This year’s UVA graduation will be held virtually, and will look nothing like 2018’s, pictured above. Photo: Dan Addison
Dashed hopes have become commonplace in this year of the pandemic, but UVA President Jim Ryan’s announcement on March 3 still stung: No friends, family, or guests will be allowed at the university’s 2021 graduation. Last year’s festivities were canceled too, and this year the school had hoped to hold two ceremonies on consecutive weekends for the classes of 2020 and 2021.
The university is weighing options for honoring its students—a virtual ceremony will be held this spring, and a visitor-friendly graduation could be in the works for an as-yet unspecified date. The UVA news is especially bitter for the class of 2020, which has now seen commencement ceremonies postponed twice.
It’s also tough on area businesses, which have had a difficult year.
Courtney Cacatian, executive director of the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention & Visitors Bureau, estimates conservatively that the local economic impact this May for two canceled graduations “is at least $5 million.”
A typical graduation weekend accounts for about $2 million in hotel room revenues, with 40,000 guests staying for at least two nights, filling all of the city’s 3,768 rooms. The $5 million figure comprises premium lodging rates plus lost revenues at restaurants, shops, wineries, and other tourist sites. “This lost revenue will make recovery that much more difficult,” Cacatian says.
Owners and managers in the hospitality business almost all said they were not expecting a robust graduation month this year. Several used the word “creative” when asked how they have been getting through the past 12 months.
Michelle Davis, general manager of the Courtyard by Marriott near the medical center says she “believed it was probably not going to materialize this year because of the restrictions.” On March 4, the hotel began calling people who had booked rooms, and had also started to receive cancellations. While the past year has also been hard without large football and basketball crowds, she says, “I also believe there is an end in sight.”
Across West Main, The Draftsman front desk agent Sharron Smith says the hotel hasn’t made specific plans about graduation weekend. Over the past year, it has only experienced full occupancy during February’s dreadful ice storms.
Airbnbs are emerging from hibernation. “Graduation is about three times the usual charge,” says superhost Gail McDermott, who was just getting ready to open hers again when she heard about Ryan’s decision. “It would have been nice, but Airbnb hosts here don’t fully depend on graduation. The season for Charlottesville is spring, summer, and fall weekends.”
Caterers and restaurants have been working hard to keep their doors open in a difficult year. Lisa McEwan, owner of HotCakes at Barracks Road, is now in the kitchen six days a week and enjoying a lift in store sales from returning students and warmer weather. “I’m not sure yet how we will market for this year’s graduation period,” she says. “Catering is important to profitability.” Parents, who are not invited to Grounds, pick up most of that tab.
Manager Julia Wegman at Farm Bell Kitchen and Dinsmore Boutique Inn is testing materials for the best ways to package to-go brunch foods. She wonders when people will feel comfortable walking into crowded rooms once more, and how businesses will adapt. Optimistic, she says some visitors may still wish to come and organize activities of their own near Grounds.
It won’t be the same, however. Davis at Marriott says she feels worst for the Class of 2020’s two-year wait. “Once the students leave, it’s hard to say ‘come back,’” she says.
Rising taxes led Mike Marshall to sell Wayland House, one of the oldest homes in Crozet, to developer Stanley Martin last October.
Jack Looney
Wayland House, on Pleasant Green Street in Crozet, may be the oldest existing house in town, dating to about 1814. And it may disappear as a new development arrives.
The house was built by a reverend, whose more famous son, Benjamin Franklin Ficklin Jr., operated stagecoaches and helped establish the legendary Pony Express mail service (he also owned Monticello, briefly).
For the past two decades, Wayland House and the home next door were owned by Mike Marshall, editor of the Crozet Gazette. Marshall says rising taxes led him to sell the properties last October, and the new owner is a developer: Stanley Martin Homes, based in Reston.
Marshall’s taxes rose because the county zoned the properties R-6—townhome density, he says.
