Tuesday, May 18
Turn out the lights
Thunderheads rolled through the area around closing time this evening, bringing violent wind and lightning that knocked down power lines. About 9,340 customers of Dominion Virginia Power were without electricity for several hours, according to The Daily Progress. The power outage was practice for Dominion crews, who, according to a release from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), may face bigger problems this fall. NOAA is predicting an “above-normal” hurricane season that should create six to eight Atlantic hurricanes, as many as four of them major.
Wednesday, May 19
MLK honored at CHS
Two days after the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Brown decision, the City officially celebrated the renaming of the Charlottesville Performing Arts Center as the Martin Luther King, Jr. Performing Arts Center with a party tonight at the Center. Among local luminaries speaking at the event were Reverend Alvin Edwards, Mayor Maurice Cox and George Tramontin, a former City schools superintendent who shepherded the schools through early integration in the 1950s. The Martin Luther King Community Choir also performed at the shindig. The next change for the Center is a statue of MLK, which is planned for the lobby.
Thursday, May 20
29N meeting draws a crowd
Around these parts, nothing sparks civic engagement like big-box development. Tonight, around 400 people packed the gym at the Hollymead Elementary School to hear developers and Albemarle planners discuss plans for the massive Hollymead Town Center and North Pointe developments. Attendees of the meeting, which was arranged by County Supervisor Ken Boyd, politely applauded each developer’s speech, prompting Steve Runkle, who has a share in Hollymead, to remark, “This is the first time I’ve ever heard a crowd clap for a group of developers.” But the meeting wasn’t a lovefest, as concerned residents grilled the presenters over the developments’ likely additions to transportation, water supply and environmental woes along 29N.
Friday, May 21
Vote, or else
Chris Nowinski, a Harvard grad who mixes it up on the mats for World Wrestling Entertainment, was in town today to encourage voter registration. The wrestler, who checks in at 6’4", 270 pounds, spoke to students at Monticello High this morning, then flashed across town in a stretched limo to speak to the media and later sign up voters at Fridays After 5. Nowinski, whose finishing move in the ring is reportedly called “The Honor Roll,” came to Charlottesville as part of the WWE’s Smackdown Your Vote campaign and to help launch the UVA Center for Politics’ National Symposium on Youth Civic Engagement.
Saturday, May 22
Foiled break-in and robbery
A young Charlottesville woman awoke early today to an apparent attempted break-in, Charlottesville police told The Daily Progress. The attempted crime, which occurred in the 400 block of Brandon Avenue, follows several break-ins to apartments and homes in recent weeks, many occupied by young women. In other early morning crimes, two men were reportedly held up at gunpoint on the 1200 block of Gordon Avenue today. After the victims ran into a house without giving up any money, the two assailants, who were wearing t-shirts around their faces, apparently threw bottles at the side of the house.
Sunday, May 23
UVA lands championship trophy
The UVA women’s lacrosse team today won the national title by knocking off two-time defending champion Princeton 10-4 on Princeton’s home turf. The win was UVA’s first championship since 1993 and first under coach Julie Myers. It avenged last year’s 8-7 overtime title game loss to Princeton. Amy Appelt of the Cavaliers had four goals while Caitlin Banks tossed in three. Goalkeeper Andrea Pfeiffer, who battled off a flurry of Princeton shots early in the game, earned the tournament’s Most Valuable Player award.
Monday, May 24
Goode gets the nod
WINA today reports that Rep. Virgil Goode has a big fundraising lead over Democratic challenger Al Weed for the November race for the 5th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Goode had $450,000 in his coffers by the end of March, while Weed had only $25,000 by mid April. Goode was officially nominated for the race in a party convention at UVA on Saturday. Bob Gibson of The Daily Progress reports that during his address Saturday, Goode defended his support for the Bush Administration’s tax cuts. He also touted his focus on the 5th District, saying, “If you want someone who’s going to be ponying up to The New York Times, the L.A. Times and the other liberal national media, then you should be pushing Weed and not Goode.”
—Written by Paul Fain from local news sources and staff reports.
Unarmed services
Local man travels to Iraq to support peaceAt the end of April, Louisa resident Brian Buckley, 32, and four fellow peace activists traveled to Iraq to spread the word that not all Americans support the war there. Buckley was able to deliver this message while visiting the southern Iraqi cities of Karbala, Kufa and Najaf, where American soldiers are surrounding renegade cleric Muqtada al Sadr and his militia of supporters.
