Author: brian-chidester

Martha Sites can envision a time when the vast materials in the world’s libraries are simply a click away. As an Associate of Production & Technology Services at the UVA Library, Sites has spent her career trying to make reading and learning more accessible. And she wants UVA to be at the forefront.

“We got the notion to digitize our entire materials around 1996,” says Sites. She started to estimate the cost for such a project, but says she stopped counting when she reached $7.5 million. “A grant that size would not have gotten us nearly through our collection.”

So when UVA announced its participation in the Google Book Library Project in November 2006, it was cause for celebration. UVA joined Harvard, Stanford, the University of California, Oxford and the University of Michigan, among other prominent libraries around the world, to make its rare book collection accessible through the Google Books online site.

“The initial agreement called for 500,000 books in our collection over five years,” says Sites. “We’ve exceeded our target.” The UVA Library’s collection totals 5.1 million books.

“The goal is not the number of books or a particular collection,” says Ben Bunnell, Google’s Library Partnerships manager. “UVA contributes significantly to our shared goal of digitizing the world’s books and making them available to anyone with an Internet connection.” Bunnell says Google’s scanned book collection now numbers more than 15 million titles.

The Google Book Library Project was announced in 2004, and was almost immediately recognized for its unprecedented ambition to assemble what is intended to be the largest corpus of collected works. By the end of 2010, Google estimated that it had already scanned around 10 percent of the approximately 130 million unique books in the world, with the majority of scanned works being out of print or unavailable commercially.

Yet the project has been continually criticized for its apparent copyright violations. In 2005, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers filed civil suit against the online giant, claiming copyright infringement. A settlement was reached in late 2008.

What has all of this meant to the UVA partnership?

“They don’t affect us at all,” says Sites. “What you actually see through their search is the public domain material. We’re sending them both public domain and current copyrighted materials. But as I understand it, Google can only make that available online if the copyright holder grants them that right.”

This isn’t the only opportunity the University has had to digitize its rare and unique materials. “Since 1992, the UVA Library has been making public domain works freely available online,” says University Librarian Karin Wittenborg.

More recently, UVA has handed off to Google a unique collection of rare Tibetan works, as well as the entire run of Corks and Curls, the University’s yearbook, from 1888 to 2008. None of the scanning for the Google Book partnership is done at the University. The library pulls the books, catalogues what is going out and sends the books off (to “a secure facility run by Google and approved by UVA,” according to the project website) in two-week cycles. One shipment returns for every shipment that goes out. According to Sites, very little damage has been done to any of the library’s books.

At present, the project shows no sign of slowing down. “There are people from the Outback of Australia to the most rural parts of Virginia that have viewed our materials online,” says Sites. “That’s really the best part of what we do: Offer access to books that might not otherwise be seen.”

In an unexpected turn of events, Walmart withdrew its special use permit request to build a super-structure off of Routes 3 and 20 near Fredericksburg. The Orange County Board of Supervisors previously granted the mega-corporation the permit, which would have allowed Walmart to build on 55 acres near a major Civil War site.

Preservation group Friends of the Wilderness Battlefield (FOWB) and other interested parties immediately filed suit, claiming that the Board acted unreasonably and ignored the battlefield’s historical significance, as well as traffic and financial implications for the area. Walmart has three locations in Orange County, as well as stores in Fredericksburg, Gordonsville, Culpeper, Albemarle, Louisa and Greene County. The Greene County store opened last fall and employs more than 300 people.

“I’ve said it before,” says Zann Nelson, president of the FOWB. “We want Walmart in Orange County, just not there.”

This is not the first time that a major corporation went after land from a historic war site in the vicinity. In 1993, the Walt Disney Company sought to develop a historic theme park a few miles from the Manassas National Battlefield Park. Disney quickly killed the project due to protests that threatened its wholesome image.
The Wilderness Battlefield has not been so fortunate; the park was previously encroached upon during the 1970s.

“The small strip mall on Routes 3 and 20 was zoned for commercial use before our organization was even in place to fight it,” stresses Russ Smith, superintendent of the Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park. “But this case now gives us an opportunity to stop the bleeding and protect the Wilderness Battlefield going forward.”

Judge Daniel Bouton of the Orange County Circuit Court heard opening motions in the trial on Tuesday, January 25. Attorney Sharon Pandak, on behalf of the Orange County supervisors, asked that the case be dismissed on the grounds that the board acted within its legal rights when it granted the special use permit in 2009.

To everyone’s surprise—including counsel for the plaintiffs—Walmart opened Wednesday’s session by reading a statement that said the corporation would withdraw its special use permit and hopes to proceed with the structure at a later time, at a location removed from the battlefield.

“I’d like to commend Walmart for making the right decision,” says Robert Rosenbaum, attorney for the plaintiffs.

“Walmart has now created an atmosphere of dialogue that we’ve always hoped for,” agrees Nelson.

At press time, Orange County supervisors had made no official statement regarding their actions. However, District Two Supervisor Zack Burkett does not equivocate: “We granted the permit legally.”

“I hope Dr. [James*] McPherson is a liar,” Burkett continues, “because I’d hate to think such a noted historian could be so inaccurate.” Burkett’s comment came in response to the Pulitzer Prize-winning author’s research regarding the battlefield’s historical boundaries, which encapsulate 2,774 acres.

“The county has taken the position that nothing significant happened there,” says Rosenbaum. “Well, I was looking forward to responding to Mrs. Pandak and that assertion. We had 26 witnesses lined up and ready to go.”

After the dust settled, all parties conceded that a Walmart is still being considered for Orange County.

“There are very few opportunities in life where you can have it all,” concludes Teri Pace, the lone Orange County supervisor who voted against granting the special use permit in the first place. “Hopefully, the county will make a really wise decision about this going forward.”

*Due to a reporting error, Dr. McPherson’s first name was initially given as "Curtis."

By now, most people are familiar with Murphy’s Law. After a meeting with the Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority (RWSA) to discuss possible expansion of the sewage treatment station on Chesapeake Street, residents of Charlottesville’s Woolen Mills neighborhood may feel that whatever can go wrong just might.

There will be an expansion. It’s just a matter of where. Over the next 50 years, the combined infiltration of ground water, rain water and raw sewage is projected to increase by 50 percent, from 8 million gallons per day to 12 million. On December 8, Tom Frederick, executive director for the RWSA, presented neighborhood residents gathered at the Woolen Mills Chapel with four options for expanding the treatment station, with an estimated price range of $27 million to $37 million.

“The meeting last week was just a kickoff meeting to collect feedback from the community,” says Frederick. “The hope is that we can refine these concepts and make a decision in 2011, the earlier the better.”

The cheapest proposal, Option A, calls for a doubling in size of the extant pumping station on Chesapeake at Riverview Park, Option B would move the station into the park and clear some forest acreage. Option C, by far the most controversial, proposes that the RWSA move the pumping station to its main plant on Moore’s Creek Lane—requiring an easement across four properties on East Market Street.

