Tuesday, September 21
Water, water everywhere
About 75 residents gathered tonight at Monticello High School to hear new RWSA director Thomas Frederick outline five different options for expanding the region’s water supply, including projects to expand local reservoirs, dredge sediment from the South Fork Rivanna reservoir, and pipe water from the James River. This winter, the RWSA will decide how to meet the City and County’s water needs through 2055, when projected demand is expected to exceed the available supply by 9.9 million gallons per day. Last week, the conservation group Citizens for Albemarle released a statement criticizing the RWSA, saying the meeting’s format would not “allow adequate discussion on the water supply planning issues.” Any plan from RWSA faces obstacles in getting approved, requiring sign-off from 10 Federal and State agencies, as well as from the City and County.
Wednesday, September 22
From the Omni to Austin
Questerra, a Charlottesville company based in a suite at the Omni, was indicted this week for making an illegal $25,000 political contribution in 2002 that was funneled to Republican candidates for the Texas legislature, The Washington Post today reports. The indictment was part of money laundering allegations slapped on three aids to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Questerra, a subsidiary of MeadWestvaco, develops Web-based “business intelligence” mapping services for homeland security-related agencies. For example, Questerra can help Federal agents “track offenders across jurisdictions, time, country of origin, or any metric assigned,” according to the company’s website.
Thursday, September 23
Rolling in it
UVA’s Curry School of Education today announced that it had received a $22 million donation from Boston businessman Daniel M. Meyers. The money will go to a new building, according to a release from the Curry School. Also today, Gov. Mark R. Warner announced that the Curry School would get $3 million from Microsoft for a program that trains school principals.
Friday, September 24
Getting our medicine
Al Weed, the democratic challenger for the Fifth District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, today hosted a roundtable discussion about health care policy, at C’ville Coffee. Giving short presentations were Carolyn Engelhard, a health policy expert from the UVA School of Medicine and Dr. Fouad Michael, a physician who has written on healthcare reform. According to Engelhard and Michael, though healthcare spending in the U.S. is a whopping $5,500 per person, per year, our medical care system is ranked 37th in the world in quality of care. Canada and Japan, which have annual per person rates of $2,000 and $1,000, respectively, have better healthcare standards than the U.S., Michael says. The root problem, both speakers say, is waste caused by a fragmented system. For example, they cited the huge overheads charged by the 2,000 health insurance companies in the U.S. “We have to rethink many aspects of our health care system to make it more efficient,” Michael says.
Saturday, September 25
UVA keeps rolling
About 60,000 fans today watched UVA’s football team light up Syracuse in a 31-10 victory. Though the game was undefeated UVA’s closest so far this year, the media’s billing of the game being their first real “test” might be a stretch. UVA rushed for 225 yards in the three-touchdown victory over Syracuse, a team which had beaten two creampuffs after getting shellacked 51-0 by Purdue. Even Clemson, which brings a struggling 1-3 record to town next Thursday, might not have enough juice to push the 12th ranked Cavs. But it’s safe to say that UVA fans will learn if their football team is for real when it travels to Tallahassee on Oct. 16 to play the always dangerous Florida State Seminoles.
Sunday, September 26
Wrong way on I-64
An Albemarle County man died early this morning in fiery crash on 250 East, WINA reports. The man had apparently been driving the wrong way on I-64 before turning onto an on-ramp and crashing into a light pole and a guardrail.
Monday, September 27
Council election emergency!
City residents can weigh in on a proposal to change City Council elections to a ward system at a forum held today at the Wesley Foundation. The forum, one of two such remaining public discussions, got some added publicity last week when Ann Reinicke, a recent Republican candidate for City Council, used the City’s emergency notification system to telephone 3,000 residents about the meetings and the proposal, which is championed by City Republicans. George Loper, who runs a Democratic-themed website, received one of the emergency calls. In a posting on Loper’s Web page, City officials say Reinicke probably did not receive the proper authority before using the system for a non-emergency notification. However, it appears that the rules for how to use the new phone system have yet to be fully hashed out.
—Written by Paul Fain from local news sources and staff reports
Rather knot
Local company turns up heat on CBS News anchor
The Dan Rather imbroglio, sparked by revelations that CBS’ “60 Minutes II” trumpeted forged documents about President Bush’s National Guard duty, has been billed as a victory for the “new media”—specifically Web logs, or blogs. Among prominent blogs that have drawn attention to the phony documents and heaped criticism on Rather for how he’s handled the controversy is www.rathergate.com, a website that gets its muscle from a local company.
