C-VILLE Weekly

Homebuyer beware

VDOT’s road-expanding project threatens Fontaine Avenue 

On April 16, a State appraiser showed Monica Vieira approximately how much of her front yard will be appropriated by the Virginia Department of Transportation.

“I kept saying, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me,’” Vieira says. She and Kevin Kotlarski bought the house at 2316 Fontaine Ave. for $210,000 in December, after deciding against a bungalow on nearby Monte Vista Avenue.

“We really liked the character of this place,” says Vieira, standing beneath a towering pine tree. “I had all kinds of plans for fixing up the yard.”

Her landscaping agenda changed last month, when a VDOT official said the agency wants to purchase some of her land to widen Fontaine Avenue. Vieira and Kotlarski will lose several feet of lawn, including the pine tree, where their property borders Montpelier Street. If property owners along Fontaine don’t sell their land, VDOT can take it by eminent domain.

Furthermore, City Council in June likely will approve zoning changes to allow taller buildings on Fontaine. Drawings from the City’s comprehensive plan show a U-shaped apartment building where the Vieira and Kotlarski’s house now stands.

Had they known about the impending changes, would Vieira and Kotlarski still have bought the house?

“That’s a good question. I ask myself that every day,” says Kotlarski.

“We certainly wouldn’t have paid so much for it,” says Vieira.

The home’s previous owner, Michael Carmagnola, knew about the construction plans before the sale. “I was aware there were discussions about that, but I thought VDOT had put those plans on hold,” Carmagnola says. “I don’t recall if we had a specific conversation about it, though. I’m sorry that they’re upset.”

Kotlarski says talking with Carmagnola is “on the agenda.”

“We’re waiting until our emotions aren’t so much on our sleeves,” he says.

For now, the couple, along with other Fontaine residents, is directing its feelings at City Hall. On April 21, Vieira made a tearful appeal to City Council to stop or scale back the construction plans. Hans Gerstl, Jr. has been holding meetings with residents and City officials at his Fontaine Avenue restaurant, Ludwig’s Schnitzelhouse.

“My mother and father started this business in 1970, and I lived up upstairs as a child,” says Gerstl. “I’ve seen all the nice homes on Jefferson Park Avenue turn into apartment complexes. We’re determined that’s not going to happen in our neighborhood.”

The Fontaine project, however, actually began during Gerstl’s childhood. In 1974 City Council first requested that VDOT widen the road, which is an important thoroughfare for UVA football traffic and one of the “entrance corridors” Council has long targeted for redevelopment. VDOT’s original designs called for a five-lane road, which residents thought was too massive. In 1996, a task force of City officials and Fontaine residents agreed that VDOT would instead make Fontaine three lanes––two travel lanes and a turn lane. The State also agreed to build sidewalks and plant trees. VDOT said it would pay half the cost to put utility lines underground, but City Council ruled that only commercial districts like Downtown and West Main require clear skies, and refused to pay for the undergrounding on Fontaine.

Since then, residents have come and gone in that neighborhood. “All the residents who sat on that task force no longer live on Fontaine,” says Councilor Meredith Richards, who works with the State on local road projects.

If Council were to back out of the project now, it would have to pay VDOT nearly $800,000 for engineering work that’s already been done. “That’s extremely unlikely,” says Richards.

Because major road projects are typically approved in one decade and built in another, new residents can feel ambushed when construction begins. As Vieira and Kotlarski can attest, homebuyers can’t rely on sellers or the City to warn them about projects that might be lurking in their neighborhood. Sellers want to seal the deal, and, say critics, City leaders keep residents in the dark so as to minimize political turmoil.

Kotlarski says he wants to delay VDOT’s land acquisition as long as possible in hopes of scaling back the widening project. Councilor Richards says the project may be “tweaked,” but will not be significantly changed.

Somehow Vieira has found the situation’s upside. “One good thing about this,” she says, “we’ve had all these meetings and we’ve gotten to know our neighbors pretty quickly.”

––John Borgmeyer

 

Two of a kind

Two of three local banks report profits 

During the past two months, most local banking news has been dominated by one story, the $2.4 million check-kiting scheme perpetrated by Ivy Industries against Albemarle First Bank. But recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Albemarle First and other locally owned banks indicate it’s not all bad news out there. “This is chapter one of a long story—and so far, so good,” says Virginia National Bank President Mark Giles, assessing his bank’s performance last year.

VNB and Guaranty Bank each experienced solid growth in 2002, according to annual reports recently filed with the SEC. Both posted earnings, too, in contrast to Albemarle First, which lost 22 cents per share for the year and, which, besides the Ivy Industries’ fraud, grappled with the lingering after-effects of aggressive lending and poor underwriting in previous years.

VNB grew assets by nearly $30 million in 2002, to stand at $170.6 million and earned 41 cents per share. Loans were up and VNB’s loan loss reserve was a healthy 1.07 percent of outstanding loans. Loan loss reserve refers to the allowance for bad loans that a bank builds into its financial calculations.

“It’s an unfolding story,” says Giles. “We’re ahead of where I expected us to be in all areas, and we’re still growing into our capital, which will take a couple of years.”