Owners “are leveraged out of big parcels” if buyers want land to develop, Marshall says. “They taxed me as if I had built the allowable number of units, almost a prospective tax.” Annual taxes ran his family $20,000 to $22,000.
“We held onto it as long as we could,” he says.
Drew Holzwarth, president of the Piedmont region for Stanley Martin, has said the Marshalls’ 1917 farmhouse will be a clubhouse for the 37-acre Pleasant Green development. Plans call for 268 units made up of townhouses, condos, and larger villas.
Wayland House itself could meet differing fates: demolition, being updated or preserved on site, being moved, or salvaged, says Marshall. Updating the house could be an expensive proposition: Marshall cites an architect who estimated $1 million to bring the house up to modern standards.
Holzwarth says his company can’t make any decisions on the house because Marshall still owns the rights to it. But Marshall says he only owns the salvage rights, which would only kick in if the house is demolished (and he worries contents would not be worth the cost of salvage).
Abraham Wayland expanded the family orchard business, which led to train tracks coming to the house and the village dubbed Wayland’s Crossing. Courtesy David Wayland
Phil James, a local expert in Blue Ridge history, says the house is worth keeping. “It represents the beginning of the village.”
Jeremiah Wayland purchased the home in 1832, says James. His son, Abraham Wayland, expanded the family farming business with orchards, which required transportation. The railroad tracks soon ran to the house, and the village became known as Wayland’s Crossing.
In 1849, Claudius Crozet and his team boarded in the house as he directed construction of the famed Blue Ridge tunnel. Because of the benefits the railroad conferred, the village changed its name to Crozet in 1870.
Historic photo of Wayland House. The window behind the tree on the lower level is the room where Claudius Crozet stayed. courtesy Phil James Historical Images
“Mike has been a wonderful steward,” James says.
Even though his great-great grandfather purchased the home, David Wayland visited its inside for the first time in March. “I was surprised that it was in such good shape, with a beautiful staircase in the entry hall, for example,” he says. “I would love to see it moved.”
The staircase in Wayland House. Courtesy David Wayland
UVA professor and architectural historian K. Edward Lay gave Wayland the tour. He saw the Roman numerals on some beams, an old way of marking beams for connection. Lay hopes that someone might preserve the original, central portion of the Greek Revival house, called an “I house.”
Holzwarth says he’s committed to doing what can be done to preserve the historic home, because he doesn’t want to be “vilified” like another developer, who tore down a historic house on Blue Ridge Avenue in 2017 to make way for The Vue apartments.
However, he warns that because the house was built in so many sections, it may fall apart if moved. Wayland House’s location is not in the first phase of Pleasant Green development. Holzwarth says, “I told Mike, ‘It’s not imminent, let’s get a plan.’”
Lay is on the Albemarle County Historic Preservation Committee, which tried twice to pass an ordinance that would safeguard significant properties. The city has such an ordinance.
Laments Lay, “So many historic homes in the county are destroyed.”
The Stantons celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary February 12, a milestone that fewer than 0.1 percent of married couples make.
Mary Jane Gore
Valentines, imagine getting hitched this month. Then imagine celebrating your 75th wedding anniversary in February 2094.
A 75th anniversary is so rare that the U.S. Census Bureau keeps no statistics on it. Estimates are that fewer than 0.1 percent of marriages make it to 70 years or more, according to the University of Nebraska Omaha Center for Public Affairs Research.
Bill and Shirley Stanton of Afton, 94 and 93, respectively, are a rare couple indeed. Shirley Loving was born and raised in Charlottesville with her sister, Jean, who still lives here.
Bill Stanton is from Wisconsin, and the U.S. Army sent him to UVA for a meteorology class during World War II.
They married on February 12, 1944, a few months before D-Day. That same year, A Streetcar Named Desire hit the stage, and cooped chickens would be introduced in a Charlottesville courtroom during a dog’s trial (not guilty).
