Podcasts about albemarle county board

Diantha McKeel of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors joined Ned Gallaway of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors & Jerry Miller on “Real Talk With Keith Smith” powered by YES Realty Partners and Yonna Smith! “Real Talk” airs every Friday from 10:15 am – 11 am on The I Love CVille Network! “Real Talk With Keith Smith” is presented by Charlottesville Settlement Company, LLC, El Mariachi Mexican Bar & Grill, Fincham & Associates, Inc., Free Enterprise Forum, Intrastate Service Co, Mejicali and YES Realty Partners.

If you read yesterday's edition of the Charlottesville Community Engagement newsletter and really liked it, why not take a listen to today's? For some reason, Fridays are for audio production for both a podcast version and a version that will air on WTJU tomorrow at 6 a.m. I'm Sean Tubbs and what you're about to hear are several stories that all come from the April 2 meeting of the Albemarle Board of Supervisors. This is another experiment in providing you with the tools to better know your community.In today's installment:* There are three budget town halls left in Albemarle County before public hearings begin later this month (learn more)* A nonprofit that raises funds for the Shenandoah National Park is sharing information about how federal cuts are affecting operations (learn more)* There's a relatively new art gallery in Scottsville (learn more)* Albemarle Supervisors recognize Dark Sky Week coming up April 21 through April 28 (learn more)* April is Financial Literacy Month (learn more)* Albemarle Supervisors continue to discuss growth as part of the long and winding road that is the county's Comprehensive Plan review (learn more)* The show wraps up with an update from the Virginia Department of Transportation (this is not the story but it is close enough)Charlottesville Community Engagement is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.First shout-out: Celebrating the community's other information organizations!There are a lot of stories each week that go out through this newsletter, but no one information outlet can put together the entire picture. That's why each regular edition ends with a section called Reading Material.Charlottesville is fortunate to have a media landscape that includes the Charlottesville Daily Progress, C-Ville Weekly, Charlottesville Tomorrow, and Cville Right Now, I curate links from these sources because I believe a truly informed community needs multiple perspectives.There's also the Cavalier Daily, Vinegar Hill Magazine, the Fluvanna Review, the Crozet Gazette, NBC29, CBS19, and other sources. But if you look every day, you'll find links to articles in national publications, all linked to give you more perspectives on some of the issues of our times.Now more than ever, journalism is needed. To be a citizen of a democracy, you must seek information from multiple sources. Consume only one and you are at risk of becoming a zombie!Second shout-out: Advertise on Information CharlottesvilleLong-time readers may know that most of the stories posted through this newsletter are also posted to Information Charlottesville. Sometimes the stories go there first! Both this newsletter and that website are part of the same information gathering operation, an operation I hope to continue to grow!There are multiple ways to contribute to Town Crier Productions.One new one is to place an advertisement on Information Charlottesville. I'm in the early days of experimenting with visual ways for organizations to get their message across to a growing audience. I've not yet put together a media kit, but I'm ready to offer a special for March. What's the special? More details in the audio version of the podcasts.Advertising on Information Charlottesville could be a great way to keep my business going while also growing yours. I think there are new ways to do advertising, but I don't know what they are until I'm allowed to continue testing. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Chris Fairchild of the Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors and Ned Gallaway of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors joined Keith Smith & Jerry Miller on “Real Talk With Keith Smith” powered by YES Realty Partners and Yonna Smith! “Real Talk” airs every Wednesday and Friday from 10:15 am – 11 am on The I Love CVille Network! “Real Talk With Keith Smith” is presented by Charlottesville Settlement Company, LLC, El Mariachi Mexican Bar & Grill, MejiCali, Fincham & Associates, Inc., Free Enterprise Forum, Intrastate Service Co and YES Realty Partners.

