Tucked alongside Moores Creek in Azalea Park, two wide rows of garden plots form a welcoming and fruitful oasis. Canes of blackberries stand tall, bunches of unripe grapes hang from the vine, tasseling corn peeks over the tops of fences and in the far corner, a grove of banana trees rises in a tropical salute.
Each fenced garden beckons with a unique entrance, reflecting, perhaps, the personalities and resources of each gardener: a ladder set to hinges, an old wooden door with a glass pane, a baby gate. Creative shade structures and tool sheds dot the gardens, while wheelbarrows rest upturned. Some plots are neat, with mulched paths and outlined beds, some show an encroachment of weeds and others still are abandoned jungles.
After Dominion's rebuild in Rockbridge County, this is the view from Kristopher Baumann's front yard. Courtesy of Kristopher Baumann
City and county residents heavily criticized Dominion Virginia Power’s plans to rebuild area transmission lines at a recent public hearing, and a Rockbridge County man, who has filed suit against the power company after a similar rebuild in his area, says locals’ concerns are justified.
“They marred one of the most beautiful valleys in the state so they could save themselves a little bit of money,” says Kristopher Baumann, who owns a farm in Rockbridge.
His suit alleges that Dominion lied about the number and type of towers it planned to build and the degree to which new structures would resemble those being replaced. The power company also published false information to the public and did not follow statutorily required procedures, according to the suit.
“Dominion has admitted that it made no attempt to mitigate the appearance of the transmission line as it traverses nearly 40 miles of pastoral landscape through the Shenandoah Valley,” the lawsuit reads. “Although other projects in Virginia have been built with darkened towers at the lowest heights possible, so as to blend more effectively in a rural environment, these towers are enormous and made of a bright galvanized steel that reflects in the sun, making the long line of towers a scar upon the landscape that is visible above the trees, from miles away.”
The materials Dominion is proposing to use to rebuild the area’s Cunningham-Dooms 500kV transmission lines, which run almost 30 miles through Albemarle, is the biggest turnoff for some locals.
At the August 8 State Corporation Commission public hearing, Albemarle County Supervisor Ann Mallek said she has been disappointed by Dominion’s “misrepresentation and incomplete information,” and she asked the commission to reject Dominion’s application for the local rebuild, citing the height, width and, most importantly, she said, the appearance and color of the towers.
“The company rejects the COR-TEN material, which has been used for decades,” Mallek says. COR-TEN provides protection from corrosion through a chemical process that turns steel into a brownish color that blends with the landscape.One of these lines built in 1960 that was supposed to last 25 years has lasted more than 50 without any expensive maintenance treatments, she says. “Therefore, the worry that there is a structural deficit is not supported by facts.”
In a report to the SCC, Dominion has stated there is a $266,000 difference in total installation costs to use darkened poles rather than the silver galvanized poles, says Mallek, and “the additional investment is minute when compared to the damage that the galvanized poles will do to the scenic viewshed of Albemarle.”
Daisy Pridgen, a Dominion spokesperson, says the decision to use different poles is not cost-based, but issue-based. The overall cost of the project is slated at $60 million.
“Significant issues were discovered in the structural joints of all lattice tower structures built with COR-TEN steel,” she says, and Dominion stopped using it several years ago.
When a galvanized steel tower is first erected, Pridgen says, “it can appear somewhat reflective initially, but the exterior finish dulls relatively quickly and fades to a medium gray color,” she adds, “similar to the dulled effect observable over time on highway guardrails.”
In the Cunningham-Dooms 500kV rebuild, each structure of about 160 is being replaced and the height of new towers will be about 28 feet taller on average. The original line, built in the early 1960s, needs to be replaced to current standards to maintain system reliability, Pridgen says. Dominion is now working to provide detailed responses to the August 8 SSC hearing, which will be available in September.
Says Mallek, “We need engineers to find ways to accomplish this rebuild with brown poles to reduce the impact of the line, not accountants telling the SCC that this extra cost is too much.”
In Rockbridge and Augusta counties, Dominion got approval for the rebuild from the SCC “based on false numbers,” Baumann says, “claiming that the tower heights would be far less than they actually are.” At the time, Dominion’s website said the average height would be 115 feet, though towers are as high as 174 feet, his suit claims. Originally, towers ranged in height from 74 feet to 149 feet.
