Tag: u.s. 29

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In brief: Diverging diamond, Way’s passing, educator arrested and more

Six road projects, one $36-million package

The Virginia Department of Transportation has identified six upgrades for Albemarle roads, and will choose one contractor
to design and build them for $35.9 million. Citizens can check out and weigh in on the projects from 5:30 to 7:30pm at Western Albemarle High School on Wednesday, October 10, and at Albemarle High on Thursday, October 11.

  • I-64 and U.S. 29 interchange: Eliminates crash-prone loop exit from U.S. 29 south to I-64 east, and installs two left-turn lanes on 29.
  • I-64 and U.S. 250 at Richmond Road: While left-turn lanes are being installed above, this project eliminates the current left turns across traffic onto 64 with a tricky diverging diamond interchange, like the one at Zion Crossroads, which allows lefts without crossing oncoming traffic.
  • U.S. 29 at Fontaine Avenue: Reduces number of lane changes needed to exit 29 north to Fontaine.
  • U.S. 250 at Route 151: Builds a roundabout at the collision-heavy intersection of Alcohol Alley and Rockfish Gap Turnpike near Afton.
  • Route 20 at Proffit and Riggory Ridge roads: Adds a roundabout at this intersection.
  • Berkmar Drive Extended. Adds a quarter-mile connector with Rio Mills Road

 

Quote of the week

“We knew all the details. Maurice always told the councilors.”—Bob Fenwick on former police chief Al Thomas remaining on the public payroll, according to the Daily Progress

In brief

Teacher’s aide indicted

The man knocked to the ground by Deputy Police Chief Greg Jenkins at an August 30 Albemarle County School Board meeting has now been indicted on a felony charge of assaulting a police officer. Michael Reid was among dozens of protesters calling for the school board to ban Confederate imagery from its dress code, and was brought to the hospital after the scuffle with Jenkins, who accused Reid of assaulting him.

Another Miller Center departure

Doug Blackmon. Wikimedia Commons

Douglas Blackmon, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Slavery by Another Name, follows two other senior historians in leaving the Miller Center. The former director of public programs declined to stay after his contract ended, and wrote in an email to the center’s CEO, obtained by the Cavalier Daily, “our ships are traveling on very different bearings.” Like Melvyn Leffler and William Hitchcock, Blackmon also cited the appointment of former Trump aide Marc Short as a factor.

Korte sentenced

Former UVA film studies professor Walter Korte, 75, was ordered to jail October 2 for possessing two child porn images. Korte, who was sentenced to 12 months, had requested electronic home incarceration, but Judge Humes Franklin denied the request. Korte was arrested in 2016 after tossing thousands of legal pornographic images in a UVA dumpster.

Federal lawsuit

Ira Socol, the Albemarle school division’s former chief technology and innovation officer, says he was wrongfully punished for his unauthorized purchase of school furniture earlier this year. He is suing the school board and Superintendent Matt Haas for firing him without a hearing, violating his right to due process, breach of contract, and defamation, according to the complaint.

Preacher, public servant dies

Courtesy Rob Bell

The Reverend Peter Way, who served on Albemarle’s Board of Supervisors and school board, and was the 58th District delegate in the General Assembly, died October 6 at 82. The Keene resident was elected to the House in 1991 in a seven-vote squeaker.

After his retirement from elected office in 1997, he founded the Conservative Coalition, a Tea Party forerunner. “He was a passionate fiscal conservative,” says Paul Wright, who worked with Way in the coalition in the late ’90s.

Way was passionate about his religious beliefs as well, says Wright, but he was not judgmental toward those who did not share his beliefs. “He was one of the good guys in politics.”

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In brief: 29’s new bridge, Lee’s new paint job and more

The new Berkmar Bridge. Skyclad Aerial

Berkmar’s parallel path

Governor Terry McAuliffe and Secretary of Transportation Aubrey Layne, along with about 70 other prominent guests, stood before the finally open (but not finished) Berkmar Drive extension on July 6. This is one of VDOT’s eight ventures included in its $230 million Route 29 Solutions design-build project package.

When the governor first began campaigning in Charlottesville and Albemarle four years ago, he said people were angry about their roads, and Bill Crutchfield, a local entrepreneur, likely made the most noise. “Tell Bill the road is here,” McAuliffe said, drawing laughter. And later he added, “You can bike, you can run, you can walk, you can do whatever you want.”

One of Berkmar Drive’s two new roundabouts. Skyclad Aerial

The deets:

  • 2.3 miles long
  • 2 roundabouts (one on each end)
  • 35mph speed limit
  • $55 million
  • Bike lane, sidewalk and 10’ multi-use path
  • Extends Berkmar Drive from Hilton Heights Road to Towncenter Drive
  • Includes a bridge from the South Fork Rivanna River

Lee attacked

Photo Eze Amos

As if there weren’t enough going on July 8, on the morning of the KKK rally, the statue of General Robert E. Lee was discovered vandalized with red paint and tagged with “Native land.” Crews had the statue cleaned up in short order, and police have surveillance video from two recently installed cameras in Emancipation Park.

 

“The Charlottesville Police Department, the Virginia State Police and the City of Charlottesville owe our citizens an accurate account both of what happened on July 8 and why.”—Mayor Mike Signer

Plugging the new meters

City Council voted July 6 to charge $1.80 an hour for the parking meters that will be installed on the Downtown Mall perimeter. To take the sting out of paid street parking, the first hour is free at Market Street Garage, and then the rate goes to $1.50 an hour. And low-wage earners can get $6.50 a day vouchers from their employers to park in the Market Street Garage.

Kroger abandons Seminole Square plans

A year ago the grocer announced a 100,000-square-foot, $28 million store in the space Giant previously occupied. On July 6, Kroger announced it had decided to stay put in its Emmet Street location. No word from Hobby Lobby, which reportedly was set to move into the vacated space, but Kroger holds a lease in Seminole Square that the store might want to look at.

