Monthly Archive for July, 2008

Page 5 of 6

City Plans Efficiency Study

Published by Waldo Jaquith on July 9, 2008 in Government. 7 Comments

The city plans to hire an outside firm to conduct an efficiency study, Rachana Dixit writes in today’s Daily Progress. Though a firm hasn’t been selected, the university’s Weldon Cooper Center seems like a clear top candidate. The five-month study is intended to measure where Charlottesville can reduce the size and cost of government. Council has budgeted $50,000 for the study, which they hope will begin September 1.

Local Photos

Published by Waldo Jaquith on July 7, 2008 in In Brief. 5 Comments

Some nice pictures: Ghost signs of downtown (Via LoCoHistory) and Duncan Brown’s 1980 photos of the Downtown Mall.  #

Progress Lays Off 25, Moves Printing to Richmond

Published by Waldo Jaquith on July 7, 2008 in Business and Meta News. 30 Comments

The Daily Progress will immediately shut down their printing operations in Charlottesville, having everything done at the Media General plant in Hanover County. Twenty five of the paper’s 120 employees—the entire printing crew—have been laid off. The newspaper’s aging press has required increasingly-expensive repairs, and the paper has been wondering what they’d do when the thing finally gave out for good. Another important factor in this decision must have been Media General’s demand that papers increase their profit margins; getting rid of a fifth of the staff and consolidating printing operations will go a long way towards doing that.

I have to wonder how much longer they’ll remain in their facility on Rio Road. The paper was long produced in the old Daily Progress building on Market Street (one block west of NBC 29), but they had to move to their current location in order to accommodate their then-new printing press. With the thinning of the once-crowded newsroom, they’ve now got 29,000 square feet, a whole lot more building than they have any use for. Valued at $4M, how long until Media General sells off their property for a one-time cash infusion and puts their remaining employees in rented space in an office park a ways out of town?

C’ville’s Tour de France Connection

Published by Waldo Jaquith on July 7, 2008 in In Brief. 2 Comments

Charlottesville native Will Frischkorn, racing for Garmin-Chipotle, is kicking ass in this year’s Tour de France.  #

VDOT Agrees to Lower 29N/Forest Lakes Speed Limit

Published by Waldo Jaquith on July 2, 2008 in Transportation. 26 Comments

VDOT presented their safety assessment of the Forest Lakes intersection with 29N last night, and 160 people showed up to see how the intersection could be improved. Sixteen year old Sydney Aichs was killed there in May when the driver of a semi ran the red and hit her car at full speed. VDOT says that the intersection isn’t up to spec, since there’s not enough “stopping sight distance.” Folks want to see the speed limit there lowered to 45 MPH from 55 MPH, and they were frustrated by VDOT saying that it would take at least a few months to accomplish, despite their agreement that it should happen. (How hard is this? Just replace a few signs. You’re done.) Sean Tubbs mentioned in a comment that VDOT told the BoS this afternoon that they may have it done by the end of the week, which is more like it.

That’s a whole section of 29N that, for years, was 55 MPH clear up to Gainesville, without a stoplight to be seen (other than the one at Pete’s Park-n-Eat. Towns, counties, and VDOT have all been slow to realize that the whole road is changing to a continuous suburban corridor. In thirty years, driving to D.C. is going to be a five hour process.

Incidentally, this story is written by the newest Daily Progress reporter, Brandon Shulleeta. He comes to the paper from the The Caroline Progress, interned at the Richmond Times-Dispatch last year, and attended VCU, where he studied broadcast journalism.