Month: June 2008

Eleven-year-old Azizi Damar Booth was found shot and killed in the kitchen of a house in the 300 block of 6 1/2 Street just after midnight this morning, according to a Charlottesville Police Department press release. Police were directed to Booth by 23 year-old Rueben Lewis III, who they found shot. Booth was pronounced dead at the scene. Lewis was taken to the University of Virginia Medical Center with non life-threatening injuries.

Later this morning, Waverly “Eddie” Whitlock, 27, reported to the police department in connection with the case and is being held in Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail without bond. He has been charged with capital murder, robbery, malicious wounding and other related charges. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 25 in Charlottesville General District Court. Whitlock is believed to be from the 300 block of 6 1/2 Street, and was apparently acquainted with the adult shooting victim, Lewis, who lived with the Booths and was the boyfriend of Azizi’s mother.

"She is just heartbroken and shattered," said Chief Tim Longo at a noon press conference. Police believe that robbery was the motive for the incident but are continuing to investigate.

27 year old Waverly Edward Whitlock, Jr. has been charged with capital murder, robbery and malicious wounding.

Booth was a sixth grader at Walker Upper Elementary School, where he had taken part in a graduation ceremony on Friday. City school superintendent Rosa Atkins said Booth was known as a "student with a big smile" who also had a "passion for basketball." Tomorrow is the last day of school and officials have implemented their crisis control plan to provide counseling to students and staff.

"The grief process takes a long time," Atkins said.

City Council unanimously reaffirmed its support for the long term water supply plan last night, though it added a request for the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority (RWSA) to undertake a maintenance dredging study for the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir and increase water conservation efforts.

“I don’t want to gamble with the future of the water supply,” said City Councilor Julian Taliaferro. “Where I stand is that I would like to move ahead on it. At the same time, I’d like to look at the dredging issue. If something changes on it, I’m certainly open to making some adjustments.”

In order to meet water demands in Charlottesville and urban Albemarle County through 2055, RWSA put together a plan in 2005 to expand water supply by building a 45’ higher dam at the Ragged Mountain Reservoir that would take useable storage from 464 million gallons to 2.19 billion gallons. But because the reservoir has only a 2 acre watershed—not enough to fill it—the plan also includes a new 9.5 mile pipeline from the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir. The estimated combined cost of the plan, which also includes upgrades to water treatment plants and other pipeline upgrades, is $143 million. It was endorsed by City Council and the Board of Supervisors in 2006, and the state Department of Environmental Quality approved the capital projects in February. The proposal still needs approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

For several years, it looked like the plan had strong backing from environmental groups, business interests and citizen watchdogs. But late last year, a group, Citizens for a Sustainable Water Plan, formed to oppose the plan. The key element of their argument is that dredging the South Fork Reservoir is less expensive than it was originally presented. RWSA’s hired consultant, Gannett Fleming, has estimated that dredging to restore the reservoir to its original capacity and maintain that capacity for 50 years would cost between $199 million and $223 million. Recently, a local consortium led by Dominion Development Resources has said that it could dredge the South Fork back to its original capacity for $24 million to $29 million, though those figures do not include costs of dredging over the long term.

Last month, City Council held a work session and a public hearing to reconsider the water supply plan in light of the contentions brought forward by the Citizens for a Sustainable Water Plan. The Board of Supervisors voted to reaffirm its support of the plan in late May.

“I take a very long term view,” said Councilor Satyendra Huja before casting his vote for the plan last night. “In the 21st century, I don’t think that wars will be over oil but I think they will be over water. …I think it’s a good plan to take care of the needs for the future.”

City Council’s dredging caveat was the silver lining for some plan opponents.

“I’m not happy with the decision, but I respect the vote,” said Rich Collins after the meeting. He said he is confident that the study would prove dredging an affordable alternative, allowing RWSA to build a lower dam at Ragged Mountain.

The RWSA board isn’t likely to move ahead with dredging studies, expected to cost between $100,000 and $300,000, until it gets similar support from the Board of Supervisors.

Councilor Holly Edwards drew on The Eagles for insight into certain city controversies, saying that some issues can check out, but they can never leave. “We have almost created a culture where we hold onto these issues and we can’t move on,” said Edwards. “And sometimes it’s better to make a decision, right or wrong, than to live in conflict.”

The long-term community water supply plan has received its final necessary approval: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers today sent the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority (RWSA) a 10-year permit to expand the Ragged Mountain Reservoir with a new dam. The timing—coming the day after City Council voted to reaffirm its support for the plan—is coincidental, according to RWSA’s Executive Director Tom Frederick.

RWSA Board Chairman Mike Gaffney expressed extreme pleasure in a press release. “Local citizens have been talking about the need for expanded water supply for about 30 years, yet not until this moment have we had the complete approval of both the federal and state governments to move forward with actually building the infrastructure we need,” said Gaffney.

Army Corps approval means that RWSA can go forward with construction of a new, 45’ taller dam, which would increase usable storage at Ragged Mountain from 464 million gallons to 2.19 billion gallons. The new dam must be in place before June 2011 to meet a state deadline to replace the current dam, which regulators say could fail in the event of a catastrophic rainfall.

Local officials and involved citizens have suggested phasing the new dam height, possible building only 30’ higher initially. But Frederick says that RWSA will proceed with plans for the full dam unless directed otherwise. Engineering work is currently underway only for the dam base, but the window to chose the initial height will close in the coming months, says Frederick.

Read previous C-VILLE stories for more details on the water supply plan and the controversy surrounding it.

Virginia’s soon to be senior senator, Jim Webb, was interviewed on Sunday by Deborah Solomon of the New York Times Magazine, and while she didn’t get a lot out of him, she managed to get more than George W. Bush during his first interview with Webb. Solomon queried the sometimes terse senator about why he uses the word “fight” in his recent book titles—Webb responded that his publisher made him do it. She also grilled him about possible Democratic VP candidates—Webb said he hadn’t been asked, and that whoever it is should have experience holding elected office, describing his own run for senate in 2006 as “one of the most brutal things” that Webb, a Vietnam vet, has ever been through. When Solomon asks about his son, a Marine who served in Iraq, Webb responded, saying, “He’s good.” Which is a flowery, psychoanalytic description from a Henry James novel compared to his response to the president of the United States when he asked, “How’s your boy?” in 2006: “That’s between me and my boy, Mr. President,” Webb replied.

Jim Webb gives Solomon the full report on his son: "He’s good."