Buckley, a carpenter who lives in the Little Flower Catholic Worker community in Louisa, says many Iraqis were grateful for the peace offering. Others, however, shared the sentiment of one young man on the streets of Kufa, who told them, “thanks, but just get the hell out of here…we’re about to die,” according to Buckley.
American military commanders weren’t exactly thrilled about Buckley’s mission either.
“U.S. citizens entering a place like Najaf, which is in suffering from heavy conflict and is very dangerous, is a distracter and adds another unwelcomed dimension,” says Brigadier General Mark P. Hertling, the deputy commander of the U.S. Army’s 1st Armored Division, via e-mail from a camp near Karbala. “While [Buckley and the other protesters] were conducting their peace demonstration, the forces of Muqtada al Sadr conducted a mortar attack on the base where they were demonstrating, and we had to be concerned with protecting these American visitors as well as our normal duties of attempting to secure the Iraqi citizenry from the insurgents.”
For his part, Buckley says the group never asked for protection, but knowingly took the extreme risk of traveling to the war zone to “be with the people of Najaf and try to allay an attack” by offering what he calls “protective accompaniment.” Buckley also says a goal of the trip was to show support for U.S. troops by wishing them a safe and “immediate” return.
“I wanted to make real the war,” Buckley says of his motivation. “I don’t want it being waged in my name.”
The peace delegation was an ad hoc group of activists from around the country that received funding from friends and supporters. They flew to Amman, Jordan, on April 18, then rented a car and drove to Iraq. At the border, they easily passed through a checkpoint at which Buckley says he saw no Americans. Though the U.S. Department of State strongly advises American civilians against traveling to Iraq—a warning reinforced by the recent beheading of entrepreneur Nick Berg—a U.S. passport will suffice for entry into the country.
Sadr’s militia seized Najaf and neighboring Kufa, which are home to sacred Shiite mosques, just weeks before Buckley and crew arrived in the city. Having already met in Karbala with a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who is perhaps the most influential of Iraqi Shiites, Buckley’s group was approached by advisors to Sadr after they arrived in Najaf.
Buckley says his group politely refused an offer of armed bodyguards from Sadr’s representative, claiming that the group didn’t want to “take sides” or associate too closely with the radical cleric. The group never actually met Sadr, nor learned his location—information U.S. forces might want.
“Not knowing where he is was something we preferred,” Buckley says.
The peace delegation twice visited coalition troops at a base outside of Najaf, which, according to Buckley, was a requisitioned hospital. Though Buckley says he heard gunfire every night in Najaf, when coalition forces fired a warning shot over his group, it was the only shot fired in his direction.
“It shook us up, certainly,” Buckley says.
The peace delegation mingled with American soldiers, hearing how the troops missed pizza and mowing the lawn. Buckley also claims he met soldiers who were fed up with the war.
“The dissent was certainly fluid, and it did come out,” Buckley says.
Having spoken with combatants on both sides, and to many Iraqi civilians, Buckley’s group left the country after 11 days. Back in the United States, Buckley promises to continue his opposition to the war.
“I think the fight certainly is here, for me,” Buckley says.
Asked if he thinks the trip made a difference, Buckley says, “I can’t really measure the fruits of something symbolic.”—Paul Fain
VDOT takes a turn
New rule may speed up the Meadowcreek Parkway
For years, Charlottesville’s progressive transportation activists have been pushing for more local control of State and Federal road money. Now it looks like the Virginia Department of Transportation might give them their way.
Currently, the State has a lot of control over how, when and where roads get built. Cities can suggest projects, but VDOT has the final word and does all the work.
VDOT is a conservative agency, however. With the State in the driver’s seat, it’s been hard for Charlottesville to get money for transit improvements and bicycle lanes. Furthermore, VDOT’s engineers see nothing wrong with a one-size-fits-all approach that would address Charlottesville’s traffic problems with superhighways and NoVA-sized interchanges.
Now the cash-strapped VDOT wants to relinquish more responsibility to the cities. The State would still approve projects, but VDOT would funnel money to local governments, which would design and build the roads. During its regular meeting on Monday, May 17, City Council unanimously voted to tell VDOT that Charlottesville is interested in that idea. Council will likely take a final vote on the issue on June 1.
