Tuesday, October 12
No such thing as a free ambulance
Many city governments must factor rescue and emergency medical services into annual budgets. Not here in Charlottesville, where the all-volunteer Charlottesville-Albemarle Rescue Squad (CARS) gets the job done with zero tax dollars. CARS is the busiest volunteer squad in the country, having responded to more than 12,000 calls in 2003. Yet the award-winning, 175-member rescue squad operates on a lean $650,000 annual budget. The squad this morning kicked off its 2004 annual fund drive at an event at its McIntire Road headquarters. A buzzer signaling an ambulance’s departure sounded twice during the 30-minute event. Speaking in tribute to the CARS’ efforts was Dan Jordan, president of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. In addition to mentioning CARS’ frequent dispatches to Monticello, Jordan said the squad’s “miraculously efficient” and speedy rescuers “likely saved” the life of his daughter after she was injured in a serious car accident.
Wednesday, October 13
10 years without parole
Attorney General Jerry Kilgore and U.S. Sen. George Allen today held a ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of Virginia’s abolition of parole. Kilgore’s office touted a dip in violent crime over the last decade as evidence of the policy’s success, citing a 24 percent decrease in the state’s murder rate and 10 percent drop in assaults since 1994. Kilgore also claimed that convicted murderers with serious prior convictions are now serving an average sentence of 32.2 years in prison, up from 14.7 years in 1994. The Washington Post reports that parole proponents also held an event in Richmond, arguing that the demise of parole has little to do with decreasing violent crime, as the trend began before 1994.
Thursday, October 14
Jefferson School still up in the air
It’s been more than two years since City Council appointed a task force to decide the fate of the historic Jefferson School on Fourth Street NW. The Jefferson School Task Force has been adamant that the building should “tell the story” of African-Americans in Charlottesville and Albemarle, but they seem to be suffering from writer’s block. In a work session tonight, City Council heard how the Jefferson School could qualify for state and federal tax credits, but Council can’t act because the task force still has not decided how to use the 70,000-square-foot building. The Jefferson-Madison Regional Library is interested in relocating at least some of its operations there, and the task force wants to create some type of “cultural center,” but no further specifics have been decided.
Friday, October 15
Not in Geronimo’s backyard
A controversial $120 million telescope in Arizona was officially dedicated in a ceremony today. UVA has a stake in the telescope project, which, though incomplete, will eventually boast the “most technologically advanced ground-based telescope in the world.” With images that are 10 times sharper than those from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Arizona telescope will provide glimpses of distant planets and ancient objects, according to a press release from the University of Arizona. Environmentalists and Native Americans have long protested the telescope, claiming it desecrates a sacred Apache mountain. In a letter to C-VILLE, Robert Witzeman of the Maricopa (AZ) Audubon Society writes: “The Mt. Graham Arizona telescopes are a horror story about the University of Virginia investing millions in a project that circumvents U.S. Native American cultural and religious protection laws and U.S. environmental laws.”
Saturday, October 16
Clinic opens to protest
About 150 people lined Hydraulic Road today to protest Planned Parenthood’s new Herbert C. Jones Jr. Reproductive Health and Education Center. The peaceful demonstration had dispersed by the time Alex Sanger—grandson of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger—spoke at the clinic’s grand opening a few hours later.
No more national title talk
The UVA football team collided with reality tonight, and ran into the stifling swarm of the Florida State defense, which held the Cavs to one field goal in a 36-3 loss in Tallahassee.
Sunday, October 17
Four more years
Claiming that “one [presidential] ticket represents the mentality of 9/10, the other of 9/12” the Media General-owned Richmond Times-Dispatch today endorsed the re-election of President Bush. In touting Bush’s performance in the days after Sept. 11, 2001, the generally conservative newspaper’s editorial board wrote: “A man few would consider eloquent gave voice to the nation’s strength and abiding goodness.”
Monday, October 18
Promptness at the dais
City Council has bumped its start-time up a half hour, meeting at 7pm tonight and in the future. The earlier start and the efforts by Mayor David Brown to curb long-windedness, mean that task-force reports and budget wrangling are less likely to take the meetings past midnight, as has happened in the past.
—Written by Paul Fain from local news sources and staff reports.
