City announces public input session for Belmont Bridge

Nine months after it was repaved following last winter’s severe storms—and years after  talks put estimated repair costs at $9 million—the Belmont Bridge remains overdue for its makeover. The sidewalk on the east side of the bridge was recently closed due to safety concerns, and City Council will discuss repairs at an upcoming meeting.

Now, however, a design team says the bridge is ready for a critical closeup, for those locals who wish to weigh in. On November 30, a 6pm meeting at CitySpace offer an opportunity for public input on the bridge project. Members of the public may also submit thoughts online at www.belmontbridge.com (when the site launches) and by mail through December 15.

"The existing bridge needs to be replaced with a safe, functional and attractive bridge that will serve the needs of the community now and into the future," reads an e-mail distributed by City Spokesman Ric Barrick. "The Design Team has begun collecting information on existing conditions and is now seeking input on the public’s expectations—regarding the design as well as construction process."

What does the Belmont Bridge need? Give it some thought this weekend, and leave your thoughts below.

Fundraising, construction of new library in Crozet remains uncertain

In December of last year, Albemarle County Supervisors voted to postpone the construction of an expanded Crozet library.

“I am not willing to grant this anything more than a temporary setback at this point, because the library on schedule by 2012 would have been a tremendous boost to the resurgence of downtown Crozet and we were all counting on that,” said Board Chair Ann Mallek at the time. Mallek represents the White Hall District, which includes Crozet.

Now, according to the Daily Progress, officials hope the library can be finished with grants and donations. Although a fundraising committee has already raised a small amount of the proposed a goal of $1.6 million, members are asking for completion of the library’s design and engineering prior to renewed efforts in finding donors.

As approved earlier, the design for the new library calls for 18,000 square feet of space with an additional shelf space of around 5,000 square feet, a much larger facility compared to the less-than 2,000-square-foot existing facility.
 

An early library design.

Oh deer, now what?

I was a vegetarian for a long time, and still sort of think of myself that way. It’s really not an accurate designation, though, because I eat beef, chicken, and pork, if they’re local. When it comes to meat, the idea of knowing the farmer is even more important to me than it is with vegetables. I’ll eat generic veggies in a pinch, but meat from a mystery source is not at all appetizing to me.

Meanwhile, we have ultra-local meat roaming our land, in the form of deer. (Turkey and rabbit too, but we’ll leave that aside for now.) Neither my husband nor I have any hunting experience. But, for a couple of winters now, he’s talked about learning to harvest some of this nutrition-on-the-hoof. The initial questions that always come up are, How would one learn how to hunt? (One answer: Jackson Landers’ classes.) How to emotionally handle the act of killing an animal? And, finally, do we even like venison?

We now have a chance to home in on that last one, because a neighbor gave us a large piece of deer meat. It was so fresh that it was still warm—quite an amazing-looking object, with silvery connective tissue lining one side of the dark red steak.

We were completely unprepared to deal with this gift, so we put it in the freezer. And now I turn to you, dear (deer?) readers. What’s the best way for two people who have almost no history eating venison to cook this up? Should we try to mask its flavor, or cook it simply and just experience the essence of the thing?
 

Feeling like a turkey

Off we go for Thanksgiving…to Florida! Yep, we’re doing a 15-hour drive with a not-quite-four-month-old. If I didn’t already know we’re crazy, I’d say “We must be crazy.”

Covering much of the Eastern seaboard in a car could never be said to be green, but we’ll undertake our usual strategies to minimize the impact. First of all, we’ll bring lots of food with us. This means we’ll need to buy fewer bags of chips, fewer bottles of water, fewer fast-food sandwiches wrapped in too much packaging. (Our road food of choice: trail mix, sliced carrots, and a not-especially-healthy sandwich, a favorite in my husband’s family, called “peppers and eggs.” They’re made using the whitest, spongiest hamburger buns you can buy. And our own eggs, natch.)

Second of all, I can practically guarantee that we’ll back off on our hotel room’s A/C or heat–whichever one is being blasted like mad on that particular da–thus saving a tiny little bit of energy. Maybe we’ll save one lump of coal, somewhere in a southern power plant, from being burned. And I won’t use those plastic-wrapped plastic cups in the room, either.

