There’s gold in these here hills. Steven Kurutz has a travel piece in today’s New York Times about prospecting for gold in Central Virginia, looking specifically at at meeting of the Central Virginia Gold Prospectors club in Dillwyn. Its members, who come from all around the northeast, get together every few weeks to pan for gold in what used to be gold belt running clear down to Alabama. Their members get access to the group’s claims, where they find gold dust, flakes, and the odd tiny nugget. Interest is sufficient to sustain a prospecting supplies shop in Dillwyn.
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Author Archive for Waldo Jaquith
Page 149 of 549
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.
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.
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 ¼ 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.
By Glynnis Ritchie. (CC)
With gas above $4 a gallon, and with no reason to expect a substantial drop any time soon, suddenly it’s not just a handful of pedestrian-advocate whackos like me arguing that we’ve got to make our city usable to folks who aren’t in cars. “Daily Progress Correspondent” (?) Sharon Fitzgerald writes about how dangerous it is to move around town on foot, especially in a dozen key locations around town. VDOT, the county, and ACCT have come up with that list of spots badly in need of improvements, and that includes areas along Rio and Hydraulic, Commonwealth Drive, South Pantops Drive, and the entirety of route 29, among others. There have been 57 car/pedestrian accidents in Albemarle in the past couple of years, with two deaths.
If you doubt that the city (especially the urban ring) is badly planned for pedestrians, recall what’s gone through your mind when you see somebody walking along 29N or, worse yet, trying to cross it: Is her car broken down? Is she OK? Is it safe for him to be pushing that stroller here? Between dangerously curved intersections and shopping centers surrounded by a moat of blacktop, we’ve got an enormous amount of infrastructure that’s just not compatible with the increasing cost of fuel.
Sideblog
Police announced this afternoon that their investigation into what was initially believed to be a fatal fire on Rugby Avenue is now a homicide investigation. #
The Virginia Supreme Court has denied George Huguely’s appeal. His second-degree murder conviction will stand, WRIC reports. #
In a carefully worded story, and not citing specific sources, WTVR reports that forensic evidence belonging to Jesse Matthew Jr., the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, matches forensic evidence collected during the investigation of Morgan Harrington’s 2009 murder. #
In the wake of Hannah Graham’s disappearance, and the evidence that came from private security footage, city officials are revisiting the question of installing security cameras on the downtown mall. #
Both Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta and former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander have turned themselves in to the police on
foursix and four felony counts of embezzlement, respectively. #Ten years ago, the National Institutes of Health budget doubled and schools like the University of Virginia built massive new research facilities. A decade later, those buildings remain largely underutilized. NPR visits UVA in this story on the effect of federal binge and spurge spending in the sciences. #
In 2012, Council approved a new student housing complex on West Main—now some council members are questioning whether what they were shown matches what was built. #
The Architectural Review Board has approved a bike-themed mural on West Market, below the McGuffey Art Center, although at least one member expressed concerns that it might look like the bicyclists were riding away from Charlottesville’s downtown. #
City Police Chief Tim Longo is meeting with city leaders to work on protocols regarding the use of military surplus police weapons in Charlottesville. #
A 100-year-old Colonnades resident received military honors for her service in the WWII Women’s Army Corps #
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