“I cannot quite fathom digging a trench that deep across at least four yards and the park,” says Roger Voisinet, an eco broker with RE/MAX and one of the residents of Woolen Mills who may see his yard torn up if the 60′ easement of Option C goes through. “I hope that option C is dropped soon. Option A seems the most logical and least expensive.”

The Woolen Mills has a reputation for being the place where, pardon the French, shit rolls downhill. Back in 2008, the RWSA’s sewage plant on Moore’s Creek stopped composting biosolids at the site and started shipping them off to a facility in Richmond, with hopes of lessening the foul odors in the air.

“The city knows Woolen Mills has gotten a raw deal,” says Chris Hays, who runs Hays + Ewing architectural studio with his wife, Allison Ewing. “They said originally that you wouldn’t see the sewage treatment center, you wouldn’t hear it or smell it, and they know it hasn’t worked out that way.”

“I agree, the smells have gotten loads better, and I’m O.K. with the status quo,” says Ewing. “I’m distressed at the thought of doubling or tripling the size of the station, horizontally and vertically. I have it straight from one of the RWSA folks, there will always be smells associated with a pumping station. So why do we want to increase that potential smack in our midst?”

Bret Aker, left, and his brother John, hope Charlottesville will become “the next major hub” for engineers who want to develop EV technology.

“We’re hoping to become the next major hub for engineers who want to develop electric vehicle technology,” says John Aker, president and chief technology officer for Aker Wade, whose company is set to work with the city on the project. The Aker Wade facility is a stone’s throw from the Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport north of town.

The project was approved through a Congressional Directed Project, with the Department of Energy supplying the large portion of the grant and the City of Charlottesville contributing another $134,000. “It’s nice to have the earmark from the city and the federal government,” says Aker, “but it’s a very small portion of what we are actually investing in the project,” which he suggests will be in the millions, all said and done.

“I was surprised when the grant was approved,” admits Kristel Riddervold, the city’s environmental administrator from the public works office. “Congressman Perriello convened a meeting about 18 months ago as an open call for business opportunities in the Fifth District. Now that we have the grant, we have one year to fulfill the research, which is basically to investigate the applicability of zero-emissions technology within smaller urban areas.” The city will also purchase four plug-in vehicles for the research in addition to the charging stations. Unfortunately, neither the vehicles nor the charging stations will be available for public use at this stage. “The dispensers will look something like a regular gas station pump with two outlets,” says Aker. “The driver will be able to pull up, plug in and be re-charged in a half-hour.”

“What we’re creating here is meant to be self-serve,” says John Aker.

How serious is the city about the future of EV technology? As recently as October 18, City Council met to discuss permits for home installation EV chargers, predicting that as electric vehicles become more common, an increase in requests for chargers at one- and two-family residential units is to be expected. In an effort to encourage citizens to purchase these vehicles, councilors have suggested a simple low-cost permit fee of $50. 

Aker Wade, whose company tagline is “The World’s #1 Industrial Fast Charge Manufacturer,” has been in the technology business since 2000. “We started out creating fast charge for industrial equipment,” says Bret Aker, John’s brother and Aker Wade’s co-founder and CEO. “The forklift has been battery-run since, what, the 1920s? What we’ve managed to do for that industry is create fast charge technology that allows the batteries to be re-powered while the operator is taking a lunch break.” 

Aker Wade moved into EV technology, says Bret Aker, because “in the ’90s, the state of California had an electric vehicle initiative that said by 2004 10 percent of all on-road vehicles were going to be electric. Well, they were a bit too aggressive with those goals, but what happened was they created all these cottage industries. And one of those was these charging stations. We came in right about the time that they were beginning to say, ‘You know what? This isn’t ready for the EV market, but the technology works perfectly with things like forklift equipment.’ GM, in particular, felt that it was something that could ultimately save them millions of dollars, and GM was our first major contract, catapulting us into this business where we have now delivered over 10,000 fast chargers all built right here in Charlottesville.”

Inside their mid-sized hangar warehouse, the Aker Wade operation maintains a solid industrial equipment business, which is how it funds its venture into EV technology. The prototype for the EV fast charge station sits in the south end corner. From a distance, it looks much like a regular gas station consol, even boasting a typical-looking pump handle to plug into the vehicle. But upon closer inspection, two of Aker Wade’s technicians open the structure to reveal what looks like a large computer inside. 

“That’s basically what it is,” confirms John Aker. “What we’re creating here is meant to be self-serve. We envision these in more modern places, very much the gas station model. You couldn’t have this in your home; you couldn’t afford it. You wouldn’t have the power and the structure to support it. It takes over 50 kilowatts to run it. So it’s a big powerful machine.” 

Financially speaking, the Aker brothers have put their entire business on the line to do this. “There’s no turning back at this point,” says Bret. “Now that we’re coming into the EV market, we’re really starting our base from lessons learned with our forklift technology.” 

Any discussion of the electric vehicle and GM demands a look back at the automaker’s first attempt to manufacture and market these cars during the mid-to-late ’90s.

There’s that pivotal scene in the 2006 documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? when GM spiritlessly crushed and stacked thousands of EV1s like a cord of firewood, then shredded them into a million pieces. The film portrays GM, which spent more than $1 billion in development of the electric car, as ultimately choosing to focus on the vehicle’s few weaknesses, while in collusion with the oil industry to spell certain doom for the EV.

“According to a poll released in May 1994 by the American Automobile Manufacturers Association,” writes Joseph Weiss in his book Business Ethics: A Stockholder and Issues Management Approach, “there was 60 percent support for the [EV] mandate, and nearly 30 percent of those polled were interested in buying an electric car if it were on sale for $20,000 to $30,000.” Yet, GM stands by the company line that says EV1 was discontinued simply because of lack of demand. 

Aker Wade and the City of Charlottesville can thank Tom Perriello for a Department of Energy grant totaling $500,000 to develop two electric vehicle fast-charge battery stations in town.

“I know the guys who worked on the EV1,” counters John Aker, “and they claim it was Rick Wagoner, the CEO at the time, who made the call to kill the EV1. Remember, GM was selling literally thousands of SUVs per day then, and the decision was made to get the EVs out of the way. They could have kept them and used them for municipal purposes until technology progressed, and then they would have been at the forefront. Instead they have to play catch up now.” 

And yet, “this time around, electric cars may even play in Peoria” writes Karen Lange in National Geographic. She also claims that between 2010 and 2012, the auto industry has plans to introduce dozens of new vehicles, both hybrid and fully rechargable EVs.  

Of course, Central Virginia has never played a traditional role in automotive development. And that’s what makes Aker Wade and other like-minded companies outside of Detroit so exciting.

