Cville Tomorrow News

Albemarle's Norwood, supervisor hopeful, filed for bankruptcy in '09

10/30/2011 * Daily Progress [full story]

Albemarle Board of Supervisors candidate James C. Norwood bills himself as a fiscal conservative with economic development and small business management experience.

Norwood also has personal experience navigating the Great Recession.

The Scottsville District candidate filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in December 2009.

The case was resolved in May 2010 when the court discharged much of Norwood’s debt after he completed a course in financial management.

County officials pushing for full dam height

10/29/2011 * Daily Progress [full story]

Behind closed doors Albemarle County officials are pressing to build a new dam at the Ragged Mountain Reservoir that would be bigger than what Charlottesville officials have agreed to initially support, according to sources familiar with the cost-share negotiations for the 50-year water supply plan.

County representatives are offering to pay a bigger share of the costs for the water plan if the city agrees to build a new earthen dam that would raise the pool height by 42 feet instead of adopting a phased plan that would start with a rise of 30 feet, according to multiple sources who wished to remain anonymous due to the ongoing negotiations.

Albemarle officials have long favored a taller earthen dam, but the City Council voted 3-2 in February to endorse an initial pool rise of 30 feet, and city and county officials have mulled a “trigger” that would generate an additional raise to 42 feet only after water demand increased to a certain level.

SELC: Bypass traffic estimates off ... by 200 years

10/27/2011 * Daily Progress [full story]

The Southern Environmental Law Center says traffic on U.S. 29 will not reach levels predicted by the request for proposals for the Western Bypass until the year 2230. In a release sent out Wednesday, the organization cited a new traffic survey done by Smart Mobility Inc., as well as Virginia Department of Transportation traffic figures from the last 20 years.

According to the release, traffic numbers have grown by 0.5 percent in the last 20 years. At that rate, the 2036 traffic projection in the RFP will not be reached for nearly 200 years.

[View report here]

As election nears, independents try to break Democratic stranglehold on Charlottesville

10/20/2011 * Daily Progress [full story]

Charlottesville voters will head to the polls in a little over a week to install new majorities on the City Council and School Board, select a new clerk to oversee records at the Charlottesville Circuit Court and choose their representatives in Richmond.

Three Democrats and four independents are competing this year for three seats on the five-person City Council. Incumbent councilor and former city planner Satyendra Huja, architect and city School Board member Kathy Galvin and water activist and former School Board chairwoman Dede Smith emerged victorious from a field of seven candidates in the Aug. 20 Democratic primary.

The main question on election night will be whether any of the independents – a group that includes general contractor and water activist Bob Fenwick, restaurant worker and self-described socialist Brandon Collins, insurance-claims adjustor and student Andrew D. Williams and unemployed former retail worker Scott Bandy – can win enough votes to break up the Democratic slate.

With parkway looming, where is a skater to go?

10/30/2011 * Daily Progress [full story]

While proponents of McIntire Park try to block the approaching Meadow Creek Parkway, Charlottesville skateboarders are trying to get the heck out of the way.

A group of skaters — and parks and recreation officials — are looking to relocate and rebuild a city skateboard park before the McIntire Skate Park is torn up and paved over.

... The 20,000-square-foot former tennis courts, located directly in front of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Rescue Squad, is one of the top two parks for the number of users in the city, officials and park supporters say.

[Note: this article appeared in the print edition as "A new place to play"]

Balance of power part 2: What's at stake in the 2011 elections

10/27/2011 * The Hook [full story]

Majority rule– Charlottesville City Council

Common wisdom says this race was decided in August when the Democrats nominated incumbent Satyendra Huja, School Board member Kathy Galvin, and Citizens for a Sustainable Water Plan co-founder Dede Smith to fill the three open seats on Council.

That didn't stop the independents from lining up: low-profile candidate Scott Bandy, Socialist Brandon Collins, pro-dredger Bob Fenwick, and youthful insurance adjuster Andrew Williams.

Remember the perennial issues in Charlottesville and Albemarle? Well, the water supply plan continues to fire debate in the city, as does the impending construction of Charlottesville's portion of the Meadowcreek Parkway.

Garrett Hall renewed as Batten School home

10/27/2011 * The Hook [full story]

With Virginia's outgoing U.S. Senator giving a kick-off speech, the University of Virginia opened its 11th school last week in a building that got a spiffy renovation that recalls its earliest days as UVA's first major dining hall.

Garrett Hall, which originally opened in 1909, reopened with a series of events October 20 and 21 including a talk by Senator Jim Webb in the Great Hall, what was originally the dining hall and which regains some of the splendor and space stolen by 102 years of renovation and repurposing. The building is the new home for the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy.

Halfaday arrested: Ex-candidate charged with falsifying address

10/27/2011 * The Hook [full story]

Former Democratic City Council candidate James Halfaday was charged October 19 with four felony counts of election fraud for allegedly using a false address to certify his candidacy with the registrar.

"I am not guilty of these charges," says Halfaday in a written statement. "I ask that no one judge me before I have had my day in court. Until the cases are completed, I will have no further comments." Halfaday did not respond to a phone call from the Hook.

A Hook investigation in September discovered that Halfaday did not reside at 2423 Sunset Road, the Charlottesville address he used when filing for Council, according to the occupants currently living there. Another more recent address associated with Halfaday, 1248 Richmond Road, is in Albemarle County.

Experts: Local housing market will take a long time to rebound

10/27/2011 * Daily Progress [full story]

In Central Virginia, fewer homes have faced foreclosure and prices have not dropped as far as in other areas of the state, said Barry Merchant, of the Virginia Housing Development Authority.

Area home sales have slowed and should be near the market’s bottom, Merchant said. He said the unsold inventory of homes needs to decrease before prices rebound and those prices must first drop before sales rebound.

“What we’re probably going to see is sales bumping along the bottom for what could be a longer period of time before we start climbing,” Merchant said. “The good news is that the worst is over.”

Both Owen and Merchant agree that other issues will remain in the national housing market and could cause future instability, including the large amount of college debt carried by recent graduates.

UVA's Garrett Hall, $12.2 million later

10/25/2011 * C-VILLE  Weekly [full story]

Over a century after its construction, and after nearly two years of renovation work, Garrett Hall was officially dedicated last week as home to UVA’s Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. The former dining hall space is now a renovated “Great Hall,” a 200-seat space that Batten Dean Harry Harding calls one of UVA’s “most spectacular” in a press release. Projected to cost $8.6 million, the Garrett Hall renovation ultimately ran an estimated $12.2 million tab.