Tag: Jody Saunders

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In brief: Cantwell on Kessler, what stoners are ordering and more

Special delivery!

Shopping in stores is so 2015, and several Charlottesville services are making sure you never have to step foot in one again. Starting now, locals can sign up for a membership with Shipt, a virtual marketplace with same-day shipping from Target and Harris Teeter, for $99 a year or $14 a month.

GrubHub, which bought out OrderUp last year, is an existing delivery service for area restaurants and fast food joints, and a newer service, called GoPuff, seems to have its own audience in mind.

Users can order “puff stuff” such as vapes, hookah shisha and rolling papers, while also choosing from a giant selection of (non-alcoholic) “dranks,” “munchies,” “eaaats,” supplies “for the crib” such as Febreeze or something called bedroom dice, “pints on pints” of ice cream or other refreshments that are “frozen af.”

For a flat delivery fee of $1.95, the people of Charlottesville have been ordering from GoPuff, mainly between the hours of 9pm and midnight, since March, according to Elizabeth Romaine, director of communications.

“GoPuff has been very well received,” she says. “We’re super excited to be here in Char-lottesville so that we can deliver our customers what they need, when they need it most.”

We checked in to see what it is exactly that locals need the most. Here are the top 10 products ordered in Charlottesville. No, bedroom dice didn’t make the list.

Top 10

1. Nestlé Pure Life water

2. Cheez-Its

3. Pepperoni Bagel Bites

4. White Castle cheeseburgers

5. Pepperoni Hot Pockets

6. Glacier Freeze Gatorade

7. Blue raspberry Laffy Taffy

8. Honey BBQ Fritos

9. Kraft Mac & Cheese

10. Sour cream & onion Pringles

“Jason Kessler never was and never will be a leader. …Speak privately with any other organizer of [Unite the Right] and they will tell you that working with Kessler was a nightmare. Talk to Jason, and he will say the same of them.”—Chris Cantwell, aka the “Crying Nazi,” on his Radical Agenda website

In brief

30 hate charges

photo Eze Amos

James Fields, 21, the neo-Nazi from Ohio who plowed into a crowd of counterprotesters August 12, killed Heather Heyer and injured dozens, was indicted on 30 federal hate crime charges June 27. Says Attorney General Jeff Sessions, “At the Department of Justice, we remain resolute that hateful ideologies will not have the last word and that their adherents will not get away with violent crimes against those they target.”

‘Festival of the Schmestival’

Justin Beights has asked for a permit to hold a family-friendly fundraiser for about 400 people at the site of last year’s deadly Unite the Right rally on August 12. He promises a celebrity dunk tank and a petting zoo, possibly with a giraffe, if approved. “It’s funny,” he told the Daily Progress. “That’s the date that worked for us. It was kind of a coincidence.”

Million dollar message

The Charlottesville Area Community Foundation will give $1 million from its “Heal Charlottesville” fund to 42 recipients in the wake of last summer’s KKK and Unite the Right rallies. The CACF saw it as an opportunity to invest in marginalized communities, says chair Jay Kessler, who is not to be confused with Jason Kessler, the man who brought the white supremacists to Charlottesville in August.

Saunders out, Curott in

Albemarle County spokesperson Jody Saunders announced her resignation effective July 6, and Albemarle police public info officer Madeline Curott has been tapped to fill in for Saunders at the County Office Building.

Packing heat

Police cited a Charlottesville man June 25 for packing a loaded .45 caliber gun in his carry-on at the Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport. Passengers may fly with firearms in their checked luggage if they’re unloaded and packed separately from ammo.

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Sound check: Crozet resident not a big fan of vineyard noise

Wineries are often considered the local rural area’s crown jewels, but the living isn’t always easy for those with homes near one. The hum of a giant fan at a Crozet vineyard has one neighbor at his wit’s end.

“It is truly an outrage that my wife and I are subjected to this while outside the house,” Robert Butler wrote in a recent email to the Albemarle Board of Supervisors. He attached an audio recording of the low frequency vibration that was taken from his backyard on April 21, about half a mile away from White Hall Vineyards, where the offending fan exists.

White Hall Vineyards owner Tony Champ says he’s never received a complaint about the two-blade fan that’s perched on a 40-foot tower.

He uses his automatic blower periodically during bud break, which usually happens between April 15 and May 1, to blow warm air on 20 acres of the vineyard, because if Champ loses new buds to the frost, he loses his crop for the year.

“Unfortunately, it goes off at about two or three in the morning and runs for a couple of hours,” says Champ. “I do have to admit the fan is loud.”

In Butler’s message to the supervisors, he added, “As you can hear, having that din from ‘my local vineyard’ greatly lessens the enjoyment of the sounds of nature. On our walk this morning, this sound blanketed the entirety of the Sugar Hollow region.”

The goings-on at Albemarle wineries, breweries, cideries and distilleries have been a hot topic in years past, but especially in 2016, when county administration announced an interest in further regulating events such as weddings at those venues, after rural neighbors complained about increased traffic and, perhaps most passionately, the noise.

That was also the year that Butler originally contacted the supervisors with his concerns about the racket at White Hall Vineyards.