Councilors Kevin Lynch and Maurice Cox have favored local autonomy as a way to put more transportation dollars into alternative transportation. But what they also understand is that the change will make it easier to build the controversial road they most despise—the Meadowcreek Parkway.
“I like the opportunities for transit funding,” said Cox at the Council meeting. “I’m not too thrilled about the Parkway.”
For example, the Parkway has stalled because only three Councilors support the project, but four Councilors must agree to sell VDOT the right-of-way for the City’s portion of the road through McIntire Park. If the City takes over road-building duties, the right-of-way issue would become moot since the City already owns the McIntire land.
Further, both Lynch and newly elected Councilor David Brown say they would support the Parkway if it were built with an interchange at its intersection with Route 250 and McIntire Road. Lynch says the City could build the Parkway for less than the $30 million VDOT has allocated for the project. It would use the savings to build the interchange, which would help to ease the massive traffic jams the Parkway is projected to cause along Route 250.
But Butch Davies, Charlottesville’s liaison to VDOT’s Commonwealth Transportation Board, doesn’t agree that local control means more savings.
“It doesn’t cost less, it costs more,” he says. Henrico and Arlington counties already have local control, says Davies, and their projects tend to cost more because citizens don’t want their roads and bridges built on the cheap. Whereas VDOT could ignore public outcry if people thought the work was shoddy, local politicians are not so immune to discontent.
Another danger for the City is that the budget bends both ways. For example, just as the City would retain extra money if it built the Parkway for less than the $30 million VDOT has allotted, the City would also be liable if it spent more than $30 million on the Parkway.
Davies—who supports both the Parkway and the City’s efforts to revamp its bus system—favors local control, however, because it makes local politicians more accountable to citizens. He says City Council, for example, would no longer be able to put off the Parkway and blame the delays on VDOT. “It makes local elected officials responsible to the community. At some point, you have to complete the projects you have planned,” says Davies.—John Borgmeyer
Rollin’ in it
Compared to County, City workers make bank
Charlottesville pays its workers better than Albemarle, which is good news if you happen to work for the City. It’s not so great, however, if you’re one of those who complain the City’s budget is too fat and property taxes are too high.
The list below shows the 10 highestpaid employees in Charlottesville and Albemarle. The list does not include year-end bonuses the City pays to many of its employees; the County, in general, does not give such bonuses, according to spokeswoman Lee Catlin.
The City, with a 2004 budget of $100.1 million, pays about 272 of its 900 full-time employees more than $40,000. In the County, with a 2004 budget of $207.9 million, about 226 of its 750 full-time employees earn more than $40,000 (total employee figures do not include school personnel). The area’s median income is $27,780.—John Borgmeyer
The two towers
NBC and CBS scrap over new antennas
Before it can begin beaming Dan Rather and Dave Letterman into television sets around Charlottesville, Gray Television, Inc., the owner of a new local CBS affiliate, needs to build a television antenna tower up on Carter’s Mountain.
On May 11, Gray received approval from the Albemarle County Planning Commission for the new tower. But thanks to a study commissioned by the company that owns NBC 29, Gray’s competitor, fears were raised that the new tower could boost radio frequency radiation from antennas on the mountain to potentially dangerous levels.
However, those fears don’t seem to be thwarting NBC 29 from itself building a new tower on Carter’s Mountain so it can broadcast digital television. And, according to another study conducted for NBC 29 by the same engineering firm that cited radiation concerns about the CBS tower, the total level of radiation, or RFF, from both current and planned antennas in the vicinity will be well below legal levels.
In the study filed with the Planning Commission, Donald Everist, the president of an engineering firm in D.C., found that “when the RFF levels that will be generated by the proposed Channel 19 [CBS] television station…are added to the RFF levels generated by existing and authorized transmission sources on Carter’s Mountain, an unacceptable risk of harm to human safety may occur.”
This analysis differs wildly from Everist’s take in NBC 29’s recent filing to the Federal Communication Commission, which states that radiation around the new NBC and CBS towers would be only 20 percent of the legal limit—even at 10 meters above the ground—and that “members of the public and personnel working around the proposed [NBC digital antenna tower] would not be exposed to RFF levels above the commission’s guidelines.”
NBC 29’s general manager, Harold Wright, did not return calls for this article.
Tracey Jones, Gray’s regional vice-president of television, says she did not learn of the second, contradictory filing from NBC 29 until two days after the Albemarle Planning Commission meeting.
