Two Exxons robbed with stun gun
Late in the evening of October 11, 2007, 18-year-old Taquan Lovelle Anderson—police authorities allege—walked into the Exxon on Cherry Avenue where he encountered the store’s owner, Suresh Parekh. Demanding the night’s deposit (reportedly, around $1,900), Anderson then shot the owner with a stun gun, first in the front shoulder and then in his back. This [...]
Terrace Theater: Losing a rathole
Recently, Whole Foods announced that they have ditched its option at the still-unbuilt Albemarle Place and will instead move into a new 50,000-square-foot store on the site of the old Terrace Theater. Dormant since the late ’90s, the theater and its brown façade had remained as it always had since it first opened. Unappealing and [...]
House passes Hallowed Ground
On October 24, the House of Representatives passed the "Celebrating America’s Heritage Act," creating six new national heritage areas, one of which would be the Journey Through Hallowed Ground (JTHG), a 175-mile stretch that connects Monticello in Charlottesville to Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, and travels mostly along Route 15. Under the legislation, the JTHG partnership, a [...]
Locust residents favor historic label
As Ann Andrus of the Department of Historical Resources began a public information meeting on the Martha Jefferson neighborhood, a raucous yell came from a child in the back of the Burnley-Moran Elementary auditorium. Andrus didn’t flinch, but mothers—there were many there—turned to look and smile. It was all part of the informality of the [...]
Commission denies Wood's requests
At an October 23 work session on Places29, the Planning Commission had before it two land-use requests from landowner Wendell Wood.
Freud, Hitler, Moses & America
University of Virginia English professor Mark Edmundson was in his late teens when he stumbled across a copy of The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud while at a friend's house, and began to read an excerpt from The Interpretation of Dreams.
Who's to blame for Lake Hollymead?
One morning almost three years ago, Forest Lakes resident Jim Grace woke up and walked out to look at his stunning view of Hollymead Lake. Stunned he was. "It was suddenly the view of a 20-acre mud puddle," he says. "It just kind of went from there." The "moonscape" land clearing at Hollymead Town Center [...]
School, church partner on $200K award
This summer, Rydell Payne—executive director of Charlottesville Abundant Life Ministries—approached Johnson Elementary Principal Vernon Bock with a proposal. For almost three years, Abundant Life had been working out of their office on Grove Street and in the Blue Ridge Commons area with Johnson’s most needy students as part of an after school program. Twice a [...]
Adding value to Crozet strip mall
Built in 1967, the Crozet Shopping Center is now the drab home of a less than pristine Great Valu grocery store. Located in the heart of downtown, it is also an ideal candidate for redevelopment. On October 16, architect Bill Atwood appeared before the Albemarle Planning Commission with just such a request, asking for a [...]
County cops: 70 percent live outside county
Two weeks ago, I spent an hour riding around with Albemarle County Police Sergeant Jim Larkin and Denny King, a Scottsville candidate for the Board of Supervisors. As part of their discourse, King asked the sergeant about the housing issues his officers face. For the next few minutes, Larkin relayed the travails incoming police encounter [...]
Ex-NGIC employee pleads guilty
In February 2006, Mitchell J. Wade pleaded guilty to influencing congressmen—most famously Randy "Duke" Cunningham—in order to procure contracts for his defense contracting firm MZM, Inc. As part of the plea, Wade also admitted to bribing Department of Defense (DoD) officials, including an employee of the local National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC). On October 9 [...]
Board of Supervisors Race: Focus on Scottsville District: In a sweltering church
On this particular Sunday, it is very hot in Rising Sun Baptist Church, and as the noon hour nears small handheld fans bearing the visage of Martin Luther King, Jr. are passed around. Apparently, the heat was turned on this morning and the unseasonable warmth outside is not helping. For a fourth-term incumbent like Lindsay [...]
Board of Supervisors Race: Focus on Scottsville District: Lessons from the police academy
"I’m still riding around with Mr. King," Sergeant Jim Larkin tells a police dispatcher halfway through his hour-long road trip with the Scottsville candidate. "He’s throwing out some serious questions." "Yeah, right," Denny King counters, guffawing, but the sergeant is right. The 63-year-old media executive has peppered the county policeman from the moment the two [...]