First with (not as) local news
Eure family sells WINA, WWWV and WQMZ to broadcast chain
At 10am on Wednesday, October 13, just after Dick Mountjoy and Jane Foy wrapped up their morning broadcast on WINA, Brad Eure gathered the staff from his three local radio stations together in their Rose Hill offices for an announcement. Eure, who was joined by company brass from Saga Communications at the meeting, dropped the bombshell that WINA, WWWV and WQMZ were being sold to Saga, a mid-sized broadcast conglomerate based in the ’burbs of Detroit.
Eure said his employees took the news with “a little bit of shock.” The news was also a shock to former employees and local radio fans. Would the three local stations, ranked second, fifth and sixth in this market, soon sound just like Saga’s stations in Milwaukee or Des Moines?
No chance, Eure says.
Regarding local staff, Eure says, “there’ll be no change.” And despite receiving what was likely a handsome price for his stations—terms of the deal have not yet been released—Eure says he will remain at the helm in Charlottesville. Eure also stressed that Saga is a particularly hands-off company that leaves programming to individual stations. “All the decisions are made locally,” he says.
“I don’t think you’re going to see any changes in how we deal with the community,” Eure says.
Though Saga’s press release and Eure’s statements might sound like typical corporate speak after an acquisition, several former employees and broadcasting industry observers saw no reason to doubt Eure’s promise of continuity.
Denny King, the entrepreneur who is striving to launch WCVL, Channel 9, a local community television station, says Saga is the ideal holding company for Eure’s local radio fiefdom. (Eure continues to own two radio stations in North Carolina.)
“In the broadcast universe, they are considered to be a very, very high quality broadcast company,” says King, who long worked in the industry, about Saga. “I don’t see any downside.”
Eure says he was not seeking a buyer and had not talked to any other broadcast companies about a possible sale. He says Saga first began expressing interest in his stations about five years ago.
“I never thought they’d hit our number but they did,” Eure says, citing his family’s financial considerations for the final decision to sell (the principals in Eure Communications include Eure’s father and brother, also). Once the deal, which is awaiting likely approval by the Federal Communications Commission, closes, Saga will own 86 radio stations and five radio networks in 22 markets. The company also owns five TV stations and three low-power TV stations. Saga’s 2003 total revenue of $121 million puts it far behind Media General ($837 million), which owns The Daily Progress, and Gray Television ($295 million), owner of new local CBS and ABC affiliates.
Saga will create a subsidiary, Charlottesville Radio Group, to run the three stations. Eure will be the president and general manager of the subsidiary, says Saga CFO Sam Bush. Though Bush says the stations will not be completely autonomous from Saga’s Michigan headquarters, he says the company plans to follow an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” philosophy, adding “those stations are certainly not broken.
“We don’t come in and start making changes for the sake of making changes,” Bush says.
Kym McKay was a midday on-air personality on 3WV from 1996 until a month ago, when she left for a station in Winchester. Though she admits she was shocked by news of her former employer’s sale, McKay thinks Eure’s continued post and what she’s heard about Saga’s management style, should protect the quality of the three stations.
“If it hadn’t been announced in the press, nobody would’ve noticed the difference,” McKay says. “It’s probably going to be a positive move.”
McKay also cites the employee benefits of working for a large company that can provide retirement plans and stock options—both forthcoming Saga employee perqs that Eure confirms.
Mike Friend, the general manager of WNRN, says he doesn’t foresee the sale having any impact on his station or on the three local stations’ programming.
“My assumption until I see otherwise is they’re going to leave well enough alone,” Friend says, but adds, “it’s a shame that there isn’t going to be anymore local commercial media.”
Though Sarah McConnell, Dick Mountjoy’s co-host on WINA for 20 years and now host of “With Good Reason,” which airs on public radio stations across Virginia, says she can’t speculate on changes Saga might make, she says the acquisition makes her uneasy.
“It takes years to accumulate professionals like [those working for WINA],” McConnell says. “All that’s put into jeopardy…when it’s not your station, you can’t make the calls.”—Paul Fain, with additional reporting by Cathy Harding
Zone of contention
Abortion debate set to go to zoning board
The new Planned Parenthood clinic on Hydraulic Road is an inconspicuous two-storey brick office with a name that sounds innocent enough—The Herbert C. Jones Jr. Reproductive Health and Education Center. Yet the building has stirred such controversy that the normally dry business of County zoning codes has become enflamed with a passionate debate on abortion rights.
