Author: Ryan McCrimmon

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Charlottesville environmental organizations make the case for renewable energy

Several local environmental groups have come together to call on Dominion Power to incorporate more renewable sources in its long-term energy plan for Virginia. Photo: Heather Hughes

Local environmental groups have teamed up to challenge the long-term plans of the state’s largest power provider, Virginia Dominion Power, citing a report released last Tuesday by third-party energy think tanks. The report, commissioned by Wise Energy for Virginia Coalition, which includes local organizations Appalachian Voices and the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), claims that Dominion’s long-term plans rely too heavily on coal and natural gas and don’t incorporate enough clean, renewable energy.

Dominion went before the State Corporation Commission (SCC) last week to present its biannual Integrated Resource Plan, an outline of how the company will supply power to its customers over the next 15 years—what facilities it will build, what new programs it will develop, and what the energy market will look like over that period. SELC is requesting a hearing before the SCC, hoping to persuade the Commission not to give Dominion the green light until the company adds a little more green to its plan.

“The IRP is really the only process where we as the public, and the Commission as regulators, can evaluate all of Dominion’s resources at once,” said SELC attorney Angela Navarro.

The report commissioned by Wise Energy is based on past Dominion resource plans created as recently as September 2012. According to the report, coal and natural gas will constitute around 60 percent of the company’s energy production as late as 2027. A clean energy plan, the document says, would save thousands of megawatts of energy and cost millions of dollars less than construction of new power plants.

“Dominion has put forth in its documents a future trajectory that’s really heavily based on building two big gas plants and a nuclear plant, and very little on renewable energy and demand-side resources,” said Jeff Loiter, a consultant for the research firm Optimal Energy and co-author of the report. “We put together what we see as a potential alternate future that uses more of those resources to meet customers’ needs.

Dominion countered that many changes proposed by environmentalist groups simply aren’t practical.

“I endorse them for being concerned about having clean air, but it’s not as simple as that for us,” said company spokesman Dan Genest. “We have to come up with an energy plan that not only protects the environment and keeps us in full compliance with all state and federal laws and regulations, but also that is reliable, safe, and affordable.”

Genest said even if Dominion tried to put forth a plan like the alternatives proposed in “Changing Course,” it would never pass the SCC because of high cost and impracticality. He pointed out that Dominion already has clean energy initiatives in place, like its solar partnership with major commercial customers, including Old Dominion University.

But the company also has financial reasons to resist transitioning to clean energy, said Nathan Jenkins of Appalachian Voices.

“Energy efficiency measures cost much less to implement, but they don’t get the same financial reward,” Jenkins said. “Clearly, a for-profit company is going to do what makes them the most money.”

If no changes are made to Dominion’s long-term plans, Appalachian Voices and its partners will continue their “New Power for the Old Dominion” campaign to build public support for new energy regulation and reform. The group will host dozens of events across the state, starting in Charlottesville on September 12.

Several local environmental groups have come together to call on Dominion Power to incorporate more renewable sources in its long-term energy plan for Virginia.—Ryan McCrimmon

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Best of C-VILLE Tales of passion

Charles McRaven: Renaissance man

Photo: Christian Hommel

Charles “Mac” McRaven sits in the basement of a house he built, flipping through a book he wrote about a trade he’s mastered. As the 78-year-old master craftsman describes his work in a smooth Arkansas drawl, he radiates energy, passion, and wisdom gained over a half-century in the field.

Among the country’s preeminent stonemasons, builders, and blacksmiths, McRaven wrote the book (five of them, actually) on building and restoring traditional stone, log, and post-and-beam structures. He’s done restoration work across the country, including local landmarks Monticello, Michie Tavern, and Sam Black Tavern. More than your average construction worker, McRaven is the go-to guy for preserving the historical authenticity and identity of a building.

“There are a lot of masons with one style, and that’s all they do,” he said. “Since we did restorations, we learned to do every style. Anything anyone can do, we can duplicate it.”

McRaven moved from Missouri to Virginia in 1978, drawn to Charlottesville’s tradition of historic architecture.

“A characteristic of the Charlottesville area is that we have some really fine craftsmen,” he said. “Virginians have always had an appreciation for history. I came here 35 years ago because there is such an interest in historical structures.”

Within four months of his move, McRaven was hired to do a restoration, and the work hasn’t let up since.

