Tuesday, May 11
Free Clinic has it covered
To mark “Covering the Uninsured Week” in Virginia, Del. Mitch Van Yahres today presented a proclamation signed by Gov. Mark Warner to the Charlottesville Free Clinic. Among Virginians ages 18 to 64, 14.2 percent do not have health insurance, according to a study cited by the Free Clinic, which is one of 49 Virginia clinics that offer free or discounted health care.
Wednesday, May 12
Antiabortion tour hits town
Around lunchtime today, drivers on Route 250 near Pantops passed a gauntlet of demonstrators hoisting giant anti-abortion placards, most of which featured gruesome photos of aborted fetuses. The huge pictures seemed to depict fetuses that had been aborted late in pregnancies—a rare procedure. The demonstration, which included about 80 people, many of them children, was one stop on an 18-city tour by a group called Missionaries to the Preborn. Pastor Matt Trewhella of Milwaukee’s Mercy Seat Christian Church founded the traveling group. Trewhella is an extremely militant fundamentalist Christian who calls gays “sodomites” and is vehemently pro-gun. Trewhella befriended Paul Hill, who was recently executed for killing a doctor who performed abortions. Additionally, Trewhella has a son-in-law who, to protest gay marriage, was among a group that tried to forcibly block a door in San Francisco’s City Hall. While holding a sign by the road in Pantops, the affable Trewhella was asked why he brought his group to Charlottesville. “We wanted people to see what pre-born babies look like after they’ve been in the hands of abortionists,” Trewhella said. Also holding a sign on the steamy afternoon was Evan Murch, 10, of Brookneal, which is south of Lynchburg. Wiping sweat from his forehead, Murch said he would be along for the whole tour.
Thursday, May 13
Water czar hired
Thomas Frederick’s appointment as the new director of the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority and the Solid Waste Authority was announced today. The City-County agencies oversee local reservoirs and water treatment plants as well as the Ivy Landfill and recycling operations. Neither agency is in great shape—the Solid Waste Authority faces escalating costs to clean up the Ivy Landfill, which has polluted nearby groundwater. The Water and Sewer Authority has been struggling for years to implement a water supply plan. “We won’t be afraid to change,” said Frederick, who managed the water supply for Asheville, North Carolina, before joining a consulting firm. “But we won’t change just for change’s sake.”
Friday, May 14
Guv hits Mudhouse
Gov. Warner today held an informal chat with reporters in the conference room above Mudhouse. In town to speak at PVCC’s commencement, Warner said he was traveling the State to explain the newly passed budget and to thank people for “hanging in” during lengthy wrangling in the General Assembly. Warner said the plan achieves 80 percent of the tax adjustments he had sought. Though Warner listed many services that will benefit from the $60 billion budget, including public safety, mental health services, jails, higher education and a $1.5 billion boost for K-12 education, he also stressed that the tax plan would not mark a return to the “tax burden” of the mid-’90s. Of the long, cantankerous standoff in Richmond, Warner said, “It felt good at the end, but it was hell getting there.”
Saturday, May 15
Video for Quanmetrice
In a collaboration between Light House Youth Media and the Music Resource Center, renowned music video director Sam Erickson was in town today from New York City to help local students create a video to back a song memorializing Quanmetrice Robinson, the Charlottesville High student who was accidentally shot and killed in February.
Sunday, May 16
Adios, Charlottesville
More than 5,000 UVA students snagged their diplomas today. The graduation ceremony on The Lawn was expected to draw 30,000 attendees.
Monday, May 17
Case closed—case open
Charlottesville Police today announced the arrest of Daniel A. Hudson of Esmont for the April 29 assault of a woman at a residence on Stribling Avenue. Hudson, who has a lengthy rap sheet including sexual assault and battery, was linked to DNA evidence from a cap left at the scene. Police Chief Timothy J. Longo also announced a sexual assault that occurred early today on the 1200 block of Wertland Street. Longo said a description from the morning assault did not appear to match the serial rapist.
Written by Paul Fain from local news sources and staff reports
Small world
Guaranty’s sale leaves two community banks
Earlier this month, Union Bankshares Corporation closed a $54.4 million deal to buy Guaranty Bank, a 23-year-old community bank with seven local branches. Guaranty’s $200 million in assets bolstered Union’s assets to $1.5 billion, making it the second-largest Virginia-based banking company. Though Union Bankshares announced that it was eliminating “certain back-office positions” at Guaranty, the biggest impact of the sale is the loss of one of three independent community banks—leaving only Virginia National Bank and Albemarle First Bank.
Currently, the top four banks in Charlottesville, as determined by deposit volume, are mega banks Wachovia, Bank of America, SunTrust and BB&T. Wachovia, with 300 branches in Virginia, is the biggest bank in the City and the State, and is a $400 billion company. In contrast, Albemarle First Bank’s total assets as of March 31 were $115.7 million.
