Tag: foxfield races

Categories
News

In brief

Crowds at previous spring Foxfield races have been around 25,000 people, but turnout was lower this year. Photo by Robert Llewellyn.

Off to the races

Every spring, college students and families flock to the track for the Foxfield Races. While patrons galavant through the fields and watch the occasional horse race, the Charlottesville-Albemarle Rescue Squad makes sure everyone stays safe. This year, C-VILLE tagged along with CARS for the festivities.

The day started early at the McIntire Road CARS station, with everyone in full motion at 6:45am. For Social Events Captain Nicole Post, planning began more than a month before the actual races. “I take inventory of what we used from last year, what’s going on, and make sure we’re doing all of our ordering,” she says. “We have a bunch of cards, a bunch of backpacks, a bunch of walking packs, so all of that has to be updated and stocked, all the expired stuff needs to be thrown out.”

The CARS squad headed out in a fleet of ambulances, trucks, and other EMS vehicles around 7:30am. After a pit stop at Chick-fil-A in the Mass Casualty Incident truck, we arrived at the racetrack, where the squad split up after breakfast briefings that included assignments for interior treatment center, ambulances, walking teams, and the exterior care center. This helps ensure that CARS can access and treat patients at any location.

After meeting up with Chief Virginia Leavell, I was given a highlighter-yellow CARS jacket and joined the gator teams in the interior treatment center. The gators—essentially souped-up golf carts converted into field ambulances—transport patients who can’t easily get to the main medical area on their own.

Despite the early morning rain and chillier-than-normal temps, the gator teams were quickly dispatched. Calls typically end with either no patient located or an intoxicated 20-something loaded onto the stretcher after a basic lookover. Unless something is wrong with a patient’s airway, breathing, or circulation, the person is immediately driven to the interior medical center.

“Those are like the three big things that are our top priority on every patient, the three things that we check first in all cases,” says Jaime Lear, one of the gator drivers who manned the MCI to and from Foxfield.

Once at the medical center, patients are assessed and treated as appropriate. Most people hang out in the tent for at least an hour, and the doctor on site approves each discharge. Anyone brought in for intoxication must pass a quick walking test before leaving. 

“A vast majority of patients get treated and released from here,” says CARS medic Michael Chilmaid. “Usually each year a couple end up having to be transported to the hospital.”

“Normally if we’ve treated a patient, given them medications, or put [in] an IV, they would be going to the hospital, but here it’s a little different,” adds paramedic and training officer Jasmyn Powers. 

Amid the chilly weather, CARS was less busy than usual this year, with 16 patients in the interior medical center all day and no transports to the hospital.—Catie Ratliff

Money moves

Albemarle County Public Schools adopted its operating budget for the 2024-25 school year on April 25. The budget comes in at $269.4 million, a $9.5 million increase from last year. Highlights include a 3 percent raise for all employees, an increase to the Academic Leadership Compensation Program, and the addition of five full-time equivalent positions to both the English Learner and Special Education program.

The wheel deal

Meals on Wheels Executive Director Hailey Peterson. Supplied photo.

Effective April 29, Hailey Peterson is the new executive director of Meals on Wheels of Charlottesville/Albemarle. Peterson started with MOW in 2021 as a volunteer manager, later serving as the organization’s assistant director and has been the interim executive director since September 2023. “I’m honored to continue my work with Meals on Wheels as the Executive Director,” Peterson said in an April 25 press release. “Having spent the past three years getting to know the volunteers, learning more about the organization, and better understanding the needs of our community, I’m looking forward to deepening our connection to our neighbors in need.”

Fire alarm

The Charlottesville Fire Department is investigating a fire at the University of Virginia Medical Center. The fire started at approximately 11:45am on April 27 in an inpatient room in the Medical Intensive Care Unit. A patient and a visitor were both treated for injuries, and the hospital returned to normal operations by the same afternoon. At press time, the cause of the fire is unknown.

Categories
News

In brief: Category 4, $1 penalty, Foxfield continued and more

photo NASA

Florence and the rain machine

Charlottesville was relatively unscathed from last year’s big hurricanes: Harvey and Category 5s Irma and Maria. But as stock brokers often warn, past performance is not indicative of future results. And the warnings for Hurricane Florence, currently a Category 4 and still days away at press time, are catastrophic.

Governor Ralph Northam issued a state of emergency September 10, and ordered mandatory evacuations for low-lying areas of Hampton Roads and the Eastern Shore. Governors of both North Carolina, which sits squarely in Florence’s current path, and South Carolina have also ordered coastal evacuations.