On May 1, VNB stock closed at a price of $18.50 per share, on the low end of its 52-week range.

Last year VNB posted a small dip in mortgages and consumer loans. Giles says that alteration doesn’t reflect a specific bank policy: “I can’t imagine why in 2002 anybody would get a car loan when they could get one from GMAC with 0 percent interest. It’s not so much our intention as it is the way the world has evolved.”

Guaranty Bank showed the most dramatic progress of the three locally owned banks, earning 89 cents per share in 2002. On top of that, this year Guaranty has already paid out a cash dividend to shareholders and has announced a second dividend to come. While assets have steadily decreased in the past two years to stand at $209 million at the end of 2002, this is positive news for the bank. Guaranty has undertaken a steady process of reform after entering into an agreement in October 2000 with the Federal Reserve Bank. Generally, a written agreement between a bank and the Fed indicates that regulators harbor some reservations about whether the bank is being run in a safe and sound fashion. As part of the agreement, Guaranty revised a number of its policies and realigned its loan portfolio. Its real estate-related loans have been on the decline, while its commercial business loans have seen steady growth.

Guaranty President William E. Doyle, Jr. says it’s all blue skies for Guaranty: “There was a very rapid ramp-up in lending practices and a high concentration of real estate-related loans,” he says.

“We were on a rapid-growth track, and the bank just didn’t have the procedures and personnel in place to take care of that,” Doyle continues. “There was a conscious decision to downsize the bank, not with a target in mind, but to focus on profitability as our primary objective.”

Indeed, commercial business lending currently comprises 51 percent of total loans outstanding at Guaranty, and residential mortgages decreased by half in 2002 from the previous year to $20.1 million. Its overall loan loss reserve last year was 1.36 percent.

Guaranty’s shares closed on May 1 at $14.76, at the high end of their 52-week range.

While Albemarle First posted a loss last year, its total assets climbed to an all-time high of $101.1 million, nearly a 12 percent increase over 2001. The bank’s loan loss reserve was 1.58 percent, reflecting the risky loan portfolio that has troubled the institution. Albemarle First President Thomas M. Boyd, Jr. predicts 2003 will be the start of a turnaround, even as the lender copes with fraud: “We’re working on our loan portfolio and the size of the troubled loan portfolio will decrease this year.

“Later on this year,” he continues, “things will improve greatly.”

Albemarle First shares closed on May 1 at $8.24, in the middle of their 52-week range.

—Aaron Carico

 

Batesville P.O.

Town faces identity crisis last business goes on the block

A dilapidated barn slouches along the side of Plank Road. The overgrown entranceway of Lochwood Farm waits quietly, not a car in sight. Just 100 feet beyond the farm’s tilting brick pillars, a small sign reads “Welcome to Batesville, established 1741.” It’s the only indication that this rural Albemarle area has a name, not to mention a community. But with the closing of the only general store in the area, Page’s Store and Post Office, locals wonder how long Batesville’s identity will stay intact.

“We wouldn’t have a community out here if it weren’t for the store,” says Rose Page, who owns the barren and musty remains of Batesville’s Page’s Store, “or the Post Office for that matter.”

Opened in 1914, Page’s Store and Post Office was originally purchased by Rose’s father-in-law in 1913. His son, Charles Page, took over the store in 1939, also becoming postmaster. When Charles married Rose in 1942, she became the store’s bookkeeper, making certain the full line of meats and produce were in stock, the horse collars and shoes were ordered and the monthly bills for freezers and televisions were being paid.

But when their son Charlie, who began working in the store in 1970, decided not to run it any longer, the Page family store closed its doors in 1994—on its 80th anniversary.

“We had all grown up in the store,” says Charlie, whose grandfather and father prided themselves on providing Batesville with everything from groceries to baby clothes. “There wasn’t anything the store didn’t sell at one time or another,” says Rose.

From January 1996 to July 2001 a local retired couple occupied the store carrying, according to Rose and her son, “a miniscule amount of stock in comparison to ours.” For the few years to follow, the 200 local postal boxes would continue to be filled by the new Postmistress Debra Fitzgerald. The need for a place to quickly grab a gallon of milk would not.

“The community’s identity is in this space,” says Charlie. “If we lose the post office for example, then Batesville’s mail will filter through Charlottesville or Afton, and Batesville will no longer exist.”

Furthermore, if no one purchases Page’s Store any time soon, it could face the fate of many other retail locations in rural Albemarle being changed into single-family residences.

But that’s progress, a movement nearly as incomprehensible as the laws that govern it. An arcane ordinance at best, the present RA—or rural areas district zoning—hovering over Page’s Store hasn’t been updated since 1969, a time when most rural general stores survived as “stores” under grandfather clauses.

But RA zoning laws, born out of concern for preservation of rural agricultural activities and water supply, can go into effect if the store isn’t occupied within two years. Page’s Store’s grandfather clause will then expire, and so will the only retail operation in the village.

