Cville Tomorrow News

City Market opens for season Saturday, with more vendors

3/31/2010 * Daily Progress [full story]

The Charlottesville City Market starts Saturday in its usual Water Street parking lot spot, but there are some changes being made to allow for more vendors at the weekly event.

First Street South will be closed to make room for more vendors — market manager Stephanie Anderegg-Maloy said the market would have 15 more this year and there will be more space for non-profit vendors. Anderegg-Maloy said the market would have 111 vendors this year.

The City Market runs from 7 a.m. to noon every Saturday through Nov. 20.

Study: Jail must determine a solid capacity number

3/30/2010 * Daily Progress [full story]

According to a federal advisory report, one of the first things officials should do to improve the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail is figure out exactly how many people it can hold.

“There is no agreement within the [local] criminal justice system of ‘How much incarceration can we afford?’” said James R. Robertson, partner in the Denver-based Voorhis/Rob-erston Justice Services Inc., which performed a federally sanctioned and funded review of the jail at local officials’ request.

The jail has more than 600 beds, but the true capacity is probably a bit lower than the number of beds, Robertson said. That’s because of issues such as access to daylight and lines of sight for supervision, he said. A written report also mentions the need to sort and separate inmates as limiting factors. He said the capacity is probably higher than the Virginia Department of Corrections’ rating for the jail, which was 337 in 2009. The jail’s current population hovers around 550.

Why we have road problems

3/30/2010 * Daily Progress Editorial [full story]

Editor’s note: The following is excerpted from an editorial that appeared in The Daily Progress on June 2, 1978, regarding what is now the Meadowcreek Parkway.

If an additional seven years was too long to wait for the new road in 1978, then 32 years and counting is far, far too long.

As things now stand, the Virginia Department of Highways and Transportation will advertise for bids to construct the Ridge-McIntire Road extension from the U.S. 250 bypass through McIntire Park to Rio Road in the 1982-83 fiscal year. ...

Construction would not likely begin until about six months after one of the bids is approved. Completion of the work is estimated to take two years.

The Ridge-McIntire extension to Rio Road was recommended in the 1967 Charlottesville Area Arterial Street and Highway Plan and is included in the Charlottesville Area Transportation Study, a continuing survey that is kept up to date with current conditions. The proposed extension is now the No. 1 highway project on the list of priorities established by city officials.

Sudden return of MCP at-grade interchange baffles

3/30/2010 * C-Ville Weekly [full story]

A disconnect between City Council and the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) over the planned 250 Interchange may have negative implications for a timely construction of McIntire Road Extended (MRE), the city’s portion of the road that cuts through McIntire Park. And it all started with a letter Angela Tucker, city development services manager, sent to VDOT last November.

In her letter, Tucker wrote, “if the City elects not to move forward with the Interchange project, City Council will grant the necessary permission to complete the at-grade intersection as designed under the McIntire Road Extended project.”

Not so, according to Council’s response to VDOT. “City Council has taken the official position that the Council support for the McIntire Road Extended is specifically based on the construction of a grade-separated interchange at the U.S. 250 Bypass. Council has taken no position on an at-grade intersection,” wrote Mayor Dave Norris. 

State "not really pushing" to plan Biscuit Run park

3/30/2010 * C-Ville Weekly [full story]

How long does it take to construct a state park? Look no further than Middle Peninsula State Park in Gloucester County. The 438-acre parkland was purchased in 2005 by the Commonwealth of Virginia, with money from a $119 million bond created in 2002 for land conservation and parkland acquisition. Nearly five years later, and the master planning process for Middle Peninsula is just getting underway.

At present, seeing a park in Biscuit Run feels like looking for a sculpture in a piece of stone. The Department of Conservation and Recreation says it may be years before a master plan is completed.

Or, look a little bit further.

As Scottsville loses tire plant, officials consider options

3/29/2010 * Daily Progress [full story]

As Scottsville’s longtime tire cord plant prepares to wrap up sales and close its doors, local and state leaders put their heads together Monday to begin mapping out a plan for the building’s future.

Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and his chief of staff, Randy Marcus, met with local leaders and charged them with honing a vision for the building within 60 days.

“We think they need to pick two or three [ideas],” Marcus said. “If there’s 10 different ideas … that’s going to be a lot more difficult.”

City mulls chopping funds for local recycling center

3/29/2010 * Daily Progress [full story]

Ruth Bell stomped on one empty milk jug after another, compressing the gallon containers before tossing them into one of the giant plastics bins at the McIntire Road Recycling Center.

Bell has lived in the city since the mid-1970s and has used the center for many years, she said, on top of the city’s curbside recycling program.

“It’s actually just convenient to take it all,” said Bell, who uses the drop-off center about once a week and said it is an important service to have

Martha Jefferson announces location’s opening day

3/29/2010 * Daily Progress [full story]

Martha Jefferson Hospital will officially move into its new home on Pantops Mountain on Aug. 28, 2011, officials announced Monday.

The hospital will get a certificate of occupancy and take possession of the new structure on June 1 of that year.

Hospital workers will use the subsequent time to get to know the new building.
Officials have said they’re moving to the new home, which is under construction, because the hospital’s existing space downtown is cramped.

Downtown Mall—‘More than just bricks’

3/29/2010 * Daily Progress [full story]

Several area groups are behind a new exhibition showcasing Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall that will open Friday.

The public history research project, “More than Just Bricks. Designing Community — a Social and Design History of the Charlottesville Downtown Mall,” will include several exhibits, walking tours, gallery talks and lectures. The project is sponsored by the Charlottesville Community Design Center, Preservation Piedmont and the University of Virginia School of Architecture.

The exhibition will run through May 31 and all events, most of which will be held at 100 Fifth St. N.E., are open to the public.

City looks to darker budget future

3/28/2010 * Daily Progress [full story]

The small amount of funding that might be cut in Charlottesville’s proposed fiscal 2011 budget may seem relatively bloodless, but city officials warn that darker days are coming.

For the upcoming budget, proposed to be $140.8 million, officials are breathing a small sigh of relief. A state budget amendment that would have stripped the city schools of $2.8 million in education funding and given it to Albemarle County did not end up passing. While the city government is still working through implications of the budget passed by the General Assembly earlier this month, the first glimpses show that Charlottesville will likely see a cut in state funding of $942,000 next fiscal year. The schools could see a reduction of $800,000, but officials feared that the number could have been more than double that amount.

Officials say fiscal 2012 will be worse, and the city is doing its best to be prepared, such as by setting aside $2.8 million for an economic downturn fund.`