Shirley and Bill Stanton on their wedding day in 1944. Submitted photo
Here’s what the couple says about their 75-year bond.
How did you meet?
Bill: We met at a USO dance in Charlottesville; I cut in.
Shirley: We danced the whole time. Because I was a volunteer, I had to get permission to date Bill.
How did he propose?
Shirley: He was back in Charlottesville on furlough. After his class, we walked along to the Rotunda, and he pulled out the ring.
What is the best part of your long marriage?
Bill: It was all pretty good.
Shirley: We can’t complain.
What was the hardest or most challenging thing about being married?
Bill: (laughs quietly) Shirley, what do you think?
Shirley: We had a son die. We are very fortunate that nothing else that bad happened.
Bill: We worked hard.
Shirley: Everything we did was a challenge. We are so lucky to be in our home still, and it’s because we have a daughter and a grandson here to help us.
What is your secret to a long marriage?
Bill: Tolerance.
Shirley: Bill is very fair-minded. I can’t say I have taken advantage of it, but I have enjoyed it.
The demise of Performance Bicycle will still leave Charlottesville with what the industry considers an overcrowded market.
Staff photo
At a time when more people are pedaling, our area will kick off the new year with one fewer bike shop. Customers were told that longtime fixture Performance Bicycle in Seminole Square will close by the end of January, following the bankruptcy of Philadelphia-based parent company Advanced Sports Enterprises.
“It’s sad to see it close, sad for the people who work there,” says Andrew Sterling, an amateur bike builder and casual rider in Charlottesville. “The number of bicycle stores is shrinking. I’m surprised.”
Sterling points out that in addition to Performance, Cville Bike and Tri closed within the past four or so years. At the same time, other local bike experts say ridership is still growing.
The apparent disparity traces to overcrowding in the local market. Scott Paisley, co-owner of Blue Wheel Bikes, which was established in 1973, says industry norms suggest a city like Charlottesville can sustain about three bike shops.
Today, aside from chain store Performance, the city has Blue Wheel, two Blue Ridge Cyclery locations, the Bike Factory, Endeavour Bicycles, and Community Bikes, plus outlying businesses like Crozet Bicycle Shop.
No one at the local Performance store would speak with the media, and store manager Tim Gathright, who has been with the company 22 years, referred us to ASE, which had not responded at press time.
Performance was doing poorly two years ago. In August 2016, Advanced Sports International merged with Performance Bicycle and ASE became the parent company to both. Sales and profit growth lagged on the retail side, an ASE media release noted.
Performance has been known for its “head-scratchingly low prices,” and the low margins made profits difficult, according to Bicycling magazine.
Its closing could leave a sizeable amount of business available to other local stores. Shawn Tevendale, owner of Blue Ridge Cyclery, says that information he has puts Charlottesville as a $5 million to $6 million market for retail bicycles. Of that total, Performance has a 15 percent to 20 percent share, in the annual range from about $750,000 to $1.2 million.
Paisley says the pending departure of Performance may or may not significantly lift his business. “It’s always been hard to keep our nose above water,” he says. He credits the store’s 45-year longevity to co-owner Roger Friend’s attention to the bottom line and their ability to make financial sacrifices in the face of both brick-and-mortar and internet competition.
Tevendale is more optimistic. “Every retailer in Charlottesville stands to benefit from this and it will allow some other businesses to succeed.” He says he may be able to expand his team of 13.
“Cycling in Charlottesville is tricky,” says Paisley, “ but doable.”
Updated January 7 to add the Bike Factory among remaining bike shops.
Albemarle police are ready to stake out porch pirate Grinches.
ACPD
As if we didn’t have actual problems to worry about, national news has been filled with stories of porch pirates stealing gift-laden packages. But for those worried that their Amazon deliveries will be snatched by the end of the work day, rest assured: So far this holiday season in Albemarle County, only two missing packages have been reported, says Jenny Zawitz, crime analyst for Albemarle County police.