“Page’s was a legal nonconformity, and we allow it to stay in that existence,” says John Grady, manager of zoning permit review for the County’s Building Code and Zoning Services. As a nonconformity, Page’s Store is declared incompatible with the RA zoning district in which it’s located unless it is discontinued, removed or changed. If it’s vacant for more than two years however, then it must go back to residential to fit into the original zoning ordinance. Some in the village claim this alone is pushing retail opportunities right out of town.

“There were once five stores here,” says Charlie Page, “now they’re all homes.

“This was once a self-contained, self-sustaining village.”

Currently listed at $285,000, the Page’s Store building does include the post office, which is due to renew its lease in 2005. If renewed, the new owners of Page’s Store would also be the proud owners of the local post office at least until 2010.

Still, while locals fight to keep the last remaining vestige of business alive and well in the community, not every Batesvillian understands the need to live in the past. Carol Marvel, three-year Batesville resident and the current Postmaster relief for the Batesville Post Office, is one of them. A Postmaster by trade, she’s not necessarily wedded to the Batesville Post Office, or store.

“Batesville is on some maps, and I don’t know why,” says Marvel. “It must be from something in the past, and I just haven’t found it yet.”

Marvel, like others, sees no need for the store, or the rural mentality. “Maybe some feel more secure in staying within the little community, but we have our big city problems here, too,” says Marvel, whose husband is the Pastor of Batesville United Methodist Church. “They just get shuffled under the rug a little more.”

Although Page’s Store has seen a small amount of retail action as of late (local artisans held sales there during Thanksgiving and Christmas of last year), there’s still some debate as to whether this July will officially marks its second year of vacancy.

“If we lose the grandfather clause,” says Charlie, “there’s never a chance to get it back.”—Kathryn E. Goodson

 

Cupola hoopla

Mt. Vernon turret moves north to 7-Eleven

Fans of historical preservation have a new friend: The 7-Eleven at Woodbrook Village Shopping Center on Route 29N. Now you can catch a glance at the bygone days of Charlottesville while picking up a Coca-Cola Slurpee. How so? Management for the shopping center on April 25 imported the stately cupola formerly perched atop the Mt. Vernon Hotel.

The hotel on 29N near the Route 250 Bypass exit is undergoing demolition to make way for electronics superstore Best Buy. While others in town opposed to big box development did the normal Charlottesville thing—they held meetings—Van der Linde Homes, the new owners of the Woodbrook strip mall, decided to preserve a part of the 55-year-old structure by saving the ornamental roof piece.

According to Patty Cornell, property manager at Woodbrook Village, it’s all part of the shopping center’s mission to bring “a little bit of Williamsburg to Charlottesville.” (Among other Woodbrook Village businesses are Amigo’s and Paint Plus. We’ll have to look for them on our next trip to the colonial tourist destination.)

Cornell says that the cupola transfer was precipitated by Van der Linde Homes’ owner Peter van der Linde’s desire not to lose a piece of what is the City’s past as well as his own. “Mr. van der Linde stayed there when he was a kid and first moved to Charlottesville,” Cornell says, adding she did the same. “It’s got such a history to it and it’s such a beautiful piece of architecture that we though it would make a beautiful addition to the shopping center.” (See photo, page 5.)

Van der Linde made arrangements with the Mt. Vernon owners and voila, the cupola now sits atop the gas-and-grocery while the Woodbrook’s carpenters intermittently fix it up. After that it will be relocated again to the top of the Pakistani/Indian eatery Taj Mahal. As an added bonus, Cornell says the light that briefly beamed from the cupola may be reinstated after renovations (apparently years earlier the airport forced the Mt. Vernon to quell the light since the megawatt bulb interfered with planes).

Cornell says the shopping center would be open to incorporating other historical artifacts, but only if they fit the Williamsburg theme. Perhaps they could find a home for poor Aunt Sarah from the Pancake House, which is also in the line of Best Buy’s construction. We hear she makes a mean flapjack. What’s more colonial than that?—Eric Rezsnyak

 

Write turn

West Main typewriter still key after 50 years

West Main Street, like most City streets, carries the whiff of technology. Cars stop and go while their occupants devour precious cell phone minutes. Joggers adjust headsets and catch their storefront reflections mingling with Sprint offers for the next wave of wireless. Still, efforts to turn the street into a high-tech corridor have crashed so far like an overtaxed hard drive. Nowhere is this more evident than on at the intersection of 10th and West Main where low tech decidedly has the upper hand.

That’s the corner that for 50 years has been home to the Charlottesville Office Machine Co., a business that has weathered the whims of City officials, developers and, lately, the digital world. The view through the window is itself a trip through history: Remingtons with the intricate workings of a baby grand piano, slim portable Olivettis, hefty Selectrics.

Inside, owner Ted Wood cheerfully explains that even in the age of the PDA, his customer base is “almost everyone.” It’s not just Grandpop who’s browsing Wood’s shop for a machine, ribbon or repair.

According to Mike Moore, a national service manager for office equipment company Olympia, typewriter buyers range in age “from 16 to 80.” And with the average price for typewriters ranging between $300 and $800, Olympia has no plans to phase out the machines, Moore says.

Not that Wood’s prices fall into that bracket exclusively. He sells plenty of second-hand machines, too. Apparently, “The older they are the quicker they sell,” he says.

