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Events to honor veterans

Notes from the news desk

A number of Veterans Day events are pouring into our inboxes. We’ll continue to compile a list of ways to honor those who have served in the military.

November 10

UVA ROTC units will honor veterans, remember prisoners of war and those missing in action, with a candlelight vigil starting Tuesday at 3pm in the McIntire Ampitheater.

Air Force Colonel R. Wyn Elder, executive assistant to the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a 1990 UVA and Air Force ROTC graduate, will speak. Ninety-two cadets and midshipmen will participate in the 24-hour vigil, in groups of four rotating every hour, silently marching throughout the duration. The vigil will also feature a display of service flags, including the POW/MIA flag.

November 11

All active duty, former and retired military personnel will receive free admission to Ash Lawn-Highland on Wednesday for a Veterans Day celebration.

At 11am, the University of Virginia Army ROTC Cadets and the Buford Middle School band will join for a ceremony, free and open to the public, in salute to our veterans. The ceremony will include remarks from U.S. Congressman Robert Hurt and from Vietnam veteran Dr. Heyward Macdonald.  A variety of family activities will be offered following the ceremony.

Visitors can listen to Colonel Monroe in performances held at 1 and 3pm, as he recounts the American Revolution.

From 2-4pm, a living timeline of veterans will represent soldiers from the Revolutionary War through Operation Desert Storm. Visitors are invited to explore the evolution of the American soldier since Monroe’s day. Two World War II Jeeps will also be on display.

For non-military visitors, the family activities, Colonel Monroe’s performances, and the veterans timeline, in addition to the house tour, are included with regular admission ($14, or $8 for residents of Charlottesville and surrounding counties).

November 11

A Veterans Day Celebration commemorating the African American military experience will take place at the Jefferson School City Center’s African American Heritage Center and Carver Recreation Center from 9am-4pm. Military Historians will share some of the untold stories of African Americans’ roles in defending the ideals of freedom and democracy while simultaneously fighting against institutional racism.

November 11

Join the community in observing Veterans Day with music by the Charlottesville High School Band, and a speech given by Brigadier General Charles N. Pede. Free. 10:30am. nTelos Wireless Pavilion, 700 E. Main St. 245-4910.

November 11

UVA’s Faculty and Staff Veteran Networking Community will host a luncheon from noon to 1:30pm in the Alumni Hall Ballroom for faculty and staff members who are veterans. The guest speaker for the event will be Air Force Colonel Steven Hiss, commander of the UVA Air Force ROTC program.

November 11

Virginia state parks will waive all parking fees and hold special events for veterans.

Six state parks will offer flag retirement ceremonies for old, damaged flags: Chippokes Plantation in Surry, Hungry Mother in Marion, James River in Gladstone, Kiptopeke in Cape Charles, Powhatan, in Powhatan County and Staunton River in Scottsburg.

Honor your hero by bringing a photograph and story to Leesylvania State Park’s Wall of Honor in Woodbridge. At Fairy Stone State Park in Stuart, veterans are invited to share their stories. Lake Anna in Spotsylvania, New River Trail in Max Meadows and Wilderness Road near Cumberland Gap will feature speeches by veterans from the community.

For the complete list of programs, visit http://bit.ly/2015VetDay.

November 11

U.S. Postal Service closed.

November 11

Rhythm in Blue Veteran’s Day Celebration. The United States Air Force Heritage of America Band is proud to present Rhythm in Blue, the unit’s dynamic new jazz ensemble. This sleek, 13-member group presents exciting and uplifting music to inspire patriotism and tell the Air Force story. Free,7:30pm. State Theatre of Culpeper, 305 S. Main St., Culpeper. (540) 829-0292.

November 13

Veterans’ Story Theatre. Interactive and spontaneous, playback theater takes its material from the experiences of audience members—in this case, veterans who directly or indirectly served our country. Free, 7:30pm. V. Earl Dickinson Building at PVCC, 501 College Dr. 961-5376.

November 13

The Colonnades will host its Annual Veterans day Breakfast at 8:30am. Charlottesville community members will have the opportunity to commemorate those loved and lost and work with the community’s residents to write letters for Operation Gratitude, which sends letters to deployed service men and women.

November 14-15

On November 14 from 10am-5pm and November 15 from 1pm-4pm, visit with the 29th Infantry Division living history interpreters at Oatlands and learn about a soldier’s life during World War II. An Oatlands grounds or house ticket is required and veterans and active military are free.