It’s the projected rainfall that has many nervous after heavy rains in May caused flash flooding and took the lives of two Albemarle residents. Charlottesville already is 12 inches above average, with over 41 inches of rain as of September 10, according to Weather Underground. At press time, the National Hurricane Center has Charlottesville mapped to receive 10 inches of rain from Florence.

More preliminary reports: Some bottled water shortages have already appeared, and expect gas prices to go up.

Quote of the week

“When you vote, you’ve got the power to make sure white nationalists don’t feel emboldened to march with their hoods off or their hoods on in Charlottesville in the middle of the day.”—Former President Barack Obama on the midterm campaign trail September 7 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

 

In brief

Two officers shot

Gunfire at Hardy Drive September 8 left three men wounded, including two officers who responded to reports of shots at 8:43pm, and Timothy Lamont Miles, 27, who was charged with attempted capital murder and felon with a gun. Miles, who is known to police, has a lengthy rap sheet that includes a history of brandishing firearms, burglary, multiple assaults, resisting arrest, and multiple other charges.

 

Paying the price

In February, a jury found Jeff Winder guilty of assaulting Jason Kessler at his August 13, 2017, press conference in front of City Hall. The alleged assaulter appealed the conviction, and was found guilty again last week, when a new jury fined him $1 for slugging the man who planned the Unite the Right rally. Afterward, an outpouring of people asked on social media if they could also punch Kessler for a buck.

‘Monumental change needed’

A new billboard in town, paid for by the Make It Right Project, supports anti-racist activists in their attempt to have Confederate statues removed. It’s neighbors with another East High Street signboard that glorifies “Stonewall” Jackson, and was paid for by the Virginia Flaggers.

Crozet train crash lawsuit

The father of Dennis “DJ” Eddy, who had been working for Time Disposal a short time when an Amtrak train slammed into the garbage truck in which he was a passenger and killed him, filed a $10 million lawsuit against CSX, which owns the track, and Buckingham Branch, which operates it. Multiple people have said there were frequent problems with the crossing arm.

CFA layoffs

CFA Institute, an international association for investment professionals that renovated the former Martha Jefferson Hospital and made it its headquarters in 2014, laid off 31 employees in Charlottesville and New York, according to NBC29. The employees received severance packages and were encouraged to apply for 50 open positions, many in Charlottesville.

 

The fight over Foxfield continues

Parties in a lawsuit over whether the Garth Road property that’s home to the Foxfield Races can be sold for development expected a judge to make a decision September 11.

At the hearing in Albemarle Circuit Court, more than a dozen horse racing fans had green stickers on their lapels that featured a cartoon fox and said, “Save Foxfield Races.”

Instead of reaching a decision, Judge Cheryl Higgins took motions under advisement. She asked for more evidence from attorneys defending the Foxfield Racing Association, which now owns the property and wants to sell it, and from those representing seven Albemarle residents with connections to the races who are fighting the potential sale.

The plaintiffs say the original landowner, Mariann S. de Tejada, said in her will that the land should remain intact in perpetuity for the races. The Foxfield Racing Association argues that de Tejada didn’t specifically state the creation of a trust for the property.

Higgins said she isn’t able to determine whether there’s a trust that would prevent the sale, and also suggested a settlement between the parties.

“Our objective is to protect the Foxfield Races—if not by a settlement, then by a continuation of the lawsuit,” plaintiffs attorney Bill Hurd said outside the courthouse. He also said he’s “happy to” dig up more evidence to prove an intended trust.

Categories
News

Foxfield lawsuit: Plaintiffs say there’s no finish line in sight

The plaintiffs’ suit seeks a declaratory judgment saying the will of the property owner mandates the Foxfield Races site must continue to operate as a horse racing facility. Photo by Robert Llewellyn

Garth Road neighbors and horse racing aficionados have filed a lawsuit against the Foxfield Racing Association to affirm that selling any of its acreage would be illegal. The catch? It wasn’t listed for sale.

“There has been a lot of discussion in the community about the future of the land and a lot of speculation, as one might expect, when there is a prominent property like this,” says Ashley Taylor, the Richmond-based Troutman Sanders attorney representing the eight plaintiffs.

The suit reads, “This case arises from defendants’ decision to sell the approximately 137 acres of land on which the Foxfield Races have been run for decades.” Such a sale would mean an end to the Foxfield Races, which is unlawful because the will of the late Mariann S. de Tejeda mandates the continued operation of the races and use of the land for that purpose, contends the suit.

Plaintiffs John Birdsall, Harry Burn, Reynolds Cowles, Landon and Kiwi Hilliard, John G. and Dudley Macfarlane III and Jack Sanford Jr. either declined to comment or could not be reached. But in the suit, they noted they are beneficiaries of the land and are seeking a declaratory judgment that the defendants—the Foxfield Racing Association and its owner, Winchester resident Thomas J. Dick, both trustees—must hold the property in trust for the purposes de Tejeda intended.

