The Landmark Hotel isn’t the only nine-story tower to get underway. Bill Atwood’s Waterhouse tower on Water Street is reinforcing the building in preparation for construction. However, there’s no need to worry about the fate of weekend disco Club 216, which will have five floors of condos built above it. “We remain in full operation and will not close down anytime during the construction,” says Mike Alexander, Club 216 manager and CEO.

Places29, a master plan assembled by consultants to map the future of Route 29N, took a blow from the business-centric Free Enterprise Forum last week. The local group commissioned its own consultant to study the feasibility of installing a split-grade intersection (think overpass) at Rio Road. The resulting report ruled that the overpass would be infeasible and not allowed by the Federal Highway Administration. Likely cheering that news are members of the North Charlottesville Business Council, which has opposed the overpasses because of fears that 29 would become an interstate.

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Every now and again, C-VILLE has published accounts from drug court, which allows nonviolent drug offenders to opt into an intensive regimen of treatment, drug testing and court appearances in lieu of jail time. But the program, which receives $5.9 million in state funding, became one of the latest political footballs tossed around in the cash-strapped General Assembly. The House of Delegates eliminated drug court funding from their version of the budget, reported Bob Gibson last week in The Daily Progress, while the Senate version kept the program at full funding. Speaking at a July 26 drug court graduation, State Senator Creigh Deeds threw around figures to justify the program: It costs $6,000 per person for Drug Court versus at least $22,000 for a year of incarceration—and jailed drug offenders are five times more likely to offend again within a year. House Republicans have argued, according to Gibson, that the program is too soft on offenders and sometimes extends beyond drug offenses.

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