Monthly Archive for March, 2006

Page 8 of 9

Six Candidates for School Board

Published by Waldo Jaquith on March 8, 2006 in Education and Politics. 6 Comments

The filing deadline having come and gone, we’ve got six candidates running for three school board seats in this, our first school board election. The Hook rounds ’em up:

Sue Lewis, a retired financial advisor, who has been applying for a seat on the board for the last 20 years; Newcomer Charlie Kollmansperger, an ex-teacher, entrepreneur, and strong critic of ex-supe Scottie Griffin. (who famously told the board, “I resent being labeled a racist because me and my colleagues oppose cuts to P.E. and guidance.”); current board member, Ned Michie; former teacher, Vance High; director of UVA’s Upward Bound Program, Leah Puryear; and Albemarle transportation planner, and student tutor, (and former jury foreman in the Alston murder trial) Juandiego Wade.

Any endorsements or predictions of victory?

Region Ten Exec. Dir.’s Background Exposed

Published by Waldo Jaquith on March 6, 2006 in Law and Justice. 7 Comments

Some Region Ten employees are unhappy with the organization’s executive director, Philip Campbell. They are consequently circulating a heretofore unknown document, a 124-page report issued by the Massachusetts government in 1997 that comes to rather damning conclusions about the state’s Department of Mental Retardation, which was led by Campbell at the time. Two retarded men were tortured, one was accidentally drowned, one retarded woman was abused, and one man choked to death on his own diaper. In John Yellig’s story in today’s Progress, Campbell agrees that he’s ultimately responsible, but that the abuses were committed by low-level employees.

Region Ten employees spoke to Yellig anonymously, making clear that they really don’t like Campbell’s management style. Campbell admits that he failed to tell the Region Ten board about the report prior to his hiring, and that he likewise failed to inform them of a judge’s ruling that he’d abused his authority in trying to force a private treatment business to close, costing the state $1.5M in damages and leading to his resignation. The Region Ten board chair defends Campbell, describing him as just what the organization needs.

Does anybody have an electronic copy of this report? People ought to be able to read this for themselves.

Edward Coles Biography

Published by Waldo Jaquith on March 6, 2006 in General News. 3 Comments

I’ve been enjoying reading a web-based biography, “The Man Who Freed His Slaves: A Narrative of the Life of Edward Coles,” by Nicholas Gordon. The portions about about the Coles and Carter families, once powerful names in the Charlottesville areas (and no slouches now), and Enniscorthy and its subsidiary estates will be particularly interesting to any local history buff. Chapter 2 and chapter 6 are particularly interesting in that context, providing some valuable insight on how Charlottesville and Albemarle were shaped in the 1700 and 1800s.

Parties Nominate Council Candidates

Published by Waldo Jaquith on March 6, 2006 in Politics. 4 Comments

For the first time in years, there’s nothing new in the City Council race, despite the pair of nomination conventions this weekend. On Saturday, Democrats nominated the only two candidates for both seats that are up (Rob Schilling’s and Blake Caravati’s), John Yellig wrote in yesterday’s Progress, and on Sunday, Republicans nominated incumbent Schilling, their only candidate, Liesel Nowak writes in today’s Progress. Conventional wisdom holds that Schilling’s best shot at reelection is to run alone, so as to be many people’s second choice, rather than having that diluted with another Republican.

Charlottesville Tomorrow provides the audio for the entirety of the Democratic convention and the Republican convention, while Rick Sincere provides a report from the Republican convention. And, as long as I’m providing audio, the musical stylings of Rob Schilling are available on his CD Baby page.

From here the general election begins, leading up to the May 2 election.

Maurer on Millie

Published by Waldo Jaquith on March 5, 2006 in General News. Closed

In today’s Daily Progress, David Maurer has a sweet profile of Mildred Carter, 54-year veteran of Timberlake’s Drug Store. It opened in 1917, and Millie started there in 1952. She still works forty hours a week, and is an indispensable part of many patrons’ lives. And she’s always been nice to me.

When is David Maurer going to start releasing collections of his articles as books? I’d buy a dozen of each one.

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