Still, much of the store’s business is in repairs, an increasingly rare service. Customers lug their ailing machines from as far away as Washington, D.C.

First trained in his craft in 1955 on sturdy Underwoods, there’s little that by now Wood hasn’t encountered in the way of keyboards, platens and return carriages. In 1987 Wood bought Charlottesville Office Machine, which he shares today with his wife, Shirley, and son, David.

While Wood believes typewriters of all makes still linger in the shadows of most offices, cranking out government forms and more, he’s heard the statistics: Smith-Corona went bankrupt, IBM no longer manufactures typewriters…. (Even company man Moore admits that the rigor of Olympia’s typewriter sales has everything to do with “the demise of competitors.”)

Yet Wood has a survival strategy, namely his son. Besides selling elegant Royals and charmingly dated-looking electric models, David fixes computer printers and fax machines—a market with a clear present and foreseeable future. This not only keeps business rolling. It frees up dad Ted to do what hardly anyone else in Virginia can: tune up the Underwoods and refurbish the finicky IBMs.—Sheila Pell

Switch hitters

Two candidates pick parties and abandon Independents

Blair Hawkins and Eric Strucko, among the most recent candidates to announce their intentions to run for office in November, have something in common: Both lost their previous runs as Independents—Strucko for the White Hall seat on the Board of County Supervisors in 1999 and Hawkins for City Council in 2000.

But on April 21, Strucko announced his second go ’round for Walter Perkins’ White Hall seat, this time as a Democrat.

“Last time, I thought running as an Independent would be the best way for me to reach across party lines,” says Strucko. “This time, I feel comfortable running as I am.” And well he might: He has a long list of public service stints to his credit, such as regional planning committee DISC and Albemarle’s housing committee. On top of which, he is as yet running unopposed.

Vice President of Business Planning and Financial Operations for local financial services firm AIMR, Strucko sees the County finances as his starting point.

“I want to make sure the County budget has prioritized spending needs with an eye to saving tax dollars,” he said during his announcement, also stressing the importance of expediting the County’s neighborhood model plan.

While Strucko’s campaign announcement on April 21 at the County Office Building was businesslike and promising, Hawkins chose to announce his intentions—and political party switch-over—straight to his opponent.

In an e-mail to Mitch Van Yahres dated March 15, Hawkins announced his intentions to seek the Republican nomination for the 57th district in the Virginia House of Delegates.

A rascally write-in candidate for City Council in 2000, Hawkins knows earning the Republican nomination is his first battle. Then he can tackle the problem of unseating the 77-year-old Van Yahres who, after 22 years in the House, is clearly comfortable right where he is.

“In my speech at the convention,” Hawkins writes, “I will paint the campaign as a historic contest between a man who voted for urban renewal and a man whose family was displaced and disempowered by those votes.

“The election will be a referendum on the Fifth Amendment.”

Van Yahres’ reply was evasive, according to Hawkins: “He said he looked forward to a stimulating campaign.”

Hawkins insists his main intention is not necessarily to win, but to at least pave the way for someone else. The 39-year-old also wants to get Van Yahres talking again.

“I want Mitch to explain Garrett renewal and threats from the City to annex the County,” says Hawkins. “Even though all I really expect back from Mitch is the usual silence.”

In Hawkins’ mind, City annexation of the County and urban renewal are the two issues that explain every aspect of current-day local government. Indeed, he wants to introduce a bill that would extend the right of self-determination to County residents. That, he says, would make it impossible for the City to profit from threats to annex the County. “Ultimately, this would improve City-County cooperation,” says Hawkins.

So far, not all Republicans are supportive of Hawkins’ announcement. While some are calling Hawkins a very recent Republican, others are concerned running such an amateur will not make the party look good.

“My election is a long shot, but my main purpose is to discredit Mitch and his ideas,” says Hawkins. “The weakening of the Democratic party strengthens the opposition.

“It’s way past time for a change.”

—Kathryn E. Goodson

 

 

This space not for rent

Council rebuffed for ignoring renter woes

As a UVA student, Jennifer Isbister held the rosy view of Charlottesville common to undergraduates and others who live removed from the City’s underbelly. After she graduated and began working here as a social worker, however, she says her feelings about the town have changed.

“Now when people ask me about Charlottesville, I tell them it’s a world class city…for the upper class,” Isbister told City Council during its regular meeting on Monday, April 21.

Seeing firsthand how low-income residents struggle with the housing market––and the City’s apparent disinterest in their plight––changed her mind, she says.

Mayor Maurice Cox invited Isbister to stay for a “reality check,” to be provided by Satyendra Huja, the City’s director of strategic planning, in his annual housing report to Council. His report described how the City is encouraging middle-class home ownership, including gentrification and financial incentives for some first-time home-buyers.

Isbister’s comments and Huja’s report illustrate the growing disconnect between officials and residents on the topic of “affordable” housing. In Isbister’s view, the big problem is that rents have climbed much faster than wages. As a result, the poorest residents must work multiple jobs and spend significant portions of their income on housing. But when the Council looks at housing, they are most interested in City Hall’s own pocketbook.