Earlier this year, Central Virginian Oliver Kuttner was awarded $5 million by Progressive for his Very Light Car (a.k.a. Edison2), which debuted at Detroit’s big auto show in January. While still run on gasoline, Edison2 was able to record an unbelievable 100 miles to the gallon. 

In July, the DOE funded a propane Autogas vehicle conversion program that boasted the first of 1,189 emission-cutting cars. Administered by Virginia Clean Cities at James Madison University, the program is set to deploy vehicles that will drastically reduce air pollutants such as carbon monoxide, soot and smog-causing emissions when compared to traditional gasoline vehicles.

More recently, UVA held a two-day symposium and exhibit where experts in engineering, sustainability and auto marketing discussed the future of fuel-efficient cars, and in particular, hybrids.

The Aker brothers, who are self-ascribed “Army Brats,” came to Charlottesville with their parents in 1972. John graduated from Virginia Tech and Bret from UVA. While optimistic about the future of EVs, they are more conservative in their estimation of when we might start seeing these charging stations along freeways. “Five years,” says John Aker. “Governments around the world are waking up to fast charge technology, but it’s been much slower in America.” 

In fact, Aker Wade’s EV fast chargers are currently used by Better Place in Japan and Israel. Additionally, Aker Wade has also supplied EV fast chargers for Chrysler’s ENVI line of electric and hybrid vehicles. That company has proposed a parking lot installation of Aker Wade fast chargers for their employees.

And yet, the ever-present critique known as “range anxiety”—the fear that EVs will leave drivers stranded on the road with a depleted battery—still persists in the minds of many potential consumers. So in early 2010, Coulomb Technologies and Aker Wade announced plans for the development of charging stations enabling drivers to charge their cars in 30 minutes. This announcement helped Aker Wade forge a serious relationship with the auto industry in Tokyo, Detroit and Europe. As such, Aker Wade now has chargers capable of energizing the Nissan Leaf and Mitsubishi iMiEV in around a half-hour, as well. 

“The question remains: When will you buy an electric car?” says Bret Aker. “When will your mom buy an electric car? Answer: When you know you can get from here to Richmond without being stranded. That’s where these fast charge stations come in. When you can stop in Culpepper and get another 50 miles of range in 10 minutes on the way to D.C., that’s when it will reach its peak market. We’re just at the beginning right now.”

The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has already proven the benefit of having fast chargers in Tokyo from 2006-2009. As an example of the technology’s power over the nonbeliever, according to TEPCO, when it allowed employees to drive Mitsubishi iMiEV electric cars, usage at first was low due to fear of running out of power. After deploying several fast chargers around Tokyo, vehicle usage went up 50 percent. Today, there are more than 150 fast chargers in Japan, with plans for another 1,000 to go in the ground in 2011.

“EV is going to be one of those tempering technologies,” John Aker predicts. “As gas shoots up, people will buy more EVs and that’ll keep gasoline from going crazy, right? And it’ll be see-sawing back and forth. You’re going to see a mix of vehicles on the road over the next 20 years. But, eventually, by the middle of this century, you’ll be seeing primarily electric vehicles out there. You’ll have the ranges up. You’re going to have 400 to 500 miles per vehicle and you’ll be able to re-charge within 10-15 minutes, just like you do with gasoline now. The next step after that is to make sure the electricity is coming from renewable resources.”

At the Project Get Ready Technical Adviser meeting on May 13 of this year, the Society of Automotive Engineers claimed they were prepared to evaluate new charging standards for the U.S. market. In states like Arizona and Oregon, state legislators have begun creating statutes for EV parking enforcement and are looking to fund new signage for guiding EV drivers to fast charge stations. Signage examples like this presently exist in Cambridge, Massachusetts, while in Amsterdam, diesel vehicles parked in EV spaces are already being towed.

“It boils down to the price of gasoline,” concludes John Aker as we walk back through the front office. “In Europe, it’s almost $9 a gallon. China is now buying more cars per year than the United States, which means there’s going to be considerable competition for the limited resources in fuel. With EVs, it’ll be much less: a fraction of the costs. We’re in the infancy stages right now, but what will continue to drive this is simple supply and demand, and we think the future is now.”

“There are a number of issues that are important in the planning stages,” says Sarah Francisco, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. “For instance, where and how much logging will be available in the forest is a big issue that affects recreation for people all over the Shenandoah Valley. The George Washington National Forest has more roadless acreage than any other area in the Eastern U.S.” 

For Central Virginians, the GWNF is accessible mainly along Route 81 from the Harrisonburg area south to Roanoke, the bulk of the park being in the Western part of the state, as well as small areas in West Virginia and Kentucky. Besides managing watersheds, which supply drinking water into the homes of about 250,000 residents, the Forest Service is also considering proposals for additional timber harvesting, newly created roads, development of wind energy and oil drilling—all of which has divided big industry and conservationists. 

The GWNF hit the news cycle more recently for another reason: Firefighters in Page County have been trying since the morning of October 24 to put out a raging brushfire. Thus far, 300 acres have reportedly burned.

With the heat squarely on the Forest Service to make the right decision, the biggest issue to emerge from all of this surrounds the natural gas drilling that could be coming to the GWNF’s valley. Also know as “hydraulic fracturing” or “hydrofracking,” the process calls for fractures in the bedrock to be expanded, allowing for heavier water flow in the wells, which increases drilling production.

“They have tried hydrofracking in other states,” says David Hannah, the conservation director of Wild Virginia, an outreach and education group in Charlottesville. “First of all, it uses a tremendous amount of water in the process. Secondly, unknown chemicals are used in the water during the drilling process, creating potential harm in the quality of drinking water.”

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is currently conducting a study on the impacts of hydrofracking. After the study, Forest Service officials say they will have definitive standards by which to make decisions regarding companies that want to drill. 

“So far, none of the six alternatives proposed for the George Washington Forest have addressed the key conservation measures in a balanced way,” insists Francisco. “It’s not just hydrofracking or potential drilling either. They fall short in protecting old growth areas, roadless areas with unique species of plants and wildlife.”

Thus far, no definitive plans have been approved. But the Forest Service says it hopes to have a draft in place by January, with the final plan in place by September, 2011. A public comment period begins in December and runs through February.

 If change is in the air at the McIntire Recycling Center on McIntire Road, you’d never know it in the days just after Labor Day weekend. Cars line the parking lot, as locals young and old carry bags of hand-sorted recyclables around the property, and drop them into segregated bins of plastics, metals and various types of paper materials. “You don’t want to put that egg box in with corrugated cardboard,” says Emmanuel, a tall man in a work uniform, to an elderly woman. “Here, let’s put it in mixed paper.” 

Yet for all of its perceived dependability, the McIntire Recycling Center may soon find its doors closing for good. And with the Center receiving nearly 5 million pounds of recyclables per year, its closing could, at the least, require a serious logical reshuffling of Charlottesville’s recycling approach.