The local dominance of banking conglomerates is not unique. It is due to a long period of bank mergers dating back to the deregulation days of the Reagan Administration. The drawback of overreliance on big banks, according to community bank supporters, is that Wachovia and others are less likely to go the extra mile for small customers. As an example, Wachovia might pass on a loan for a local entrepreneur looking to open a restaurant on the Downtown Mall, deeming the loan not worth the hassle despite the fact that Wachovia could undercut community banks with a cheaper loan price.
“Big banks, the bigger they get, the less it’s in their interests to invest around town,” says Matthew Hirst, who, in addition to writing reviews for C-VILLE, edits SNL Financial’s Bank & Thrift News, a subscriber-based publication.
Instead, larger banks often work with big fish, such as retail chains, leaving community banks to focus on consumer and small business loans.
“Banking the big-box retailer…can offer a challenge to a smaller bank,” says Thomas M. Boyd Jr., president and CEO of Albemarle First. “I think people look to us as a local lender, and come to us for advice.”
Boyd cites the speed and quality with which customers can negotiate loans as evidence of an advantage community banks have over the biggies in local investment. Rather than dialing 800 numbers and negotiating automated systems to perhaps talk to a bank rep in another state, “you can talk to a person when you call Albemarle First,” Boyd says.
Union Bankshares, citing a larger lending capacity, has promised that Guaranty’s buyout will benefit locals.
“We look forward to providing the Guaranty customers an expanded menu of products and the exemplary service that our customers have come to expect from us," said G. William Beale, Union’s president, in a press release.
Despite Guaranty’s sale, Boyd thinks there remains strong demand for community banking in Charlottesville. Albemarle First had a rough 2003, in which it lost $1.9 million, mostly due to the Ivy Industries check-kiting scheme. But the bank is bouncing back, and boosted its assets by 20 percent between the first quarter of this year and first quarter of 2003. Virginia National, the larger of Charlottesville’s two remaining community banks, had a strong 2003, in which its assets grew by more than 25 percent.
However, even with Albemarle First’s recent performance, Boyd says the bank’s directors would be obligated to review any reasonable buyout offers. But, if possible, they would try to make the case that the bank could stand as an independent.
“Our bank looks forward to a long future in this market,” Boyd says.—Paul Fain
Wooden soldiers
Enviros decry voluntary logging “rules”
Virginia’s Department of Forestry has a long list of suggestions on how loggers can prevent water pollution. The DOF publishes a hefty 216-page manual “Best Management Practices for Water Quality,” which explains the most effective strategies for preventing soil erosion and water pollution on logging sites, plus a 90-page pocket-sized version of the same information. None of these best management practices (BMPs) is mandatory, however, and a recent survey by the Department of Forestry indicates loggers, including some in Albemarle, don’t always comply.
That’s why environmentalists say the guidelines should be mandatory.
In a recent random survey of 30 logging sites in Virginia, the DOF found that 26 sites did not use all the recommended BMPs, and 22 sites had inadequate water protections. Erosion was occurring, or just a hard rain away, on 10 sites. In 2003, the DOF listed 585 statewide violations, including 145 in Region 3. Albemarle, Charlottesville and 26 other cities and counties comprise Region 3. Also in 2003, the DOF found 25 sites in Albemarle with compromised water quality due to improper logging practices. (To view the record of water-quality citations, see www.virginiaforestwatch.org.)
What do these statistics mean? The debate over Virginia’s forest typically plays out as a shouting match between an environmental group called Virginia Forest Watch and the Virginia Forestry Association (VFA), a group of loggers and paper manufacturers.
Not surprisingly, then, Forest Watch says the survey indicates Virginia needs mandatory regulations to govern logging on private lands. “The voluntary program is simply not working,” says Gerald Gray, director of Forest Watch. “The DOF needs to mandate compliance with BMPs.”
“Forest Watch continues to bleat the same old worn out and unproven propaganda,” counters VFA vice-president Paul Howe on the group’s website (www.vaforestry.org). “As long as [loggers] adhere to already existing laws, it is not appropriate to require them to seek approval for government or private groups before implementing forestry plans and operations.”
The DOF mediates this ongoing argument. The agency’s current board of directors is slightly skewed to favor industry—seven of the 12 board members represent industrial interests. In contrast to the western United States, where environmental activists have made more gains in local government, regulatory agencies in Virginia and the rest of the Southeast echo industry’s claims that rules are an affront to private property rights.
Virginia’s current rules say that loggers must notify the DOF before beginning a job, or face a fine. Many don’t, however. Virginia Forest Watch says that last year at least 145 loggers didn’t tell the State about their operations.