For the past 10 years, City leaders have treated low-income renters as a financial liability, because they add to municipal expenses by enrolling kids in school and applying for social services while paying less in property taxes than middle-class homeowners. The City’s strict concern for property taxes derives from the State code that makes property taxes the primary income for most cities and counties.

For 20 years, the flight of middle-class homebuyers from City neighborhoods to County suburbs has threatened Charlottesville’s economic health. Consequently, many of Council’s decisions are designed to increase the City’s appeal to middle-class homebuyers.

According to Huja’s report, 60 percent of the City’s 16,850 housing units are renter-occupied, and two-thirds of renters spend more than 25 percent of their income on housing. Between 1990 and 2000, the median rent in Charlottesville rose to $530 from $468.

Homebuyers, however, enjoy more public assistance than renters. Last year, Council spent $1.37 million from the City’s general fund and channeled another $38 million of public and private money into home-ownership initiatives.

The City’s 2003-04 budget sets aside $95,729 to be used as rent relief for the elderly and disabled. Currently, there’s a two-year wait to receive Federal Section 8 rent assistance in Charlottesville.

Cox’s “reality check” perhaps refers to the facts of the free market and City-County politics. “There’s not much we can do about affordability, other than increase supply,” says Cox.

Council’s real housing strategy seems to be calling on Albemarle. Last year, about 1,700 new homes were built in the County. The County’s real estate department couldn’t say how many of those were assessed below $100,000, but Councilor Kevin Lynch says it’s probably not very many. Speaking to the composition of the region’s real estate market overall, Lynch said, “If two-thirds of the County’s new homes were in that price range, we might be more affordable.”––John Borgmeyer

 

O give me a yurt

Local woman takes up “cyberbegging”

Panhandling is so 2002. Anyway, Jenevieve Piel is too sick and too shy to sit on the Downtown Mall with a tin cup. Instead, the 53-year-old massage therapist is “cyberbegging” to help her escape homelessness.

Piel runs a website called help4jen.com, on which she solicits donations to help her buy a yurt––a modern version of traditional nomadic homes in central Asia, whose simple design seems to fit Piel’s crunchy, holistic style. She plans to live on her cousin’s land in Texas, where she will write books on pain management and studying nutrition. Piel says she turned to cyberbegging, as it’s known on the web, when chronic back pain forced her to stop accepting new clients for the “connective-tissue therapy” she provides from her home.

A self-proclaimed “shopaholic” named Karyn Bosnak pioneered the trend of cyberbegging one year ago when she started www.savekaryn.com to get herself out of debt. Not only did she collect more than $20,000, she also landed a book deal after showing up in the New York Times and on the “Today Show.” Now, cyberbeg.com lists hundreds of websites requesting that surfers “help me get out of debt,” “help me pay child support,” “send me to law school” or “help me get out of the porn industry.”

“When my friends heard about Karyn,” says Piel, “they said ‘Your story’s better than hers. She got money for being stupid. You got screwed over by the government.’”

The story there begins with Piel’s claim that she was poisoned by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1980, when she worked for the agency monitoring the population density of fruit flies in Southern California.

“I found the first medfly before the huge outbreak in California,” she says. “If I had known all the trouble it would cause me, I would have flushed it.”

Without her knowledge, Piel says, the USDA included the toxic pesticide Dibrom in the traps she used to catch the flies. After six weeks of working with the pesticide without protection, she began feeling disoriented and dizzy. During one spell, she says, she fell off a steep curb and ruptured a disc in her back.

The Dibrom also left her with Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, which renders her allergic to almost everything––including the ink on this newspaper.

Piel had always been interested in alternative medicine, so she ignored her doctor’s advice for back surgery and treated herself by visiting chiropractors and ingesting 50 grams of Vitamin C daily. The pain improved for a while, she says, but has recently returned.

“I don’t regret not having surgery,” she says. “Nine out of 10 people I talked to said their pain was worse after surgery. I believe from personal experience that the healing ability of the body is truly awesome.”

Piel arrived in Charlottesville in 1998, coaxed by a sister who lives in Nelson County. “It was O.K. the first year, then the rents just got out of control,” she says. Currently, she struggles with a rental apartment in the City.

Because of her back condition and allergies, Piel is ineligible for health insurance, as well as many jobs. As for her own work, which she describes as “sensing through the fingertips where things aren’t sliding and gliding” to discover the source of pain in another person’s body, she has had to cut back on that, too.

So far, Piel has collected $2,743 over the web. She saves the money, she says, in a special “housing fund.” That’s a long way from the $40,000 she says she needs for her yurt and moving expenses.