“It’s not a fact,” says Tom Frederick, director of the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority (RSWA), “but there has been discussion about closing it down, largely based on the issue of funding.”

“City Council will be talking with the county about it in October,” confirms Charlottesville mayor Dave Norris. “But so far, there’s been no vote on the matter.” In fact, by December, City Council and the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors will have to decide whether to renew their contracts with the RSWA, which currently operates the McIntire Recycling Center.

“There is no obligation on the county’s part to give any more funds to RSWA beyond December 31st,” says Ken Boyd, an Albemarle County Supervisor. “Certainly the cleanest recyclables collected are at the McIntire Center, but the county isn’t willing to move forward with McIntire without knowing what the city says first. However, if we’re going to continue to fund it for the county without the city’s involvement, I don’t know if we need to have the recycling center in the city.” 

Over the past several years, Charlottesville has seen quite a bit of debate on the subject of recycling, the lion’s share pertaining to a perceived inefficiency on the part of the RSWA. In many ways, the Center itself is the physical embodiment of Charlottesville’s grassroots recycling efforts. 

Initially, a glass recycling center was opened during the early 1970s at the Barracks Road Shopping Center, which soon led to the formation of the Charlottesville Ecology Club. A larger glass recycling facility opened in February 1973 at the corner of Ridge and South streets, where 15 to 20 50-gallon drums of glass were collected the first day. As volume continued to increase, the recycling center moved to its present site on McIntire Road in 1979, where over 691,000 pounds were received at the Center that first year. 

By 1991, the RSWA took over the operation, which yielded an instant upsurge in the variety of materials and poundage of recyclables collected. Yet the numbers have steadily been dropping over the last several years. 

“It’s true, use of the McIntire Recycling Center has declined a little in recent years,” says Frederick. Indeed, surveys taken over one week in April 2009 and again in June 2010 show a drop in vehicles visiting the center, from 3,962 during that week in 2009 to 2,584 during that week in 2010. Additionally, the amount of mixed solid waste tonnage being taken to the Ivy Transfer Station on Dick Woods Road—which the RSWA operates in place of the closed Ivy Landfill—has dropped from over 3,500 tons per month in 2007 to under 2,500 tons in 2010. City officials are now asking what caused this reduction in use. 

“I think Van der Linde [Recycling] has made the RSWA obsolete,” notes Randy Layman, owner of Layman’s Disposal Service, a private company that collects waste in Crozet, Afton and other rural areas throughout the county. Van der Linde Recycling is permitted by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to machine-sift through household trash and construction debris for recyclables, and according to Layman, they accept waste at a much cheaper rate per ton.

“To me, if the McIntire Recycling Center goes away, it won’t make a big difference,” says Layman. “One hundred percent of the waste that my company picks up, we carry directly to Van der Linde over at Zion Crossroads. Do the math: It’s $52 per ton to drop at Van der Linde versus $66 a ton at the Ivy Transfer. Plus, Van der Linde recycles, Ivy doesn’t.” All of which suggests that some now feel that Van der Linde’s single-stream process can and should replace all other forms of city and county recycling.

“I still think it’s a lot closer and therefore cheaper for private haulers to go to the Ivy Transfer than to go all the way out to Zion Crossroads,” counters Norris. Yet, this past June, Charlottesville City Council waved bye-bye to its long-standing agreement with the RSWA, which required city trash be hauled to an RSWA-sponsored transfer station that collected a “service contribution fee” to support the RSWA’s services. Councilors instead awarded the new city contract to Van der Linde Recycling. 

“When we put something up for bid,” notes Councilor Kristin Szakos, “we are bound to take the lowest bidder, provided they meet the basic requirements. And in this case, Van der Linde did so.” No doubt Van der Linde Recycling’s new city contract left the RSWA in a vulnerable position.

“We were created by the city and the county,” reminds the RSWA’s Frederick, whose organization was paid $916,885 in disposal fees by the city in fiscal year 2010. “Despite whatever grumblings there have been about Van der Linde weakening our position, in terms of solid waste, we never have and never will compete with private companies.” 

“Actually, when it comes to the McIntire Recycling Center, that doesn’t have to be run by the city,” says Mayor Norris. “It can be privatized, and in fact, could also be run by Van der Linde or any other private company. We’re actively considering whether we should pull out of the RSWA altogether as of this December.”

However odd it might seem for a 100 percent Democratic City Council to endorse privatization, if the McIntire Recycling Center’s survival isn’t directly tied to the RSWA, then why is its closing on the table to begin with? Thus far, no good answers are forthcoming from City Council as to what could be implemented to replace the vast amounts collected at the center, were it to suddenly close its doors.

“I don’t want it closed,” insists Szakos. “We consider ourselves a green community and there are a lot of people using the Center still.” 

However, while recycling centers profit through resale of collected recyclables to private vendors, Szakos says McIntire has not been making a profit. “If it were making money,” says Szakos, “this discussion wouldn’t be on the table.”

Yet just how closely has City Council measured the pulse of its citizenry? Some local residents using the Center these days see it less in abstract economics and more for its vitality in the community.

“City Council has lost their path,” says Barbara Lucas, who, on the day she spoke to C-VILLE, was taking several bags to the Book Drop near the far end of the McIntire Recycling Center. “If they can only re-sell Plastic 1 and 2, that’s fine, but they should have another bin to accept all other types of plastics. This facility is here to support the community, not to make money.”

“I grew up here in Charlottesville,” stresses Steve Riggs of the Woolen Mills area, “and let me tell you, [Charlottesville has] changed from an incredibly cool place into something like a bad dream. If they close this Recycling Center it won’t surprise me one bit, but I’d be mad as hell, all the same.”

“We’ve been about as aggressive about recycling as any city in this country, as far as I’m concerned,” says Mayor Norris. “We have curbside, we have the McIntire Center and we have single-stream through Van der Linde. If you ask me where I stand personally, I’m for keeping the McIntire Center open. It costs a considerable amount to dump trash in a landfill to begin with. Even if in a certain week we don’t make money on, say, corrugated cardboard, it’s still cheaper to recycle than to dump into a landfill, and it’s better for the environment, too.”

Despite the RSWA losing the waste collection bid to Van der Linde, city councilors chose to renew the curbside recycling contract with the RSWA and Republic Services (formerly BMI, which has partnered with the RSWA in waste management since 2001). It would mean one thing for Van der Linde Recycling to take over operation of both curbside and the McIntire Center, were the city to pull out of its relationship with the RSWA completely. It’d mean something altogether different were the Center to close. 

“I wouldn’t care if it moved,” says Jason Farr, who lives in the Mill Creek area, “but I think we need something in Downtown Charlottesville. Without a convenient center that everyone can identify, it’s only going to become harder to get people in the county to recycle.”

