VDOT expects to have the Albemarle portion of the Meadowcreek Parkway open in a month’s time, Aaron Richardson writes for the Daily Progress. The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to ask the Virginia Department of Transportation to open the county’s completed chunk of the road, and City Council doesn’t oppose that, though they want some minor improvements made at the road’s beginning and end.
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Author Archive for Waldo Jaquith
Page 40 of 549
Artist, humanitarian, and activist Gerry Mitchell has died. Unfortunately best known recently for being hit by a police car (and then ticketed), Mitchell was known and loved in the area long before then. He’d been diagnosed with AIDS back in the 1980s, and despite awful complications (he was confined to a wheelchair), Mitchell was active in the community, an outspoken supporter of hospice, and racked up thousands of miles in his electric wheelchair in his travels. Mitchell was 58.
To learn more about Mitchell, see this short documentary about him, filmed five years ago.
Delegate Rob Bell has announced that he’ll seek the Republican nomination for Attorney General in the 2013 election, Ted Strong reports for the Daily Progress. The Republican, an attorney, has represented the conservative 58th District since 2002, a district that draws the bulk of its population from Albemarle County. Bell’s interest in the job has been well-known for years, and he’s long maintained one of the largest amounts of cash on hand in the House of Delegates, despite being in a safely conservative district. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said yesterday that he intends to run for governor, so the Republicans interested in running for AG weren’t going to wait long to make their candidacy announcements. Bell has clearly been preparing for an AG race: he’s the chair of the Virginia Crime Commission, and legislative portfolio has always consisted mostly of crime-related bills. (During this year’s session alone he introduced a dozen bills on that topic.) He’s never faced a strong challenger, having been challenged in only half of his races, winning those races with 60%, 62%, and 67% of the vote.
Senator Mark Obenshain (R-Harrisonburg) is another likely candidate, and he’ll pose a strong challenge to Bell. Obenshain comes from a powerful Virginia family. His sister, Kate Obenshain, used to be the executive director of the Republican Party of Virginia, and his father, Richard Obenshain, was a major political figure in Virginia for two decades, until his death in a 1978 plane crash. (Obenshain was the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate at the time. John Warner was selected to replace him, won election, and remained in that position for 31 years.) The Republican Party of Virginia’s headquarters, in fact, is named the The Richard D. Obenshain Center. Sen. Obenshain is also a friend of Cuccinelli’s, no small detail for those interested in having a unified ticket on the 2012 ballot.
Occupy Charlottesville protesters who refused to leave Lee Park were arrested last night, as expected, Graham Moomaw writes for the Progress. They were arrested one by one, calmly, by Charlottesville police, who gave them a minute-by-minute countdown until arrests would begin. Tom Daly provides a great slideshow (NSFW) for The Hook.
It’s been tough to understand how things are going, financially, for Albemarle County’s red light camera at the Rio/29 intersection, because the stories have conflicted. In September, CBS-19’s Rachel Ryan reported that it wasn’t making any money:
“It’s not a revenue maker for us,” [Sgt. Darrell Byers] explained. “It’s actually about safe driving habits. That’s what we’re out there for, that’s what the cameras are out there for and that’s what we want to see.”
That’s good because Byers says revenue from ticketing has yet to match the $10,000 monthly cost of operating the cameras.
But then, last week, NBC-29’s Henry Graff reported that the county is making lots of money off of the outsourced justice system:
New numbers show that the controversial red light cameras in Albemarle County are keeping drivers safe. Those same numbers also reveal that the project is a cash cow for a county strapped for dough.
Police and county supervisors point out the cameras are to make the intersection of Rio Road and Route 29 safe. That’s priority one, but the extra $82,000 – to date – is pretty nice as well.
So, which is it? To clear things up, I asked Albemarle County Community Relations Director Lee Catlin to send me the data. This is a PDF of the helpful document that she sent me, and here it is boiled down to the basics of the number of citations, estimated income (based on the number of citations), and net income, by month:
| Month | # | Est $ | Net $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dec | 322 | $16,100 | $0* |
| Jan | 574 | $28,700 | $0* |
| Feb | 484 | $24,200 | $1,390 |
| Mar | 588 | $29,400 | $12,314 |
| Apr | 637 | $31,850 | $8,643 |
| May | 711 | $35,550 | $12,505 |
| Jun | 558 | $27,900 | $10,692 |
| Jul | 562 | $28,100 | $9,759 |
| Aug | 542 | $27,100 | $13,492 |
| Sep | 383 | $19,150 | $13,992 |
| Oct | 217 | $10,850 | $0*** |
* Not enough fines collected to reach RedFlex’s $10,000 threshold.
** Redflex advises the month of September figures were higher than normal due to more fees collected from delinquent accounts.
*** System down because of damage to sensors due to VDOT repaving. Only $8,167.67 in fines were collected, which was not enough to cover the monthly payment. That payment will roll over until enough fines are collected to make up the difference. The county is not responsible for paying the difference.
So that’s $82,769 that Albemarle County has made to date, with the remainder of the money—the $10,000 monthly fee—going to RedFlex, the Australian company that owns the cameras. That’s the source of the gap between the gross and the net. (You can read the county’s contract with RedFlex, if you’re interested about the specifics of the agreement.)
I don’t know what was up with CBS-19’s story—whether Ryan just got the story wrong or Sgt. Byers was giving her bad information—but it sure looks like Graff got this one right.
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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