On Tuesday, November 9, the Albemarle Board of Zoning Appeals will consider a challenge to the clinic, which opened on August 4. Renae Townsend, who lives near the clinic in Garden Court Apartments on Hydraulic Road, filed the appeal on August 26. She argued that the clinic is a hospital, and therefore it cannot legally reside on its current site, which is zoned for residential use only.
In another appeal, filed in September, Townsend argues that the County should have ordered Planned Parenthood to cease operations at the clinic until the Board of Zoning Appeals made a decision on her original appeal.
A pro-life group called the Central Virginia Family Forum is backing Townsend in her fight against Planned Parenthood. Both groups have been sending e-mails to supporters, hoping to rally large crowds to speak at the November 9 hearing; anticipating a big crowd, the BZA has decided to move the meeting from the small room it usually occupies to the 585-seat auditorium in the County Office Building.
It’s also unusual for the BZA to hear an appeal on a building that is already built and in use, says County spokeswoman Lee Catlin. Whoever loses the appeal, Catlin says, “We expect that they’ll want to protect their interest and appeal the decision to Circuit Court.”
Planned Parenthood of the Blue Ridge has established a legal defense fund to pay potential litigation costs.
The debate centers on how the clinic is used. According to County zoning laws, “professional offices” are allowed in residential areas, and Catlin says “medical offices,” such as optometrists or ob-gyn clinics, fall under that designation. Because Planned Parenthood patients do not stay at the clinic overnight, “our determination is that it is a medical office,” Catlin says.
The Family Forum, however, argues that the clinic is, in fact, a hospital. “Our whole objection, from the very beginning,” says Tobey Bouch, a board member for CVFF, “is that they don’t comply with the approved use. Calling it an ‘office building’ does not in any way resemble what they’re using it for.”
“Talk about a detriment to property values,” Bouch continues. “Protestors, threats—that’s what property owners are concerned about.”
In fact, since the clinic opened nearly three months ago, protests have been limited to the sporadic presence of placard-carrying anti-choice activists along Hydraulic Road.
The debate stems from the building’s design. For the past few years, conservatives in the General Assembly have tried to pass a series of bills known as the Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP), which would require abortion clinics to have extra-wide hallways, elevators and surgery rooms that meet hospital standards. Planned Parenthood has opposed TRAP, saying it’s a sly attempt to force clinics to either make expensive renovations or close. Although TRAP has not passed yet, it’s been getting increasing support in the General Assembly. Planned Parenthood designed the Charlottesville clinic to meet TRAP standards, in case the laws ever pass.
“We’re not a hospital, nor do we operate as a hospital,” says Holly Hatcher, Planned Parenthood’s director of statewide organizing.
As she punches a code into one of the electronic locks that guard every door in the clinic, Hatcher reflects on the irony of the situation. Pro-life activists complaining about the clinic’s hospital features also drive the TRAP legislation that makes the features necessary; the same people who worry about protests have protested at the clinic.
But Hatcher relishes another irony—a group of Planned Parenthood supporters have agreed to donate money to the group for every protestor who pickets the clinic. Last week, as CVFF was planning to protest at the clinic on Saturday, October 16, Planned Parenthood staff was planning to count the protestors and send their supporters a bill. The money will be mostly used to help low-income women cover the $300 cost for an abortion.
“It’s kind of poetic,” Hatcher says.—John Borgmeyer
| How To: Chart the progress of new Selective Service bills As of two weeks ago, two companion bills (S 89 and HR 163) that would reinstate a compulsory draft for boys and girls ages 18 to 26 were pending in Congress. This legislation would eliminate higher education as a shelter against service (most university students would be allowed to complete only their current semester when called to duty) and make fleeing to Canada more difficult. Democratic congressmen Charles Rangel of New York and Ernest Hollings of South Carolina introduced the measures in 2003 as a way to protest the war and to spotlight how low-income Americans currently shoulder much of the military burden. Republicans accuse Democrats of generating opposition to President Bush by alleging that the President wants the draft re-established after the November election to provide for more troops in Iraq. Various media sources claim that the administration is quietly trying to get these bills passed now, while the public’s attention is focused on the November 2 elections. Though the House already killed bill HR 163, keep an eye on this legislation in the Senate. Check www.hslda.org and type S 89 into the search box to view the Home School Legal Defense Association’s tracking of the Senate bill. Or follow the legislation at www.house.gov/rangel/ by typing S 89 in the bill search box. You can also express your views to Senator Hollings at hollings.senate.gov/.
