matthew carver – C-VILLE Weekly

August 12 bills killed

After white supremacists invaded Charlottesville with violent clashes that left activist Heather Heyer dead and the community traumatized, legislators carried bills to the General Assembly to give localities more muscle in avoiding such gatherings in the future. Attorney General Mark Herring also wrote a couple of bills to combat white supremacist violence—to no avail.

Senator Creigh Deeds

Allow Charlottesville and Albemarle to prohibit the carrying of firearms in public.
Prohibit impersonating armed forces personnel.
Prohibit wearing clothing or carrying weaponry commonly associated with military combat at permitted events.

Delegate David Toscano

Allow Charlottesville and Albemarle to prohibit carrying firearms with high-capacity magazines.
Allow any locality to prohibit carrying firearms at permitted events.
Localities may remove war memorials.

Attorney General Mark Herring

Define domestic terrorism as violence committed with the intent of instilling fear based on one’s race, religion, national origin, gender or sexual orientation. The state police superintendent could designate domestic terrorism organizations.
Paramilitary activity is unlawful if done with intent to intimidate with firearms, explosives or incendiary devices.

In brief

Power-less

Dominion Energy says it’s restored power to 42,000 customers in Albemarle following the nor’easter that hit the area starting March 1. At press time 721 were still without electricity.

“We’re like a mosquito on the giant’s ankle.”—Kay Ferguson about anti-Dominion protesters

ACC accolades

Virginia secured the No. 1 seed and won its final home game of the season against Notre Dame March 3. Tony Bennett was named ACC Coach of the Year, Isaiah Wilkins was named Defensive Player of the Year and De’Andre Hunter was named Sixth Man of the Year.

NBC29 anchor dies

Sunrise and noon anchor Ken Jefferson, 65, died unexpectedly March 4 after a brief illness. According to NBC29, he began his broadcast career with a pirate radio station as a boy. He worked at WHIO in Dayton, Ohio, and WWSB in Sarasota, Florida, before coming to Charlottesville in 2011.

Free tampons in jail

The General Assembly passed a bill February 27 that provides free feminine hygiene products to women incarcerated in Virginia’s prisons and jails. Bills to eliminate the sales tax on menstrual supplies for the non-incarcerated died in House committees.

Cop-car escapee pleads guilty

Matthew W. Carver, 26, whose six-week crime spree last summer included breaking into a Crozet woman’s house and stealing her car, multiple B&Es and kicking out the window to escape from a patrol car while handcuffed and shackled, pleaded guilty to 21 felony counts February 28 in Albemarle Circuit Court. He’ll be sentenced June 6.

Not just talking turkey

When a tractor trailer overturned on Rockfish Gap Turnpike February 25, Albemarle police said on their Facebook page that several turkeys got loose and “enjoyed a night under the Crozet stars” until an animal control officer picked them up the next day and “safely wrangle[d] the rafter into a pretty sweet new ride courtesy of the ACPD.” A rafter is a group of turkeys.

Where the sidewalk ends

A young man in cargo shorts and a gray T-shirt sprints across an unofficial crosswalk between Donut Connection and the Standard on West Main Street. He pauses to let a silver car speed in front of him and then darts to the closed sidewalk on the other side to dodge a CAT bus. There, he waits at a bus stop.

Two major construction projects—the Standard and Marriott’s Draftsman Hotel (part of the hotel chain’s Autograph collection)—within two blocks of each other on West Main Street have caused a mess of traffic cones, bike lane merges, detours and closed sidewalks.

Shipping containers are repurposed as pedestrian walkways on construction-heavy West Main. Staff photo

So here are some tips to ensure that you, too, won’t get steamrolled by a bus while playing human Frogger across the streetscape.

Outside of the now-closed Starr Hill Restaurant and Brewery, a sidewalk-closed sign directs walkers to take a detour across the street. It also warns that the bike lane closes here and cyclists will merge with traffic.
As you continue walking past businesses such as World of Beer and Donut Connection, you’ll see a makeshift crosswalk that offers a path to a bus stop on the other side of the street, though that sidewalk is technically closed. City spokesperson Miriam Dickler says the city is looking into this and suspects a private citizen created this “crosswalk.” If so, crews will paint over it soon.
If you don’t cross and you continue moving forward, outside of the Draftsman Hotel you’ll notice another sidewalk surprise. A ramp leads you through a tunnel of hollow shipping containers and down an exit ramp. Get through here and you’re in the clear.

Pop-up crosswalk on West Main is just one of the pedestrian perils awaiting. Staff photo

Yet another one

The Patriot Movement of Greenville, South Carolina, has decided to support the August 12 alt-right rally with a 1Team1Fight Unity family day at Darden Towe Park. Organizer Chevy Love sends a mixed message that she’ll be there for brothers and sisters in Lee Park, but she says she does “not stand for racism” and would not “promote an event that has anything to do with hate groups,” according to the Daily Progress.

Dubious distinction

The Anti-Defamation League labeled local Jason Kessler a “white supremacist” July 18 in its list of key figures, “From Alt Right to Alt Lite: Naming the Hate.” Kessler responded on Twitter that ADL is a “Jewish supremacist group.”

“If you want to defend the South and Western civilization from the Jew and his dark-skinned allies, be at Charlottesville on 12 August.”—Michael Hill, League of the South president, on Twitter

Most dramatic escape

Matthew Carver, 26, who made news a couple of weeks ago for a Crozet carjacking, kicked the window out of a moving patrol car while shackled and handcuffed on Route 20 en route to the local jail around 7:20pm July 21. He was on the lam for about 14 hours before being recaptured in Mill Creek.

Kiosk botch

The auto pay kiosk for Albemarle County taxes went on the fritz and dinged 152 on-time payments made before the June 15 deadline as late, and sent notices with late payment fees. Those have been corrected, reports the Daily Progress, but workers processing the county’s lock box payments also entered the wrong dates, making a similar number of tax-paying citizens late.

Homicide victim ID’d

Two weeks after Albemarle County’s first homicide of the year on July 4, police identified the victim July 20 as Marvin Joel Rivera-Guevara, 24. He was found in Moores Creek, and police held off releasing his name until it was confirmed by the state medical examiner’s office, but a GoFundMe account identified him in trying to raise $10,000 to send his body back to El Salvador.

Pipeline nears project approval

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission released its final environmental impact statement for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline July 21, which said the proposed 600-mile, $5.5 billion natural gas pipeline will have a “less than significant” impact on the environment.

“The [final environmental impact statement] paints a terrifying picture of a bleak future,” says Ernie Reed, president of the anti-pipeline group Friends of Nelson.

According to Reed, the ACP will eliminate almost 5,000 acres of interior forest habitat and destroy 200 acres of national forests and nearly 2,000 waterbody crossings along its path from West Virginia to North Carolina. “And all this to give Dominion and Duke Energy enough gas to burn our way into hell,” he adds.

Dominion Energy and Duke Energy are the major companies backing the ACP.

“Over the last three years, we’ve taken unprecedented steps to protect environmental resources and minimize impacts on landowners,” says Leslie Hartz, Dominion Energy’s vice president of engineering and construction. She says her team has made more than 300 route adjustments to avoid environmentally sensitive areas. “In many areas of the project, we’ve adopted some of the most protective construction methods that have ever been used by the industry.”

FERC could approve pipeline plans as early as this fall.