“It’s very hard for me to put myself out there, but that’s what I have to do,” she says. “I don’t know if my body will let me work much longer. I’m asking people to invest in my future, and they’ll have the satisfaction of helping other people get out of pain.”––John Borgmeyer

 

 

Garden weak

Pumping the media, Kluge forgot to water the flowers

Any press is good press, so the saying goes. But not any press release is a good press release, as was proven afresh on April 22 when, succumbing to a forestful of faxes and daily phone calls, we answered the summons to view the gardens at Kluge Estate Winery & Vineyard. In honor of Garden Week, C-VILLE had been invited—no, begged (beseeched, really)—to witness the beauty and scope of owner Patricia Kluge’s “impressive oasis” south of Ash Lawn-Highland. Indeed, we were beside ourselves with the prospect of touring the gardens of the woman who is described by her hand-picked media specialist as “one of America’s most prominent women.” (Just in case you missed that episode of “America’s Most Prominent,” all you really need to know is that Kluge, a regular on all the best guest lists, is the ex-wife of Albemarle County gajillionaire John Kluge.)

But maybe something was lost in the translation. For where we had been promised visions of “succulent plants as well as drifts and puddles of the textures and jewel colors that these many varied plant species exhibit,” what we found instead could most generously be described as a trio of impressive stone obelisks punctuated with a pair of old boots serving as cacti planters.

Trying to keep hope alive, we turned our attention to the nearby herb garden, planted for the benefit of Kluge Estate executive chef Dan Shannon. For that, our expectations had been moderated, as we were promised that the rectangular raised beds would exemplify simply “an artistic arrangement of varying colors and textures.” And yes, we did encounter wooden beds, which, with their lean content, we reckoned would be picked over by Shannon in a week’s time. (Maybe Mrs. Kluge dines out a lot.)

To be fair, the four walls of the Albemarle House Conservancy contained numerous impressive tropical plants, such as a rouge plant and a banana-less banana tree. Perhaps the gardens would justify the 13 phone calls after all. Oops! Guess not. Our guide informed us shortly after we entered that the tour was over. After only 20 minutes. Perhaps, we reasoned, “estates” just aren’t what they used to be.

Certainly the dominance of the gift shop on grounds would suggest that the days of the leisure class now accommodate a little commerce, too.

Heading back into town bereft of all hope for a succulent garden experience, we were soon beckoned by a tiny white sign labeled “Garden Week.” We followed a winding driveway and evidently crossed the invisible line separating the grandeur of Mrs. Kluge’s world from the grandeur of Mr. Kluge’s world. At the end of the road, past a row of topiary horses, bears and giraffes, we discovered ourselves on the grounds of John Kluge’s Movern gardens. The oasis, at last, was unearthed. For there, we feasted on rows of trees, tulips, rose bushes and dramatic sculpture accenting the eight-acre garden. There was even a goldfish-filled wading pool, covered in floating lilies.

And neither a media specialist nor press release was anywhere in sight.

—Kathryn E. Goodson

Charging elephants

Republicans stand up for John Q. Public

Tax day makes everybody cranky and on Tuesday, April 15, Charlottesville Republicans were no exception: Prominent elephants got down- right snippy about the Democratic establishment. In separate instances, Councilor Rob Schilling and GOP stalwart Jon Bright declared that City Council couldn’t care less about the little guy.

The uprising began shortly before noon, when Council was scheduled to approve the City’s 2003-‘04 budget, including a series of fee hikes. Schilling phoned local reporters to convene a press conference following the vote.

City officials had worked for months on the budget, and the four Democratic Councilors arrived at chambers dressed casually for what would be a five-minute meeting. Schilling, however, took his seat dressed in dark lavender suit and cowboy boots.

Schilling voted along with his fellow Councilors to lower the City’s real estate tax per $100 of assessed value to $1.09 from $1.11. But he voted against raising the meals tax and other fees. He agreed that funding was needed for capital improvements, new police officers and waste disposal, he said, but he didn’t support “the means.”

After the vote, Schilling retired to the steps of City Hall to read from a prepared statement. Mayor Maurice Cox and Councilor Kevin Lynch followed.

“As a Council,” Schilling began, “we could have worked harder for the people in this community.” The City should have reduced spending on architects and social service funding, among other things, and dipped into the City’s rainy day fund instead of raising fees and putting undue burden on Charlottesville’s working class, he said.

“From Belmont to Greenbrier, from 10th and Page to Alumni Hall, I hear you loud and clear,” he said. “Enough is enough.”

Lynch, in response, was quick to allege grandstanding.

“If Rob spent as much time getting his ideas across to Council as he does getting in front of the camera, he might make some progress,” said Lynch, further alleging that Schilling, a three-year City resident, has spent less time than his peers incorporating his vision into the budget.

Cox, also vexed, said in more measured tones that budgets always require compromises between raising fees and cutting services: “We have a social safety net here. Maybe Mr. Schilling doesn’t realize that’s what makes this a humane place to live.”

Meanwhile, a few blocks west on the Mall, Bright, who owns the Spectacle Shop, assailed the leadership of a steering committee on which he sits as one of 15 members. Assembled by City Council to guide a Federally funded, $6 million bus transfer station at the east end of the Downtown Mall, the committee earned his enthusiasm when he began to serve one year ago. Now, he says, it’s clear Council is using the group to rubber stamp its plans.

“The project hasn’t changed one iota from when we heard about it the first time,” says Bright. “I feel the City has wasted our time as committee members.”