But a lifetime of building is only part of the story. McRaven is a Renaissance man. He practiced and taught journalism after college. He’s an avid reader—two books per week, 100 per year, he said—and a history buff. In addition to his five published books, he’s written award-winning fiction—in March he won The Hook’s annual short story contest judged by John Grisham, making him the only two-time winner. He also spends 20 hours a week at small, Presbyterian church in Orange County where he serves as a minister.

Often, these passions collide. McRaven writes articles for trade magazines Fine Homebuilding and Country Journal; he leads weekend blacksmithing workshops at his church; and during several restoration jobs, he’s discovered historical artifacts.

“We were taking down a huge plantation house in Goochland,” he said. “Behind some of the plaster we found a newspaper ad from 1838: ‘Slave carpenter being sold.’ That gave us the crawls.”

Another time, McRaven and his crew found a Richmond Dispatch edition containing an eyewitness account of John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry.

“You run into things like that, and it’s fascinating,” he said. “I love the historical aspect of it.”

McRaven said he’s been semi-retired for eight years. He mostly does consulting now, but when he shows up to a site, he often can’t resist getting his hands dirty. He always enjoyed physical labor more than supervising, he said.

While he’s much more selective with commercial jobs now, McRaven has plenty of personal projects to keep him busy, whether it’s fixing up his church or reassembling classic cars.

“I like working with my hands,” he said. “It’s what I do.”

It’s what he’s always done. When he was 11, McRaven helped his parents build a new house. Over the next 60 years, he would pass along his passion and experience for stonework and logwork to countless others through books, workshops, and mentoring. None of his five children are craftsmen by profession, but building is in their blood. McRaven taught each of them his trade at an early age, and they still work with their father in the field.

Next on McRaven’s agenda: building one last log cabin on his property, making a timber frame for one of his kids, and, possibly, restoring the slave cabins at Monticello.

“If we do it, we’ll do it totally authentically,” he said. “I can even hand-forge the nails if they want.”

If not, McRaven said, he has enough work to keep him busy for years. And he wouldn’t have it any other way.

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Foragers hit the trails in search of food that’s fresh, local—and wild

Local food advocates teamed up to lead an urban foraging walk in Charlottesville last week. Photo: Annalee Grant

What’s green, local, and tastes great in a soup? A whole lot more than you might think. Several area environmental groups are collaborating to raise public awareness of the many edible plants that grow in Charlottesville and the benefits of eating wild food.

Members of Transition Charlottesville Albemarle, Blue Ridge Permaculture Network, and Cville Foodscapes met Wednesday evening to host a foraging walk along the Rivanna River at Riverview Park. Armed with walking sticks, handbooks, and plastic storage bins, the troupe of foragers hit the trail, stopping to point out edible or useable roots, berries, flowers, and leaves.

“These plantain leaves are great for treating stings—just chew it up and apply it to the wound.”

“This is Ground Ivy. It makes a nice tea, good for colds.”

“See that purple plant? That’s pokeweed, and it’s toxic.”

The walk was a crash course for some of the guests, like local engineer Ryan Kassab, who was surprised to learn that so many of the plants he thought of as brush could be useful remedies or tasty snacks.

“I learned a lot about all the green stuff that just blends in,” Kassab said. “I do a lot of backpacking and hiking, so I like to know what I can eat along the trail in case I run low on food, or if I don’t want to carry much.”

Ann Marie Hohenberger of Transition Charlottesville Albemarle (TCA) said the walk was part of the organization’s initiative to promote eating local and natural, and show people that fresh and local doesn’t only mean farm.

“A really important thing for community resilience and for the general food supply is that people start taking on this knowledge about what plants are all around them, what things are edible, and understanding that this is something that can happen in a tiny space—it doesn’t have to be a dedicated multi-acre area.”

TCA and other groups are looking into the idea of an urban public “food forest,” modeled after Seattle’s Beacon Forest. Until then, they’re focused on getting the word out by hosting more walks, planting edible and useful greens around Charlottesville parks, and labeling edible plants around town so passersby will see that it’s O.K. to stop and pick a few berries.

Hohenberger said city representatives have expressed minor concerns, mostly over the process of implementing new “pioneer plantings” in the parks, which already have master plans in place. Hohenberger said the process of creating a community garden or setting aside space for edible plants would require further public input.

“It’s not insurmountable, but it’s a process that would need to be started and worked through,” she said.

As she walked along the trail in Riverview Park with the other foragers Wednesday, Hohenberger recalled her personal interest in creating a sustainable, local food supply.

