Monthly Archive for January, 2009

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County Poised to Renew Windmill Ban

Published by Waldo Jaquith on January 11, 2009 in Government. 92 Comments

It looks like the Albemarle Planning Commission is going to maintain their prohibition on windmills at their meeting on Tuesday. County staff has recommended that the county revisit the topic in two years and, in the meantime, study how other localities in Virginia have handled any problems that they might present. Sean Tubbs covered the PC meeting on this topic in May, and found that there was significant disagreement among commission members about how to move forward. So the solution that the county has come up with is to continue to prohibit this form of renewable energy.

JMU conducted a study of wind energy on Buck’s Elbow a few years ago and found that it’s a great source of wind energy. The Southwest Mountains and the whole eastern slope of the Blue Ridge are excellent locations for windmills. My latest power bill was breathtaking, a result of Dominion’s latest price hike. I’ve looking hard at installing a Skystream, since I live in up in the Southwest Mountains, though I guess that’s not going to happen. If you’re interested in relying less on coal and foreign oil, and want to consider small wind, check out JMU’s Virginia Wind Energy Collaborative. But that’s about all you’ll be able to do, I guess. (Unless you’ve got an in with your representative on the Planning Commission.)

Consultants: Shut Down an Elementary School

Published by Waldo Jaquith on January 9, 2009 in Education, Government and Taxes. 62 Comments

A third-party efficiency review has recommended some ways to cut costs in city schools, Rachana Dixit writes in today’s Daily Progress. The 331-page report recommends $17M in savings, coming from closing an elementary school and eliminating six of its assistant principals (about half of them), thirteen teachers, and 62 of the instructional assistants (again, about half), among dozens of other recommendations. Interestingly, the report makes no recommendation for eliminating staff at the school system’s central office, suggesting only a “restructing” that would be “revenue neutral.”

Downtown Mall Project Outsourced

Published by Waldo Jaquith on January 8, 2009 in Business, Development and Government. 16 Comments

Much of the Downtown Mall redevelopment work is being done by out-of-town firm, Dave McNair writes in this week’s Hook. Local firms bid on the work, but they were beat out by companies in Norfolk, Maryland, and Michigan. Only two of the seven contracts went to local businesses. One of the owners of those local businesses complains that while they pay reasonable wages, the out of town companies are trucking in guys for $8/hour. The city seems to be in an awkward position here, not least of which is that state procurement laws (which the city has to function under) only allow them to prefer local firms when there’s a tie between two bidders. But more than that, the city’s got to get this job done as inexpensively as possible…but they’ve also got to keep local businesses happy. And those two things are, as we can see here, often at odds.

BoS Selects Slutzky as Chair

Published by Waldo Jaquith on January 7, 2009 in Government and Politics. 12 Comments

The Board of Supervisors has selected Rio District representative David Slutzky as its new chair, replacing Ken Boyd, of the Rivanna District, the county has announced via press release. But the shift is more than geographic—Slutzky is probably the most liberal member of the board, while Boyd is surely the most conservative. With the election of White Hall District’s Anne Mallek in 2007, the BoS became majority-Democratic. (Mallek was named the BoS’ vice chair today.) Slutzky can drive conservative Republicans to distraction, so expect today’s change to lead to some anger and hand-wringing in some quarters of the county.

Downtown Rebricking Begins

Published by Waldo Jaquith on January 6, 2009 in Business, Development and Government. 6 Comments
Downtown Brick Work
Bricks on 5th St. NE get pulled up, back in November, as a demo of the work to come.

The Downtown Mall rebricking has begun, Rachana Dixit writes in today’s Daily Progress. Beginning at Central Place, the $7.5M project will work outward from there, continuing six days a week for the next four months. The city did a legendarily terrible job working with merchants when the Downtown Mall was initially constructed, and did little better when bricking over 3rd St. last year. This time around they’re working closely with merchants, timing the work to avoid disruption, even skipping work on Saturdays, at the request of businesses. But lots of downtown merchants remain dubious of the whole project, fearful that it will be more expensive, more disruptive, and lengthier than the city has promised.

Want to follow obsessively each day’s progress? You’ve got a couple of options. There’s C-Ville Weekly’s “Brick Watch!” And there’s also, impressively, the city’s own blog dedicated to the project, complete with a Flickrstream. (Though all their photos are copyrighted, rather than being released into the Creative Commons, so I’ve had to illustrate this with an old photo of my own. That’s my sole quibble in an otherwise great effort.)

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