During the course of at least three public meetings, Bright says, people have questioned the building’s location, size and style, along with the availability of parking. Steering committee members have suggested the center will need more lavatories or a permanent concession stand. Many business owners say the area needs more parking.

Dan Pribus, who runs the Blue Ridge Country Store on the east end of the Mall and now feels similarly let down, says he joined the committee because “when the architects talk about the geo-sociopolitical significance, I ask where they’re going to put the trash.”

Former Mayor David Toscano heads the steering committee and has spent the past year selling the transfer center to the Mall’s notoriously conservative business community. He says the City has listened to the public by, for instance, responding to citizen opposition to opening a new traffic crossing on the Mall.

Mike Stoneking, an architect who also sits on the steering committee, says, “you can’t make a building by committee. It gets out of control. You have to make a decision.”

Deadlines have also put pressure on the process, says Toscano. The City spent more than a year negotiating with developer Gabe Silverman to build the bus transfer center on West Main. When that deal collapsed, the City opted for the Mall location because it already owns the property. Now, the Federal grant is about to expire.

“Either we build this project, or we give the money back,” says Toscano.

But Bright, who has been active in City politics for nearly 20 years, complains that the City’s public hearings are merely theater.

“If you already have a plan, why involve citizens,” he says, “if you’re not going to listen to them?” ––John Borgmeyer

 

Cracking the case

“No coke,” says local man, suing WVIR for $10 million

A Greene County man can soon expect his day in court after two years of what he describes as the tooth-breaking anguish he has suffered at the hands of Virginia’s self-described “most powerful” TV station. Jesse Sheckler has filed a defamation suit for $10 million in compensatory damages and $350,000 in punitive damages against the Virginia Broadcasting Corporation, the parent company of local NBC affiliate station WVIR-TV 29. In the suit, filed on March 21, 2002 in Charlottesville Circuit Court, plaintiff Sheckler cites news reports on April 6 and 7, 2001, and again on October 29 and 30 of that year, that falsely claimed he possessed cocaine. WVIR reported, “DEA and JADE forces had confiscated 50 grams of crack cocaine and 500 grams of powder cocaine in a March 2001 raid on the home and business of Jesse Sheckler.”

Sheckler was arrested in March 2001 after a Federal grand jury indicted him on one count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine.

Novice WVIR reporter Melinda Semadeni covered news of the indictment on April 6. According to court filings from plaintiff’s counsel, Semadeni spoke to Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Pagel whom she claims supplied her with news of the confiscation. Pagel denies the allegation and asserts that Semadeni never requested a copy of the original indictment. Semadeni kept no notes or record of her interview with Pagel.

According to court documents, the 11pm newscast on April 6 displayed a photo captioned “Drug Bust,” which showed two armed officers handcuffing a white male in front of a house. In court documents, plaintiff’s counsel notes that Sheckler’s arrest occurred in a public space in Greene County and contends the image was neither of Sheckler nor his home. Sheckler’s attorney at the time, Denise Lunsford, left voice-mail messages at the WVIR newsroom that were not returned.

Although the drug weights were included in the indictment, U.S. Attorney Pagel tells C-VILLE that such data “does not mean that that amount was seized and it doesn’t mean that it was seized from a particular defendant. It doesn’t mean that it was seized at all.”

Covering Sheckler’s trial on October 29, 2001, reporter Pedro Echevarria included the cocaine confiscation in his report, after consulting archived material from Semadeni’s story. Sheckler was acquitted on November 1.

Matthew Murray, Sheckler’s current attorney, said news of the confiscation “was absolutely false. He was never charged with any possession. They [WVIR] were asked to retract it, and they did not.”

Discussing his damages in court filings, Sheckler claims the incident left him with stress, acid discharge, teeth breaking and a root canal, among other problems. Sheckler also claims “I cry in my heart,” when thinking about WVIR’s assertion.

“For a private plaintiff to win punitive damages,” according to Tom Spahn, author of the book The Law of Defamation in Virginia and a partner in the Tyson’s Corner office of law firm Woods McGuire, “a person has to prove actual malice,” defined as the defendant’s knowing falsity and reckless disregard for truth. “To win compensatory damages, he must prove negligence,” defined as deviating from a common standard of practice.

Thomas Albro, attorney for the Virginia Broadcasting Corporation, would not comment.––Aaron Carico

 

Across the great divide

Community group wants to heal the black-white rift

Ara mi le, oh ya ya,” Darrell Rose shouted from the auditorium stage at Buford Middle School, beating the Nigerian rhythm on the djembe he clutched between his knees. In Yoruba, the phrase means, “My whole self is well, oh yes.” Rose and his drum kicked off a community forum on race relations on Saturday, April 12, at the school. He intended the chant as a meditation, preparing the more than 150 attendees to confront Charlottesville’s racial sickness. Skeptics, however, wondered whether the “Many Races, One Community” forum was real medicine or just another sugar pill.

The event was organized by Citizens for a United Community, a 14-member group comprising City officials, former mayors, church leaders and prominent citizens. The CUC group has received $1,000 from the City as well as donations from the Charlottesville-Albemarle Community Foundation, UVA, the local NAACP, several churches and more than three dozen citizens.