Right Internet Inc., a Web application developer based on the Downtown Mall, was crucial in getting rathergate.com up and running, says Mike Krempasky, 29, the blog’s author and a Northern Virginia resident. Rathergate.com’s key feature is that it allows visitors to use their credit cards to pay a small fee for a blast fax or e-mail to CBS affiliates, a process enabled by GrassWave, one of Right Internet’s Web products.
“The whole Rathergate thing is really the coming out party for GrassWave,” Krempasky says. “GrassWave lets us literally, in a couple minutes, set up a website.”
In his day job, Krempasky works for American Target Advertising, a direct mail company specializing in conservative causes. Krempasky’s boss, Richard A. Viguerie, has been called the “funding father of the Right.”
Krempasky says he conceived of rathergate.com on his way home from work on Friday, September 10. Through his employer, Krempasky had collaborated with Right Internet Inc. for about a year, and Krempasky says he’s known Chris Tyrrell, one of two partners in Right Internet and a UVA law student, for even longer.
Working with Tyrrell and co., Krempasky’s rathergate.com was live by the following Monday. Within days Krempasky was cited in the Chicago Tribune, USA Today and in an article by Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz headlined, “The Bloggers’ Moment.”
Rather and CBS are under fire for allegedly allowing their zealous pursuit of Bush to trump journalistic standards. In a similar vein, is it fair for Krempasky—a paid political operative specializing in the mass dissemination of Right Wing material—to pose as an outraged member of the blogosphere?
Krempasky insists that he is indeed an authentic blogger, and that his boss did not even learn of rathergate.com’s existence until it was up and running.
“I’ve been blogging for three years now,” Krempasky says. “I’ve probably built seven different blogs.”
Indeed, Krempasky runs a personal blog with deep archives and varied subject matter, including mentions of Tyrrell and Right Internet. Tyrrell, for his part, purchased the domain for pavefrance.com at the request of Krempasky, who runs the French-bashing blog.
Chris Broomall, 28, Tyrrell’s partner at Right Internet, describes the Web development firm as a small shop that deals in open-source software to help 15 to 20 clients with “grassroots mobilization.” Right Internet runs out of an office above the restaurant Zocalo.
“We cater to conservative clients,” Broomall says, a business niche and a personal commitment that he says “makes it easier to go to work in the morning.”
Krempasky, no neophyte when it comes to grassroots activism or Web design, raves about Right Internet’s market potential. He says the company’s software “tracks everything” for clients, including which people on an e-mail distribution list—the voluntary type, not spam—actually open messages and to whom they make online donations.
“It’s the most comprehensive software I’ve ever seen,” Krempasky says. “I haven’t seen anybody else doing this kind of stuff.”
Local computer pros haven’t seen Right Internet doing their thing either. Debra Weiss, who heads the Neon Guild, Charlottesville’s informal techie worker’s association, says she’s never heard of Tyrrell, Bloomall or their company. Neither have local liberal Web mavens George Loper and Waldo Jacquith.
Jacquith thinks the media might be overstating “Rathergate” as a watershed moment for blogs, claiming the blogosphere’s grand entrance as a player in the political world came in December 2002 with the blog-fueled frenzy over Sen. Trent Lott’s birthday tribute to Strom Thurmond. But Jacquith admits that the incident proves that “Right Wing bloggers can hold their own.”
Krempasky, however, thinks Rathergate has launched a new era for blogs.
“It took 12 hours to destroy five months of research,” Krempasky says of bloggers’ assault on the CBS story. “The mainstream media has no idea what they’re up against.”—Paul Fain
Happy together
Developers and do-gooders partner up in Woolen Mills. – City throws in parkland to boot
Two years ago, Habitat for Humanity and a group of high-concept architects called the Rivanna Collaborative were each eyeing the same leafy swath of undeveloped land along the northeast corner of Riverside Avenue and Chesapeake Street in Woolen Mills.
Both groups approached the owner, an individual named T.E. Wood, but instead of fighting each other for the bid, the nonprofit Habitat and the for-profit Rivanna Collaborative decided to collaborate in what the developers and City officials say could set a precedent for mixed-income developments in Charlottesville.
“You will see Habitat homes next to homes that people paid $300,000 for,” said Habitat for Humanity director Overton McGehee at a City Council meeting last week. “That’s an example that we need to show to developers.”