December 4-7

Ceremonies to honor veterans who served during the Vietnam era will be held at the beginning of December. Congressman Robert Hurt asks for veterans who would like to be recognized to register here or call 434-791-2596. Registration must be received by November 30.  

These ceremonies are free public events for Vietnam Era Veterans and their families and will feature a congressional recognition and a commemorative pinning.  Veterans, who served at any point between November 1, 1955 and May 15, 1975 and currently live in Virginia’s 5th District, can register. View ceremony times and locations here.

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Playing dirty: Atlantic Coast Pipeline accused of eluding soil rules

Soil collected in the George Washington National Forest is being questioned by the United States Forest Service. Photo by Deirdre Skogen

Soil collecting may be an inherently dirty business, but the United States Forest Service is now calling into question the ways in which soil in the Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s path has been collected and recorded.

In a November 5 letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a supervisor of the Monongahela National Forest, located in Elkins, West Virginia, requested that FERC reject all soil testing data recorded by the ACP in the George Washington National Forest and in Monongahela.

In his 23-page letter, Clyde Thompson of the U.S. Forest Service writes that “information has come to our attention that discredits the results of any soils surveys conducted to date while also showing ACP failed to implement the Forest Service’s protocols for surveys and requirements for qualifications of field personnel.”

The letter includes documentation of extensive e-mail and phone correspondence between the USFS and pipeline contractors that highlights disregard of Forest Service protocol.

According to the letter, the ACP “misrepresented the resume of one field personnel and falsely attributed survey results to qualified field personnel, and misrepresented the Forest Service’s requirements for protocols and qualifications of field personnel to its consultants.”

FERC requires contractors to complete soil and geology surveys as part of the federally mandated Environmental Impact Statement.

“These critical surveys lay the groundwork and provide the on-the-ground information needed to ensure that our environment is protected and impacts of the ACP are adequately considered,” according to a press release from President Ernie Reed of Wild Virginia, a group that heavily opposes the pipeline.

A Dominion media relations manager, Aaron Ruby, says ACP submitted a list of certified experts who will perform new surveys and verify the 138 that were previously collected. Dominion is a company backing the ACP.

“While many of the concerns expressed by Mr. Thompson in his letter are the result of miscommunication or misunderstanding between both parties, Dominion strongly objects to the assertion that our company or our contractors deliberately misrepresented the role of any of the field surveyors involved in our soil survey program,” Ruby wrote in a statement. “This assertion is false. Dominion will provide documentation to demonstrate this in our formal response to the agency.”

Earlier this week, Governor Terry McAuliffe put a gag order on all public information and comments from state agencies which regard to natural gas pipelines, saying everything released to the public must first go through his office.

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Do the YMCA: Charlottesville site breaks ground—finally

At the groundbreaking ceremony of the Brooks Family YMCA, 10 people responsible for bringing this project to life dug the first shovels into soon-YMCA soil.

The long-awaited Brooks Family YMCA will offer local families a fitness floor, elevated track, basketball gym and multiple pools—all coming to McIntire Park in the summer of 2017 at a cost of $18,744,384. Exactly half of that has been raised so far.

“You may have your door knocked upon soon,” Suzanne Jessup Brooks, vice president of Pepsi Cola Bottling and lead donor, said at the November 5 groundbreaking event at which 10 people, including herself, donned blue construction hard hats and ceremoniously dug shovels into future-YMCA soil. She and the rest of those working to bring a YMCA—one of 2,700 in the nation—to Charlottesville are hoping to raise nearly $6 million more.

The planning for this site began in 2006, when Charlottesville agreed to lease public park land to the Y for 40 years at $1 a year, and Brooks is happy that things are finally taking off.

“I don’t normally get weepy,” she said, “but I’m going to get weepy this time.”

After the ceremony, Katie Krueger, the daughter of YMCA Board Chair Kurt Krueger, shared similar sentiments.

“It’s been a long time coming,” she said. “He’s been working on it almost the span of my lifetime.” Krueger said the board has overcome many obstacles. “It’s great to see it finally materialize,” she added.

Amid murmurs from attendees about the YMCA being for families that can’t afford a membership to ACAC, which sued to stop the project, charts advertised available financial assistance for memberships. The proposed family rate at the Brooks Family YMCA is $77 per month, with an adult rate of $52, a senior rate of $46, a student rate of $38 and a youth rate of $24.

Acknowledging all the hard work that has gone into this project to which city and county have both contributed funding, Albemarle Board of Supervisors Chair Jane Dittmar said, ‘We know that the city and county, even together, could not have done this [alone].”