Of course, the number could rise because that was as of December 14, Zawitz points out.
Charlottesville has more purloined packages, with eight reported since November 1, says Detective Sergeant Tony Newberry. “These are pretty common larcenies.”
But Albemarle Officer Steve McCall with the county’s Problem-Oriented Policing unit says “There is not a lot of package crime in this area. It is happening in some other parts of the country.”
That hasn’t stopped suspicious neighbors from speculating, however.
On Nextdoor, the popular website for neighborhood gripes, western Albemarle residents recently raised the alarm about missing decorations and packages. As it turns out, this year’s missing decoration, a large snowflake on a mailbox, was stolen by a family member, who argued that the snowflake would be stolen and then stole it himself to make a point.
And the two packages suspected to have been stolen were simply delivered late. In fact, Amazon notes that a person should wait 36 hours after a delivery confirmation, because packages may have been delivered to the post office, which has not yet delivered to the home.
Meanwhile, what may actually be at risk is that gun you keep in your car: Right now, the most reported county crime is larceny from vehicles, according to McCall. People may leave their cars unlocked or leave valuables in sight, such as purses, gifts, sunglasses, electronics, and firearms. Last year, a striking 360 guns were stolen from vehicles; this year the number has dropped to 240, he says.
Most who were caught were in the 18- to 22-year-old age range, breaking into cars “for the thrill of it,” says McCall. “Some other people are supporting their drug habits.”
His advice? “Call 911 immediately if you see a crime in progress,” stresses McCall, who says one person watched a group of five youths ransack a car and called police only after they fled. “Know your surroundings and note what is unusual,” he says. “If you see something, say something.” Though maybe inquire at home first.
Victor Taylor woke up in the middle of the night, with “pancake-sized hives.”
Author John Grisham’s ears were “really, really itching.”
“We got in the car,” Grisham told Allergic Living magazine, “and I was so desperate I stripped down, took off all my clothes but my boxer shorts, and I had all the air blowing on me, and you could just see the welts.”
The cause of these mysterious reactions?
Red meat.
UVA physician Dr. Thomas Platts-Mills discovered alpha-gal allergy, commonly known as the “meat allergy,” in 2002. One of the more perplexing human allergies, it occurs when sufferers become sensitized to alpha-gal, a type of sugar present in red meat. Alpha-gal causes a delayed reaction—an affected person may eat meat, then break out in hives hours later, or even have trouble breathing. And because the allergy is believed to be triggered by a tick bite, you can develop it as an adult, even if you’ve been eating meat all your life. While it’s often associated with beef, other meats like pork, lamb, or goat can cause the reactions.
“People think it’s just red meat, but it’s all mammals,” Platts-Mills informed a patient at the UVA Allergy Clinic this fall, in his patrician British accent. “Anything with titties and hair.”
The patient, Greene county resident Frank Morris, had been diagnosed with alpha-gal allergy about a year ago, after a pork barbecue sandwich sent him to the emergency room with a rapidly swelling throat. “It was a really scary thing that night,” he says. “I usually don’t like to go to the doctor…but I couldn’t breathe, I was fighting for air.”
Platts-Mills and his team took him off beef and pork, and Morris says he was doing well. But he was back in the clinic that day after starting to have more allergic reactions, this time to dairy products. Recently, a few sips of a milkshake had made his lips swell up.
“You’re lucky,” Platts-Mills tells him. He says that with alpha-gal, most people don’t get the immediate mouth swelling that provides a heads-up that they are eating something potentially dangerous.
Sure enough, the allergy test confirmed Morris’ new sensitivity to milk, and pricks for beef and pork still produced tell-tale itchy red bumps. He was also tested for chicken, turkey, andfish, all of which came up negative. “You don’t even like fish,” his girlfriend Margie observed. But she was happy the couple at least knew the cause of his symptoms—before his trip to the ER, Morris had spent about six months getting various other diagnoses and medications from his primary care doctor.