On November 19, 2012, Dominion filed the application to rebuild the existing transmission with both a 500kV line and a new 230kV line, though the previous build included only the former. The SSC approved it, but at the end of the application process, the power company withdrew it and filed another application a year later.
“In addition, when explaining how the 2013 heights would differ from what was approved for 2012,” Baumann says, “Dominion stated to the SCC that the increases in tower height on average would be two to 14 feet, but tells [the Department of Environmental Quality] that 14 feet would be the maximum increase height, neither of which was factually accurate.”
On September 24, 2013, Dominion’s lawyer, Charlotte McAfee, sent an e-mail that urged the DEQ not to review the second application, which she said would involve only “slight modifications” from 2012 plans and that the “modifications do not change the visual characteristics of the structures.”
In 2015, Dominion produced an Excel spreadsheet to the SCC that showed original tower heights, proposed tower heights in the 2012 and 2013 applications, with one increasing as much as 41 feet, Baumann says. Though it was only recently made available to the public, he says it shows that the company was aware of height discrepancies at the time of filing their applications.
Though the project isn’t finished, the average of the newest constructed towers is 148.5 feet tall, Baumann has concluded from the spreadsheet.
An achievable goal with the lawsuit, he says, is to force Dominion to mitigate the damage it has already done by painting the power lines and towers a darker color. He says he won’t stop fighting the company, which has “deep pockets” and “enormous legislative power.”
“They’re going to try to run me into the ground and anybody else who gets in their way,” he says.
From Kristopher Baumann’s front yard, the top image shows the original, nearly invisible transmission lines. The bottom photo was taken after the rebuild. Click to enlarge. Courtesy of Kristopher Baumann
And here in the 5th District, which many thought to be a lock for the elephants,
there are increasingly strong signs that Jane Dittmar has a real shot at reclaiming the seat for the donkeys.
Photo by Eze Amos
If there’s one thing we love about penning this column, it’s making ridiculously premature predictions. And though we’ve whiffed a few (like that time we opined that Bernie Sanders would “be out of the [primary] race by May at the very latest”), all in all our batting average is enviably high. And so, as we look down the final stretch of this year’s presidential and congressional elections, we have an overwhelming urge to predict exactly what will happen.
First, the easy stuff. Donald J. Trump, that pompous, orange-hued huckster, will be defeated in a landslide, and Hillary Clinton will become the 45th president of the United States. This, of course, means that Virginia Senator Tim Kaine will become vice president, and his vacant Senate seat will be filled by Governor Terry McAuliffe, who will almost certainly elevate U.S. Representative Bobby Scott to the chamber (Scott’s district, the 3rd, is the most reliably Democratic in the commonwealth, and so McAuliffe will be able to reward Scott for his years of public service while ensuring that his House seat doesn’t end up in Republican hands).
The donkeys will also flip the U.S. Senate, most likely by unseating one or all of the following elephants: Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire, Rob Portman in Ohio and Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania.
And that, of course, brings us to the House of Representatives, which is still a very tough nut to crack for team blue. As of now, we just don’t see the GOP losing control, as the Dems would need to flip a nearly impossible 30 seats to retake control of the chamber. Still, with a racist demagogue at the top of the Republican ticket, anything can (and probably will) happen.
As it has been for many years, Virginia will be an excellent bellwether for how the Democrats do nationally. Both because the radical House-district gerrymander imposed following the 2010 census has been replaced by a court-ordered, less GOP-friendly map, and because a number of retirements has lessened the Republicans’ incumbent advantage.
There are basically four districts to watch on election night: If the Dems grab one it’s business as usual, two and it’s a decent night, three and it’s a high-fiving donkey celebration, all four and the Republicans may well have lost the House.
The first district to watch is the 4th, home of ex-U.S. Representative Randy Forbes (after his district’s Democratic makeup was increased during the latest redistricting, he ran and lost in the 2nd District Republican primary). Democrat Donald McEachin is expected to win this seat easily.
The second district to keep an eye on is the 10th, where Tea Party darling Barbara Comstock is up against LuAnn Bennett, a well-financed Dem. The 10th went for Mitt Romney in 2012 by a single point, and also voted for Marco Rubio over Trump in the recent Republican primary. Definitely a prime pickup opportunity.