On Monday, September 20, Council mostly lauded the project as they agreed to a land swap with the Rivanna Collaborative. The group comprises five architects—four of whom have worked for A-list eco-designer and former UVA architecture school dean William McDonough. They are Chris Hays, Allison Ewing, Richard Price, Kennon Williams and Lance Hosey.
The Collaborative bought the 1.5-acre property in March 2003 for $150,000, according to City real estate records. They plan to sell a pair of lots measuring 1,000 to 1,200 square feet each to Habitat for Humanity for $13,000 apiece. When the Collaborative starts building there next spring, Habitat volunteers will commence work on two houses, each with a maximum construction cost of $150,000 and an initial sale price of $120,000.
The upscale homes will be sold for “in the $350,000 range,” says Hays, adding that the Collaborative will donate 1 percent of the profit from the sale of the first three houses to Habitat for Humanity.
“That’s an example we hope to hold up,” says McGehee, “so maybe folks who build even more expensive houses will start doing it.”
On Monday, Council agreed to give the Collaborative 10,726 square feet of what Neighborhood Development Director Jim Tolbert calls “unusable” land in Riverview Park, which happens to be in the architects’ plans. In exchange, the Collaborative will give the City 3,898 square feet of adjacent property, on which the City plans to build a new playground for the park.
“We’re sacrificing an unusable property and gaining a useable property,” Tolbert told Council.
Because the Collaborative will deploy environmentally friendly construction techniques that it would like to extend to all the new homes, Hays says, it could take three years for all the houses, Habitat’s included, to get finished. That prompted Councilor Rob Schilling to argue that the Collaborative should give the two lots to Habitat for the nonprofit to build independently.
“The sooner we can get affordable housing to the market, the better,” said Schilling. “They could get be done in six months.” He cast the lone vote against the land swap, which required four of five votes to pass.
Hays, however, said the development could be a prototype for low-cost, eco-friendly homes. “We’re committed to creating an integrated whole,” said Hayes. “That takes more time.”
Albemarle County requires housing developments in its growth areas to include 15 percent affordable stock. The City has no such requirement.
Water ordinance: Mostly gas?
Also on Monday, Council approved a water protection ordinance for Moore’s Creek, Meadow Creek and the Rivanna River. Developers will have to file conservation plans and maintain a 100-foot “buffer” of plants between construction and the water. The fine for violation is $100.
Councilor Kevin Lynch praised the ordinance, drafted by a streams task force, but said, “This will hopefully be just a first step.”
The ordinance could affect two developments already underway, said Tolbert—one in Barracks Road and one on Hydraulic Road. Schilling and Councilor Blake Caravati proposed an amendment that would exempt projects already underway, but it failed. The ordinance passed 4-1, with Schilling dissenting.
Questions remain as to how the ordinance will be enforced. The task will fall to Tolbert’s neighborhood development services department, but he says his staff is already shorthanded. “We don’t currently have enough people to do this,” Tolbert said.—John Borgmeyer
B-ball and chain?
UVA’s new stadium will rock, but fans worry the team might be a heartbreaker
UVA’s new basketball stadium is starting to rise from the dirt pile. Can their hoops team do the same?
“We’ve been told: ‘Get it world-class,’” says Richard Laurance, project director for the $130 million John Paul Jones Arena going up on Massie Road.
UVA’s new basketball stadium is named not for Led Zeppelin’s bass player, but for the father of Paul Tudor Jones, the UVA grad and Wall Street trader who donated $20 million to the project. An anonymous donor chipped in another $20 million.
So far, UVA has secured $90 million in commitments, says Barry Parkhill, the associate athletic director for development. But he can’t pinpoint how much money UVA has actually collected, saying only, “We’re not even close.”
UVA gets no State money for the arena, and there’s no contingency fund to pay for the building if private donors don’t come through. To say that Parkhill is feeling pressure to deliver the cash flow “is a major understatement,” he says.
Uncertainties about money certainly aren’t putting a damper on official hype about the arena.
“It will be the largest indoor venue in the state of Virginia,” says Laurance. “We’ll have state-of-the-art acoustics, video boards, television sets, all kinds of electronic things.”
It remains to be seen, however, whether all those screens will be showing ‘Hoo highlights or lowlights. Last year, UVA finished with 18 wins and 13 losses, including a 6-10 record in the ACC. They tied for seventh in the conference, which hoops enthusiasts recognize as the toughest conference in college basketball.