The public is invited to a community-wide celebration at McIntire Park from 5-7pm November 11 for free food, music and family fun including obstacle courses and hot-air balloon rides.

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Pedal to the metal: Advocates want bikes at Ragged Mountain

Sam Lindblom, president of the Charlottesville Area Mountain Bike Club, believes everyone should be given access to Ragged Mountain. Rammelkamp Foto

“It embarrasses me that some outdoors people feel that there are others who are not ‘pure enough,’” wrote avid trail hiker of 50 years, John Pfaltz, in a letter to C-VILLE the day after Charlottesville City Council voted 3-2 to table the decision on whether a prohibition on cyclists, runners and dogs would be lifted at Ragged Mountain Natural Area.

Pfaltz has made an annual hiking trip to Douthat State Park, where mountain biking and training is encouraged, for the last eight years, and says the cyclists have been invariably courteous and friendly.

“I’m sure a few are not, but I have not met them,” he adds.

Acknowledging that biking may damage a trail, Pfaltz says, “I can understand people wanting to [preserve] nature,” but, he adds “it keeps people out.” He also acknowledges hiking could damage a trail.

Sam Lindblom, president of the Charlottesville Area Mountain Bike Club, also believes everyone should be given the chance to experience nature, and he says the “epidemic” of people not getting outside contributes to poor health.

“We also know that if we want people to care about natural places, then they have to go there. They have to visit and experience them,” Lindblom says. “People tend to care about places they frequent.”

To make Ragged Mountain more accessible, Lindblom, who is also a longtime member of the Nature Conservancy, says his biking club supports the development of sustainable, shared-use trails, which could be made environmentally responsible with proper planning and by avoiding sensitive areas.

But, for some, any human activity at the natural area is too much.

“It is broadly accepted that there is a tier of disturbance to naturally sensitive areas,” City Councilor Dede Smith says.

Smith, who voted to table the decision, is opposed to lifting the ban on recreational use and believes it should be enforced further.

“It’s not a new principle to say that walking paths have the least impact [on the environment],” she says, “but yes, some areas should be off-limits, period. And that is where we need to focus our attention now.”

Preserving drinking water at Ragged Mountain is one of the main reasons Smith is apprehensive about allowing recreational activity at that location—the area has a two-square-mile watershed due to its “bowl-like” topography, she says.

“Anything bad that happens on that land, including a lot of dog poop and erosion, will end up in our drinking water,” Smith says.

For 14 years, Smith ran the Ivy Creek Foundation, which managed the Ragged Mountain Natural Area until September, when the land was transferred to the city after the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority built the new dam.

Out of 13 parks in the county, where Ragged Mountain Natural Area is located, six allow mountain biking. If it were to be allowed at Ragged Mountain, only one other park, Charlotte Yancey Humphris Park, would be reserved for passive recreation. Other parks allow a slew of activities including hiking, swimming, fishing and horseback riding, with access to grills, picnic shelters and playgrounds. Both Ragged Mountain and Charlotte Yancey Humphris are shared city-county parks.

Charlottesville Parks and Recreation Manager Doug Ehman says it’s going to be awhile before a decision is made, but he’s aiming for next summer. The city’s trails planner, Chris Gensic, plans to inform the City Planning Commission of the results of an environmental study by June. After the commission’s recommendation, the ordinance will go back to City Council for the official vote.

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Construction crews prepare for the Blade

The prep work to hang the Blade at the Paramount is underway. Staff photo

Signs and sandwich boards on the historic Downtown Mall may soon be outshone by the reinstallation of a much anticipated, 33-foot sign at the Paramount Theater.

As the theater celebrates its 10th anniversary of reopening, construction crews prepare to bring back the Blade—a $175,000 project to put the Paramount’s iconic blade sign back in its place. This vertical symbol hung above the marquee from 1931, when the theater was built, until the 1960s.

While companies Nielsen, Schickel and Hightech Signs are overseeing the installment, they aren’t quite ready to hang the Blade.

“I don’t think they have raised enough money,” says Pete Foster from Hightech Signs. He says the crews currently are working on pre-installation, so when the sign is ready, they won’t have to waste any time putting it up. The Paramount is aiming to hang the sign by December, he adds.

Rosemary Miller, the Paramount’s assistant director of development, says through Bring Back the Blade button sales and individual contributions, they have raised $103,556. She adds that the campaign ends on December 15 at an illumination celebration, in which the blade will be lit for the first time.