The third key district is Charlottesville’s own, the 5th, where the unexpected retirement of Representative Robert Hurt created an open seat. It’s still favored to go to Republican Tom Garrett, but his far-right-of-center views, coupled with a strong win for the Clinton/Kaine ticket in the commonwealth, could put Democrat Jane Dittmar over the top.
Finally there’s the 2nd District, another open seat created by the retirement of a Republican—Scott Rigell. Nominally a “purple” district (Tim Kaine carried it with 52 percent of the vote in 2012), it will likely go to Republican Scott Taylor who is heavily favored to win over the underfunded Democratic nominee, economist (and Bernie Sanders delegate) Shaun Brown. But if Brown does pull this one off, she could very well be joining the House as a member of the majority.
Exciting times, people!
Odd Dominion is an unabashedly liberal, twice-monthly op-ed column covering Virginia politics.
An off-duty Charlottesville cop in a squad car spotted an unidentified traffic violation on I-64 the evening of August 13, and pursued the alleged offender to Waynesboro, according to the Newsplex. No arrest was made and no injuries reported.
Sweltering in Crescent Halls
Nearly two dozen residents showed up at the City Council meeting August 15 to let councilors know the air conditioning that’s been broken for weeks has created an intolerable situation, particularly for the elderly. Mayor Mike Signer noted that the public housing facility is run by Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority, not the city, while Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy vowed to take action.
Ex-Hoo charged with fraud
Former UVA and Philadelphia Eagles football player Merrill Robertson Jr., 36, was arrested for allegedly bilking senior citizens, former football coaches and alums of schools he attended out of $10 million with a Ponzi-like scheme promising 10 to 20 percent annual returns through his Cavalier Union Investments LLC in Midlothian, the Times Dispatch reports.
Blue Ribbon resignation
Gordon Fields, a Human Rights Commission representative on Mike Signer’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Race, Memorials and Public Spaces, formally resigned as of August 13. His reasons for resignation are unclear.
UVA Olympians win medals
Leah Smith will return to Charlottesville with a gold medal in the 4x200m freestyle relay and a bronze in the 400m freestyle. And UVA alum Inge Janssen earned a silver medal in the women’s quadruple sculls rowing for the Netherlands.
Leah Smith, third from left, celebrates gold in the 4x200m freestyle relay with teammates Katie Ledecky, Maya DiRado and Allison Schmitt. Photo Paul Kitagaki Jr. via ZUMA Wire
Second coming
Matteus Frankovich/skycladap
Northrop Grumman is now encircled with phase 2 of The Shops at Stonefield, which is getting ready to open in front of Costco. Along with “an exciting new mix of partners,” according to EDENS senior VP Brad Dumont, new retailers are opening on Bond Street and townhouses are in the works.
36,000 square feet of retail
in phase 2
Q’doba, Jared Jewelers, Mission BBQ, European Wax, Hair Cuttery, Uncle Maddio’s Pizza, Xfinity and BJ’s Brewhouse are the new tenants
Burger Bach opened in the former Pasture space, and Kendra Scott and Mezeh are recent Bond Street arrivals
Grit Coffee Bar & Cafe and Muse Paint Bar are opening in phase 1 this fall
First round of the Townhomes at Stonefield—104 units—will be completed over the next 12 months
By the numbers
In its 25-year existence, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville hit a milestone this month by completing and dedicating 12 homes at once in a new downtown community called Burnet Commons III: The Park, which used to be a city dump and is now a mixed-income neighborhood built around a central park.
2,333
Volunteers in 2015
41,521
Hours volunteered in 2015
$1,026,783
Labor savings in 2015
$1.17 million
Donations and monetary gifts in 2015
180
Homes built since 1991
2,000
People housed since 1991
Quote of the week
“It seems to me that in order for a Gold Star family to be honored and recognized by the current City Council, they must speak at the Democratic National Convention. This is not appropriate, nor is it acceptable. It reeks of choosing to honor specific families or individuals because they fit your narrative.”—Stefanie Marshall addresses City Council after it honors Khizr and Ghazala Khan August 15.
The Stray Birds takes creative flight with its new record on Tuesday at the Southern. Publicity photo.