A late-season winning streak in 2004 earned the Cavaliers a spot in the National Invitational Tournament, or NIT (also known as the Not Intived to the Tournament, because the NIT is reserved for schools that don’t get the coveted invitation to the 64-team NCAA Tournament). Still, just making it to the NIT probably saved coach Pete Gillen his job, says John Galinsky, general manager for Thesabre.com, an independent UVA sports website.
“The fans are definitely not satisfied,” says Galinsky, who keeps close tabs on the hoops chat that traffics on his site. “The majority of fans would have been happy if he had been let go. The vibes were so bad when they were on a losing skid.”
Galinsky says this year’s team could be one of the best for Gillen, who in November begins his seventh season as UVA’s head coach. Senior forward Elton Brown could be a star if he gets more aggressive on the glass. Senior small forward Devin Smith showed a good shot and lots of hustle last year, Galinsky says, and he could be a great player this year if his oft-injured back is healthy.
Laurance says the construction is right on schedule, and the John Paul Jones Arena should be open for the 2006 season. He says the 15,000 seats will be pulled much tighter around the court than they are in the extant U-Hall, where the team has played since 1965. By then, Galinsky predicts incoming freshman Sean Singletary could be a star point guard, which has been a weak position for UVA in recent years.
Galinsky says he’s been on a tour of the new stadium, where an average of 150 workers per day—most of them from Central Virginia, Laurance says—are currently placing the pre-cast concrete structures that will form the upper-level seating bowl, and installing mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems.
“It’s going to be a state-of-the-art stadium,” says Galinsky, repeating the theme. “It could be a good recruiting tool. It will definitely be exciting for the fans.”
Even if the Cavalier cagers don’t deliver, Parkhill is confident that he and his fundraising crew will. “This will get done, period,” he says.
If so, the new arena will feature high-end audio equipment and a stage setup that will better suit loud rock concerts, something that will make at least one John Paul Jones proud.—John Borgmeyer
But wait, there’s more!
Constitutional amendments make Virginia voting tricky
Most voters will presumably make up their minds on Bush vs. Kerry before stepping into the booth. Only the most conflicted of undecided voters could possibly procrastinate that long. Many civic-minded citizens will even have made the call on voting for Republican incumbent Virgil Goode Jr. or for Democrat Al Weed for the Fifth District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. But even if you’ve made your choice for President and Congressman, don’t relax: Other decisions loom. Jackie Harris, Albemarle County’s Registrar, says this year’s ballot includes two proposed amendments to the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Furthermore, the two yea-or-nay ballot questions on the amendments are phrased in language that is at best murky to a non-lawyer.
Harris says that when people try to make sense of the amendments in the booth, “it tends to slow down the voting process.” By understanding the two questions beforehand, voters will make a more informed decision and also “keep the lines moving,” she says.
County voters will see brochures and a poster with 750 words of explanation on the two amendments at polling centers. But in an effort to further streamline the democratic process for voters and election officials alike, C-VILLE Weekly has also attempted to explain the two amendments. For more detailed descriptions, see the State Board of Election’s website (www.sbe.state.va.us/Election/) or contact the County Registrar’s office.
Amendment No. 1:
Redistricting
The U.S. Census is conducted every 10 years, most recently in 2000. In the year after the Census, when the results have been tallied, the General Assembly is required to redraw the districts for the State Senate, House of Delegates and congressional districts—using the new statistics to draw the lines. Therefore, 2011, 2021 and so on will be “redistricting” years.
Currently, elected officials who are in office during these redistricting years are required to represent the district from which they were elected until the end of their terms. But what happens when an official resigns or dies while in office? After the 2001 redistricting, there was confusion about whether the old or new district should be used when filling such a vacancy. That’s where this amendment comes in, proposing that “any vacancy during such term shall be filled from the same district that elected the member whose vacancy is being filled.”
Got it? A yes vote means a legislative district remains unchanged, even after redistricting, in the event that a lawmaker cannot finish his term and must be replaced.
Amendment No. 2:
The Guv’s successor
In the event of a “an emergency or enemy attack” in which Virginia’s governor dies, resigns or cannot serve, there is currently an ordered list of three State government officials who will fill in until the House of Delegates can meet to elect a new governor. This amendment proposes adding three new officials to the tail end of the list, and also includes certain eligibility requirements.—Paul Fain