Need to know how to do something? E-mail your questions to howto@c-ville.com.
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Food fright
Supply drops at food banks as demand rises
The sluggish economy has taken an unexpected casualty, namely the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank network, which is experiencing a 14 percent drop in donations compared to this time last year. The operations director, Lyn Hall, says that as of September 30, for a three-month period, the food bank this year had received donations totaling some 787,000 pounds of food, compared to 911,000 pounds of food for the same period last year.
Blame the economy.
“Food processors and those in the business of providing food to food banks are, rightly so, looking for ways to increase revenue,” says Blue Ridge Area Food Bank CEO Marty White. “So, they are looking to secondary markets that are paying pennies on the pound as opposed to donating to the nonprofits for nothing.” (Secondary markets include dollar stores or close-out stores, which sell perfectly good items that might not meet the requirements of primary grocery stores.)
“There’s nothing wrong with that because they’re able to save jobs if they can increase revenue,” White adds. “But at the same time we continue to see the demand for food remain steady and even increase.”
As a result, Charlottesville’s own Thomas Jefferson Area Food Bank, one of four food banks in the Blue Ridge Area network and which provides food to the city of Charlottesville and the counties of Albemarle, Buckingham, Culpeper, Fluvanna, Greene, Madison, Orange and Rappahannock, has been affected.
At the same time, says Thomas Jefferson Area Food Bank regional manager Sarah Althoff, there is a surge in demand for food bank services. “An increased need is happening because working families are struggling to make ends meet. A big part of that is that minimum wage is not even living wage. So we’ll see one or more members of a household are working, but they are still not able to provide groceries for their family.”
Authorities say 40 percent of the people using food bank services are working or have someone in their household working. Last month, the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank network served 36,000 people.
“More and more we see the working class coming in,” says White. “The folks who are working their hardest, not sitting on their porch waiting for a handout, but working one, two, or three jobs. We’ll see people in their [work uniforms] coming to get food before they go to work or standing in line for food after they get off work.”
Those who visit the food bank can usually expect to find foodstuffs like peanut butter, dried milk and canned salmon from government sources, along with privately donated food like coffee, canned meats and stews and canned fruit.
Those seeking to donate should know that “We’re actively looking for cereals, meats, canned fruits and vegetables,” says Althoff. Additionally, cash donations are needed.
“The most staggering thing that we try to get across is: For every dollar donated we are able to provide $17 of food and food services due to our bulk purchasing power,” says Althoff.
At one time, the federal government played a larger role in supporting local food banks, but “The government has gotten out of the social service industry,” says White, “and what’s taking its place—the churches, soup kitchens, Salvation Army— has always been there and with the increased demands that’s where folks are having to go.
“The old food bank model is changing. We are having to rely more on the public for donations and food drives.”
With winter approaching and need predictably on the rise during the colder months, there will likely be no drop-off on referrals to the food bank, even as donations decrease. Sources at the Monticello Area Community Action Agency say that in September alone they referred more than 70 needy people to local food banks.—Victoria Long
Election undercard comes to 29N
Goode and Weed square off in debate at Northside Library
About eight hours before Bush and Kerry began their third and final debate, Virgil Goode Jr. and Al Weed had their own oratory tussle at the Northside Library on Route 29N. The debate on October 13 between Goode, a Republican who represents this district in the U.S. House of Representatives, and Weed, the Democratic challenger, exposed many parallels to the Bush vs. Kerry main event.
Goode, like Bush, speaks with a common-man twang and inherited the political legacy of his father, with whom he shares his name. Weed shares Vietnam vet cred with Kerry. And, like the Democratic presidential candidate, Weed sometimes meanders in the weeds when trying to explain his positions.
But the two debates differed in that Goode and Weed each offered arguments that were aggressively straightforward. Goode and Weed came down more firmly than their national counterparts with their stances on gay marriage, abortion, guns, immigration and other issues. To borrow from Bush’s money line in that evening’s debate, the congressional candidates staked out platforms that are on the left and right banks of the “mainstream in American politics”—though defining what exactly is “mainstream” seems impossible in this polarized political season.
The Northside Library event was also snippier in tone than was the final presidential debate. After Weed took a shot at Goode’s success as a lawyer, Goode cited a harsh C-VILLE Weekly review of the wine Weed produces at his Nelson County winery. (Goode added that C-VILLE is otherwise “all for” Weed. If you missed the newspaper’s endorsement of Weed, that’s because we haven’t published one.)