When The Stray Birds wandered from the band members’ collective home of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, to Nashville, the group mingled in the songwriter scene and came away with rewarding collaborations, an intuitive producer and a list of talented guest musicians for the new record, Magic Fire, to be released on August 19. Building on momentum fueled by NPR accolades and Mountain Stage gigs, the trio is primed to take its sweet harmonies and sharp lyrical style to a larger audience. “This collection of songs honors what connects us as humans,” says singer and multi-instrumentalist Maya di Vitry.
Tuesday, 8/23. $12-14, 6pm. The Southern Café and Music Hall, 103 S. First St. 977-5590.
Luca Paschina sets his sights on a bianco version of Barboursville's highly regarded Octagon label. Photo: Amy Jackson
I heard about a patch of ribolla gialla vines in Barboursville, and I had to go and see them to find out what was happening with these special grapes.
Luca Paschina, the winemaker at Barboursville Vineyards, first tasted wine made from ribolla gialla about 30 years ago. “It was the mid-1980s in Italy, and I was dining at a restaurant that brought in wines from all over Italy,” says Paschina. “This was unique, because many restaurants focus on their local wines.” It glowed a deep yellow, and Paschina recalls of the grape variety, “It had a name you can’t forget.”
Ribolla gialla (ree-BOWL-ah jee-AH-lah) is a white grape variety that ripens to gold. It has an unusual amount of tannins for a white, which translates to a wide variety of wine styles. It can be made into a dense, dry wine, or it can be fermented with the skins, resulting in a rich amber color and lush tannins.
Affectionately called “ribolla” by those in the industry, the grape has a history in written papal and tax records that can be traced as far back as 1296. Over the last 700 centuries, ribolla’s popularity has waned and waxed in its likely birthplace of Friuli, Italy’s “bootstrap” in the northeast that borders Slovenia. Plantings thrive in the region, but you don’t find the grape in many other places.
You do, however, find some prized ribolla vines in California. Ribolla owes its California plantings to the late George Vare. After an inspiring visit to Friuli—Vare had been on the hunt for pinot grigio—he sourced some ribolla gialla from Josko Gravner in Italy, and ultimately grafted over his pinot grigio. Vare’s love of ribolla affected his winemaking friends, and today you can count several producers of California ribolla.
The California ribolla interest was partly sparked by Gravner, a winemaker who became disillusioned with modern winemaking and went in the opposite direction. He traveled to the country of Georgia, studying its vineyards and the once-common technique of fermenting in clay amphoras. Gravner has steadfastly produced unique ribolla bottlings since the 1990s, and his philosophy has spread to others throughout Europe, and now the United States.
The California vine nursery Novavine took note of the movement and started cultivating ribolla. Nurseries are often the unsung heroes of the wine business—they select and test vine clones that will be ideal for wineries, then wineries purchase ready-to-plant vines that have already been through a quarantine period, ensuring their health and quality. Many of the grape plantings you see at local wineries wouldn’t be possible without such nurseries.
Paschina took note of Novavine’s unique Italian varieties, and in 2015 he brought ribolla gialla vines to Barboursville. When new vines arrive from a nursery, they don’t look like much. They’ve been grafted onto special root stocks, they are already 1 year old, and they look like bundles of twigs. Paschina planted the experimental ribolla vines in late March/early April 2015, after working the ground and preparing it so the young “roots can dig and develop,” he says.
I asked to see the ribolla and Paschina obliged, but as we climbed into a truck he warned that I might not be impressed with the fruit after the crippling series of frosts Virginia experienced this past spring. The vines have been in the ground less than a year and a half and haven’t had much time to develop.
We pulled up to the small patch of baby ribolla vines and were delighted to find healthy looking plants with promising fruit. Despite the frosts, and the youth of the vines, the vines seemed to be making themselves at home and a sense of nascent possibility hung in the air around the bunches. Usually, you don’t get enough fruit to work with until vines are three to five years old. But perhaps the ribolla might find a home in the upcoming 2016 vintage.
Paschina plucked a ripe ribolla berry from the vine for me to taste. The skin was gold and tasty, and slightly tannic in a chalky way. The fragrant juice was sweet and delicious, and the seeds had started to turn from green to nutty brown. These wine grapes had character.
