark, when Wheeler finally manages to say something, Wood started getting irate at slights that only he could perceive. Wood soon accuses Wheeler of simply inventing lies about the facts of the land transfer, though admits that he’s never read a word that Wheeler has written on the topic. (He says that he “I don’t read that stuff, because every blog in the world…. I’m not into that.”) Around the 30 minute mark he starts to get confused, unable to string together a sentence, so infused is he with rage. Coy Barefoot eventually cuts off Wood and declares the show finished.
Over at Charlottesville Tomorrow’s site, Brian Wheeler provides meticulous documentation of the transaction, including a map of the land in question, links to a dozen newspaper articles on the topic, including Whitehead’s ongoing coverage of the topic.
Coran Capshaw is shutting down Starr Hill after buying the Satellite Ballroom, The Hook reports. The folks who established the Satellite Ballroom on The Corner saw part of their mission as providing a venue not owned or operated by Coran Capshaw, so this may well have been a sale of last resort for them. The restaurant at Starr Hill, which occupies the downstairs of the two story building, has long been awkward to operate, since Capshaw has gone back and forth on whether he’s interested in it turning a profit. The paper says that a sports bar is due to move into the current Starr Hill location, continuing the tradition for the spot established by the long-standing Blue Ridge Brewery that previously occupied the location. The last gig will be local boys Navel, on July 7, according to a press release by Starr Hill.
07/06 Update: One of the owners of Satellite Ballroom posts a quick clarifying note.
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