Who am I kidding? The bottom line is, we (along with half of everyone else in this country) will be burning lots of fossil fuels so we can be with family on the holiday. It’s an unsustainable act in a world that hasn’t yet figured out how to move people around sustainably. Our little acts of contrition, involving miniscule pieces of plastic and paper, really can’t offset this action. We could stay home and be alone, or we can try to convince everyone else to move up here, so that Thanksgiving can be celebrated with a minimum of travel and a maximum of Polyface turkeys.

Either way, we can try to express our thanks by being sensible and frugal, even if it’s in the tiniest of ways.

Virginia Starts 20-4, Loses 70-58 to Wichita State in Maui

Virginia was hot early leading 20-4, but Wichita State came back and beat the Hoos 70-58. The Shockers’ bench players outscored Virginia’s reserves 28-2.

Mike Scott led Virginia with 16 points as he also added 10 rebounds and 3 assists. Both teams had 10 turnovers on the afternoon.

Virginia (3-3) next plays Monday at Minnesota as part of the ACC/Big- 10 Challenge. 

Toys, and toxics, on parade

Now that our daughter’s old enough to grab things (and, inevitably, put them in her mouth), toys have become a big part of our world. I confess to being one of those parents who, before the birth of the child, was adamantly anti-plastic—only to change my tune once the actual playing began.

The toys in our collection came from several different places, each presenting its own dilemmas. First of all, we have new toys that people bought us as gifts. Some of these are made of wood or organic cotton. Most, however, are hard plastic, polyester, and so forth; many are made in China. Even many months after BPA received a very public flogging, lots of baby toys still aren’t labeled “BPA free”—so you have to assume that you wouldn’t want them in your baby’s mouth. It’s sad to feel ambivalent about using something given as a gift, but that’s the way it is.
 

Our girl LOVES this one, but what is that skirt made of, anyway? And aren’t her eyes creepy?

Then there are a couple of toys I bought at the SPCA Rummage Store. In avoiding plastic, I ended up with fabric toys. Once I got them home, I realized these would need to be cleaned, since who knows where they’ve been. At that point, laziness took over and weeks later, I’ve neither cleaned them nor offered them to our baby. Would they go in the washing machine? What if they have wooden parts?

A haven for germs, or just a whole lot of fun?

Finally, there are a bunch of (mostly plastic) toys my mother saved from my own childhood. The sentimental value of these is obviously through the roof, but I imagine the chemical profile of those plastics is dubious at best.

1977 is calling. It wants its petals back.

Using secondhand stuff is always greener than running out to buy a lot of new products, but a baby’s health is so important. Any parents have some advice?
 

UVA Dean tells New York Times that early admission reduces student anxiety

UVA’s return to early action admission was recently featured in the New York Times. Dean of Admission Greg Roberts presented the Board of Visitors with the new policy last week.

Starting in the fall of 2012, high school seniors can apply to UVA early, but their decision to do so is nonbinding—a difference between the school’s plans for 2012 and the former binding early admission policy, dropped in 2007.

In the article, Roberts tells the reporter that he and his staff heard from high school councilors in Virginia that students want to know whether they have been admitted to UVA as early as possible. He adds that students accepted early to other schools sometimes did not apply to UVA during the regular admissions cycle.

"In some ways, this well help eliminate some of the stress," Roberts tells the Times. "I know that sounds counterintuitive."

Roberts also told the Times that the group of students that applied early to nonbinding programs is often more economically and racially diverse than groups of students that apply to binding programs. The previous week, the Times’ Choice blog published stats from schools with binding early decisions programs that show an increase in early applications at many programs.

 

Cuccinelli weighs in on Bell’s texting bill, addresses sexting

In what might be the first official correspondence between a Virginia Attorney General and a State Delegate to use the word "sexting," AG Ken Cuccinelli issued a four-page opinion to clarify a few points for a bill authored by Albemarle County Delegate Rob Bell.

The bill is an attempt to close what Bell characterizes as a legal loophole by treating lewd or threatening text messages as comparable phone calls, a Class One misdemeanor according to the Code of Virginia. In his opinion, Cuccinelli says teachers may use a standard of "reasonable suspicion" when considering whether a student might be violating state or school laws with a cell phone.

And as Rosalind Helderman points out, Cuccinelli opines about sexting. Specifically, teachers who confiscate cell phones and discover materials that constitute child pornography may not share those materials with other school employees; rather, the materials should promptly be turned over to law enforcement.