“I’ve planted some fruit trees on my own property here in Charlottesville, and I’m really aware that it’s a huge privilege for me to be able to have a little piece of property and to have time to do that gardening,” she said. “I don’t want that to be something that I just do for myself and don’t worry about what anybody else in the community has available to them.”

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Search for missing Nelson teen Alexis Murphy centers on Charlottesville

Police released this image of 17-year-old Nelson County teen Alexis Murphy, missing since Saturday, visiting a Lovingston gas station. Photo: FBI Richmond Division.

Nearly a week after her disappearance, the search for missing Nelson County teenager Alexis Murphy is centered on Charlottesville. The FBI and other investigators have set up a base in the city, where the 17-year-old’s car was found Tuesday in a movie theater parking lot on Route 29.

Murphy vanished Saturday, August 3, after telling family that she was going shopping in Lynchburg, police said. She was last seen Saturday night at a gas station 30 miles north of there in the small town of Lovingston, about halfway between Lynchburg and Charlottesville on Route 29.

Her white 2003 Nissan Maxima, Virginia plates WYN-3706, was found Tuesday in the parking lot of the Carmike Cinema in Charlottesville. A K-9 unit tracked the scent from Murphy’s car to a nearby apartment complex, where FBI agents and Nelson County detectives continued their search. Investigators now say they’re reviewing security camera footage from businesses along Route 29. They have also released stills from footage of Murphy stopping at the Lovingston gas station.

Alexis Murphy. Photo: FBI Richmond Division.

Alexis Murphy. Photo: FBI Richmond Division.

Alexis Murphy's Nissan Maxima GLE SE. Photo: FBI Richmond Division.

The Bureau held a press conference Wednesday, August 7, urging citizens to remain vigilant and come forward with any information, and along with the Nelson County Sheriff’s Office, is circulating a “seeking information” poster with photos and a description of Murphy: She is black, 5’7’’, weighs 156 pounds, and was last seen wearing a pink shirt, floral-print full-length spandex pants, and brown boots, and was carrying a dark and light-colored grey purse. She has her right nostril and left side of her upper-lip pierced.

Hundreds of friends and family gathered at the Nelson County High School football field for a vigil for Murphy Thursday. Her family has urged the public to help police in their search.

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Shenandoah officials says ‘no’ to new park entrance for Madison County

For 80 years, Madison County has been awaiting a Shenandoah National Park entrance, like the one in Rockingham. Last week, park officials denied the request. Photo courtesy Shenandoah National Park

Madison County has waited 80 years for its own entrance to Shenandoah National Park, and park officials told county administrators on July 29 that they would have to keep waiting. A proposal by the Madison County Board of Supervisors to upgrade Rapidan Road and establish a new entrance for motor vehicles was denied last week by Park Superintendent Jim Northup. In a letter to the Board of Supervisors on July 29, Northup said the proposed upgrades were “not appropriate, nor consistent with the significance and purpose of this park.”

Madison officials say the county gave up thousands of acres of land for the creation of the park, yet it’s the only bordering county still without local access for vehicles.

“We don’t want a big commercial entrance,” said County Administrator Ernie Hoch. “We want to have a way to bring a limited number of people up. We’re not talking about building a new road.”

But Northup said upgrading Rapidan Road to support nearly 30,000 cars a year, by the county’s estimate, would prove a major and costly undertaking. And the state would have to foot the bill.

More importantly, he said, the influx of traffic would jeopardize the solitude of the backcountry area.

Northup said he received letters over several months from residents who were opposed to the county’s proposal, but Hoch said he hasn’t encountered much public resistance.

“I suspect he’s been inundated by some of the environmental community, who had kind of a knee-jerk reaction, thinking that this is going to somehow have a negative environmental impact,” Hoch said. “That’s not our intent. We’re not looking to cut down any trees or build any new roads.”

If some groups aren’t on the county’s side, Hoch said history certainly is.

In 1929, President Herbert Hoover built a weekend retreat in Shenandoah on land that formerly belonged to Madison County residents. The county used its own funds to build what is now Rapidan Road to Hoover’s retreat. The President wrote a letter thanking Madison County and others for their kindness and suggesting that the road they built would serve as an entrance to the national park when it opened in the coming years. In Madison County, this became known as “Hoover’s Promise,” which was never fulfilled.

“Over the years, Madison has been somewhat underrepresented and never had much political power or position,” Hoch said. “The county has requested that this entrance be established and has time and time again been told ‘no’ for various reasons. It’s time to give Madison a chance to share in the beautiful park they helped to create.”