Their attorney says there has been overwhelming community interest in helping to keep the property the home of the Foxfield Races. “This is not a situation where these folks aren’t ready to roll up their sleeves,” says Taylor. “They want to participate in maintaining the property.”

Defense attorney James Summers declined to comment on the pending litigation, but C-VILLE’s legal expert Dave Heilberg discusses challenges the defendants and plaintiffs could face.

For the defense, a declaratory judgment is harder to defend, he says. But Virginia’s Uniform Trust Code that went into effect in 2006 was created to provide a greater certainty to trustees as to when claims could be brought against them, often making it more difficult for a plaintiff’s claims to be validated.

“It’ll be interesting to see if there’s a statute of limitations that applies,” he says. “Especially because the beneficiaries weren’t exactly known at the time the trust was created in the ’70s.”

The court will decide if the claims are from valid beneficiaries. “[Foxfield] was kind of broadly intended for everyone in Albemarle County. The neighbors don’t have to be beneficiaries,” he says. Heilberg could see the neighbors taking a position on the other side of the fence just as easily.

“It’s actually a little surprising,” he says. “The neighbors would rather have to worry about the horse races twice a year than whatever would go in there if they sell the property.”

The biannual Foxfield races are known to draw massive crowds, often filled with heavily intoxicated college students in big, floppy hats and pastel khakis. Spring race arrests were up in 2016. Of the 20 arrests, 15 were alcohol related, and 17 people were taken to jail. In spring 2015, there were seven arrests.

Additionally, Heilberg says a judge would be more likely to rule that a cemetery is in perpetuity versus a horse racing track. “I don’t know if using that particular property for horse races is going to be considered enough of a purpose to survive,” he says.

Jim Bonner, an associate broker with Roy Wheeler Realty and owner of Luxury Charlottesville International & The Land Office, says plenty of people would be vying for the deed to that desirable chunk of land on Garth Road, but it would come with a hefty price tag. “Let’s call it several million dollars, for sure, he says.

A court date has not been set yet.

Categories
News

In brief: Monroe’s wrong house, Foxfield casualties and more

A big wall looms near the Barracks Road exit off the U.S. 29/250 bypass. Staff photo

All this time we’ve been looking at the wrong house?

Ever notice that President James Monroe’s house seemed like the poor cousin compared with the more palatial digs of his fellow prezes Thomas Jefferson and James Madison? Now we learn that the humble abode at recently renamed Ash Lawn-Highland was the guest house, not Monroe’s more substantial 1799 home.

Psychic Catherine’s future is cloudy

Sandra Marks, who ran Readings by Catherine before it was raided by the feds in 2014 and who was indicted last July on 34 counts alleging she bilked clients of millions, will plead guilty to one count of mail fraud and one of money laundering May 17, according to her attorney. Marks, 41, met some of her alleged victims at Synchronicity Foundation for Modern Spirituality in Nelson County.

Mindfulness U

UVA hired San Francisco architectural firm Aidlin Darling Design to design its Contemplative Sciences Center, which will occupy a sweet spot beside the Dell on Emmet Street. Billionaire Paul Tudor Jones, who ponied up $35 million for the John Paul Jones Arena, and his wife, Sonia, whose Jois Yoga launched a “spiritually conscious line of clothing,” donated $12 million for the center.

Make the Republican convention great again

UVA law student Erich Reimer, whom you may remember from his Student Bar Association vice presidential campaign to build a wall between the law school and main Grounds (and make undergrad Student Council pay for it), has been confirmed as one of two electors at-large for the Virginia GOP this year. Fourteen hopefuls filed for the position and Reimer, 25, was selected for his campaign to woo millennials to the Republican party.

Nice work if you can get it

Virginia’s parole board members, appointed by the governor, make $125,000 a year, and with no public scrutiny about their decisions, rarely parole any of the state’s 1,000 prisoners over 55 who are eligible—and who cost $28,000 a year to house, according to a Sandy Hausman report on WVTF.

05_04_2016 CVILLEWEEKpg09

ByTheNumbers

Quote of the week

“It occurred to me then: This is getting to me.” Former police chief Tim Longo tells the Daily Progress about his decision to retire after undiagnosed symptoms, for which doctors could find no cause, affected his health after 15 years on the job in Charlottesville. Longo attributed the stress of the job to the symptoms and started planning for retirement.

timLongo-city
Tim Longo 15 years ago Photo Charlottesville Police