Author Archive for Waldo Jaquith

Page 107 of 549

Glenmore President Missing

Published by Waldo Jaquith on July 2, 2009 in General News. 4 Comments

Mike Comer, president of Glenmore Country Club, is missing after taking a walk at Wintergreen, CBS 19 reports. He owns property at Wintergreen, and left on a walk at noon yesterday. When he didn’t return by early evening, his wife contacted the police. Search crews have checked the thirty miles of trails that web Wintergreen, so presumably they’ll now start checking off-trail.

10:10 PM Update: Police have called off the search for Comer, Liz Nagy reports for NBC 29, and they say that they don’t intend to resume it. The Nelson sheriff is a bit cagy in his description of the matter, implying that Comer has disappeared of his own accord.

Scottsville Votes Down Meals Tax Increase

Published by Waldo Jaquith on July 1, 2009 in Business, Government, Politics and Taxes. 3 Comments
The Dew Drop Inn's sign.
The now-defunct Dew Drop in, on Scottsville’s main drag, the iconic restaurant of the town. (Nannette Saunders / CC)

Scottsville Town Council has voted down a plan to hike their meals tax, Jason Bacaj writes in today’s Progress. In a 3-3 vote they decided not to increase the tax by 1%, to 5%, with one councilor saying that it “sends a bad signal” while they’re “trying to get new restaurants to town.” The increase would have brought in an estimated $20,000 annually. The price of gasoline is high enough that I can’t see that it would have made a difference from the perspective of a customer; if you live in Scottsville, it’s not worth the drive to C’ville, and if you don’t, then the cost of driving there is going to exceed significantly the additional pocket change that the tax would run you.

Bacaj, incidentally, is a recent hire new intern at the Progress. He’s a newly-minted graduate from rising senior at Washington & Lee University, where his bio at the school newspaper indicates that he was a member of their football team, he’s a skier, he double-majored in biology and journalism, and he hails from Morgantown.

07/07 Update: Matthew Rosenberg points out that Bacaj is an intern, rather than an employee.

City Planning Public Housing Redevelopment

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 29, 2009 in Development and Government. 52 Comments

Well, here’s a can of worms: The city is beginning the process of redeveloping its public housing, Hawes Spencer writes for The Hook, and everything is on the table. A series of community meetings are scheduled to determine what to do—demolish and rebuild, fix them up, or nothing—and no doubt they’ll be contentious gatherings. There’s no mistaking that our public housing stock is in rough shape, but with residents that are, for various reasons, often not engaged in the larger community, the road ahead for any redevelopment is perilous for everybody involved.

Judge Upholds Parkway Construction

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 29, 2009 in Development, Law and Justice, Politics and Transportation. 73 Comments

Judge Jay Swett has ruled against the Coalition to Preserve McIntire Park in their lawsuit to halt the Meadowcreek Parkway, Sean Tubbs reports for Charlottesville Tomorrow. He found that four of the six parties bringing the lawsuit have standing, but ruled that the state constitution’s requirement that a supermajority of City Council vote to sell any land isn’t applicable here, because use of the land is being provided via an easement and not actually sold. Therefore the 3-2 City Council vote that’s already been held is sufficient to proceed with construction.

Those who are legally inclined can read Judge Swett’s ruling.

Mink Creek Floods Scottsville Homes, Businesses

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 28, 2009 in Weather. 4 Comments

Scottsville’s Mink Creek flooded a bunch of Scottsville on Friday evening, Liz Palka reports for CBS-19. Apparently it rained a lot there on Friday (though I can’t find any record of that from nearby weather stations), which was enough for the downtown creek to jump its banks and leave some homes and businesses with the stream running across their floors.

The odd thing about this is that Scottsville spent millions of dollars to prevent this very thing from happening. Though obviously the James River is the real danger for Scottsville, Mink Creek has been a source of flooding problems for more than a century. That’s why Mink Creek was dammed up in 1975, as a part of the larger project to protect Scottsville from the periodic floods that devastated the town. What with the lack of a hurricane on Friday, it’s tough to understand what happened here. Thanks to “TrvlnMn” for the tip.

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