Albemarle County Supervisor Dennis Rooker said he understands Madison County’s desire to open a new entrance, and said the park entrance at nearby Skyline Drive is great for Albemarle residents and businesses alike.

“During the fall and spring, the drive up there is absolutely gorgeous,” he said. “From a tourist perspective, the closer your access is to the park, the more likely it is that tourists are going to stay in your community.”

Hoch said Madison County will continue to expand its relationship with Northup and the park by working with them on other initiatives. In the meantime, they’ll meet with state and federal leaders and keep pushing for an entrance—after all, 80 years hasn’t slowed them down.

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Fluvanna prison lawsuit celebrates small victories, faces uphill battle

The class action suit against the Department of Corrections and prison health care contractors operating at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women is now a year old.

A year after Charlottesville’s Legal Aid Justice Center filed a class action suit on behalf of prisoners at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women, alleging the prison’s health care contractor, Armor Correctional Health Services, Inc., consistently neglected serious health issues like blood clots and cancer, the plaintiffs are pointing to a few small victories as the case moves forward. But attorneys and advocates say the fundamental moral question at the heart of the controversy remains the same: How far does the state’s responsibility go when it comes to caring for the people it imprisons?

“At base, this case is about how we as a society conform to our own foundational principles even when dealing with unpopular individuals,” said attorney Brenda Castaneda of the LAJC.

On July 12, the U.S. District Court in Charlottesville approved the LAJC’s motion to add another defendant: Corizon Health, Inc., a Tennessee-based contractor that took over health care management at FCCW when Armor’s contract with the Department of Corrections expired on April 30. The company isn’t new to the market—Prison Health Services, Inc., now a part of Corizon, operated at FCCW before Armor started in November 2011.

Both Armor and Corizon have been sued numerous times in the past decade over allegations of inadequate medical care. The majority of cases were either dismissed or decided in favor of the corporations.

Armor spokeswoman Yeleny Suarez countered that the company faces a relatively low number of lawsuits for a health care provider.

“Armor’s litigation history compared to other companies in the industry is very favorable,” Suarez said. Most cases are dismissed, she said, because they arise from “inaccurate representations” of Armor’s practices.

But Castaneda said there have been problems with both.

“Everything we’ve seen so far [indicates] more of the same from Corizon,” she said. “I wish the care would be better, but that’s not what we’re hearing from our clients and it’s not what we anticipate based on past experiences.” Adding Corizon to the suit was necessary, she said, so the court can enjoin them to provide adequate care going forward.

The lawsuit cites numerous cases of women with severe conditions, including diabetes, massive blood clots and ulcers, cancer, and more. Plaintiffs say prison medical staff employed by Armor regularly ignored inmates’ requests for treatment and medication and denied them basic accommodations like extended bathroom privileges for an inmate with a chronic bladder condition. More than once, the suit says, negligence by prison medical staff resulted in an inmate’s death.

According to the allegations, a prisoner named Jeanna Wright complained for months of intense abdominal pain and rectal bleeding, beginning in 2011. “For at least one year,” the suit says, the staff assured Wright that she was “fine.”

Wright was eventually referred to UVA Medical Center, where doctors determined she had Stage IV abdominal cancer. She died weeks later.

The LAJC is seeking injunctive and declaratory relief—basically, a court order that the prison health care provider is legally obligated to provide better medical care and the DOC is responsible for monitoring them. The plaintiffs are not seeking any financial compensation.

Castaneda said the problems are systemic. Prison health care contractors provide services on a for-profit basis, she said, meaning they keep any money they don’t spend on treatment and medication. Individual contractors come and go, but a culture of neglect remains.

“It’s a problem, period, to have for-profit corporations involved with prisons,” Castaneda said. If the state decides that it’s important to incarcerate lawbreakers, she said, they shouldn’t outsource the process to private corporations looking to “make a profit by doing something that should be the function of the state.”

Now that Armor is no longer the health care provider at the prison, the company has filed a motion to dismiss and is seeking to be removed from the case. The parties are still awaiting judgement on that motion. But late last year, the court sided with the plaintiffs on another motion to dismiss—one from the DOC, which claimed the state’s job was only to hire, not monitor, its contractors.

DOC spokesman Larry Traylor said it was department policy not to comment on pending litigation. Corizon also declined to comment.

The issue of inadequate prison care isn’t limited to Virginia, said Nathan Riedy, executive director of Justice & Mercy, a prisoner rights advocacy group in Pennsylvania that deals with similar cases of neglect.