Indeed, the RSWA’s surveys from 2009 and 2010 indicate that anywhere from 65 percent to 72 percent of all vehicles that enter the McIntire Recycling Center come from county, not city, residents. That’s over 3 million pounds of recyclables in 2010 alone. Where would these recyclables end up were the Center to shut down altogether?

“First off, the county does get recycling,” insists Layman. “They get it through single-stream.”

“No, the county does not have curbside recycling,” counters Mayor Norris. “The county is entirely privatized and plays no role in waste management. Each person has to make their own decision about whether they want a private hauler who takes materials to Van der Linde to pick up their waste, or they want to take recyclables down to the McIntire Center themselves.”

For many, the only perceived difference between single-stream recycling, curbside bins and the big cans at the McIntire Center is what journey the recyclables will make. In that case, can sentiment for the Center alone be enough to keep it open? Or is it that simple?

“We’re trying to make recycling easy with the highest quality recyclables possible,” concludes Norris. “Single-stream recycling contaminates the recyclables to a degree, we acknowledge that. That’s why we want to continue to offer a place for hand-sorted recyclables.”

“The highest quality of recycled materials are those sorted by your own two hands,” reminds the RSWA’s Frederick. “On the other hand, the city has had to make tough budget decisions with school funding and whatnot. In the end, it’s their prerogative to investigate matters and see how effective the RSWA has been.” On September 6, Frederick stood before City Council and asked them point blank for some indication as to the fate of the RSWA’s contract with the city, indicating the workers under him who count on this job to put food on their tables.

In the end, the dispute over recycling has proven to be a complex issue with no clear-cut answer. Yes, tough economic times call for sacrifices, and efficiency and progress will always replace tradition. Yet, this is not just about awarding new contracts to private businesses, but moreover, re-educating an entire public to adapt to a new system, when in fact, the current system, at its most tangible, may not be broken to begin with.

 In tough economic times, we often turn inwards for answers to our elusive happiness, for happiness is a big-ticket issue. Psychiatrists sell it by the bottle, clergymen offer it in the hereafter and stock brokers dangle it like a carrot in the form of tempered retirement funds. There’s that old bit of wisdom that says, wine will make you merry, but money answers all things. Studies conducted over this last decade show that money, to a certain point, makes people happier because it lessens the burden of basic necessities. Yet, certain psychologists are now turning their attention to what is called “emotional efficiency,” that is, how people get the most happiness for their dollar. 

“‘Go out and buy yourself something nice.’ That’s the consoling advice we often give to friends who have just gotten bad news from their employer, their doctor, or their soon-to-be-ex spouse,” writes Timothy D. Wilson, a UVA professor of psychology. Wilson, along with Elizabeth W. Dunn of the University of British Columbia and Harvard’s Daniel T. Gilbert, recently completed a research paper titled “If Money Doesn’t Make You Happy Then You Probably Aren’t Spending It Right” for The Journal of Consumer Psychology. “Although the advice is well-meant,” continues Wilson & Co., “research suggests that people are often happier when they spend their money on experiences rather than things.”

In the face of a recession that boasts close to 10 percent unemployment, 1.5 percent personal bankruptcy per annum, mass foreclosures and little sign of letting up anytime soon, the question of mental health, and in particular, happiness, seems more vital than ever. 

When it comes to Charlottesville, the commercial districts here brag of all manner of experiential purchases, from the intellectual to the aesthetic to the escapist. Yet for most, the pinch is tangible and what little excess people have for consumer spending is not as important to Wilson and his fellow researchers as how they spend it. “It’s better to go on a vacation than buy a new couch is basically the idea,” says Professor Dunn summarizing their research.

With my girlfriend and I a mere four days out from a 10-day trip to Ireland that we’ve planned for the better part of two years, I head over to Globe Travel, just off Emmet Street near UVA, to see how the travel industry has been affected by the financial crisis, and what the stress-heavy consumer expects to get out of the vacation.

“People are not planning as far out these days,” says Jane Dorrier, the owner of Globe Travel, who has been in business for 30 years. “I think a lot of it has to do with less savings built up. Middle class families are definitely spending less on domestic travel, but by and large, the travel industry has not suffered near as much as many retail businesses have during this recession.”

Why is that? “When you purchase travel, you purchase a memory,” says Dorrier. “With less discretionary spending, you want to make it count. Memories are important. When an experience can enhance a family or a couple, that is more important for health—mental health —than anything else.”

Professors Dunn’s, Gilbert’s and Wilson’s research seems to affirm this notion: “We are more likely to mentally revisit our experiences than our things in part because our experiences are more centrally connected to our identities,” they write.

Vacations have long been seen as the antidote to the high anxiety of daily life—a chance to take a break from work, see the world and enjoy time with family. But do they make you inherently happier?

In 2007, researchers from the Netherlands set out to measure the effect that vacations have on overall happiness and how long it lasts. Published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life, the study revealed that the largest boost in happiness comes from the simple act of planning a vacation. The anticipation boosted happiness for about eight weeks.

After the vacation, however, happiness quickly dropped back to baseline levels for most people. The only vacationers who experienced an increase in happiness after the trip were those who reported feeling “very relaxed” on their vacation. Among those people, the vacation happiness effect lasted a mere two weeks post-trip before returning to normal levels.

Yet for Wilson and his team, the real issue is not necessarily a tour of exotic foreign lands or a beachside veg-out. Experience, according to their research, can mean a multitude of pro-social things.

“Experiences make us happier than [material] things [because] experiences are more likely to be shared with other people,” they write, “and other people are our greatest source of happiness.”

“Given how deeply and profoundly social we are,” the research paper continues, “almost anything we do to improve our connections with others tends to improve our happiness as well—and that includes spending money.”

Indeed, despite the desperation felt by many Americans today, consumer behavior expert Philip Graves suggests that low-cost indulgences, such as a movie night out, or an evening at mid-level dining and liquor-based venues, are on the rise. These simplest forms of social experience compare to the image of Great Depression era breadlines juxtaposed with post-Prohibition swing dances with Lindy Hoppers going nuts. As the old saying goes: “Nero fiddled while Rome burned.”

“It’s true, I don’t think club life and social soirees have taken much of a downturn here in Charlottesville,” says Robin Tomlin, who DJs soul music at the Box on the Downtown Mall each Thursday night. 

What’s the street-level assessment?

“There seems to be more homeless people these days than I can ever remember,” says a middle-aged male who wishes to remain anonymous.

“I think being rich would make things easier,” says Susan Shrum, a wife and mother of two who likes to jog pushing her youngest son in a three-wheeled stroller. “But I don’t know if it would necessarily make me happier.”

“I can’t say whether the wealthy are any happier than anyone else per se,” says Hugh Gildea, a retired military engineer, “One thing I’ve noticed, though, is that some of the wealthy are being less conspicuous about their high-end spending nowadays, because it seems rather tasteless when you see people losing their homes.”