That lack of awareness may be starting to change. “It seems like everyone either has it or knows someone who has it,” she says.
Dr. Thomas Platts-Mills, a UVA physician, discovered alpha-gal allergy, commonly known as the “meat allergy,” in 2002. One of the more baffling human allergies, it occurs when sufferers become sensitized to alpha-gal, a type of sugar present in red meat. Photo: Amy Jackson Smith
Discovering the allergy
Platts-Mills, the son of a barrister and a British member of Parliament, is the head of the Division of Asthma, Allergy & Immunology at UVA. His discovery began more than a decade ago, when he was asked to look into severe allergic reactions to a cancer drug, cetuximab. With a team of researchers, he found they were allergic to a particular ingredient in the drug—alpha-gal. Patients had developed antibodies to the sugar.
At the same time, reports of a similar allergy were arising in Platts-Mills’ clinic, independent of the cancer drug. Doing the cancer-drug allergy work, Platts-Mills helped to develop an allergy test (called an assay) for alpha-gal.
“I think the thing that I did, better than anything else, was to say we need to assay everybody in the clinic, anyone who would stand still,” Platts-Mills says. “We wanted to see what this related to.”
Researchers noticed that patients having alpha-gal reactions lived in the same area as a type of tick-borne disease, and wondered if the allergy might be triggered by ticks. (Platts-Mills says a technician on his team, Jake Hosen, was the first to suggest this connection.)
Pursuing that hunch paid off. The Platts-Mills team was able to find blood samples from people taken before and after tick bites, and to show the rise of antibodies to alpha-gal after they were bitten, ate meat, and had a reaction.
Then, Platts-Mills got the allergy himself.
In summer 2007, while this early research was happening, Platts-Mills recalls going fora hike, and having to remove tiny ticks, called seed ticks, from his legs afterwards. He ate meat rarely, but that November, he ate two lamb chops with two glasses of red wine.
“It was four to six hours later that I was covered in hives,” he says.
Ever the researcher, Platts-Mills tracked his alpha-gal antibody levels over time. He had his blood taken every week and watched the level fall as he avoided red meat and rise again after a different tick-bite incident followed by a meat meal. “I’ve done it a few times,” he says.
In March, 2008, Platts-Mills, along with Hosen and others, published a seminal article on the allergy for the New England Journal of Medicine. It has since been cited more than 1,000 times.
Alpha-gall allergy has a unusual delayed response. With a peanut allergy, Dr. Platts-Mills says, if you were exposed at a restaurant you’d know before you left. Whereas with the alpha-gal response, “you could eat a hamburger, sit for hours chatting with friends, wander out,” and still have no idea that you will have a big reaction later.
Dramatically different
Platts-Mills says alpha-gal is dramatically different from other food allergies. For one thing, unlike most allergies, alpha-gal is not species specific. “You can react to meat from a number of species,” he says, adding that some people even have reactions to eating squirrel or some other kinds of roadkill.
The delayed reaction is also not the usual allergic pattern. With a peanut allergy, Platts-Mills says, if you were exposed at a restaurant you’d know before you left. Whereas with the alpha-gal response, “you could eat a hamburger, sit for hours chatting with friends, wander out,” and still have no idea that you will have a big reaction later.
“We had a patient whose symptom was very low blood pressure, who had eaten meats all life long,” Platts-Mills says. “Just recently the symptoms started after eating meat. Three hours later, serious illness set in. You have the enigma of a person who perhaps has been eating meat for 30 or 40 years who flips into this new state.”
While the most common reaction is hives or intense itching, the allergy can also cause stomach pains, trouble breathing, and in some cases even anaphylaxis, a potentially life-threatening condition in which the body goes into shock.
