BOS Hoping for Intelligent Traffic Lights on 29

Published by Waldo Jaquith on November 24, 2012 in Transportation. 5 Comments

The Board of Supervisors is trying to convince VDOT to install condition-adaptive traffic lights on 29 North, Sean Tubbs reports for Charlottesville Tomorrow. The Virginia Department of Transportation has already outfitted the Pantops area, installing Rhythm Engineering’s InSync hardware package at every intersection between Route 64 and High Street. The lights use video cameras to track the rate of traffic coming from each direction in each lane, and adjusts the lights accordingly. That way a light doesn’t stay green when there’s no oncoming traffic while cars are stacked up at a red, waiting to cross that same intersection.

VDOT isn’t enthusiastic about the proposal, because 29 North would require coordinating a couple of dozen lights at a cost of about $800,000, a rather more complex installation than they’re looking to do right now. Perhaps this should have been tried prior to spending a couple of hundred million dollars to build a bypass around our bypass.

The Pantops installation has been in place for a year now. My daily commute requires that I turn onto 250 from 20, and vice-versa. The difference has been like night and day. It used to take 3–5 light cycles for me to turn onto 20; now it takes 1–2. I get home 5–10 minutes faster every day.

A History of Gay Charlottesville

Published by Waldo Jaquith on November 16, 2012 in History. 2 Comments

In C-Ville Weekly, J. Tobias Beard provides a thirty-year history of the gay community in Charlottesville, and no matter how much you think you know about it, you’re liable to learn more. He talks about Joan Schatzman’s Muldowney’s (the first gay bay in town), the creation of the AIDS Services Group in response to Hospice of the Piedmont’s inability to handle AIDS patients, The Silver Fox (the first openly gay bar in town, which became Triangles, which became Club 216), and this summer’s Charlottesville Pride Festival. This is a great read for folks interested in the recent history of Charlottesville.

Dumler Claims Conspiracy

Published by Waldo Jaquith on November 14, 2012 in Business and Obituaries. 5 Comments

Scottsville Supervisor Chris Dumler says that a pair of exes are conspiring against him, Samantha Koon writes on the Daily Progress’ unfortunate new website. Dumler was arrested a month ago on charges of forcible sodomy; in a court filing, he contends that he had a wholly consensual sexual relationship with the woman, who collaborated with an ex-girlfriend of Dumler’s in subsequently claiming that he raped her. Police have seized records showing Dumler and his accuser discussing their relationship.

Investigation: TJPDC Mishandled $1M Federal Grant

Published by Waldo Jaquith on November 3, 2012 in Government. 8 Comments

Months after abruptly terminating temporary employees, an investigation into the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission has found that a lack of leadership and management led to the $500,000 error, Brian Wheeler reports for Charlottesville Tomorrow. The TJPDC appointed a commission (consisting of Keith Smith, Willie Gentry, Ann Mallek, and Kathy Galvin) to determine what led to the math error that overstated the amount of money available for staff salaries by a half-million dollars, from a federal grant of just $1,000,000. Meeting seven times over the past two months, the commission released a report containing seven findings, although the public version of the report contains redactions that limit public understanding of those findings. Problems include the budgeting process, the reporting and communications process, the quality of work, relationships with partner jurisdictions, and the organizational climate. (Although the titles of two more findings have been redacted in the table of contents, they have been left in the body of the document: “subordinate personnel” and “upper level management.”) The commission made a series of recommendations for organizational improvements, though three of their six proposed changes are redacted in their entirety. Notably, the investigation found no malfeasance, only incompetence and disorganization.

Hurricane Sandy Mostly Spares Area

Published by Waldo Jaquith on October 30, 2012 in Weather. Closed

Although Hurricane Sandy continues to wreak havoc on the northeast, as it spins out over land, the enormous storm is finished with Charlottesville, apparently having left us mostly unharmed. Twitter and Facebook were how many people kept up with developments, and the worst stories in our area seem to be the loss of power (about 10% of Dominion customers in Albemarle) and some light damage from wind and flooding. Although the rain, wind, and snow aren’t quite done, the airport got 1.2 inches of rain yesterday and gusts of 40 mph—a far sight better than folks in Delaware, New York, and New Jersey, who woke up this morning to devastation.

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