Some people rent out their basements to cover their mortgage, but the renters of the world have long been looking for a way to cover their pesky monthly payments. Last year, a few renters on Jefferson Park Avenue hatched a pretty interesting scheme: cook Meth in your apartment. Try to imagine the rental listing: Four bed, two bath, washer/dryer, Meth lab, pool. Water, trash, electricity included in rent. Propane extra.
John Casteen isn’t the only thing the Cavaliers lost this weekend. The UVA Baseball team couldn’t quite carry on their streak as they fell to LSU 9-5 on Saturday night. The Cavaliers were up one run going into the bottom of the fifth inning when LSU catcher, Sean Ochinko hit a go-ahead three-run homer.
The game was hyped as a kemosabe-versus-grasshopper grudge match as UVA coach Brian O’Connor is a former assistant of LSU’s Paul Mainieri. Unfortunately for the diamond ‘Hoos, it appears the teacher is still the master. The Cavs’ title hopes will hang in the balance when UVA faces Cal State Fullerton in an elimination game this afternoon.
UVA coach Brian O’Connor led the Cavaliers to the College World Series. The Cavs will face Cal State Fullerton today.
Governor Tim Kaine was at the Moores Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant groundbreaking ceremony yesterday to give his blessing and handle a golden shovel.
The governor said he chose to attend this event because he had “never done a wastewater treatment plant,” and wished to emphatically support “very aggressive river and stream clean-up.”
Kaine said that this construction will lead the plant to reduce its annual output of nitrogen by about 500,000 pounds, and phosphorous by 150,000 pounds. Phosphorous and nitrogen are especially dangerous to the environment, according to Kaine.
More after the photo
Gov. Tim Kaine was the keynote speaker yesterday afternoon at the groundbreaking ceremony of the Moores Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant.
“I hope that this plant can serve as an example to others,” said Kaine, adding that in the past, Virginia has lagged to support the clean-up of waterways, particularly the Chesapeake Bay, but now the state is “about three times more” than other states.
Over the next 42 months, the Moores Creek facility will not only receive upgrades and expansion to reduce nitrogen and phosphorous output, but it will become a facility that will use waste taken from the water to power some of the plant’s operations.
The project will cost around $50 million, with $21.5 million coming from the state’s Water Quality Improvement Fund.
“[This plant] is not just good enough, but excellent,” said Kaine.
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In 2006, the Charlottesville Parks and Recreation Department found the swimming facility at Meade Park, Onesty Pool, to be “beyond the point of cost-effective repair.” It would need to be fully replaced. Maybe having learned from previous park projects (read Meadowcreek Parkway, McIntire softball fields), the city has gone out of its way to make sure the community is as involved in the process as possible. Several community meetings were held over the past two years to draw up and finalize a plan for the park.
Construction broke ground in early September and should be done by July 4th, according to city spokesman Ric Barrick. The project has been contracted to the Richmond branch of Kimley-Horn and Associates, a national contracting firm. According to the city website, the Farmers in the Park market will be held as usual on Wednesday evenings, 3-7pm, kicking off on June 10. The market will be relocated to the rear of the park to accommodate construction.
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Fifth District Congressman Tom Perriello gave his first commencement speech at last night’s PVCC graduation ceremony. In his speech, Perriello emphasized his support of community colleges, the challenges of graduating, and his hope for economic rebound. The freshman congressman was calm, relating stories of his late father, Dr. Vito Perriello, and even cracking jokes (Perriello said he "wrote that $2,500 tax credit as a graduation gift"). Perriello was also sure to note that the recession was another challenge this group of grads could overcome, given how this group had “overcome odds” to become “success stories.” PVCC President Frank Friedman concurred.
At the beginning of the ceremony, Friedman had the grads repeatedly stand up if they met certain qualifications. Many grads were parents, many worked more than 30 hours a week, many were receiving their education with aid from loans or scholarships, but what was most powerful was when Friedman called out the “trifecta.” When Friedman asked how many were parents working 30 hour a week jobs, and full-time students at PVCC a large percentage stood up. As both Friedman and Perriello said, the night belonged to these success stories.
He may be still a freshman, but Tom Perriello, Fifth District Congressman, knows how to address the graduates at PVCC.
Andrew Williams, 22, officially kicked off his campaign for a seat on the Charlottesville City Council at a press conference this afternoon.
Williams, a Charlottesville resident for the past three years, said that as a young, independent candidate, he hoped to bring a “new perspective to new problems developing in Charlottesville, and old problems, too.”
Williams repeatedly referred to his bid as an “uphill battle” and placed emphasized a populace-based campaign, perhaps trying to follow the popularity of the Obama and Perriello campaigns.
When asked his stance on hot-button topics such as water supply and public housing issues, Williams said he “refused to answer those questions” until he has talked to “as much of the populace as possible; business owners, the working* classes, citizens.”