“I’ve brought this to their attention before but, alas, nobody wants to think of a vineyard as a public nuisance,” he says. “Out here, we’re not all thrilled about these chosen businesses.”

Champ says he calls his closest neighbors when the fan is likely to automatically kick on overnight.

“We do try to be good neighbors,” he says, adding that he believes the fan has run about three times this spring.

He also does not allow amplified music at his venue. “As wineries go, I think we’re a fairly quiet one,” he says.

According to county code, outdoor amplified music exceeding 60 decibels—approximately the same level as conversation in a restaurant or an air conditioning unit—during the day and 55 decibels at night is prohibited at farm wineries. A noise ordinance exemption exists for sounds produced by an agricultural activity.

“We don’t have any open complaints on White Hall Vineyards and we would not want to speculate on whether or not there is a violation without an onsite investigation, which we wouldn’t do without a formal complaint,” says county spokesperson Jody Saunders.

But that doesn’t cut it for the man who has written twice to county supervisors about the noise.

“The county needs to regulate this auditory abomination,” says Butler. “If [property owners] had wanted this, we could have chosen to live next to an airport.”

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UPDATED: Biking greenlit at Ragged Mountain

If approved, hikers and bikers will have access to 13 miles of trails at Ragged Mountain Natural Area. City of Charlottesville

After a year of debate, and a plea last week from the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors to delay a decision, the Charlottesville City Council voted 3-2 December 19 to allow mountain biking and trail running at Ragged Mountain Natural Area.

“We are looking forward to working collaboratively with the city parks staff and all the friends of Ragged Mountain to be good stewards of this treasured public area for the benefit of all of our community,” said Jon Ciambotti via e-mail the day after the vote. Ciambotti was speaking on behalf of the Charlottesville Area Mountain Bike Club, which has already built a number of the trails at the natural area, though its members were prohibited from riding on them.

Councilor Kathy Galvin gave CAMBC a nod at the recent meeting, saying that erosion is caused by poorly built trails, not by the activities taking place on them.

Mayor Mike Signer and councilors Kristin Szakos and Galvin voted yes to allowing biking and running, while councilors Bob Fenwick and Wes Bellamy voted no. With the majority vote, they also passed a resolution to have city officials, within the next six months, determine whether biking and hiking should be allowed on the same trails and to study the best ways to maintain trail traffic. In addition, they passed an ordinance to ask the county to support their decisions.

“The county’s existing regulations applicable to [Ragged Mountain] do not allow biking with the express purpose of preventing pollution of the public water supply,” county spokesperson Jody Saunders said in a press release December 15. “The Board has asked for the deferment to allow for the possibility of more discussion and assessment regarding this issue.”

While Ragged Mountain is owned by the city, it’s located in Albemarle County, and Signer said at the meeting that each locality’s legal staff has disagreed on who gets to call the shots.

Members of the public using Ragged Mountain “will be confused as to what activities are allowed if the city’s and county’s regulations are in conflict with each another,” Saunders said in the county’s statement. “This, in turn, will create enforcement problems for the county if the city is, in effect, inviting bikers into RMNA despite the county’s regulations.”

Currently, Ragged Mountain’s rules are enforced by the city, says city spokesperson Miriam Dickler.

But Szakos says City Attorney Craig Brown indicated at the December 5 City Council meeting that the council had received all the necessary information to make a final decision, and should feel comfortable going forward with it.

“The Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority has said that they have no concerns about the water quality,” Szakos says, debunking the county’s main reason for asking for a decision deferral. “I would hope [the county] would take that up with the authority.”

Albemarle’s request that the city defer its decision comes at a time when city/county relations are not at their most cordial. On December 14, county supervisors okayed a consultant to study, among other things, locations to move general and district courts from the city because of parking and cost concerns about remaining in Court Square.

 

Updated December 20 at 12:30pm. Original story below.

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While the majority of City Council has publicly supported giving mountain biking at Ragged Mountain Natural Area the green light, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors is asking them to consider stopping their decision in its tracks.

“The county’s existing regulations applicable to [Ragged Mountain] do not allow biking with the express purpose of preventing pollution of the public water supply,” county spokesperson Jody Saunders said in a press release. “The Board has asked for the deferment to allow for the possibility of more discussion and assessment regarding this issue.”

City Councilor Kristin Szakos says City Attorney Craig Brown indicated at their December 5 meeting that council has received all the necessary information to make a final decision, and should feel comfortable going forward with it.

“The Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority has said that they have no concerns about the water quality,” Szakos says. “I would hope [the county] would take that up with the authority.”

But City Council’s potential noncompliance may not matter.

Citing Virginia Code, Saunders says the city, as the locality-landowner, is prohibited from adopting regulations that are in conflict with the county’s since Ragged Mountain is located there.

Members of the public using Ragged Mountain “will be confused as to what activities are allowed if the city’s and county’s regulations are in conflict with another,” she says. “This, in turn, will create enforcement problems for the county if the city is, in effect, inviting bikers into RMNA despite the county’s regulations.”

Says Szakos, “That’s a difference of opinion.”
The request comes at time when city/county relations are not at their most cordial. County supervisors yesterday okayed a consultant to study, among other things, locations to move courts from the city because of parking and cost concerns about remaining in Court Square.