What will Paschina do with the ribolla? It’s too soon to tell. The vines are so young it’s not possible to foresee how they will perform in the long run.
Paschina pauses for a moment. “I’m still deciding,” he says. He might make a 100 percent ribolla gialla wine, but, if so, he would likely make a crisp white wine instead of a Gravner-style amber wine with extended skin contact.
He also shared his thoughts on a different bottling. For a while now Paschina has been fomenting the idea of a Barboursville Octagon wine made from white grapes. An Octagon bianco, if you will. He’ll likely blend several different Barboursville grapes, including a hefty amount of the special Italian varieties he’s been working with, such as the ribolla gialla.
Barboursville Vineyards’ Octagon red blend has become a cornerstone ambassador of Virginia’s wine industry. Could an Octagon bianco also become a Virginia benchmark wine? And what could this mean for ribolla gialla, a little-known grape with, as Paschina says, “a name you can’t forget”?
Erin Scala is the sommelier at Fleurie and Petit Pois. She holds the Diploma of Wines & Spirits, is a Certified Sake Specialist and writes about beverages on her blog, thinking-drinking.com.
The Pollocks is the current project of Seven Mary Three founding member Jason Pollock, and it’s more like a country cousin to the hard-rock group that topped singles charts in the ’90s. Low-key and locally based, The Pollocks have put North Garden on the musical map, building a supportive community where the band can test out new material and enjoy casual gigs among friends, far from the massive stadium shows that Pollock played early in his career.
Saturday, 8/20. No cover, 6:30pm. The Batesville Market, 6624 Plank Rd., Batesville. 823-2001.
A tough one. As a member of Lambchop, guitarist William Tyler helped craft one of the more interesting sounds in alt-rock, a lush mélange replete with strings yet maintaining a welcome twang. The last element was Tyler’s contribution, his abundant gifts becoming more obvious on his own albums, filled with sparkling instrumentals.
On Modern Country, Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche and Megafaun’s Phil and Brad Cook come along for the ride, and it’s a pleasant enough ride. Tyler’s skills remain evident, but there’s a dispiriting complacency to the songs, starting with leadoff track “Highway Anxiety,” an ironic title for a genial melodic theme that spins in place for nine minutes. There are high points—notably the acoustic, concise-but-lively “Kingdom of Jones,” which finds Tyler channeling Glenn Jones (who was reviewed earlier this year)—and low points, such as a Philip-Glass-at-the-homestead passage on “Gone Clear,” which throbs and builds ponderously before petering out. Overall, Modern Country sounds like cozy, closing-credit music for a PBS documentary on woodworking, the songs coasting on their warmth.
No popular music genre is melded to a formula like bluegrass. When Earl Scruggs joined Bill Monroe’s band in 1946, that was it; for decades, hardcore bluegrass artists have stuck proudly to the blueprint —David Peterson even named his backing band 1946.
Dobro virtuoso Jerry Douglas’ latest project has a similarly tongue-in-cheek name, which doubles as a declaration of purpose. Like all traditional bluegrass bands, The Earls of Leicester is basically a cover band; the difference is its specific focus on the repertoire of Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. The Earls deserve credit for eschewing the greatest hits temptation, highlighting lesser-known charmers like “Just Ain’t.” And the pickers have the goods—while Scruggs is untouchable, banjo player Charlie Cushman ably fills the daunting role, shining on “Flint Hill Special.” On the flip side, with his sympathetic adherence to Josh Graves’ style, Douglas effaces his own vast skills, and none of the singers approaches Flatt’s charisma. Rattle & Roar is a loving, if deferential, tribute; ultimately, it’s a reminder of the greatness of Flatt & Scruggs.
The Moontrotters
The Moontrotters (Patuxent)
Of local import, youthful string band The Moontrotters has released its first album, abetted by Nate Leath, Danny Knicely and Mark Schatz. While old time dominates, The Moontrotters are at home with a host of styles, including Scots-Irish fiddling (“Durang’s Hornpipe”), parlor waltzing (“It Takes One to Know One”), even bossa nova (the endearing “Lost Man In a Foreign Country”).