Andrew Williams, a State Farm employee by day who is also working on his bachelor’s degree with classes at Piedmont Virginia Community College and Averett University, has officially kicked off his campaign for a seat on City Council.
*Corrected 05/14/09: This article, incorrectly, quoted Williams as saying "lower classes." He, in fact, said "working classes." We regret the error.
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Hi, brickers. Writing to you now is a little like drunk-dialing an ex. We know we shouldn’t do it—it only brings up those old feelings—but we miss you. And there’s so much left to say. Such as…
Tonight, City Council will enter its City Hall chambers at 7pm to discuss, among other things, how well the rebricking project went. The council will discuss the goals they set forth at the beginning of the project and how those goals turned out.
City Council’s goals were as follows:
—To complete a quality revitalization of the Downtown Mall;
—To complete this revitalization on time and on budget;
—To do the work without too much disruption to Downtown businesses.
BW is pretty sure the Council will find that the project was an unparalleled success. We’re also pretty sure they should add a segment to this evening’s brick dockett. This segment would, of course, include a viewing of all Brick Watch videos, and some highlights of our brilliant brick coverage. To culminate the segment, they should ceremoniously hand Chris Weatherford a key to the city. (Not the real one, but the obscenely large, fake kind.) There would be laughter! There would be crying! There would be cheers. But most of all, since it’s a City Council meeting, any emoting would have to be taken in turns.
Morning bricksters. Perfect day for brick strolling, get out there and start enjoying the almost done Mall! It seems one of our faithful flock of brick readers, Chas Man, has posed to us a little question:
"Hey BW: From what I can see on the Phasing Plan, I thought the crews were going to do cruciform designs on the 2nd and 4th street crossings? I walked by 4th this morning and they were laying straight bricks. Is this because of economic or practical considerations? It will certainly speed up completion as those designs take time. If thats the case, I have to revise my 5/12 completion date."
Brick Watch also remembered seeing plans for cruciforms at all crossings, so we called our friendly rival blogger, MMM Design Group project manager Joe Schinstock to find out more. "The life of the vehicle crossings evolved over time," said Schinstock. "The cruciform designs were in the preliminary designs, but the Board of Architectural Review wanted more options." The final decision was not made for economic, nor practical reasons; it was ultimately an issue of aesthetics.
The Fourth Street crossing, as it stood this morning.
Chas Man, BW thinks it will be more practical as well. Nobody wants tire-scuffed granite. And, Chas, we do think you will have to revise your estimated date. Things are looking very good. Thanks for the question brickies, and keep ’em coming!
Hello fair brickfans. Now, we know that we’ve been gettin’ ya hyped up about the 25th of April for quite some time. And we know that the 25th has come and gone. And we’re also well aware that all "major construction" activity is not quite done. And well, it stinks, but we still think the project is really wrapping up quite nicely. Like we said in Friday’s post, everything should be cleared up by the actual May 1st deadline (except for the Landmark, which totally isn’t their fault).
Anyway. We went out and got some nifty bricktures today during our morning walk. Of course, it’s now afternoon and some of these pictures might be moot. Those boys have been moving so fast, the whole Mall might be solid gold by the time Brick Watch gets out of this office.
Two pictures, for your pleasure:
The crossing at Second Street West.
The crossing at Third Street.
You know, we hate to be naysayers, but doesn’t this look a bit disarrayed? One week to go, boys! Get a move on!
Stay tuned tomorrow when Brick Watch puts forth just a little more effort. In the mean time, what’s up with all this pollen? BW could barely enjoy our brunch yesterday without debris flying from the trees into our Eggs Benedict. Anyone else have that same problem?
Hello Bricksters. This morning, Brick Watch decided to take a quick tour around the Mall to see what was happenin’. Boy, are we glad we did! The Mall is thrumming, the weather is beautiful, and we saw so much…
On our jaunt, BW discovered a camera crew at Second Street east setting up to film. Not only that, but when we stopped to ask them what was going on, they asked us if we would want to be in the shoot! Now, all of you locals know BW is famous, and of course, incredibly talented, attractive, and pretty much the best. It seems, though, that the rest of the world will soon find out as well. We’re ready for our closeup. (Or wide-angle shot with us barely in the background, whichever.) Here are our autographs; after we’re internationally recognized, we’ll no longer have time for the little people. You’re welcome.
Somebody’s been practicing.
BW also ran into a horde of homeschoolers preparing to go see Flat Stanley at the Paramount Theater. Seriously, these kids were everywhere. Head Brick Watcher just found one in her shoe. …Totes kidding.
On our way back to the Brick Cave, we ran into Siips owner George Benford putting tables and chairs on the Mall. We love seeing the Mall recolonized by its rightful owners.
We also happened to notice the giant ditch at Third Street is filled, and concrete hath been poured to create a base for bricks. Chris Weatherford was right! Then, out of our brickly curiosity, we noticed they were spreading asphalt at Fourth Street. There’s just so much going on! Here’s a video (it’s about dern time!) for your bricking pleasure: