Author Archive for Waldo Jaquith

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Qroe Executives Die in Plane Crash

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 15, 2006 in Business and General News. 1 Comment

In today’s Daily Progress, Jessica Kitchin and Bryan McKenzie write that Qroe Companies founder and president Robert Baldwin and regional director David Brown both died in yesterday’s Bundoran Farm plane crash. The NTSB investigation is underway, and it seems likely that they’ll conclude that the crash resulted from the pilot hitting power lines during landing as a result of poor visibility.

Though Qroe’s $30M purchase of Bundoran has been described as a done deal, it’s my understanding that, in fact, the transaction had not yet been completed — perhaps that was on yesterday’s agenda. With the blow that the loss of these two men must represent to Qroe, I have to wonder if the Bundoran sale may may by the wayside.

8:15pm Update: The Hook points out there ain’t no overhead lines to be hit. There goes that theory.

Plane Crash at Bundoran

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 14, 2006 in General News. 2 Comments

A small plane crashed late this morning while attempting to land at on the strip at Fred Scott‘s Bundoran Farm, south of town near the crossroads. There was an explosion upon impact, followed by a fire. The two men in the the plane have died.

Bundoran is in the process of being sold to developers Qroe Farm — it’s yet to be seen what this crash has to do with that in-progress sale.

NBC 29 has the story, and The Hook is following developments.

3pm Update: Sean Tubbs, who’s really on his toes today, already has a podcast report from the scene.

10pm Update: The AP has more, including that the plane is owned by David Brown, of Hartford, CT. Brown was described as “regional director of Qroe Companies” by the Progress last month, so it seems clear that Qroe employees were the victims of the crash. Finally, The Hook reports that the plane hit some wires while landing, which is the apparent cause of the accident. It was pretty rainy at the time of the crash, which must have made for poor visibility.

Albemarle School Board Meetings MP3s

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 10, 2006 in Education and Politics. 5 Comments

The Albemarle County School Board is now providing the audio of their meetings as MP3s. The audio up there now seems to be limited to the Thursday-night board discussion about student conduct policies, a prelude to the plan of having an actual podcast of all meetings’ audio beginning in a few months. I’ll be happy to see that next step. Why can’t Charlottesville be this innovative? (Via Brian Wheeler)

Blog Carnival: Cameron Hosts

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 9, 2006 in Blogs. Closed

Cameron hosts this week’s C’ville Blog Carnival, tracking down sixteen local blog entries well worth your time, all from the past few days.

Next week Steve Whitaker hosts.

Jefferson Going Out with a Bang

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 8, 2006 in Business and Entertainment. 10 Comments

The Jefferson Theater, recently sold to Coran Capshaw, is in its final week of business, and it looks like they’re trying to enjoy themselves on the way to the 15th. Tickets and refreshments are a buck a pop, and the movies in the final week are Groundhog Day, Fargo, Ghostbusters, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. They wanted some cooler stuff — Jaws, Carrie, Princess Bride, Ferris Bueller, etc., but that stuff just isn’t available on reel-to-reel any longer.

Coran will have the theater shut down for the next year for some much-needed renovations and, when it owns, it’ll be a movie theater, but not a second-run movie theater. There’s no money to be made in that.

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