Cville Tomorrow News

Boyd takes heat for bypass committee actions

8/30/2011 * Daily Progress [full story]

Albemarle County Supervisor Kenneth C. Boyd has caused a stir by assembling a citizen committee to provide input on the design of the northern terminus of the Western Bypass of U.S. 29.

Boyd will announce the committee’s staff and official purpose at 10 this morning at a news conference at the County Office Building-McIntire.

The decision to hold a news conference is the center of concern among some of Boyd’s fellow supervisors. Board Chairwoman Ann H. Mallek wondered why Boyd needed to call a news conference to announce the committee.

Land use revalidation deadline nears

8/31/2011 * Daily Progress [full story]

The deadline for Albemarle County residents to file land use revalidation forms is Thursday. Anyone filing revalidation forms between Friday and Dec. 5 will be fined $125 per parcel of land they want revalidated.

After Dec. 5, those who have not filed a form will be taken off the land use program, and could be assessed a “rollback tax” that will require them to pay for the last five years in deferred taxes, plus interest.

The land use revalidation process was enacted by the Board of Supervisors to make sure that those in the program are meeting its requirements, or help them move to another land use category.

Mulberry Avenue will temporarily become one-way

8/31/2011 * Daily Progress [full story]

Charlottesville police are alerting the motoring public that beginning Tuesday, Mulberry Avenue will temporarily become a one-way street.

Travel will only be allowed eastbound, from Highland Avenue to Shamrock Road.

Police will be monitoring Mulberry from the do-not-enter side to “discourage errant travel patterns.”

Batesville Store looks to reopen -- outside of Batesville

8/31/2011 * Daily Progress [full story]

The Batesville Store will not reopen in its former location.

After a tumultuous summer, owners Cid and Liza Scallet have decided to abandon the well-loved Batesville location of their historic country store, bakery and music venue.

Instead, the Scallets are seeking a new, bigger location in western Albemarle.

Head of the Class: Sullivan calls UVA first years "strongest" ever

8/30/2011 * C-Ville Weekly [full story]

During a press conference last week, UVA President Teresa Sullivan introduced the school’s newest recruits to the public. Of the 3,450 first year students, 67 percent come from Virginia, 91 percent were in the top 10 percent of their high school classes, and they averaged 1,339 on their SATs.

“This is the strongest academic class that we have admitted, as measured by their standardized test scores and their class rank,” Sullivan said.

In spite of the fact that the University’s state funding has dropped to around 10 percent of its academic operating budget and is less than one-third of what is provided at nearby flagship UNC-Chapel Hill, UVA is still ranked among the top public universities in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, The Princeton Review, and others.

Making nice: Democratic nominees working on "unified" campaign

8/30/2011 * C-Ville Weekly [full story]

Much of the campaign for the Democratic nomination to City Council was spent drawing lines between the candidates who supported the construction of the Meadow Creek Parkway (MCP) and the ones who didn’t; the ones in favor of a new earthen dam at Ragged Mountain and the ones who preferred dredging the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir. Now that the three nominees have been chosen, those two hot-button issues may take a back seat. But did the split mark a divide within the Democratic Party?

Jim Nix, co-chair of the Democratic Party of Charlottesville, says no. 

“I don’t see that there is any problem, but there has been talk about it,” he says.

Ground work under way for new shopping area in Albemarle

8/28/2011 * Daily Progress [full story]

Work to level the site of the Shops at Stonefield development is, clearly, well under way at the intersection of U.S. 29 and Hydraulic Road. Since breaking ground in May, crews have been clearing and leveling the site in preparation for the construction of a Regal Cinema and a Trader Joe’s super market.

According to Albemarle County’s director of community development, Mark Graham, leveling the 65-acre site is expected to take another couple of months.

“It’s a sizable project and we always anticipated it would take several months to get the grading done,” he said. Graham could not provide a specific start date for construction of the cinema, but said it should begin soon.

Construction woes persist at Newcomb

8/23/2011 * Cavalier Daily [full story]

Despite extensive renovation projects and the discovery of asbestos in its insulation, Newcomb Hall will remain open to students throughout the academic year.

The project, which will cost $33 million, began in May 2010 and is scheduled for completion in fall 2012, according to a statement released by the University last week.

As of now, several spaces on the bottom and first floor of the building, including the Student Activities Center, have been fully renovated as part of the completed phase one of the project, said William Ashby, assistant vice president of Student Affairs and associate dean of students.

Martha Jefferson moves every patient to new hospital

8/28/2011 * Daily Progress [full story]

Jodie Stellern was expecting to deliver her baby at the new Martha Jefferson Hospital.

But her plans didn’t involve an ambulance and the pomp and circumstance of more than a dozen people waving blue flags of greeting.

Stellern, of Lake Monticello, and her 2-day-old son, River Shaw, were the first official patients to arrive at the new hospital Sunday morning. They were among 59 patients transported from the old hospital to the new one in the official move.

'One man's greed' VA court decision blocks YMCA construction

8/25/2011 * The Hook [full story]

On August 2, Piedmont YMCA CEO Denny Blank says, he was in a meeting with the contractor who was going to build the new $15 million, 72,000-square-foot YMCA facility in McIntire Park when he got the news.

"We were very, very close," says Blank. "Their bid came in at $180 a square foot, a great price, and we were ready to get rolling."

That's when Blank got word that the Virginia Supreme Court had agreed to hear the so-called Charlottesville Area Fitness Club Operators Association's appeal of dismissal of their lawsuit against the County, which claims they were illegally locked out of the bidding process for construction of a public fitness facility. That lawsuit, and another against the City, were both dismissed in local courts.