Visit the Paramount’s Bring Back the Blade campaign to donate to the project.

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Gubernatorial invite: Will McAuliffe visit pipeline foes?

Nelson County may soon welcome Governor McAuliffe for a tour of the pipeline's proposed route. Photo: Prensa Internacional/ZUMAPRESS.com

While many out-of-towners plan tours of Nelson County to learn the land by way of winery and brewery, Governor Terry McAuliffe has been extended a much more somber, or rather, sober, invitation.

Over 1,200 Virginia residents signed Friends of Nelson’s request for McAuliffe to join locals and business owners on a tour of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s proposed route through the county. McAuliffe outwardly supports the development of the pipeline.

“I am aware that you pride yourself as being a business-minded individual,” the letter said. “We believe that you have been severely misinformed about the situation here and that a visit would give you the first hand experience necessary to respond clearly and truthfully to your constituents here.”

Some concerned citizens, including Kathy Versluys of Nellysford, signed comments with their names. Versluys, who has run an inn in Nelson for 28 years, wrote: “I can assure you that guests don’t come here to see pipelines and the related ugliness of a new industrial corridor. Our county and numerous business leaders have been creating Nelson’s bursting tourism industry for decades. Dominion’s pipeline threatens our economy and the health and safety of all of us. Let’s talk!”

Along with jeopardizing the economy, which depends on agricultural, tourist and recreational dollars, the letter also cites the threat a 42-inch, high-pressure natural gas pipeline poses to the mountains, watershed and overall livelihood of Nelson County.

Schedulers at the governor’s office did not immediately respond to multiple calls about whether or not McAuliffe will accept the invitation.

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Orange County woman charged with 27 counts of animal abuse

Anne Shumate Williams, aka Anne Goland, has been investigated before about her animal husbandry. Photo courtesy of the Orange County Sheriff's Office

Officials have seized just under 120 animals from a Somerset woman involved in what police say is an animal hoarding investigation at Peaceable Farm—not counting the ones that died before intervention.

Anne Shumate Williams, also known as Anne Goland, was charged with 27 misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty October 26 and is being held at the Central Virginia Regional Jail. She released 71 horses, mules and donkeys, along with 28 cats and seven dogs to rescue groups or animal shelters.

She refused to surrender another 10 horses in need of immediate care, but authorities have since taken them into their possession.

“What I saw was one of the most horrendous sights I’ve ever seen in 28 years of law enforcement,” Orange County Sheriff Mark Amos said at a press conference October 26, according to the Daily Progress. “We found six dead horses, one dead donkey, many dogs and cats and chickens.”

Williams is still in possession of 18 horses, a bull and several cats, and it is believed that friends are caring for those animals while she is in jail. Williams was denied bond at an October 27 hearing.

Additionally, nine horses have been put down since the investigation began on October 19, according to Amos, who also said Williams/Goland operated Peaceable Farm as an animal rescue nonprofit and as a horse breeder. He has asked the IRS to investigate for possible fraud.

In January, Williams was investigated at her farm in Montgomery County, Maryland, after people called in concerns, according to NBC29. Animal services then charged her with inadequate water on the farm, and police say she removed the horses shortly after that.

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FERC receives letter from 30 concerned organizatons

Nelson County mountains. Photo: Jack Looney

In a letter sent to the Federal Energy Regulatory Committee October 26, 30 organizations in Virginia and West Virginia called on FERC to do a single, comprehensive review of all four of the major natural gas pipeline projects currently proposed in the Blue Ridge and central Appalachian regions, rather than doing them separately.

This review, called a programmatic environmental impact statement, would evaluate the need for each of the projects in relation to the others. While the $5 billion proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which would carry natural gas from West Virginia through Virginia and into North Carolina, submitted its application to FERC in September, Mountain Valley Pipeline filed its permit application to build a $3 billion natural gas pipeline—also from West Virginia into Virginia—October 23.

Along with those projects, the Appalachian Connector and an upgrade of the Columbia WB Xpress, which cover similar territory, have been proposed.

FERC may not grant a company permission to build a pipeline before determining whether it is necessary, so organizations are hopeful that considering all projects at once will prove they aren’t all needed and that existing infrastructure can supply the demands of the region.

More than 3,000 miles of natural gas pipeline already exist in Virginia.

“Those pipelines are already there and we need to make sure the capacity of those pipelines is already used,” says Joe Lovett of Appalachian Mountain Advocates. Joanna Salidas, president of Friends of Nelson, adds, “If a drug dealer can sell his full amount of cocaine, does that mean that amount is needed?”