“I would be very frightened to do anything like that,” Jones says of submitting two reports with “completely different results” with two different government agencies. Jones says her company also conducted a radiation study in which the consulting engineer confirmed that radiation levels on the mountain would not be dangerous and would be in compliance with the FCC rules.
After getting the go ahead from the Planning Commission, the new CBS tower application now moves to the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors for a June 2 public hearing. If approved, Gray plans to have the tower up and the signal live by mid August.
The CBS tower will join about a dozen other towers, satellite dishes and other broadcast facilities—ranging from 60 to 300 feet tall—in the “tower farm” on Carter’s Mountain. The tower farm sits in the Crown Orchard Company, which is owned by Henry Chiles. Chiles did not respond to several phone calls for this article.
NBC’s current tower is 250 feet tall, with a 50-foot antenna at the top. Built in 1973, when NBC 29 first went on the air, the tower was upgraded in 1993, making WVIR the most powerful TV station in Virginia. The new NBC digital tower, which was approved in December 2002, will be about the same size as its 31-year-old predecessor.
The proposed CBS tower would sit about 160 feet away from NBC’s digital tower. The CBS tower would be 190 feet tall, and will replace a low-power television transmission tower Gray currently owns on Carter’s Mountain.—Paul Fain
Worst management practices
Of all our water problems, the biggest is the RWSA
Pollution, drought, population growth, government regulations—the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority must wrestle with a litany of problems to solve our water issues. But the biggest problem of all may be the RWSA itself.
“It’s not anybody’s fault personally,” says John Martin, an interested citizen who has attended nearly every meeting of the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority for the past seven years. “It’s the way the RWSA is structured. The board of directors is controlled by its customers. That’s a problem.”
The RWSA is led by a five-member board of directors comprising City Manager Gary O’Connell, City Public Works Director Judith Mueller, Albemarle County Executive Robert Tucker, Albemarle Service Authority Director Bill Brent and appointed Chairman Michael Gaffney. An executive director heads the RWSA—on May 13, the board hired Thomas Frederick for that position.
The RWSA sells water to the City and County, and they in turn sell it to local users. The RWSA’s revenues come entirely from water bills paid by City and County customers.
Because the RWSA board comprises City and County officials who answer directly to City Council and the Board of Supervisors, they face political pressure to keep the RWSA budget small and keep people’s water rates as low as possible.
That means the RWSA has been run on the cheap, says Liz Palmer, a member of the League of Women Voters who has closely followed the water drama.
“The Board won’t allow the RWSA to be financially viable, so the RWSA can’t do very much,” she says. “They keep it down to bare bones.”
RWSA board chairman, homebuilder Michael Gaffney, admits that in the past rates had been kept low and as a result infrastructure deteriorated.
During the dry summer of 2002, however, a public campaign to conserve water caused rates to jump (as people used less water, the RWSA had to charge higher rates to keep its revenues steady). The board has kept rates higher even after the drought, and Gaffney says the RWSA has used the extra money to repair dilapidated buildings and parking lots.
In fact, the RWSA budget has climbed recently, to $15.5 million in 2004 from $12.4 million in 2003.
New money aside, having the Authority’s board stacked with senior City and County officials prompts a broader question: Who’s watching the watershed?
Martin says the board “micromanages” the RWSA, keeping the Authority narrowly focused on the region’s four reservoirs—Sugar Hollow, South Fork Rivanna, Ragged Mountain and Beaver Creek. The board does not want the RWSA worrying about the larger network of streams and rivers in the Rivanna Watershed that feeds those reservoirs.
Former RWSA director Larry Tropea, who resigned last year, came into conflict with the board in part because he tried to expand the RWSA’s scope. During the drought, Tropea spoke of the RWSA’s mission as “protecting the Rivanna Watershed,” while board members said the RWSA should simply provide enough water to meet the City and County’s demands. Because the RWSA board is run by City and County officials, it will not take positions on the environment that may conflict with growth plans set by City Council or the Albemarle Supervisors.
But Martin and Palmer believe that any long-term water strategy must take a broad view of the relationship between growth, development, river and stream health and the reservoirs. It’s not clear, they say, that anyone in local government is taking that view.
“The people we elect are totally hands-off, even though there are significant policy issues,” Martin says.—John Borgmeyer