Matt Poirot, Water Resources Program Manager, says the DOF usually finds loggers who try to duck the rules anyway. “We’re going to see a logging truck, or somebody’s going to call us,” he says.
Once the DOF knows about a site, they inspect it for potential water pollution. The DOF first asks the loggers to fix water problems, and then fines them up to $5,000 per day if the loggers don’t comply.
Many of those fines never get collected, however. Last year, the DOF assessed $155,000 in fines but collected only $29,000, according to a Forest Watch press release that cites DOF statistics. In the past decade, only $184,000 of the $685,000 in fines has been collected.
Poirot says that if loggers don’t pay, the DOF can get a court judgment against the land on which the violation occurred. The DOF will collect the money when (or if) the land is sold.
More strict laws would only maketimber sales more cumbersome, and “probably wouldn’t improve anything,” Poirot says.
Of the 15.5 million acres of forest in Virginia, about 12 million acres are held by private landowners. Paper companies own 1.5 million acres, and another 1.5 million acres are in the National Forest System.—John Borgmeyer
Talking Pointe
County to huddle with neighbors and developers on next big-box project
The Forest Lakes neighborhood to the east of 29N sits just across the road from the Hollymead Town Center currently under construction, and to the south of the proposed North Pointe Community—a 269-acre development set to include 893 housing units and three “big box” retail buildings. Surrounded by inevitable and likely development, some Forest Lakes residents think it’s time to chat with developers and County officials about the “progress” rapidly coming toward their door.
After receiving an e-mail from Forest Lakes resident John Oliver, Albemarle County Supervisor Ken Boyd arranged a community meeting for 6:30pm on Thursday, May 20, at Hollymead School. The meeting, which will be attended by County staff, officials from the Virginia Department of Transportation and developers, will include presentations on Hollymead, North Pointe and the widening of Airport Road.
Though Hollymead will likely draw some heat at the meeting, the project has already been approved and bulldozers currently chug around the site. North Pointe, however, is still in play, as primary developer Great Eastern Management and County Supervisors continue to negotiate the project.
Barbara Fehnse is the president of the Forest Lakes Community Association. Though she says the organization is neutral on North Pointe, Fehnse says her neighbors attending the May 20 meeting are likely to air gripes about the development’s potential impact on traffic, water supplies, schools and the environment.
Forest Lakes residents won’t be alone in raising concerns at the meeting, as members of Advocates for a Sustainable Albemarle Population (ASAP) and the Piedmont Environmental Council say they’re likely to attend, too.
“We are generally unhappy with a development of the size and scale of North Pointe,” says Richard Collins, a founding member of ASAP and professor of urban and environmental planning at the UVA School of Architecture.
Charles Rotgin Jr., president and CEO of Great Eastern, will bring visuals of the latest North Pointe plans to the meeting. Though Rotgin says negotiations concerning the development “should have been done quicker,” he acknowledges that “very positive adjustments” have resulted from the four years of haggling with County staff. In defending the development, Rotgin stresses the $3 million in net revenue the project will generate for Albemarle and the $25 million worth of infrastructure—such as roads, a school and a storm and wastewater management plant—included in the latest batch of proffers, or voluntary perqs, Great Eastern has offered to the County.
Furthermore, Rotgin says the relatively dense, pedestrian-friendly North Pointe plan is in line with County’s neighborhood model. For example, Rotgin says, a section of North Pointe “bears a lot of similarities to Downtown Charlottesville.”—Paul Fain
Mane attraction
Keswick’s Marilyn Boyle has been the “horse lady” for 50 years
Nine ponies crowd the gate. To the right of the barn, a broken down school bus sits, overgrown with weeds, and behind the bus are a couple of coops full of clucking chickens. Inside the barn Marilyn Boyle, or Mrs. Boyle as her riding students for the past 50 years know her, talks to one of her protégés, 30something Tracey Diehl, visiting from Wyoming.
“Do you think he’s real young?” Boyle asks Diehl about a horse who’s recently arrived at the barn. “He’s 5,” Diehl responds. “He’s just never been fed, I guess,” says Boyle. “His feet are awful looking and his knees are too close together…and he has a U-neck, but I think a lot of it’s nutrition.”
When it comes to horses, Boyle knows knees and U-necks. Growing up in Richmond, she started riding at 4 years old. She collected bottles to pay for lessons and has been hooked ever since. Her obsession with horses landed her at Brecon Stables, the barn she and her late husband built in 1974 on 107 acres of prime Keswick property.
The square barn is built around an outdoor riding ring with stalls on one side, tack and common rooms on another, hay storage opposite and a covered riding area across from the stalls. The aisle by the tack room is piled high with junk from mice-eaten jodhpurs to canned artichoke hearts to a box of toy trucks, and dogs seem to materialize from bales of hay.