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Political season: Timing of e-recording announcement questioned

Debbie Shipp's opponents (from left) Franklin Micciche, Jon Zug and George Foresman question the timing of an improvement in the clerk's office.

In the competitive race for Albemarle County clerk of court, incumbent Debbie Shipp’s October 20 announcement that her office is using electronic recording for real estate and other documents two weeks before the election has her opponents questioning the timing.

“E-recording is a great idea,” says John Zug, Shipp’s Democratic opponent in the race. “What I’m concerned about is the timing and nature in which this happened.”

For those involved in real estate and other record filing in Albemarle, getting documents where they need to go may have just gotten easier. In July, the clerk’s office started using Simplifile—a web program that records documents electronically. Now organizations that submit documents to the clerk’s office through express mail or by standing in line to record them can simply submit their records online for only $5 per successful recording. Otherwise, the price can be higher depending on the document being recorded.

If the system was implemented in July, independent candidate George Foresman wonders why, Shipp waited until October to make the announcement. And he questions a mailing inviting people to the e-recording unveiling that was signed by Shipp on county stationery. “It smacks of ethical impropriety from a perceptional standpoint,” he says.

“I haven’t seen the filings yet, but I’m suspecting that this letter was sent out on taxpayers’ money,” Zug says, adding that Shipp may have used the announcement to further her campaign.

According to Shipp, though, she wasn’t responsible for sending the letters, but rather Simplifile representative Marc Arrowood was. In fact, he paid for the light refreshments at the launch party, with Shipp contributing only ice from the office icemaker.

“Believe me,” she says, “I am an Albemarle County taxpayer and I am tight on a dime.”

That Simplifile paid the postage doesn’t mean taxpayers didn’t pay, argues Foresman. “You build that into the contract,” he says.

Albemarle is among the first 20 counties to start using Simplifile in Virginia, says Arrowood. Since the end of July, the program has recorded just under 500 documents, which is routine. He says Simplifile traditionally has launch parties a few months after the program has been implemented so people involved can smooth out any kinks before it debuts.

While some are excited to send records to the courthouse without ever leaving their office, others are skeptical.

Heath Pecorino records deeds for the Charlottesville Settlement Company and is nervous about patrons being able to e-record while others are simultaneously waiting in line at the clerk’s office, specifically because he won’t be able to track both.

“There are windows of time that are crucially important in land transaction deals,” Pecorino says, “and if one thing has happened that might affect another, as the person who is doing those land transaction recordings, I just need to be aware of it.”

“We are working on that part of it,” Shipp says, “to make sure the people in line are being taken care of.” Rather than prioritizing, the office would eventually like to have enough staff to process electronic and in-person recordings separately and as soon as they come in through either medium.

And though he has concerns, Pecorino says the program is still an advancement.

“I’ll probably wind up signing up for this anyway,” Pecorino says. “There are other aspects to it that look absolutely fabulous.”

Llezelle Dugger, Charlottesville’s clerk of court, says her office has not begun e-recording yet, but plans to within a year.

Foresman contends the e-recording announcement is a “shiny object to distract voters” from Shipp’s problem-plagued audits of the clerk’s office. Says Foresman, “Deploying technology for the sake of technology is not going to improve that office.”

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Plan for gun range in Greene gets shot down

Tilahun Goshu, an Ethiopian ex-prisoner and refugee, built his dream home in Greene County, only to learn an open-air gun range is proposed right outside his backyard. The county's Board of Supervisors has denied the proposal. Photo by Ron Rammelkamp

The Greene County Board of Supervisors denied on October 13 Big Iron Outdoors’ special use permit, which would have allowed owners of the gun shop to build a 20-lane open-air firing range right outside its headquarters.

At the end of September, the Planning Commission recommended denial of the permit because of safety—about 160 homes are located within a half-mile of the proposed site. A group heavily opposed to the range, Greene County Neighbors, cited safety, noise, home values and impact on lifestyle as key reasons for nixing the plan.

Carolyn Politis, a local resident and member of Greene County Neighbors, says she’s pleased the Board of Supervisors put aside popular support to make a decision on what she believes is best for the Ruckersville area. She still hopes to see a new gun range in Greene, but one that isn’t in her backyard.

“We are hoping that someone can take on this challenge, but in a way that families are protected,” she says. “Quite simply, it should not be anywhere near homes.”