trees – C-VILLE Weekly

In brief: Sex trafficking, how to scare politicians and more

Charges filed under new sex trafficking law

Quincy Edwards, 33, was indicted on 10 counts June 6 related to human trafficking for threatening and intimidating a victim into prostitution at the Royal Inn Hotel, the first time those charges have been brought in Albemarle. He also was charged with extortion, abduction and use of a firearm.

Dubious top 10 list

UVA came in at No. 5 in a Washington Post analysis of schools with the highest number of sexual assaults reported in 2014. Brown and U-Conn tie for first place with 43; UVA had 35.

Jackie’s lawyers check Haven Monahan’s e-mail

In the latest round of court filings that almost make us forget former UVA associate dean Nicole Eramo is suing Rolling Stone and not Jackie, on June 1 Judge Glen Conrad gave the former UVA student 14 days to produce e-mails from Haven Monahan’s Yahoo account, which Eramo says Jackie created while catfishing another student. Team Jackie calls Eramo “unhinged” in court filings.

They call him “Oak”

UVA baseball coach Brian O’Connor, who took his team to Omaha to win the College World Series last year, started last weekend’s regional tournament at Davenport Field as the Hoos’ winningest coach with 595 victories. Sadly that number only increased by one, when UVA beat William & Mary June 3, but lost its next two games to end the season.

Grim anniversary

It’s been 20 years since the bodies of hikers Lollie Winans and Julie Williams were discovered June 1, 1996, at their campsite near Skyland Resort in the Shenandoah National Park after their dog, Taj, was found wandering near White Oak Canyon. The FBI says this is an ongoing investigation, and anyone with information should contact the agency’s Richmond office at 804-261-1044.

How’s it hanging?

Every June they appear in the trees on the Downtown Mall: giant birds, bugs or mammals, a sure harbinger the Look3 Festival of the Photograph is at hand. Twenty double-sided banners, this year with photos by Frans Lanting, line the mall. Printed on heavy vinyl, the 80″x 120″ photos have aluminum steel poles in pockets on thetop and bottom to keep them stable. Ratchet straps are wrapped around the trees and hooked to the top poles, and then tightened to prevent flapping. Two teams, each with their own ladder climber, installed the approximately 30-pound photos in a record time of 3.5 hours, according to Clare Stimpson with Look3. In April, the White Flags exhibit was removed when one of its 193 flags came down. In the 10 years the photography festival has hung the banners, Stimpson says there have been no casualties of either photos or outdoor diners below them. But they’re fully insured, just in case.

By the numbers

County crime report

1,404

Number of Albemarle crimes in 2015, down 16 percent from 2014

1,324

Property crimes, down 17 percent

Crimes against people, up 18 percent

Rapes, up 213 percent over 2014

Percentage of arrestees who are black

SWAT deployments

Lawsuits involving the latter two categories

—2015 crime numbers courtesy Albemarle County Police Department

Quote of the week

“Politicians aren’t scared of committees. They’re scared of agitated crowds.”

City Councilor Bob Fenwick at a June 2 meeting at the Violet Crown Cimema to discuss citizen concerns about the Water Street Parking Garage.

Tree-lovers can dig it

You can never really have too much canopy. That’s why around 20 volunteers were in the median of Route 20 near Interstate 64 on a toasty December 12, digging compacted soil and planting nine swamp white oaks, part of a plan to forest the median with white oaks, tulip poplars and Kentucky coffee trees.

The project is a collaboration between the Charlottesville Tree Stewards, which paid for the roughly $200-a-pop swamp white oaks, the Charlottesville Tree Commission, Albemarle County, Monticello, VDOT and Piedmont Virginia Community College.

The tree commission has been planting the city’s gateways and wanted to work on Monticello Avenue, much of which is in the county, says Charlottesville Tree Commissioner Paul Josey. “Monticello gave us ideas for trees,” he says. That’s why they’ll be planting white oaks and tulip poplars, which Thomas Jefferson called the “Jupiter and Juno of our groves,” he says.

The swamp white oaks, a nod to nearby Moores Creek, were bare root trees, which make for easier planting than a giant root ball in burlap. The trees, not out of the ground for more than two hours, says Josey, traveled from Bremo Trees nursery. They will grow up to 80 feet and can live 350 years.

The tree stewards hope to get another 70 trees in the median ground over the next two to three years, and are looking for donors for the next planting, says Josey.