“Psychologists have spent decades studying the relation between wealth and happiness,” writes Harvard University psychologist Daniel Gilbert in his best-selling Stumbling on Happiness, “and they have generally concluded that wealth increases human happiness when it lifts people out of abject poverty and into the middle class, but that it does little to increase happiness thereafter.”

“Wealthy people don’t just have better toys,” writes Professors Wilson, Dunn and Gilbert, “they have better nutrition and better medical care, more free time and more meaningful labor—more of just about every ingredient in the recipe for a happy life. And yet, they aren’t that much happier than those who have less.”

Why doesn’t wealth bring a constant sense of joy? “Part of the reason is that people aren’t very good at figuring out what to do with the money,” says George Loewenstein, an economist at Carnegie Mellon University. 

“Wealth promises access to peak experiences, which in turn undermine the ability to savor small pleasures,” concludes Wilson & Co.

If we look at examples of retail spending here in Charlottesville, one storefront offers a product that promises both experiential and retail value. Sex sells according to traditional wisdom, and what better place to take the pulse of sex-related retail items than Derriere de Soie, the lingerie shop on the Downtown Mall, which aims to put a little spark back into the romance department.

“Retail stores are usually down during the summer, in general,” says Susan Tracy, who opened Derrier de Soie five years ago. “I feel like what I do is to try and find lingerie that makes women feel sexy about themselves. Will it make them happy in the long run? That’s a hard question to answer.”

That still doesn’t answer my question of whether money makes people happy, but north of the Mall there might be an answer. On the northeast side of the intersection at Third and Jefferson streets sits the Beth Israel Synagogue adjacent to Holy Comforter Catholic Church on the southwest side. With nothing to lose, at this point, I sit down for a chat with the local rabbi and priest. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.

“Well, my feeling is that time a family spends together is a good thing,” says Rabbi Dan Alexander. “All the better if they are aware that they can go on a vacation when many cannot, generating a deeper appreciation for the things they have.”

“To the notion of wealth, you’re either possessed by your possessions or you use your possessions to make an impact,” says Dennis McAuliffe, priest at the Holy Comforter.

“There is a wonderful Jewish teaching from the Pirkei Avot which addresses happiness,” notes Alexander. “Who is happy? The person who is satisfied with his portion.”

“In the end, dust we become,” reminds McAuliffe. “I would tell the person looking for answers on how to spend their money: Connect yourself with things that have a greater permanency, like family, friends and community. Because in the bad times, who knows what your portfolio will do?”

Unsurprising as these altruistic answers might sound, the truth is, most people still look to their own changing fortunes as the answer to all their problems. From purchasing lottery tickets to political campaign contributions to charitable donations, the hopes that good deeds, a political regime change or just plain numerological hunches will somehow pay off in the near-future are clear indications of just how deeply Americans feel about money and happiness. Indeed, heavyweight champ Joe Louis, despite years of being hounded by the IRS, said: “I’ve been poor and I’ve been rich, and rich is better.”

“When asked to take stock of their lives,” write Professors Dunn, Gilbert and Wilson, “people with more money report being a good deal more satisfied. But when asked how happy they are at the moment, people with more money are barely different than those with less. This suggests that our money provides us with satisfaction when we think about it, but not when we use it. That shouldn’t happen. Money can buy many, if not most, if not all of the things that make people happy, and if it doesn’t, then the fault is ours.”

“Males can’t hurt you,” exclaims Ken Hall to a crowd of about 30 onlookers. “Only the female has the ability to sting.” A short brunette wearing a George Strait t-shirt turns and says otherwise to her beau. Mind you, it’s easy for Hall to say as he is wearing his beekeeping suit that looks more like a spaceman’s outfit while he stands inside a mesh observation structure with a few hundred honey bees flying around him. Elsewhere in the Agriculture Tent at the 2010 Albemarle County Fair, which ran through the first week of August, farmers young and old gather to show off and sell their wares. Squashes of all colors and shapes compete for first prize, okras and melons vie for the largest specimen, and Maddie Morales takes the prize for best cucumber pickling. The winning scarecrow stands upright at the other end of the tent, enough straw stuffed in its belly to mimic a proper beer gut, sporting a t-shirt that reads: “Keepin’ it rural.”

Far removed from the trendy storefronts of collegiate life on the Corner or the upscale eateries on the Downtown Mall, the county fair is both a time-honored tradition and a folk grotesque, where good taste and conceit go out the window. It’s an enduring love affair with corn-dogs, smoked meats and deep-fried batter that proves too much for the empty stomach. And, after more than 20 years, it is about to be (temporarily it’s hoped) homeless. The owners of Bundoran Farm in North Garden, long the fair’s locale, have canceled the $1-a-year lease so they can develop about 100 homes on 2,300 rural acres.

Americans will give up a lot in a recession, but the county fair apparently is not high on the list of sacrifices they are willing to make. Indeed, attendance was reportedly up this year by 20 percent to 10,000.

“One basket wins the prize,” growls the carnie barker over at the basketball game, cigarette dangling from his lips, as he hands a pre-teen chap the first of his two shots.

“Yo, there’s some free chocolate chip cookies over there,” exclaims another young male running towards the rides. He sports a Confederate ball cap and a Tom Perriello campaign sticker on the left side of his NASCAR t-shirt. His friends take off in the direction of the Democratic Congressman’s tent, none of them old enough to vote.

Perriello is the first to make it to this year’s fair, walking the grounds for some old-fashioned glad-handing on opening night. One of his opponents, Republican Robert Hurt, will stop by Saturday evening.

Nearby at the Entertainment Tent, the Burnt Mill Band plays to a crowd of about 15. “We’ve got CDs and t-shirts for sale in the back,” reminds the lead singer as he adjusts the microphone. “Here’s a little Kid Rock to get things rollin’.” It’s Wednesday night around 7:49pm and black clouds resembling a smoke stack bear down on Bundoran Farm. Southern rock cover tunes aren’t enough to keep things rollin’ on this night.

By 8pm all rides are shut down as a torrential downpour sends most attendees running for their vehicles. The rides never do open again this night, but the electric light display ripping across the night sky is something to behold. The show must go on, and so it does the next day.

Over at the Livestock Tent, a short mustachioed man gets in the spirit of things. “One dollar folks, yes one thin dollar to win this here heifer. All proceeds go to the 4-H Club.” This is the first year children show animals through the Charlottesville Albemarle Livestock Family Club, one of several 4-H groups at the fair.

On Friday, 13-year-old Olivia Burkholder sells a pair of Barred Rock roosters (names: Julius and Caesar) for $175 a piece. “The buyers ended up giving them back, though,” says Burkholder. “They just wanted to donate the funds to 4-H.”