The CUC formed last year when 10 black students from Charlottesville High School were arrested for beating up UVA students. Since then, the group collected donations and held fundraisers for the victims and the attackers’ legal fees. Not that the do-gooding has been universally lauded. Public housing advocate Joy Johnson, for one, says the group only seems interested in racial problems affecting Charlottesville’s middle class.

“My peers were not represented in this group,” says Johnson. “We rally around a certain group of kids. But every day we see kids getting into trouble in the low-income community, making mistakes, and they’re not doing anything about it. Where’s the balance?”

Another demographic largely absent was people under 30. About 10 students from UVA and City schools said racial tensions are not high among the City’s diverse student body––especially at CHS, where interracial dating is fairly common, according to one student––but black and white students simply don’t hang out with each other. In general, black students are over-represented in “special education” classes and under-represented in advanced classes throughout the system.

As the participants dined on fried chicken, a few CUC members consolidated the small-group notes into one presentation that former Mayor Nancy O’Brien said would identify problems and propose “concrete” solutions. For instance, affordable housing was identified as a problem for which the solution could be “working for better wages.” There was no mention of racial profiling or gentrification. While everyone seemed to agree racism is a real problem, no one offered a definition of racism or instructions on how to spot it.

Charlottesville’s ugly racist history is still very much alive. Slaves are gone, but many of their descendents still perform service jobs for poverty wages. Black residents still live in segregation, receive extra scrutiny in stores and get stopped by police simply because of skin color. Groups like the Virginia Organizing Project are already working on race and class issues, but the CUC meeting did not distribute literature about other extant organizations.

Most participants agreed no meeting can “cure” racism, but Anjana Mebane-Cruz says she felt the forum was successful because it marks a year-long interest in race relations. “That shows responsibility,” she says.

There was no shortage of warm fuzzies––as the group joined hands and sang the freedom anthem “We Shall Not Be Moved,” Johnson wondered if the CUC was really intending to compare its agenda to the civil rights movement. But the four-hour meeting succeeded in bringing blacks and whites together for both serious discussion and lighthearted socializing, which participants agreed happens all too infrequently in Charlottesville.

“It was a good effort,” said Karen Waters, director of the City’s Quality Community Council. “Any effort is better than nothing. But if everyone at that meeting would invite a black person over for dinner, it would do more for racial harmony than any amount of meetings.”––John Borgmeyer

 

Horse cents

ABC collects fine from Foxfield—as big race looms 

The April 16 headline in The Daily Progress may have stated “ABC reaches agreement with Foxfield,” but the president of the semi-annual equestrian event couldn’t disagree more.

“We didn’t by any means reach an agreement,” says Benjamin Dick. “we were given an order. I couldn’t believe that headline.”

On April 15, after months of deliberations, decisions and re-made decisions, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board moved to allow the racing association to keep its Equine Sporting Event license so long as it employs one security officer for every 200 ticket-holders, with at least 50 of the officers empowered to make arrests of underage drinkers. ABC had filed in January a disorderly conduct and intoxicated loitering complaint after the fall races. In the ABC’s “order,” Foxfield will also have to cough up an $8,000 fine.

“This whole ordeal is really hurting the race,” says Dick, who spends most of his time these days placating the fears of Foxfield’s biggest supporters—the horsemen and owners.

“This is also hurting us financially here—just in order to meet the ABC order, we’ll have to spend an extra $20,000 to $40,000 on security,” he says. On top of that, the ABC is sending more than 40 of its top-notch enforcers to scout the scene for the April 26 race.

“This is the first time ever that we haven’t sold out all the rail parking spaces,” says Dick.

But some sponsors of this year’s Foxfield season aren’t scared off by ABC allegations.

“It’s my understanding that they’ve had these problems for years,” says Donald Marks, owner of Readings by Catherine, a main sponsor of this year’s events. “But truth is, Foxfield itself never sold an alcoholic beverage there. They’re an asset and I really disagree with the ABC here.”—Kathryn E. Goodson

 

Full capacity

Landfill refuses fuel tanks following fatal explosion

Following an explosion earlier this month that killed an employee, the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority has temporarily stopped accepting old fuel storage tanks at the Ivy Landfill. Director Larry Tropea says he will wait to see the results of State and local investigations before making any permanent policy changes.

On Tuesday, April 10, Landfill manager Wayne Stephens, 46, died in an explosion while apparently cutting into a tank with torch. “There were no witnesses, so it will be hard to pinpoint a cause,” says Tropea. “Stephens had been there an awfully long time. He was the senior person at the site.”

The Landfill has always accepted a wide assortment of garbage, including empty fuel tanks. Tropea says the tanks are supposed to be inspected by two people, then stored between two and six months to allow volatile chemicals to break down or air out. After that, holes are cut into the tanks and they are taken to a scrap metal yard.

The Virginia Department of Labor and Industry will conduct a six-month investigation; the County fire marshal and the RSWA authority will also investigate the accident.

“We need to assess all of our procedures to determine whether we’ll continue accepting old storage tanks in the long run,” Tropea says.––John Borgmeyer