Sensitivity to alpha-gal may also affect the circulatory system. An early-stage UVA study of 118 people found that those with sensitivity to alpha-gal, whether they showed allergic symptoms or not, had about 30 percent more plaque build-up in arteries than those who weren’t sensitive. The researchers also found that more of the plaques had features characteristic of unstable plaques, which are the type more likely to lead to heart attacks.
Study leader Coleen McNamara, a cardiologist who also works in UVA’s Robert M. Berne Cardiovascular Research Center, says that research calls for further clinical studies.
The lone star tick has a distinctive white spot on its back. File photo.
Putting the bite on
In our area, the alpha-gal effect seems to be primarily caused by the lone star tick, which is found on larger mammals like deer and dogs. The larvae of the lone star tick can also bite us. After feasting on our blood, mother ticks can lay 5,000 eggs, which appear as tiny specks that we call seed ticks, Platts-Mills says.
“Some people, slightly wrongly, call them chiggers,” he says. Tiny black dots you may see on your leg are most likely the larvae of the tick, he explains. They are nearly invisible.
When you get these bites, they strongly itch, which can last for a couple of weeks. If the itching reaction persists, Platts-Mills says, you may be more likely to be sensitized to meat.
“We think it is something definitely happening in response to the injected saliva of the tick, which is a complicated substance,” Platts-Mills says. “The injection into the skin causes the trouble.”
Victor Taylor, who lives in Afton, is a frequent hiker and got tick bites in the woods. He remembers one bite that didn’t heal for two weeks. “Once I removed the tick, it itched terribly,” he says. The area of the bite swelled to about the size of a quarter.
An infrequent beef eater, he had a steak a while after the initial tick bite. He awakened at 2 or 3am, and was very itchy, covered with very large hives. He had never had hives before.
“At first, I tried to take a bath to relieve the itching, but I had no idea what was causing it,” he says. The hives returned on another occasion, after he ate spaghetti with meat sauce, and then a third time after pizza with Canadian bacon on it. That’s when he realized it was a meat problem.
“I hadn’t heard anything about a tick-related allergy,” he says. “This was in 2010.” But he was treated by a nurse who had read a paper about how ticks were causing the allergy to meat and to certain cancer drugs.
In other parts of the world, Platts-Mills says, the same alpha-gal effect is happening with other ticks. He is helping a team in Minnesota to study alpha-gal outbreaks there. “It seems to be more the American dog tick in the Midwest, which is rare in Virginia,” he says.
As an aside, he adds that the tick that carries Lyme disease, often called the deer tick, actually is predominantly a mouse tick, a different species. “The bites that transmit Lyme disease generally do not itch. That species’ larvae can’t or don’t bite humans.” Researchers are “about 99 percent sure” that the tick that causes Lyme disease does not cause alpha-gal, he says.
Alpha-gal allergy and other tick-borne illnesses are a growing problem, because ticks are more prevalent in the spaces where we live. (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that cases of tick-borne illnesses doubled between 2004 and 2016, though it does not yet recognize alpha-gal allergy among these).
This is partly due to climate change, which has vastly increased the population of lone star ticks, which thrive in warm, humid weather. The ticks have expanded their range (all the way up to Maine), and warmer winters mean they’ve been able to stay active longer.
Another factor is the overpopulation of white-tailed deer, which carry the ticks. Deer stroll through many a yard and park in Charlottesville and surrounding counties, especially as increased development has pushed houses further into deer habitat. “We’re living too closely to them,” says Platts-Mills. “This simply was not happening in 1950.”
It’s hard to believe, but Virginia’s deer population was almost non-existent in the early part of the 20th century. The Virginia Game Commission began re-introducing deer to the Blue Ridge in the late 1940s or early ’50s, after commercial hunting had nearly wiped out the population. From a statewide low of about 25,000 in 1930, the deer population grew nearly tenfold by 1970, to about 215,000, according to deer project coordinators with the Izaak Walton League, a conservation society.