At that moment, all eyes turn as a pair of llamas pass through the tent. “Is it true they spit on you?” asks a freckled young boy standing with his father, who gets a good chuckle. “Only if they don’t like you,” an elderly woman retorts. “You haven’t given them reason not to like you, now have you?” Scout’s honor, he hasn’t.

Over in the Special Kingdom Tent, the newest fair pastime unfolds. Wives from all walks step up to the microphone to demonstrate how they control their unwieldy spouses in the hilarious Husband Calling Contest. “If you ain’t home in 15 minutes, you good for nothin’, lazy bum,” yells one wife (wielding a rolling pin), and well, we have a pretty good idea of where he’ll be sleeping tonight. By the end of this hottest of days, many of the epicurean delicacies from the baking competitions are looking patched-up a bit. But as they say, a good, flaky crust is so much better than one that you can build a house on.

“We’ll be breaking down early Sunday and heading straight for Augusta,” notes the curly-haired blonde at the basket toss game. She works for Rosedale Attractions, supplier of the amusements at the fair, which has been in business since 1928. Their stable of dingy-looking rides with bad artwork and gregarious flashing lights is oddly comforting. “It’s a lot of hard work, but I love traveling with this show.” She has to repeat that last line, as it’s become hard to hear over the sounds from the nearby Dirty Harry’s Machine Gun Fun game.

More than 4,000 people pass through the gates on Saturday, including Miss Teen Albemarle County Fair, Anna Beth Higgins, who braves the Ferris wheel, despite the fact that the ticket-taker tells folks that the tire that the ride rotates on is starting to look flat. Prospects for a new home for the fair don’t look all that robust at the moment, either. Organizers have said that an ideal solution would be a permanent home, being that it’s costly to build and dismantle the fair and the rides year after year.

“I’m not spending $5 to get on the Horndog,” says one college-age blonde to two friends. A few minutes later, all three of them stand in line for the Elvis-themed ride (it’s actually called “Houndog”). The thrill? Two people sit face-to-face inside a wheel cylinder mounted to a spinning carousel that whips around and around, tossing in every which direction as ticketholders scream their heads off.

Over at the Cannonball, where strapped-in riders are taken 100 feet up a pole and dropped in unison seconds later, one young lady is screaming insufferably. “She can say she’s gonna puke all she wants,” the ticket-taker says with a dead serious look on his face. “Anyone throws up on me, I leave ’em up there!”

As darkness sets in, families begin their inevitable trek back to the parking lot, carrying tired kids in their arms. Over at the food stands, a concessionaire tosses fried onions and peppers, and offers a dollar off all Italian and Polish sausages. Back in the Entertainment Tent, the Cedar Creek country band has ’em packed in to hear their version of “Margaritaville.” Alcohol is not served at the county fair, but the crowd falls right in line, following the lead of Katherine and Matthew Hall, who tango across the small dance floor down front, and damn if it all doesn’t feel as exotic as the shores of Cancun. Call it Americana if you must, but as rural as the whole affair might seem, it’d be hard to imagine Albemarle County without it.

 As the morning fog lifts from the rolling hills of Barboursville Vineyards, Melissa Close-Hart, executive chef at the Palladio Restaurant, is busy opening boxes of fresh local produce with her sous chef, Mike Yager, and three assistants. Later, from this assortment of basil, mint and mushrooms, they’ll prepare fresh garnishes for their handmade pastas and season an assortment of fine meats for the lunch crowd that awaits their classic Italian fare. 

Close-Hart walks out to greet me, wiping her hands on an apron that covers part of her cotton striped chef pants. Her reddish brown hair is pulled back in a pony tail, covered by a head wrap, while her glasses are slightly steamed up from the difference in temperature between the kitchen and the foyer of the restaurant. “Sorry I’m such a mess,” she says, as she extends a right hand. Yet Close-Hart is all together charming, humble and confident at the same time, and she has good reason to smile. In the 10 years that she’s been at Palladio, the restaurant has grown to become one of the top fine-dining destinations in Central Virginia.

This Saturday, June 26, Palladio will host its next Guest Chef Winery Celebration Feast by pairing a five course meal created by Close-Hart and her mentor, iconic Southern chef Frank Stitt, with five wines created by Barboursville winemaker Luca Paschina.

“It’s been 15 years since I’ve worked with Frank,” says Close-Hart. “It was at Bottega that I plated absolutely perfect Italian food and went, ‘Hmm, this is what I’m good at; this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.’ That experience with Frank was sort of the gun from the gate for me.”

Stitt’s reputation precedes him. The Highlands Bar and Grill on the Southside of Birmingham has been serving up fine French cuisine since the early 1980s, while the native Alabamian’s second restaurant, Bottega, focuses on Northern Italian dishes. There he turns humble ingredients—ground corn, bitter greens, cured pork, the daily catch—into poetry on the plate.

Yet as impressive as Stitt’s resumé is (and there can be little doubt), Close-Hart’s rise to prominence has been just as extraordinary. Raised in the somewhat humble surroundings of Mobile, Alabama, Close-Hart has been in the restaurant business since she was 16 years old (“In a fast food joint that I won’t name,” she jokes). Yet after studying psychology and sociology in college, Close-Hart found she could not shake the allure of the kitchen.

“I’m thankful for the education that I got,” insists Close-Hart, who is 39. “But I was a really bad teacher. I knew I’d rather be working in the restaurant business.” She has been the executive chef in Palladio’s kitchen since the fall of 2000. After leaving Stitt’s Bottega in the early 1990s, Close-Hart continued her quest for Italian fluency in cuisine, first at the New England Culinary Institute, then at San Francisco’s Rose Pistola, before joining fellow Charlottesville chef Craig Hartman at the Cliff House in Manitou Springs, Colorado. Hartman eventually returned to Central Virginia to head Fossett’s at Keswick Hall (a position he recently left to focus on his barbeque business in Gordonsville), while Close-Hart was lured to the year-old Palladio at Barboursville. She lives in Charlottesville with her husband Matthew Hart, who is the head chef of the Local in Belmont.

“With both of us being chefs,” admits Close-Hart, “it can be very hard. We miss a lot of weddings, graduations, reunions and whatnot. This career is a lifestyle.”

Though Close-Hart brought with her a host of background experience, Barboursville has come to represent her big break, the place where she could finally spread her wings. While it is hard to imagine the operation at Palladio as being anything but fully formed, in fact, a tremendous amount of planning and experimentation has taken place over the years.

So what is the secret to her culinary wizardry?

For one thing, the local food movement is a vital element to Palladio’s ever-evolving menu. “The whole concept of ‘Buy Local’ has grown so much over the last 10 years in this area,” says Close-Hart. “It takes the recipes to a whole new level to have produce that comes from field to truck to kitchen all within an hour.” Coincidentally, Close-Hart informs me, Spring Lake Farms has just pulled up with boxes of freshly picked fruits and vegetables. She also points to Barboursville’s own backyard vegetable garden as a source of produce for the restaurant. 