Below are snippets from the Goode/Weed debate. Undecided voters, who have been bathed in cloying praise from the media during this election season, might want to just flip a coin if these debate comments don’t help them make up their minds.—Paul Fain
The draft
The candidates were asked if they’d support a military draft if a re-elected President Bush called for one. Weed said he would back the draft in this scenario, but only if the volunteer-only force was “still stuck in Iraq with no way out” and required bulking up. Goode did not directly address the scenario, saying, “We don’t need to go to a draft…we need to maintain an all-volunteer force.”
Health care
Goode said, “Our health care system is still probably the best in the world.” But acknowledging the problem of growing health care costs, Goode supports tax credits for individual and families’ expenses on private health insurance. Goode also stressed the need for tort reform to help limit medical malpractice suits that increase healthcare costs and cause “doctors and hospitals to continually practice defensive medicine.”
Weed supports a single-payer health care system, which would expand Medicare coverage to all Americans for health care and prescription drugs. “Every other industrialized country has this, but Virgil, and his pals in the drug and health insurance industry, will try to persuade you that health care justice and efficiency is a socialized plot,” Weed said. “I believe you can think for yourselves.”
Gay marriage
Weed supports gay marriage and said Goode and other gay-marriage opponents are seeking to “deny rights to a certain group of Americans” with disingenuous arguments that are bolstered only by “alarmist claptrap.”
“If you want to legalize homosexual and gay unions, you ought to vote for Al Weed,” Goode said, before vigorously asserting his belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman.
Gun control in D.C.
Congress recently voted to revoke Washington, D.C.’s ban on handguns. Weed disagrees with this vote, stating that Washingtonians should be able to determine the city’s handgun policy without federal intrusion.
Goode voted for the bill, and said high murder and theft rates exist in D.C. because “all the crooks know that the law-abiding citizens in D.C. can’t protect themselves.”
Metro sexual
Sex and the city life in a new book by UVA student Jane Mendle
In January 2003, while on winter break at home in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 28-year-old UVA psychology graduate student Jane Mendle had no plans to sit down at the computer and bang out a best seller. But five weeks of vacation and “not really a New Year’s resolution” left her with 76 pages of what would soon become Kissing in Technicolor, published this month by the Avon Trade division of Harper Collins.
What the layman would call “chick lit,” Harper Collins prefers to classify as “commercial women’s fiction,” according to Mendle. And, in typical Bridget Jones (the ne plus ultra of chick lit) hilarity, the novel comes complete with ridiculous e-mail excerpts and lists of neuroses. The plot follows Columbia University film school graduate student Charlotte Frost and her doomed romance with daytime-TV heartthrob Hank Destin, whom she casts in the lead role of her highbrow thesis film. After Charlie and Hank make whoopie, antics ensue.
So far, the book has gotten a lot of play, with Publisher’s Weekly, Cosmopolitan and Booklist all pushing it, not to mention the coveted four stars from Seventeen Magazine.
“I didn’t expect it to end up being as big a deal as it has ended up being,” says Mendle, describing the day she started writing as “just seeming right.”
With the first 76 pages completed, Mendle—who in a fashion similar to her heroine lived in New York and worked in publishing and film in her early 20s—found herself an agent. Mendle’s agent found her a book deal and cash advance. Admitting the money was “a lot of motivation,” Mendle put in the laptop hours at local coffeehouse Java Java and had her novel wrapped up by November. (Coming full circle, Mendle gives two readings of Kissing in Technicolor at her old haunt on October 28 at 7 and 8:30pm.)
When talking about her experience, Mendle is visibly astonished by the ease with which a book deal fell into her lap. She is less surprised, however, by the fact that she wrote the thing at all. Always an exacting e-mail correspondent, Mendle believes she simply channeled the energy she devoted to her 9-to-5 correspondence into writing the novel.
A self-described grammar freak and “voracious reader,” Mendle explains that she was drawn to chick lit because, when she was younger, “there was something…about trashy romance novels…that really resonated” with her.
The success of Kissing in Technicolor aside, Mendle has no plans to completely forego a career in psychology for the glitzy lifestyle of a best-selling author. She does, however, plan to write again one of these days—perhaps pop psychology, perhaps something else.
“When and where is unsure,” she says. “But I can’t imagine not ever writing another book.”—Nell Boeschenstein