Today the deer population in Virginia hovers at about a million. That’s worrying, says Platts-Mills,because it is not unusual for a single deer to have 500 mother ticks busy fattening up, and deer have no way to remove the ticks from their bodies.
Treatment, but no cure
To treat a reaction, Platts-Mills says Benadryl generally works if you’re someone who just gets hives.
While the doctor’s own reactions have been “uniformly non-frightening,” he says scientists still don’t know why some people instead have the very disturbing, severe allergic symptoms (anaphylaxis) that mean they must go to the hospital. He says patients with breathing problems or any other life-threatening symptoms need to seek immediate medical attention. Morris, who has had severe reactions, now carries an EpiPen with him at all times.
While Benadryl can treat the symptoms, scientists have yet to discover a way to eliminate the allergy itself. In some people, the allergy appears to go away on its own—years later, they have no detectable antibodies and can eat red meat again without a problem. In others, the condition seems to go on and on.
Taylor, who says he misses red meat at times, has tried “microdosing” by eating only small amounts of meat—but without success.
Cutting out red meat entirely is the only known cure, says Platts-Mills. The doctor has reached a final conclusion: “I am an adult, and I don’t need red meat, so I have stopped eating it.”
That can be a tough prescription. Morris, who was born and raised on a farm, says he used to eat either beef or pork “almost every night for dinner, or for breakfast. I’ve had to change my diet completely.” The other day, even a chicken casserole had him reaching for his EpiPen (it was made with sour cream and cheese).
At the clinic, his arm still dotted with red welts, Morris asked Platts-Mills what he always asks: “When do you think I can go back to eating meat?”
Platts-Mills answered with a question that was essentially rhetorical: When do you think you’ll be completely free of any exposure to ticks?
In Greene County, that won’t be anytime soon. So Morris’ girlfriend, pondering his test results, looked for a bright side. “Maybe salmon steaks?”
Additional reporting by Laura Longhine.
File photo
Deer control
White-tailed deer, the primary hosts for the lone star tick, are among the most adaptable mammals out there. Without predators, a deer population can grown by a third or more in a season, says Bob Duncan, biologist and executive director of the Virginia Department of Game & Inland Fisheries.
Charlottesville is taking steps toward deer population control. First, it recently allowed residents to participate in the Virginia Urban Archery Season, which allows deer hunting by bow and arrow or crossbow (with the required permit).
Second, this past winter, after much debate, the city hired Blue Ridge Wildlife and Pest Management, LLC, to take out deer in city parks. Sharpshooters were brought in.
The outcome of that effort was 125 deer culled in nine city-owned parks and properties, reports Brian Wheeler, communications director for the city. Seventy-one deer were killed in Pen Park alone. The program yielded a total of 2,850 pounds of venison, which the city donated to the Loaves & Fishes Food Pantry of Charlottesville.
The City of Charlottesville plans to continue the deer-culling initiative in 2019.
Preventing tick bites
One of the best ways to prevent a tick-borne disease is to avoid getting tick bites in the first place. Here are some tips from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
• Use insect repellent. Make sure it has at least 20 percent deet (a repellent chemical, also marketed as Deet brand) or use those with picaridin, IR3535, oil of lemon eucalyptus, para-menthane-diol, or 2-undecanone.
• Hikers, don’t go off trail. Try to avoid brush, tall grass, or tree limbs.
• Use 0.5% permethrin insecticide on clothing and gear. (Some gear comes pretreated with permethrin, but Consumer Reports found that permethrin-treated shirts were not as effective against bites as an ordinary shirt that was sprayed with deet.)
• Shower soon after coming inside, within two hours.
• Treat pets for ticks, especially dogs. Ask a vet about the most safe, effective prevention products
If you do spot a tick on your body,remove it immediately (see tips below). Kill the tick, keep it, and bring it to your doctor if you can. Remember, alpha-gal symptoms may appear hours after a bite.
Here are the CDC’s tips for how to remove a tick safely:
• Use tweezers to grasp the tick near its head or mouth and remove it carefully.