Not amused

Kings Dominion closed the Tornado, one of the amusement park’s water slides, July 5 when UVA medical assistant Christina Orebaugh hit her head on the ride and “almost drowned,” according to a Facebook post by her husband, Steve, who says she is concussed, broke her collarbone and toe and fractured her shoulder. The ride is closed until further notice.

In the Vault

James Barton in front of a Clay Witt painting in the boardroom. Staff photo

Fifty offices carrying the name Vault Virginia are under construction in the historic Bradbury and former Bank of America building on the Downtown Mall, where a luxury steakhouse will fill the first floor. James Barton, who also created Studio IX, says the local creative class will use his new communal workspace as another place to put their brains together.

About half of Vault Virginia’s spaces are still for rent, with prices ranging from $1,500 to $2,500 per month. A desk space costs $450 per month and for $100 less, you can sit in any community area. Workers passing through town can purchase a day pass for $50.

Barton dubs the aesthetic as a place where commercial meets residential. We’re talking pendant lighting and glass walls, folks. The building also has three event spaces, room for
three art galleries, a cafe, a library
and a kitchen, and Barton plans to eventually make showers and bicycle parking available.

Similar to Jaffray Woodriff’s concept at the Charlottesville Technology Center, Barton says he’s seeing a trend of communal workspaces. “This is a small part of a bigger vision.”

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In brief: Khans v. Trump, what’s biting and more

Charlottesville residents Khizr and Ghazala Khan have been in the national news since their July 28 Democratic convention appearance. Photo Voice of America

Locals ignite national firestorm

The appearance of Khizr and Ghazala Khan, whose son Humayun, a UVA grad and Army captain killed in Iraq in 2004, at the Democratic National Convention July 28 drew negative comments from Donald Trump and support from Republicans like Senator John McCain, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Frayser White IV has been been charged with four counts stemming from a crash that killed Ivy resident Carolyn Wayne. Photo Albemarle police
photo Albemarle police

Four charges in crash that left woman dead

A grand jury indicted Frayser White IV August 1 on two felony counts for possession of heroin and cocaine, and two misdemeanors for reckless driving and possession of Xanax in the March 15 Ivy Road collision that killed Carolyn Wayne, 81. White initially was charged with his second DUI, but the prosecution dropped that after finding no evidence he’d consumed alcohol, according to court documents.

Title IX probed at UVA (again)

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights launched another Title IX investigation of UVA July 22. A former student has filed a complaint with the office alleging that he was discriminated against based on his gender and disability in the previous investigation that concluded last September.

Hingeley hangs it up

Jim Hingeley, who founded the Charlottesville-Albemarle Public Defender Office in 1998, is retiring, and an original member of his office, Elizabeth Murtagh, has been appointed the next public defender.

There’s an app for that

WillowTree and UVA developed an app that sends info to patients’ smartphones before colorectal surgery for improved outcomes, such as a reminder to stop taking certain vitamins or to get up and walk around after surgery.

Suicide at the river

Charlottesville police, who responded to a report of a body near a beach area on the Rivanna Trail on July 30, say the death was an apparent suicide and there is no safety concern on the trail.

Show on the road

29&rio-kyle
photo Martyn Kyle

With as much wringing of hands as there was about the construction at U.S. 29 and Rio Road this summer, the grade-separated intersection was opened to traffic July 18, a surprisingly quick 46 days ahead of schedule, earning contractors a $7.3 million bonus. Other Route 29 projects underway this summer:

Best Buy ramp: The additional lane from Emmet Street onto the U.S. 250 bypass, Barracks Road merge lane and noise barriers along the bypass were completed in May. The $17 million project includes a sidewalk in the median on Emmet between Angus Road and Morton Drive.

North 29 widening: This eliminates the squeeze down to two lanes at Polo Grounds Road and makes the 1.8-mile section three lanes in each direction up to Hollymead Town Center. Better yet, the $46.8 million project improves sightlines on hilly stretches, and adds sidewalks on both sides of the highway and a paved multi-use path on the east side.

Berkmar Drive extension: The two-lane, 2.3-mile road will run parallel to U.S. 29 behind Walmart up to Hollymead Town Center. VDOT has a cool time-lapse camera capturing the construction of a bridge over the South Fork Rivanna River on its Route 29 Solutions website. Sidewalks, bike lanes, a paved multi-use path and the rights of way in case we ever want to expand it to four lanes are included in the $54.5 million price tag.

Hillsdale Drive extension: Work on the $14 million road, which will take you from Whole Foods to Greenbrier Drive without having to get on Seminole Trail, began about a month ago.

Reality bites

Of the three venomous snakes in VA, copperheads can be found statewide. Photo courtesy of Edward Wozniak D.V.M., Ph.D.
photo Wikipedia/Edward Wozniak

Summertime doesn’t just bring bugs. Local vets typically see an uptick in snake bites to pets, with Greenbrier Emergency Animal Hospital reporting between four and eight a week.

  • There are three venomous snake species in Virginia: eastern cottonmouth,
    timber rattlesnake and copperhead.
  • Copperheads are the only venomous species found statewide.
  • Rural pets are more likely to be bitten than city pets.
  • Sunset and just after dark are the most active times for copperheads, especially following a warm summer rain.

—John Kleopfer, herpetologist for Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries

Quote of the week

“It was July 4 weekend, so I figured we could turn it into some bacon.”—Aymarie Sutter, who’s charged with stealing a pig from the Charlottesville Albemarle SPCA along with her fiancé, Lee Oakes Jr., tells the Newsplex she had permission from police to take the pig officers brought to the SPCA July 3.