Kudos to the Breedens
Regarding the new Fox Ridge project on Fifth Street Extended south of town [“Southern exposure,” December 6], it’s interesting how much folks have been focusing on the integrity of the Breeden family in their sale to Forest Lodge LLC.
Without knowing much about the Breedens, their history in Charlottesville, or the personal (and I mean personal) details of the transaction, people seem to think it’s appropriate to make them out to be a guilty party in the inevitable suburban sprawl of our area.
The Breedens have made a very positive contribution to the Charlottesville/Albe-marle area for many years, serving this com-munity in a way that many others could only aspire to. They also have been very responsible stewards of the land in question.
To them I say: CONGRATULATIONS on your good fortune! It’s well deserved. I wish you the very best, for all you have done to make our community a better place to live.
Pete Armetta
petearmetta@yahoo.com
Happy holidays
I just want to thank you for Nell Boeschenstein’s article on the Santa Project that was coordinated through the local jail [“Santa drops by the jail,” The Week, December 13]. The response we received was overwhelming and we were able to help make Christmas brighter for more than 30 children. In addition, we received more than $1,000 toward the purchase of gifts for the children and for cards that the inmates were able to send to their families.
I hope you had a nice holiday and wish you a New Year filled with opportunities for future articles that will make a difference in the lives of others.
Holly Heilberg
Santa Project
Albemarle County
Grave concerns
At the risk of overstaying the 15 minutes of fame C-VILLE accorded me [“Meet the activist,” The Week, December 27], I think it important to clear up confusion one aspect of your Q&A with me may have caused.
Immediately after quoting me about Southern Development’s “utter refusal even to acknowledge both deeded and anecdotal evidence of a 19th-century cemetery on the property,” you inserted: “[When contacted by C-VILLE, Charlie Armstrong of Southern Development said the company hired surveyors and consulted old deeds but found no evidence of a cemetery.—ed]” Consequently, readers may think there’s doubt about a cemetery having been established on the land in question. There is no doubt.
Information regarding the May 14, 1883, deed (Albemarle County Deed Book 84, pages 194-195) by which the descendants of UVA master bricklayer and Char-lottesville builder Allen W. Hawkins (1799/1800-1855) reserved “a family graveyard” on land now embraced by Ridge Street, Cherry Avenue and Fifth Street SW has been in city files for almost 30 years as byproduct of Charlottesville’s first historic landmark survey. I found that deed and the plat to which it relates (Albemarle County Deed Book 58, page 365) independently in 2003 as part of my ongoing research into my neighborhood’s past. Subsequent research—both mine and (entirely separate from mine) that of archaeologist Ben Ford, who’s made a professional specialty of rediscovering lost cemeteries both on paper and on the ground—narrowed the probable location of the Hawkins graveyard to a parcel that Southern Devel-opment proposes altering irremediably. (Illegal bulldozing on that parcel five years ago severely complicated any on-ground search.) Since then, two individuals with deep local roots have come forward with their childhood memories of seeing gravemarkers where documents point.
Evidence of the Hawkins family burying ground has been in the hands of both current City officials and Southern Development operatives for more than a year. I told Southern Development’s project architect about the cemetery in May 2004. The most recent addition to the growing record—a former neighbor’s personal gravestone-encounter memory from the 1940s—came out at a November 16 City Hall meeting Charlie Armstrong attended. Nevertheless, Southern Development’s response to the cemetery issue continues to be, as it has been from the beginning, relentless denial laced with elaborate scorn.
Burial sites are big headaches for developers. They stop bulldozers. They create legal exposure. Indeed, to knowingly disturb human remains is a felony in Virginia, one charged as “Violation of Sepulchre.” The term is antique because the principle is ancient. The moral obligation to protect such sites is timeless.
Antoinette W. Roades
Charlottesville
Patrol those purse strings
In reference to “What’s the price of security? $4.3 million” [The Week, December 27] regarding the use of Homeland Security funds: Why did none of this money go to protecting our synagogue, a much more obvious security need than “abdominal health education.” Who made these local allocation requests and decisions? Thanks.
Mark Gruber
Charlottesville
Learning curve
Thank you for using the term “disabled” instead of “the handicapped” in your most recent story on Little High Street [”More twists on Little High Street,” The Week, January 3]. I really appreciate it. For extra bonus points, move up to “people living with disabilities.”
Alison Hymes
Albemarle County
CLARIFICATION
The December 27 article “Inside Warner’s final budget” stated that Warner proposed spending $200 million to upgrade water treatment plants in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. We meant to say wastewater treatment plants.