Monthly Archive for July, 2001

Page 5 of 8

SWATted Belmonters Find Home

Remember the SWAT team that destroyed the house on Nassau Street a few months ago? Well, the folks that lived in the house are moving out of the motel they’ve been living in and into a house on Ware Street. WINA has the story.

Fluvanna Supervisors Approve Power Plant

Fluvanna has approved Competitive Power Ventures‘ power plant, the one that was reported as approved some weeks ago. Turns out that was just the Planning Commission, so now it’s approved for real. (?) WINA reports that well over 100 people attended last night’s meeting, and some have already said that they intend to sue the Board over the approval.

Ice Park Dispute

The two owners of the Charlottesville Ice Park are arguing over the future of the facility. Lee Danielson wants to shut it down, telling the Progress that “the ice park should have closed down long ago. Economically, it has not worked.” But business partner Colin Rolph said that “the ice park is not going to be closed. It would be a huge loss to downtown. It’s still there, and it’s just fine, and it’s not going to be closed.” Regarding Danielson’s comments, he said that “Lee is basically not part of Charlottesville anymore.” Jack Mooney has an extensive story in today’s Progress.

Martha Jefferson to Move to Pantops

Martha Jefferson Hospital is moving. The 98-year-old hospital has been a downtown landmark on Locust since 1928, and have simply run out of space. So they’re constructing a replacement hospital of the same size (400,000 sq. ft.) at Peter Jefferson Place on Pantops Mountain, plus another 400,000 sq. ft. in additional buildings. They’ll be moving from their relatively-compact 9 acres to 84 acres that they purchased in April. The new hospital won’t be finished until 2008, at the earliest. It’s not yet known what will happen to the existing building, or what the effect will be of moving such a large business from the City to the County. The Progress has a story about this in today’s issue.

No Noise Ordinance?

City Councilman Kevin Lynch says that the proposed downtown noise ordinance is no longer necessary. Recent tests on the Downtown Mall have shown that the problem doesn’t seem to exist any more. WINA has the story. Last time the noise ordinance was proposed, back in 1998ish, advocacy disappeared, too. That time it was because new restaurant The Jewish Mother was playing music until the wee hours of the business. JewMom went out of business, and the demand for the new law disappeared.

Sideblog