When written in numbers, today's full date has four twos, a zero, and a five. Put them all together in the right way and it's February 22, 2025, and I will not play a similar puzzle with the name of the show which begins with two C-words and an E. I'm Sean Tubbs, the producer of Charlottesville Community Engagement which is made up of the audio versions of stories about local and regional government in the Central Virginia listening area. Let's get to it.Today's audio versions of stories already published in written form:* A round-up of the landscape of local elections as the spring comes closer* Charlottesville School Superintendent Gurley presents budget request to City Council (learn more)* A look at the City of Charlottesville's finances before the next budget comes out (learn more)* Two members of City Council pay tribute to the late Charlottesville Mayor Satyendra Huja (learn more)* The Buildings and Grounds Committee of the University of Virginia Board of Visitors endorses the design for new student residences planned for the intersection of Ivy Road and Copeley Road (learn more)* The University of Virginia's Board of Visitors has the first of two emergency meetings to discuss the future of gender-affirming care at the UVA Health System (learn more)Every so often there's a podcast version which may also have something worth reading in the text. It's up to you to decide. First shout-out: Celebrating the community's other information organizations!In today's first shout-out in the form of a house ad, I want to make sure everyone knows that every edition of the regular newsletter (not the podcast ones) ends with a section called Reading Material. Charlottesville Community Engagement is just one offering in a landscape that includes the Charlottesville Daily Progress, C-Ville Weekly, Charlottesville Tomorrow, and Cville Right Now, I curate links from these sources because I believe a truly informed community needs multiple perspectives.There's also the Cavalier Daily, Vinegar Hill Magazine, the Fluvanna Review, the Crozet Gazette, NBC29, CBS19, and other sources. But if you look every day, you'll find links to articles in national publications, all linked to give you more perspectives on some of the issues of our times.Show notes for 817A: Why this one and not another one?In this particular edition of the newsletter that carries the podcast, a behind-the-scenes glimpse into how things get made. For the past year now, audio production has shifted as I began doing a radio version for WTJU. The show airs at 6 a.m. so the audience may be low, but I'm grateful to have a regular place in the airwaves.This week was another where I didn't have a lot of audio because most of the stories this week were ones that didn't originate from a meeting. Take a look at the table below the second shout-out to see what I've been up for the past two weeks. By the time I get to Saturday morning, I'm ready to get to the new set of stories.I spent Friday putting together the audio versions, a process that takes a lot longer than it used to because the audio can't be terrible. It could be terrible when this was just a podcast. On Friday morning I wasn't sure how I was going to pull off putting together a 29 minute piece, but somehow it happened.One of the ideas was to take two of the Election 2025 stories and put them together as the show's opener. I almost never read new copy for WTJU but this time it made sense to eat up time in the show by giving listeners a little more information.I also added about a minute to the piece on members of City Council paying tribute to the late Satyendra Huja by including a clip from his 2007 interview with Charlottesville Tomorrow. I was able to grab that from his cvillepedia entry and imagine my surprise when I heard my voice as the interviewer! I forgot I had done that.In any case, that's this set of stories. I'm going to leave the text for the script for the election round-up.Election round-up: Information on Jack Jouett District race in Albemarle and Charlottesville School BoardThere are 254 days until the general election on November 4. Virginians will go to the polls to elect a new Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General. They'll also select a member of the House of Delegates as all 100 seats are up.There are also local elections across the area.For the first time in six years, there will be a contested race for the Democratic nomination for a seat on the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors.In January, Supervisor Diantha McKeel announced she would not seek re-election to another term for the seat she has held since 2015. Two candidates have expressed interest in replacing her as the Democrat on the ballot for the Jack Jouett District.Sally Duncan of Earlysville, a history teacher, has filed paperwork with the Virginia Department of Elections to run as a Democrat for the seat.Earlier this month, historian David Shreve told members of the Albemarle Democratic Party that he would also be seeking the nomination.The two as well any other candidates who emerge will be on the ballot of the June 17, 2025 Democratic Primary unless the local party decides to pick another nomination process.Duncan received an undergraduate degree in American Studies from the University of Virginia in 2020 and earned a graduate degree in Religious Studies in 2023. She's currently a high school history teacher and has a total of five children.Duncan will formally announce her candidacy at the County Office Building on February 25 at 11 a.m.Shreve has served as a member of the Citizens Transportation Advisory Committee as well as the Albemarle County Economic Development Authority. He has also served as co-chair of the Jack Jouett District Albemarle Democratic Party Committee. Shreve has also been involved with several non-profit groups including a board member at the group Advocates for a Sustainable Albemarle Population.In his professional capacity, Shreve has worked for the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia and spent one year working for the National Governors Association. He recently started a job as a senior economist for the Center for the Advancement of a Steady State Economy.This year in Albemarle, both Rio District Supervisor Ned Gallaway and Samuel Miller District Supervisor Jim Andrews are up for election. Neither has yet revealed their plans.There will also be a contested race for the Charlottesville