Riedy said there are for-profit companies that can provide adequate care, and it’s up to the state to make a responsible choice between competing contractors.

“There are some for-profit health care companies who have a desire to provide great care,” Riedy said. “They bid a certain amount that will actually provide adequate care. If the state picks a company that undercuts that bid and can’t possibly provide adequate care at that price, then it’s not only falling on the company, it’s falling on the state’s shoulders.”

With many states facing budget cuts, he said, reports of inadequate care are becoming more and more common as states are squeezed into accepting undercut bids. Prisoners who feel they have no recourse in the courts are making themselves heard by other means, like those participating in the widespread hunger strikes in California, organized in protest of solitary confinement practices many say are inhumane.

According to Suarez, the DOC’s decision not to renew Armor’s contract was purely financial. Suarez said the DOC was “clearly pleased with our services,” but Corizon undercut Armor’s bid by about $17 million annually, she said.

If past lawsuits against Corizon and Armor are any indication, LAJC may still face an uphill battle. Riedy members of the public often have negative perceptions of inmates in court.

“They think, ‘I don’t have great health care, why should the people in prison have health care at all? They’ve broken society’s rules.’ That’s the gut reaction and I think that affects the outcome of lawsuits,” he said.

But the plaintiffs have a powerful advocate in LAJC. In 2012, the organization played a major role in exposing, and amending, the excessive use of solitary confinement at maximum security Red Onion State Prison in Wise County.

The trial is set for May 2014. In the end, Castaneda said, the case is simple. Prisoners are sick or in pain, the state has a legal duty to take care of them while they’re behind bars, and it’s not happening.

“It’s hard to get more fundamental than that,” she said.

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Neighborhood book exchange movement finds a home in Charlottesville

Sue DiMagno installed Charlottesville’s latest Little Free Library, one of thousands of neighborhood book-sharing centers across the country. Photo: Elli Williams

In front of Sue DiMagno’s home on Essex Street stands a wooden structure that looks a little like an oversized mailbox: two feet wide, glass-fronted, filled with books. Inside is an array of titles: Heaven’s Keep; Tripwire; Five Sisters. A small, white plaque on top of the box reads: “Little Free Library. Take a book. Return a book.”

Greenbrier is the latest local neighborhood to join the growing Little Free Library movement, a grassroots library system wherein neighbors swap literary selections by freely taking or donating books from mini-libraries. The library offers books of all genres for readers of all ages; even DiMagno’s 5-year-old son is getting in on the action.

“He goes down every day to check if there are any new books that he can read,” DiMagno said.

Aside from her son, she said, four or five people visit the library every day. She’s met several neighbors for the first time as they stopped by to pick up a paperback.

Todd Bol, who built the first mini-library four years ago in front of his home in Hudson, Wisconsin, described Little Free Libraries as a sort of community watering hole, a way for neighbors to interact and get to know each other by discussing novels and making recommendations.

“Libraries engage communities around books,” Bol said. “They get people to spend time together and talk. They’re a celebration of neighborhoods and communities.”

Bol’s neighbors were so excited, he said, they talked about the library like it was a new puppy.

“It delighted men, women, and kids of all ages,” he said. “People with Little Free Libraries tell us that they’ve met more people in 10 days than they have in 30 years. It seems to open and brighten up neighborhoods.”

Bol’s big, “little” idea is taking off on a global scale. Last year, he said, the number of Little Free Libraries grew from about 100 to over 4,000 in the United States. He said there are now 8,000 mini-libraries worldwide, on every continent. His organization’s website maintains a Google map that charts every one—and instructions on how to build, purchase, and stock your own neighborhood book-sharing site.

DiMagno set up hers in early June after asking neighbor Tom Givens, the woodwork artist who created the Whale’s Tail by the Route 250 bypass, to build the structure that now serves as the third Little Free Library in Charlottesville. The others are located on Palatine Avenue in Belmont and on Blueberry Road in Cedar Hills.

For those interested in following in DiMagno’s footsteps, Bol said the process is simple.

“Just put it up. Buy it or build it out of something, sponsor it, register it with us, and put it on our world map. Put it in your front yard and load it up with books,” he said. “It’s as easy as can be. Anybody can do it.”

DiMagno thinks Charlottesville is an ideal location for mini-libraries because it’s a “community-oriented city.”

“But any place is a good place,” she added.—Ryan McCrimmon