The Moontrotters features songs by Staunton’s Nathan Moore as well as original material. Banjo prodigy Victor Furtado (no relation to five-string whiz Tony Furtado) contributes “Victor in A Minor” and “Victor Vindaloo,” a blazing modal clawhammer number regrettably hampered by the addition of Schatz’s hambone, a visually entertaining form of body percussion that’s distracting on a record. Furtado is a badass (crucial, when you name songs after yourself) and fiddler Isabella Gorman sticks right with him on “Breaking Up Christmas” and “Richmond,” while Charlottesville’s Luke Barnhill provides solid backup on guitar throughout. In isolation, Barnhill and Lauren Wasmund’s vocals are on the light side, blending well in harmony, as on “Mississippi Pearl.” The Moontrotters is a promising debut.
UVA’s Program Council welcomes students back with a performance by platinum-selling hip-hop artist J. Cole, as well as rappers Bas and Cozz. Known for his introspective lyrics and humble beginnings, Cole connects with his zealous fan base through his soulful musical identity. He plays from his latest release, Forest Hills Drive, a concept album that examines the elements of fame from the perspective of boyhood, motivated by Cole’s return to his childhood home in North Carolina.
Saturday, 8/20. $35-75, 9pm. John Paul Jones Arena, 295 Massie Rd. 243-4960.
Champion Brewing Company, founded by Hunter Smith in 2012, is expanding to Richmond with a brewpub set to open by the end of the year. Photo by Eli Williams
Locals certainly don’t need another reason to imbibe in our area’s tasty brews—but we’ll take it. August is Craft Beer Month in our fair state, which means breweries are holding celebrations and events to showcase their wares.
The biggest event to hit our area is the fifth annual Virginia Craft Brewers Fest, hosted by Devils Backbone Brewing Company August 20. The celebration features 85 breweries, which will offer tastings of their beers from 1-7:30pm, as well as music from three bands and nosh from nine food vendors. And don’t worry about having to do rock-paper-scissors with your friends to secure a DD, camping on-site is available (for an extra fee), and includes tent camping, glamping shelter options or an area for your RV. The festival has sold out the last three years, so get your tickets early.
Get in on the action
If you’ve ever wanted an up-close look at how beer is made, now’s your chance. Wild Wolf Brewing Company is hosting hop-picking parties daily (until all the pickin’ is done) at its Nelson County location. Beer-lovers can help fill buckets with locally grown hops and earn Wild Wolf bucks to use on future beers.
Blue Mountain Brewery is also offering a chance to help, with a Hop Pickin’ Party from 11am-7pm August 19 at its Barrel House in Arrington. A volunteer two-hour shift earns you a free lunch and souvenir T-shirt.
A lively bunch
Starr Hill Brewery has been celebrating Virginia Beer Month with several events in August. One dollar of every pint sold in its tap room in Crozet this month goes to The Bridge PAI. And this weekend includes a Lockn’ pre-party with Disco Risqué August 19 and a Back to School party August 21 with music from The Fredds Unplugged.
Opening soon
Champion Brewing Company will open a brewpub in downtown Richmond, and it’s expected to be up and running by the end of the year. Champion will provide the beer for the space, located at 401 E. Grace St., both from its Charlottesville location and brewed on-site in Richmond.
For the food, Champion is partnering with chef Jason Alley and Michele Jones of Pasture and Comfort restaurants in Richmond.
“The Richmond market has been very supportive of our beers, particularly our experimental brews, since day one,” says Champion president and head brewer Hunter Smith in a release.
Wood Ridge Farm Brewery, which grows its own barley, oats, rye, wheat and malt, has supplied malt for other local breweries and distilleries, such as Champion and Devils Backbone, in the past. Now it’s opening its own brewery in Lovingston on September 3.
Closer to home, Random Row Brewery (608 Preston Ave.) and Hardywood Brewery (1000 W. Main St.) are both looking at fall openings. On August 9, Random Row brewed its first batch of beer on its larger brew system, a session IPA with Mosaic and Chinock hops, that will fall in the 4-5 percent ABV range. They plan to have 14 kegs of the session IPA at the brewery’s September grand opening, the date of which they’ll announce soon.
Hardywood, based in Richmond, is opening a nano brewery here in which they’ll brew small batches of one-offs. Beers that get C’villians’ stamp of approval could eventually hit the larger market. The brewery’s outpost, located in the Uncommon building, is projected to open in September or October.