• Do not twist as you pull the tick out. Pull it straight out of your skin. If any part of the tick is still in your skin, remove it.
• Treat the tick as if it’s contaminated; soak it in rubbing alcohol.
• Clean the bite area with an antiseptic, like alcohol or an iodine scrub, or use soap and water.
• Do not crush a tick with your bare fingers (their juices can leak).
• Check daily for ticks on humans and pets when you go outdoors, especially in the following areas: ears, hairline, underarms, groin, bellybutton, paws.
Attorney Deborah Wyatt decided to buy her new Audi in Richmond rather than sign an arbitration agreement in Charlottesville.
eze amos
Devoted Audi owner Deborah Wyatt was set to buy her third car from Flow Automotive in Charlottesville in August—until she was presented with a separate arbitration agreement after signing the sales contract.
Arbitration agreements, which are more often part of banking or credit card terms, are usually designed to block your ability to sue in the event of a problem. As soon as Wyatt, who happens to be a lawyer, saw the title at the top she refused to sign. “The finance man made a face rather indicating he thought it was going to be required, but I felt certain it couldn’t legally be, since it wasn’t part of the contract,” Wyatt says. “It had never before been mentioned.”
The salesman let Wyatt drive the new car home, even though it wasn’t yet officially hers. When she returned the next day, again the arbitration agreement was presented.
She ripped it in half, gave back the car, and had to ask for a ride home.
“If it isn’t part of a purchaser’s agreement, it isn’t legal to then require a purchaser to basically waive the right to go to court,” says Wyatt, who has experience as a consumers’ rights attorney.
Most arbitration clauses prevent people from joining a class action lawsuit, instead requiring them to bring an individual claim against the company and to settle it outside of court with an arbitrator. Consumer agencies say this favors businesses rather than the consumer, because companies know that people almost never spend the time or money to pursue relief individually, especially when the amounts at stake are small.
Local consumer protection attorney Edward Wayland says most of his cases that involve car sales are disagreements over warranty terms. If a car dealer does insist on arbitration terms, Wayland says, “I think it would create big problems for consumers,” who could not sue, appeal, or join class-action suits, depending on the terms.
Remar Sutton, president of the Consumer Task Force for Automotive Issues, has urged consumers not to buy vehicles from any seller requiring a mandatory binding arbitration agreement. Why would consumers need to be able to sue an auto dealer? In a piece on autoissues.org, Sutton gives such examples as a dealership that buys wrecked vehicles then sells them without disclosing damage, one that forges your credit statement to give you a loan you could never afford, or even a dealership that trades in your old car but does not pay off the loan on the old car, which leaves you open to a suit from a financing company.
Flow Automotive manager Shawn Ayers didn’t wish to answer questions about the mandatory arbitration agreement, and referred a reporter to Flow Automotive Companies, based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Several calls to the headquarters office were not answered. However, a call to a different Flow Automotive dealership in Statesville, North Carolina, confirmed that other Flows are using the arbitration agreement, which is separate from the sales contract.
At Umansky Toyota in Charlottesville, a finance department employee says the arbitration wording only applies to leased vehicles, and is not part of sales contracts.
Wyatt says that, by not including the arbitration agreement in the purchase contract, Flow possibly was violating the part of the Virginia Consumer Protection Act that says you can’t add terms to a contract. But she thinks signing to allow arbitration in a vehicle sale, whether in the purchase agreement or not, is a bad idea.
Savvy consumer Wyatt didn’t give up. She purchased the Audi she wanted from Audi Richmond, which did not require an arbitration agreement. In fact, she spoke with Audi USA, “which assured me there was no such Audi requirement” for arbitration. She called other Audi dealers to see if they would require this, and Roanoke didn’t either.
Despite the clause for concern, Wyatt is not done with Flow Charlottesville. She says she will continue to get her new Audi repaired there because she likes the service department.
