Cville Tomorrow News

Underground petroleum tanks mar Albemarle drinking water

6/30/09 * C-Ville Weekly [full story]

People who are buying houses have plenty to think about. There’s the matter of how much to offer and what type of mortgage to take out. There’s the need to get a home inspection and consider whether any problems —leaky roof, sagging porch—are worth asking the sellers to fix before closing. You have to arrange to move from wherever you’re living; you have to get termite, water and septic tests; you have to deal with title companies and insurance companies and interest rates and points. And all this comes after the decisions about who your agent will be and, of course, which property you want to buy.

Almost no one thinks about whether there might be gasoline in the well.

Next time David and Holli Traud buy a house, though, you can bet they’ll be thinking about it. “If I had to buy a home anywhere ever again, that would be written into the contract—a full test of all the water,” David says. As C-VILLE reported on May 19, the Trauds moved into their Keswick house in May 2008—a house that was a year old at the time and had never been occupied—only to discover that their well water had a funny taste and smell. At first, they thought the water was just stale, but after giving it a week or two, they realized it was getting worse instead of better.

RWSA cans Gannett Fleming on Ragged Mountain Dam

6/30/09 * C-Ville Weekly [full story]

Stating on June 25 that the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority has “significant respect for Gannett Fleming,” the firm that proposed a new  design at Ragged Mountain Dam, RWSA Chair Mike Gaffney announced that the RWSA nonetheless has “decided that a new direction on design best serves the current discussions in this community.”

As previously reported, the RWSA released study findings on June 2. Among those was a review of the plans for the new dam by a panel of experts. Major findings included an assurance that the dam can be built for “substantially” less than Gannett Fleming’s August estimate of at least $72 million.

In the press release, the RWSA says that the development of an RFP by prospective dam design firms, “will begin immediately and move forward as quickly as possible,” with a decision on a new firm expected later this summer.

Coffeehouse revitalizes languishing Crozet landmark

6/30/09 * C-Ville Weekly [full story]

“I think I’ve touched every inch of this room,” says Lynelle Lawrence, pointing out improvements with paint-stained fingers as we tour the ground floor of the 100-year-old building on the Square in Crozet which will, within days, become the newest Mudhouse coffeehouse. Lawrence and her husband, John, who opened the Downtown Mudhouse 13 years ago, have spent the last three-and-half-months painstakingly renovating this newest outpost. They’ve replaced the carpet with reclaimed wood, restored the tin ceiling, fixed door jambs and window panes, and probably most painfully, scrubbed away the grime and smoke that had accumulated when the place was Uncle Charlie’s Smokehouse. When this vintage building on the intersection of Three-Notch’d Road and Crozet Avenue whose storied history includes, among other things, being a railroad hotel and the town grocery with a real soda fountain, opened up they knew they’d found the right location for their longtime interest in expanding to Crozet and making a coffeehouse/community meeting space for “fluid social interaction,” says Lawrence.

For a place on the pulse point of this town of 5,500 residents, it sure had gotten run down in recent years. Uncle Charlie’s had devolved into a rough bar scene, and though “it wasn’t really a danger to the people of Crozet as much as to the people who liked to frequent it,” says Mike Marshall, publisher of the Crozet Gazette and chairperson of the Crozet Community Advisory Council, “People worried about what might be going on there.

“There were some gunshots through the window one time…It just sort of deteriorated into a saloon. They were nice guys, but the town of Crozet stopped going in.”

Freshening up for freshmen

6/30/09 * C-Ville Weekly [full story]

After recently saving $30 million in debt by pushing forward the demolition date for the Watson House dormitory, UVA Housing is hoping to put some of that money—about $300,000—toward renovating upperclassmen housing, says Housing Division Accommodations Director John Evans.

“It’s the best news we’ve had in a long time,” he says.

University officials decided to demolish Watson House along with Dobie and Balz Houses during Phase II of the new freshmen student dorms construction on Alderman Road, rather than during Phase III in 2011. That’s because of a drop in construction prices.

