Sixty-nine percent of area people believe that some kind of a Route 29 bypass is necessary, according to a survey (PDF) commissioned by Charlottesville Tomorrow and conducted by UVA’s Center for Survey Research. The survey asked a wide range of questions of its 1,096 respondents in Albemarle, Charlottesville, Louisa, Fluvanna, Greene, and Nelson about topics including infrastructure, open space preservation, developer proffers, growth, and traffic. Just over half of respondents believe that traffic is a “major problem,” and 67% believe that elected officials should consider alternatives to the Western Bypass to see if they’d be cheaper and more effective than building a major new road.
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Author Archive for Waldo Jaquith
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It turns out that the combination of low pay and high standards doesn’t make the Albemarle County Police Department an attractive employer, Megan Davis writes in the Daily Progress. They’ve had a hiring freeze in place for a few years, their starting pay is 13% considerably below market, and they recently increased their hiring standards, which probably explains why they’ve got less than 120 officers, when they need 150 to meet the county standard of 1.5 officers per 1,000 residents. The county has increased the starting salary by 7%—about half of what’s necessary to meet the market rate—but the Board of Supervisors doesn’t want to lower hiring standards, and it’s fairly unlikely that they’ll provide the funding to improve pay for both new and existing officers.
The Albemarle County Fair will return this year, Hawes Spencer writes in The Hook. It will be held at Ash Lawn, temporarily, as they continue to seek out a permanent location. Ash Lawn not being an ideal venue, the 2012 fair will be brought back to its agricultural roots—just three days long, daylight hours only, focusing on livestock, contests, and entertainment, with no rides and less vendors.
Organizers of the event had to cancel the annual event last year, since their long-time borrowed location of Bundoran Farm had been turned into a vineyard. (A small, brief, purely agricultural event was held at a private farm, so that all the 4-H kids would be able to show and auction the livestock they’d been raising for the occasion.) It’s a shame that the Biscuit Run land swap wasn’t able to include some land to establish permanent fairgrounds.
A Gallup poll of 190 metropolitan areas found that Charlottesville has the second-highest Well-Being Index and that we treat each other more respectfully than any other area in the nation. Lancaster, PA ranked just ahead of us for overall wellbeing, a ranking based on factors like optimism, regular consumption of fresh produce, the rates of obesity and diabetes, and the rate of health insurance. The results are based on random phone surveys conducted with over 350,000 adults throughout 2011.
You might recall that Habitat for Humanity had proposed swapping some land with Biscuit Run to establish athletic fields, but doing so required that the General Assembly authorized the Department of Conservation and Recreation to make the exchange. Del. David Toscano introduced just such a bill, HB1113, and it passed the General Assembly yesterday. There’s no reason to think that Governor Bob McDonnell will veto it. That means that Albemarle County and DCR will be free to negotiate a land swap with Habitat, creating a six-acre park adjacent to Southwood Mobile Home Park.
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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