A study conducted for the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority supports dredging the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir, Brandon Shulleeta writes for the Progress. The plan has been to build up the Ragged Mountain Reservoir dam and run a pipeline from South Fork to Ragged Mountain, but that’s going to be awfully expensive. Critics have argued that it’d be cheaper to just dredge the South Fork, and that would provide enough increased capacity for the area’s future needs. The study found that the sediment in the bottom of the reservoir is perfectly safe—that is, not harmful to human health if disturbed. The reservoir originally held 1.6 billion gallons, but it loses ~1% of that capacity annually due to sediment buildup. Dredging it should get it back up to 1.2 billion gallons, which would obviate the need to increase the height of the Ragged Mountain dam or build a pipeline.
Author Archive for Waldo Jaquith
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In today’s Daily Progress, Sean Tubbs writes that Scottsville Board of Supervisors member Lindsay Dorrier says that Jefferson Madison Regional Library can’t close the Scottsville branch. The county attorney says that their contract with JMRL indicates that funding is proportional, so if they shut down Scottsville, they lose all of the funding for that branch and still have to take a 5% cut for the remaining locations. The library’s Board of Trustees disagrees, saying that the contract indicates that the money is for all of Albemarle’s branches, and that JMRL isn’t obliged to use that money for a Scottsville location.
It looks to me like section 4 of the agreement governs this. The only applicable bit that I can find is part b, which says that the “costs shall be allocated…in direct proportion to their respective shares of the total circulation,” which doesn’t seem to imply any obligation to maintain a particular branch. And Section 6 specifies that “[t]he Regional Library Board shall determine hours and places of library service.” But surely the county attorney is finding this someplace in this agreement—can anybody find it?
The Charlottesville Transit Service is being rebranded as “CAT,” Sean Tubbs reports for Charlottesville Tomorrow, complete with a wretched new logo and slogan: “Catch the Cat.” Because when you think about public transit in Charlottesville, the city apparently wants you to remind you of the generally unpleasant experience of attempting to capture a fleeing feline. (Last time I tried that, I wound up with a half dozen kitten claws embedded deep in my arm.) But, hey, maybe they’re highlighting the positive side of cat-chasing.
Oh, and Chatham, Bismarck, Mackinac Island, Raleigh, Watchung, and Clemson called—they want their slogan back.
Albemarle County staff have submitted their budget proposal to the Board of Supervisors, Brandon Shulleeta writes in the Progress. That $294M proposal (available on the county’s website) is based on the wishes of the BoS, and it cuts real estate taxes, which means sharply cutting school funding, fire county staff, and shut down construction project. There are cuts clear to core county services. The total cut in spending is $10M from this year’s budget, and is based on the same 74.2¢ real estate tax rate that we’ve got now. (You’d think that would result in the same level of income, but reduced home values mean less revenue.) That’s a savings of $91 per household.
This budget is really just the starting point for a debate, which is to say how tolerant that citizens will be of either an increase in the tax rate or a decrease in services. For instance, something like a hundred teachers will probably be laid off (a pretty sizable layoff in Albemarle), and you can expect parents to raise hell about that. On the revenue side, the debate will probably be over whether we should retain the existing taxation rate or the existing dollar value. Bumping the rate from 74.2¢ to 76.6¢ would leave property owners paying the same amount in taxes next year as this year, which would likewise leave the county with the same amount in revenue. With a conservative majority on the board, it’s a fair bet that the 74.2¢ rate is going to stick when they set the budget, but expect a lot of angry meetings between now and then.
From the “Oh, No, I Know You Didn’t Just Say That” files comes Brandon Shulleeta’s article about Supervisor Duane Snow’s threat against the Jefferson Madison Regional Library:
If they can’t find 5 percent from each [library] system to reduce hours, to buy less books and keep all the libraries open and they’re insisting on closing one or two libraries, I would be in favor of not giving them any money — until they got those things figured out.
Yes, that’s right: if the library system closes the lowest-trafficked Albemarle branch to cope with Albemarle cutting their funding, Duane Snow wants to simply eliminate all of the county funding to the library system.
An explanation is in order here. JMRL is an intergovernmental organization, their existence premised on funding from four municipalities, with a Board of Trustees that governs the organization. The services provided to each municipality are a function of the extent to which they contribute to the JMRL budget. The Board of Trustees is made up of representatives who are appointed by each municipality. (In the brief time in which I served on the JMRL board, for instance, I was appointed by City Council.) There are three members appointed by the Albemarle Board of Supervisors: Gary Grant, Timothy Tolson, and Tony Townsend. These are the three signatories to the JMRL board letter to the county in which they explain why they’ll need to close the Scottsville branch, which, in brief, is because there’s nothing else that they can cut.
Functionally, what Snow is saying here is that he wants to bypass the board of trustees and manage JMRL directly and, if they won’t permit that, he’ll shut down the library system. Unless the rest of the BoS reins in Snow, then I wouldn’t dare guess how this standoff ends.
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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