Click here for Cuccinelli’s opinion, and here for C-VILLE’s recent story on Bell’s bill.

Virginia Organizing to Congress: Extend jobless benefits, and end Bush tax cuts

It may be the day before Thanksgiving, but Virginia Organizing isn’t on vacation just yet. Organization members and about 30 residents took to the streets to rally to end the "Bush tax cuts," set to expire on December 31, and extend unemployment benefits by a November 30 deadline.

Created in 2001 and 2003, the Bush tax cuts apply to couples and individuals with annual incomes greater than $250,000 and $200,000, respectively.

City Councilor Kristin Szakos took the stage and told the crowd that if the tax cuts are extended, “Charlottesville has a lot to lose.” Conversely, if unemployed Americans have some insurance, Charlottesville stands to gain. “We can’t afford to leave the unemployed out in the cold,” she said. 

Janet Lewis said she has been unemployed and has worked until she became disabled. She has relied on unemployment benefits and is now thankful for the opportunity to get back on her feet.

"That’s how [the system] is supposed to work," she said. "The unemployed have helped build America and they need to be supported" in a time of need, Lewis told C-VILLE.

The crowd at the Free Speech Monument on the Downtown Mall.

Residents calling Congress.

Signing petitions to end the Bush tax cuts and extend the unemployment benefits.

A turkey-shaped petition, in the spirit of Thanksigiving.
 

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Recession bypasses St. Anne's-Belfield







St Anne’s-Belfield recently ended its centennial year capital campaign, the largest fundraising drive in the school’s history.  The elusiveness of a precise founding date for the school as it presently stands—claims could be made for celebrating the centennial in 1956, 2039 or 2075, among other years—evidently did not put a damper on the efforts, as STAB raked in a haul that exceeded even the school’s lofty hopes when it began the campaign in 2009.



The $30 million renovation of St. Anne’s lower campus, which includes new athletic fields as well as K-8 classroom buildings, is winding down.




According to STAB historian Kay Walker Butterfield, the school’s pedigree dates back to 1856. That’s when the Albemarle Female Institute opened on 10th and E. Jefferson streets. In 1910, one Henry Lee bought the struggling academy and turned it into the St. Anne’s School. 

By 1939, St. Anne’s was doing well enough to relocate to a new campus, paying $40,000 for a property on Ivy Road that had been the home of Elizabeth Wetmore, a journalist noted in her day for taking on fellow reporter Nellie Bly in a race around the world. By 1975, St. Anne’s and the nearby Belfield School had merged, and the school has been spread across the Wetmore property, dubbed Greenway Rise, and Belfield property ever since.

So how does this history lesson tie into the capital campaign? STAB initiated the campaign last year to celebrate 100 years of this path to the present and make enough cash to continue it well into the future. To that end, St. Anne’s raised a staggering—and staggeringly specific—total of $44,000,407.21 (picture a Mr. Burns type scrawling out his check for $7.21). 

Luke Anderson, STAB’s director of communications, says that the campaign had four goals: bulk up the school’s endowment (and this it did, up from $2.7 million last year to $17 million at present); sustain $1 million-plus in its general fundraising coffers; build a new arts and science center on the Greenway Rise campus; and perform a major overhaul of the Belfield campus. 

The former two goals certainly may not do much to dispel, as Anderson puts it, the “rich kids on the hill” image that STAB holds among many in the area, particularly given that most of the money is from parents of current students. However, Anderson says that the push to increase the endowment is largely about stabilizing tuition. “It allows us to keep tuition steady and try to offset the 2 to 4 percent annual increase in tuition that most schools face,” says Anderson.

The endowment is also intended to assist the 41 percent of STAB students who receive financial aid. Anderson contests the notion that this is simply subsidizing the school’s athletic programs and says that financial aid at STAB is purely needs-based. 

The $30 million Belfield renovation project has likewise not been without controversy. C-VILLE previously reported on objections over the former headmaster’s house being demolished to make way for the renovation. But with the demolition well in the past and final construction winding down, STAB expects both campuses to be running at full capacity by next month. The Belfield campus’ new athletic fields and main complex of buildings, housing kindergarten through 8th grade, have been in operation since classes began in September, and the final phase of the project, the preschool building, is scheduled to be completed by the end of this month.