Monthly Archive for June, 2008

Page 3 of 7

MPO Meets, Realizes It’s Got Nothin’

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 19, 2008 in Transportation. 6 Comments

The latest meeting of the Metropolitan Planning Organization sounds like a bummer: the MPO is realizing that, with the state approaching bankruptcy in the transportation realm, they can’t do a thing. A special session of the General Assembly is scheduled for next week, and Ben Doernberg covered Del. David Toscano’s transportation town hall meeting for Charlottesville Tomorrow, held earlier this week. Unless something significant gets accomplished during this special session — and I’d bet good money that it won’t — expect a lot more thumb-twiddling MPO meetings.

Incidentally, this Daily Progress story is by Rachana Dixit, a newcomer to the paper from the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star and, before that, JMU’s Breeze, plus the odd contribution to the Nepali Times.

No Charges in Police Raid Shooting

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 19, 2008 in Law and Justice. 9 Comments

Commonwealth’s attorney Denise Lunsford has decided not to charge anybody with a crime in the shooting of a man during a police raid on his home, reports the Daily Progress. Police conducted an early morning raid on the home of one of the two kids who shot up cars on Route 64 twenty four hours previously, and they were met by the boy’s father, Edgar Dawson, who was wielding a revolver. Police told the man to drop a gun, but he refused, and he and officer M.J. Easton exchanged fire. The man was shot twice, and hospitalized for a time as a result. The state police investigated, and turned the matter over to Lunsford. In an interview with WINA, Lunsford said that both men believed that they were in danger of harm at the time that they exchanged fire, and figured that it would be neither useful nor necessary to charge either man with a crime.

Odd-Tasting Tap Water?

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 19, 2008 in In Brief. 4 Comments

If you’ve thought the tap water tastes funny lately, you’re not alone. It’s a harmless blue-green algae, and it’ll be gone soon. Heck, some hippies pay good money to ingest the stuff.  #

Is Charlottesville Plunging into the Sun?

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 16, 2008 in In Brief. 3 Comments

Is the heat here to stay?, asks the Progress‘ headline writer. “Oh, Robert, when will this cold snap end?”  #

VDOT Names Local Cuts

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 16, 2008 in Politics and Transportation. 7 Comments

VDOT has provided a listing of local transportation projects that they just won’t have the money to fund–a whopping 44% reduction in funds–and Sean Tubbs lists them for Charlottesville Tomorrow:

Project cuts on primary roads include:

  • Corridor improvements on Route 29 north of Charlottesville city limits (widening and safety improvements on Route 29 between the South Fork Rivanna River and Hollymead Town Center)
  • Corridor improvements on Route 250 east of Charlottesville City limits
  • A project to replace the bridge over the CSX Railway ΒΌ mile west of McIntire Road
  • A project to replace the bridge over the CSX Railway at Shadwell
  • A project to replace the bridge carrying Route 601 over the Route 29/250 Bypass

Project cuts on secondary roads include:

  • Reconstruction and add lanes for Route 649 (Proffit Road) from Route 29 to Baker-Butler Elementary
  • Widening of Route 601 (Old Ivy Road) from Route 250 to the 29 Bypass to four lanes

Also, the Hillsdale Drive Extension will receive no more funding until 2014. The list for all of Virginia is available on VDOT’s website.