At one point, she walks over to an especially decrepit dog. “This dog is 22 years old. Dr. Pangloss is his name…because when he was a tiny puppy he was very optimistic, and I think it’s…in Candide that this guy has everything falling down around him…and he says, ‘Oh! This is the best of all possible worlds!’ But,” she laughs, “he turned out a rather grumpy dog.”
In the mid-’50s, Boyle was a young, married French major at UVA. “I was very lonely,” she remembers. “There weren’t many girls…My husband was eager to be a fraternity, party guy…so I got a job at [The Blue Ridge School],” which kept horses. While teaching French, she began teaching riding as well.
Boyle left Blue Ridge in 1959 with Ginger, the “one old mare I could not leave,” and who became the grand dame of Boyle’s herd. She moved from from barn to barn until she settled at Brecon and has taught riding ever since. From 1972 until 1995 she offered classes through the Parks and Recreation Department, raising generations of horse-crazy city kids, until liability concerns cancelled her gig. Today, for her 27 horses, she has only about 15 students, relying on her Social Security to pay the bills.
“I have far too many horses. I don’t get rid of horses unless there’s a real serious reason, like it’s a rotten horse. And when have I ever had a rotten horse?” she asks. “They’re just magic. And it’s wonderful to have people share that magic…[Horses] are just great geniuses, you know.”
Boyle’s devotion to her horses and to her students does not go unnoticed. Twelve-year-old Jordan Pye, one of Boyle’s current students, remarks that, “She knows her horses a lot better than other people do because she spends all her time around them.”
It gets to be dinnertime. The little appaloosa Boyle and Diehl were talking about earlier needs to be fed separately, but out in the field, Boyle realizes she has forgotten his halter. “Come on, guy,” she says and he follows her docilely to the barn.
Done feeding the appaloosa, she returns with a wheelbarrow full of hay for the others. Pausing at the gate, she surveys the night. “There comes the moon,” she says. “It’s a great sky.” She then unlatches the chain and steps into the pasture, carefully distributing the hay among the horses as they circle around her. —Nell Boeschenstein
The gripes of wrath
SUUVA calls State grievance system biased
Elizabeth Coles isn’t rude, she just doesn’t hear well. It took one year and $3,800 to prove it to UVA, though. Now Coles, a 25-year UVA employee and vice-president of UVA’s Staff Union (SUUVA), says employees need a better way to challenge their supervisors.
Coles most recently worked in UVA’s internal medicine department. Most of her co-workers know that Coles is hard of hearing, and that’s why she talks so loud. Two years ago, however, a secretary and her supervisor filed a complaint that could have put Coles on probation.
“They said I was disruptive and rude,” says Coles. “A lot of times, when a black person talks loud, it comes off as being aggressive.”
To get her probation overturned and her record cleared, Coles first complained to UVA’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which denied her request. So Coles began the grievance procedure—a process similar to arbitration by which State employees can contest punishments handed out by supervisors, or address other problems in the workplace. Coles first met with the supervisor who filed the complaint against her, and then with the chair of the Internal Medicine Department. Both upheld her probation.
Finally, after a year, Coles argued her case before the Virginia Department of Employee Resolution (DER) and—with the help of a Richmond attorney to whom she paid $3,800 —the DER hearing officer ruled in Coles’ favor and her record was cleared.
“You shouldn’t have to spend that much time and money to prove yourself innocent,” says Coles. “But that’s how it works. The good ol’ boy system is still in place.”
It’s not unusual to hear UVA and Medical Center employees claim that supervisors promote ass-kissers and punish squeaky wheels. Coles, however, was lucky—records indicate that most State workers who file grievances against their supervisors never get relief. Mark Wilson, a SUUVA attorney who has argued three grievance cases, says that in other states, where neutral judges hear the disputes, employees do much better.
In 2003, two hearing officers at the DER heard 248 cases. Of those, they granted employees full relief only 16 times. That, says SUUVA President Jan Cornell, is evidence that the hearing officers don’t want to rock the boat for State employers.
“It’s a kangaroo court,” she says. “The hearing officers work for the State. How good can that be?”
SUUVA provides free legal help to its members, but other State workers don’t have that luxury, says Cornell.
Last week, Cornell drafted a letter she will send to Governor Mark Warner, asking him to investigate her allegations of bias in the DER. She says she wants the full-time hearing officers replaced with part-time attorneys who Cornell says would be less biased.
Claudia Farr, director of the DER, says the agency used part-time attorneys until 2000, when the General Assembly approved funds to hire full-time hearing officers.
“No matter how good a lawyer you are, if you’re only hearing one or two cases a year, you don’t have the experience to decide the cases consistently,” says Farr. She denies bias at the DER, saying it is an independent State agency not subsumed by any other department.—John Borgmeyer