Board of Supervisors Race: Focus on Scottsville District: A different kind of preaching
Invited to address the Mill Creek South Homeowner’s Association, which had been especially active during the Biscuit Run rezoning process, Kevin Fletcher’s night actually begins when he walks through the door of the Cale Elementary cafeteria 10 minutes before his 7pm address and finds one resident sitting on one of the small, hard, round stools [...]
![Nelson County for Double H [October 11]](http://www.c-ville.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/DSC_0120.jpg)
Nelson County for Double H [October 11]
On Wednesday, October 10, I spoke with Double H farmer Richard Bean, now a local celebrity both for his produce…
Some charges against Strom dropped
Ever since Kevin Strom was arrested at the beginning of this year on charges of possessing child pornography on his computer, as well as for witness tampering, his troubles have only gotten worse. Not only was he imprisoned, but he was barred from contact with his own children. Four months later, he had more charges [...]
90,000 kids uninsured in Virginia
In 1997, Congress passed the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to provide health insurance for children from families who earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but are still too poor to pay for private insurance. Ten years later, the bill covers more than 6 million children, with another 9 million still uninsured. To [...]
Lessons on county housing policy
In 2004, Albemarle County adopted an affordable housing policy requiring that any future development make 15 percent of its units available to those with household incomes at or below 80 percent of the area median income. This year, that policy was finally put to the test with the completion of the Avon Park development. Located [...]
Pantops landowners ask for move
When the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors took up Clara Belle Wheeler’s land a few weeks ago to consider moving it out of the development area, they also discussed another parcel in the Pantops area—one whose owner wants in to the development area. It was brought to their attention in late August when John C. [...]
Neighbors look to protect hospital houses
This August, the Martha Jefferson Neighborhood Association (MJNA) sent Martha Jefferson Hospital and the City Council a letter requesting that a series of houses the hospital has owned for decades and currently uses as office space be rezoned to residential from commercial.
Alvin Edwards defends support of convicted teacher
On September 27, after former Charlottesville High School chorus teacher Jonathan Spivey was sentenced to 21 months in prison for sexual relationships with students, an area message board lit up with discussion.
Pen Park still possibility for new road
Of the many developments resulting from the October 5 Steering Committee Meeting on the Eastern Connector (which would connect the Pantops area to 29N), the most surprising will surely be the decision to reconsider an option that would connect Route 20 to Rio Road, passing right through the heart of Pen Park.
Double H farmers busted for selling pork
Midway through the morning of September 21, Double H Farm co-owner Jean Rinaldi was mowing the grass around her house when she spotted Virginia state and Nelson County police pull into her driveway.
County considers overruling landowner
Bordered by Route 20 to its east and Darden Towe Park to its south, a 77-acre parcel owned by Clara Belle Wheeler is largely wooded except for the grandiose 1862 house she lives in and a few adjoining buildings. Down a rise and located in a small cow pasture is a log house—the reconstructed site [...]
Former teacher pleads guilty to sex offences
A former social studies teacher at Western Albemarle High School has pleaded guilty to a federal charge of coercion and enticement of a minor. The teacher, Richard Neal Willetts, was arrested in March for charges stemming from a series of graphic sexual e-mails written to a male student who was only 15 at the time. [...]
Without facility, local YMCA cramped
In recent months, the Charlottesville City Council has vigorously debated whether to spend the money it would take to renovate two area swimming pools, one of which the Piedmont Area YMCA uses, or contribute resources to build a new YMCA within the city. The Council eventually agreed to explore the latter course. With no existing [...]
Anger management
In the fall of 1980, Elvis Costello released a collection of 20 stellar songs called Get Happy!!, and although it was his fourth near-perfect record in as many years, the performer was anything but elated. In fact, he was secretly contemplating retirement. “I didn’t want to do it anymore,” Costello admitted to writer Greil Marcus [...]