“I grew up in the Deep South,” reminds Close-Hart, “where you use what is in your own backyard. My mom would tell you that she has no idea how to cook, but she always made food from scratch. Frank’s Highland’s Bar and Grill in Alabama took the same approach and put it in a high-end setting; his was one of the first places in Alabama to use local foods and apply them to classic European dishes.”

After about a half-hour in the kitchen, Close-Hart emerges with a bowl of handmade ravioli stuffed with mozzarella, green peas and chopped mint, topped with a light cream sauce. The portion precisely calibrated (paired with a glass of Paschina’s 2007 Rose), the pasta tastes earthy, with the sweetness of the peas and cream sauce balanced by the mint flavor. A later dish of spinach and potato gnocchi with cherry tomatoes and baby scallops is the epitome of the form, marrying local ingredients with classic Italian technique.  

“A lot of things have changed at Palladio over the last 12 years,” suggests Alessandro Medici, Palladio’s sommelier, who is running around the restaurant in a black T-shirt and pair of green cargo pants, setting up its intimate atmosphere in preparation for expected guests. “We used to have the chef come out and explain each dish. But we started having a lot of clientele coming back each week and they didn’t want to hear the same lecture. The way we have it now is a more classic experience.”

Barboursville, as a wine-producing estate, was founded in 1976 by Gianni Zonin, an Italian winemaker from the Northeastern part of Italy. The winery is built on the grounds of the 19th governor of Virginia, James Barbour, an estate that also boasts an inn as well as the original mansion’s ruins on 870 acres. The home was built in 1814 and is based on an architectural design provided by Barbour’s political ally and friend Thomas Jefferson derived (as always) from the classical style of 16th-century Italian architect Andrea Palladio. 

Evidence suggests Jefferson tried to host a winemaking vineyard at his Monticello estate, but soon found it an unworkable situation, giving up on the idea by the first decade of the 19th century. In a sense, the confluence of Italian culture in Central Virginia had been waiting for its full expression since the time of Jefferson.

In this most recent era of Virginian wine history, former Barboursville vineyard manager Gabriele Rausse was the first to plant vitis vinifera since the failed attempts of Jefferson. Since Paschina’s arrival in 1990, he has become one of Virginia’s leading winemakers. His Octagon (a Bordeaux-style blend dubbed by Paschina “the first true Virginia wine”) has won stacks of awards and was selected to be served to Queen Elizabeth II on her 2007 visit to Virginia. It was poured at President Obama’s inauguration gala, too. When Alessandro Medici arrived in 1998, the two began plans for a larger vision. “The Palladio Restaurant started as the best way to showcase Luca’s wines,” says Medici. 

“The best way to taste the wine,” agrees Paschina, “is with the right food at the right temperature. Then it was a matter of finding the right chef to complete the vision.” Enter Melissa Close-Hart.

“Since the ’80s,” says Close-Hart, who, since her time at Palladio, has been honored by the James Beard House in New York City, “it’s been interesting to watch the evolution of restaurants, chefs and especially women chefs. We were sort of unofficially told back then that women should be in the bakery.” At Barboursville, Close-Hart experienced none of that. 

“Luca has always allowed me to go in any direction I choose,” she says. “For me, the main thing is to let the food be the food. There are still tons of nouveau and fusion restaurants out there, but a lot of new restaurants are returning to simple foods and classic recipes and getting great responses.”

Paschina’s face lights up when asked about traditional Italian cooking in this setting. “Take a look at this soft-shell crab,” he says, pointing to the 4" wide succulent crustaceans we both have plated before us. “In Italy, we season it with spices and a little corn meal, and then pan fry it. But where I’m from, the crab is half the size of the crabs from this area. So, yes, it is classic Italian in its concept, but it is very much unique to Virginia, too. That’s what I try to do with the wines, and Melissa does the same with the restaurant.”

“We always try to find a slightly different way of interpreting the classics,” agrees Close-Hart. “On the other hand, we have clientele that come back every year for their Ravioli di Zucca, and it’s not a recipe they want messed with.”

In just a few days, Close-Hart and Frank Stitt will prepare the Bottega-Palladio five-course meal that they designed together. Each chef will alternate in preparing course by course, including a pair of main dishes made of wild mushroom and parmesan pasticcio (a baked pasta dish), with spinach and roasted garlic puree (paired with the Cabernet Franc Reserve 2007), followed by the Rabbit Torino, stuffed with dried plums and Swiss chard, wrapped in pancetta with creamy polenta (paired with the 2006 Octagon). The $130 meal concludes with a trio of strawberry deserts paired with Paschina’s special Phileo nv, a blend of Muscat Canelli, Orange Muscat, Traminer and citrusy Riesling that makes for a rich and complex dessert wine.

“I am so looking forward to cooking with Frank again,” says Close-Hart. “He came in during the 1970s and basically said, ‘We can do soul food and classic dishes in a high-end way.’ He’s always been a pioneer, adding the most subtle hints of Southern style and local foods to Old World dishes. It’s going to be exciting.”

Stitt’s Bottega was born of a lifelong passion on his part for Northern Italy’s food and lifestyle. The beloved Southern chef has brought back to Alabama the rustic simplicity of Italian cuisine and added his own ingenious twists, such as the Tabasco sauce he uses to spike a dish of potato ravioli with crawfish and candied lemon. “There’s no pompano in Venice,” Stitt acknowledges in his book Bottega Favorita: A Southern Chef’s Love Affair with Italian Food. “But ours, fresh from Apalachicola, makes a great cartoccio [baked in a parchment bag].” As if to drive the point home, he implores: “Our Chilton County white peaches make a great bellini.”

While this vision of Old World mixed with New World is fast becoming de rigueur, Palladio hopes to deliver the message that simple and supple will always require a desire on the taster’s part to embrace the classical. You have to be willing to step outside of what we know here in America and be open to international flavors that have strong cultural resonance in our own backyards. In the age of rapid Internet pluralism, it is comforting to know that deep knowledge of craftsmanship can be combined with a spirit of experimentation. 

“In the 10 years that I’ve been at Palladio,” says Close-Hart, “this area has become more adventurous about food and I think [Palladio’s] Guest Chef series embodies that growth. I’m sure UVA has helped, with its professors coming from all over the world, as has the celebrity culture of chefs these days. But the snowball effect has turned Palladio into a destination restaurant where people come for their anniversaries or special occasions and they want to try something new.”

Beyond the taste, the texture, the aroma, the presentation and the creativity of her cooking, Close-Hart is unwilling to rest on her laurels, choosing instead to look ahead with great optimism. “Sure, I’m proud of my achievements so far,” she reflects with a smile. “But in a way, I feel like my best years are yet to come.”