Neighbors take up “Save McIntire” slogan, if not the cause

6/30/09 * C-Ville Weekly [full story]

Like mushrooms after the heavy rains, SAVE McINTIRE PARK signs are popping up on lawns along McIntire Road and elsewhere near the park, distributed to residents by members of the Coalition to Preserve McIntire Park. The coalition, led by Independent City Council candidate Bob Fenwick, is attempting to stop the construction of the Meadowcreek Parkway and the YMCA adjacent to the park’s softball fields.

Currently, the Coalition is waiting for a decision from Judge Jay Swett about whether the land the City of Charlottesville gave to the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) to construct the parkway was transferred legally. Though many of the people who sport the signs on their lawns want to save McIntire Park, many of them are not actively involved with the campaign.

“Some man came down and put it up after asking me,” says Roy T. Banks, a McIntire Road resident.  He says he agreed to have the sign put in because he “doesn’t want them to take no more land,” but adds that “someone will have to give up something.”

Judge backs Meadowcreek transfer

6/30/09 * Daily Progress [full story]

The land transfer that gave the Virginia Department of Transportation the right to build the Meadowcreek Parkway on city property was legal and constitutional and construction may continue, a Charlottesville Circuit Court judge has ruled.

Parkway opponents say they are considering an appeal of the decision and are looking into filing a federal lawsuit, arguing that officials have tried to avoid federal environmental laws by dividing the project into three different segments.

Judge Jay T. Swett made his ruling June 26 after receiving testimony from parkway opponents, city officials and VDOT officials at a May 19 hearing. Opponents had argued that the city could not sell property to VDOT without a “super majority” of council members voting to approve it.

Belvedere owner loses line of credit. County may have to finish upgrades

6/30/09 * Daily Progress [full story]

The owner of the Belvedere development has lost his credit line to build $3.68 million worth of infrastructure improvements, possibly leaving Albemarle County with little choice but to finish the work itself, county officials say.

Wachovia Bank notified the county in November that it would not renew six letters of credit for the project’s owner, Belvedere Station Land Trust, which is led by homebuilder Bob Hauser.

Hauser’s firm had provided performance bonds to the county, guaranteeing that numerous infrastructure improvements would be made at the 207-acre neighborhood off East Rio Road that may eventually feature up to 400 homes and 275 apartments.

Was $1,623 meal worth it?

6/28/09 * Daily Progress editorial [full story]

So it “probably would have had been smarter” to have had appropriate expense-account guidelines in advance?

Darn right it would.

The Rivanna Water & Sewer Author-ity has been outed for having spent $1,623.04 on a single dinner with consultants at the Ivy Inn back in March. Another bill for a lunch at Hamilton’s came to $305.14 for five people. An estimated 20 people ate at the Ivy.

Festival for a town ‘that likes its pie’

6/28/09 * Daily Progress [full story]

Pie lovers, grab a fork and come hungry.

What started out as an impromptu two-person competition last month to see who could bake the best pie in town is now turning into a full-fledged festival — the first Charlottesville Pie Fest — complete with sponsors, judges, a to-be-decided beneficiary and lots of pie submissions.

“For some reason, this is a community that likes its pie,” city Mayor Dave Norris said.

Decision to switch firms may cost RWSA

6/28/09 * Daily Progress [full story]

As the Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority undergoes a search for a new firm to construct a new dam at Ragged Mountain, it’s unclear exactly how switching firms will affect the area’s long-term water supply plan or how much money given to Gannett Fleming might have been wasted.

“We spent a lot of money with them,” said Charlottesville City Council member Julian Taliaferro. “It hasn’t been cheap.”

Two years ago, the RWSA agreed to pay Gannett Fleming more than $3 million to design the new dam at Ragged Mountain. But Thursday the RWSA announced it would be seeking proposals from different firms.