City School Board. Last time around there were four seats open, and four candidates emerged. This time the seats held by Emily Dooley, Lisa Torres, and Dom Morse are all up for election.Both Dooley and Torres have stated they will seek reelection. So far, I've not heard from Morse but both Dashad Cooper and Zyahna Bryant have filed their paperwork to run for the seats.More in the future.Learn more:* Two Democrats have announced for Jack Jouett seat on Albemarle Board of Supervisors* Zyahna Bryant enters the race for Charlottesville School BoardSecond shout-out: Town Crier ProductionsI created Town Crier Productions in the summer of 2020 as a way of getting back to the business of journalism. Whether you are listening or reading this newsletter, it's part of a venture based on a pretty simple idea: I will continue to spend my time researching and reporting and will provide ways for people who want to pay for the material to be produced!In 2025 I'm seeking ways to solidify the business, and here are some ways you can support the work.* Sign up for a paid subscription through Substack. There is not much premium content because my primary aim is to get information out to as many people as possible. I'm long overdue on December 2024 transactions, for instance, and that's what I'll do as soon as this is posted!* Contribute through Patreon. A major goal this year is to replace this with a way to make a tax-deductible donation, but that's not set up yet. If I had more time, I'd make more audio programs through Patreon. Maybe today I'll do something weird.* Send in a check made out to Town Crier Productions at PO Box 1754, Charlottesville, Virginia, 22902. This will be used as a replacement for Substack.* Ask me about advertising opportunities! I am testing out advertising on Information Charlottesville and I'm enjoying the experiment. Reach out if you'd like to get in on an introductory deal!* Volunteer for cvillepedia, a great way to become a fact checker and to bolster your research skills! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to a new era of the podcast edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement with an experiment in sending these out on a Monday morning as opposed to a Saturday afternoon. I'm Sean Tubbs, the host and producer and employee-of-the-month at Town Crier Productions.The reality is that most people who experience this information do so by scanning words arranged into paragraphs which works out well because that means I can get more editions out faster.But many of the stories are produced by piecing together snippets of sound from meetings of local and regional government. Thirty years ago when I gained my first professional experience, this would be done by slicing bits of tape and assembling them together and recorded to a cartridge. The technology has morphed so many times since then, each of the audio versions you here harken back to days gone by.Enough of this introduction. Let's move on to the actual show going out on December 16, 2024.In this installment:* Charlottesville City Council briefed on upcoming spending on housing and infrastructure (learn more)* The UVA Finance Committee signs off on North Grounds Parking Garage, Ivy Road student housing (learn more)* Albemarle Supervisors vote to join Regional Transit Authority (learn more)* Council briefed on status of negotiations with VEO for scooter/e-bike permit (learn more)* Rumble strips at Nelson County intersection subject of concern (learn more)* New NDS director previews departmental website for Charlottesville PC (learn more)Every so often there is a podcast edition that goes out in the main feed. This is that version. Sign up if you want all of it. First shout-out: Celebrating the community's other information organizations!In today's first shout-out in the form of a house ad, I want to make sure everyone knows that every edition of the regular newsletter (not the podcast ones) ends with a section called Reading Material. Charlottesville Community Engagement is just one offering in a landscape that includes the Charlottesville Daily Progress, C-Ville Weekly, Charlottesville Tomorrow, and Cville Right Now, I curate links from these sources because I believe a truly informed community needs multiple perspectives.There's also the Cavalier Daily, Vinegar Hill Magazine, the Fluvanna Review, the Crozet Gazette, NBC29, CBS19, and other sources. But if you look every day, you'll find links to articles in national publications, all linked to give you more perspectives on some of the issues of our times.Checking in on the spreadsheet that runs the information!Second shout-out: Cvillepedia!Cvillepedia is an online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, and this second shout-out today is to provide a little bit about what I know. I helped create the website back in the late 2000's as a way of keeping track of all of the stories being written for the nonprofit news organization I worked for at the time.Now Cvillepedia is hosted by the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library under the stewardship of the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society. There are over 6,500 articles and we need volunteers to help keep it up to date and to capture more of this community's history, present, and future.If you want to learn how to do research, learn how to explore historical documents, and want some experience writing, consider becoming a volunteer.As a little teaser, here's some of what's listed for December 16 throughout the years.Events: * 1937 – After repair and re-installation, the "Great Clock", termed “a masterpiece of backwoods ingenuity,” designed by Thomas Jefferson and built by Philadelphia clockmaker Peter Spruck in 1792, once again beat out the hours on the big bell in the dome at Monticello.* 1975 – Blenheim, a 19th century structure in Albemarle County, is listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register.* 2004 – The historic Paramount Theater reopens after a $14 million restoration.* 2008 – Albemarle County Board of Supervisors hold a retreat at which they get a lesson on the development of the county's Comprehensive Plan. David Benish, the County's Chief Planner at the time, traced the evolution of the Comprehensive Plan. Benish said the County's growth management policy stems from the adoption of the first plan in 1971.[1] This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Ned Gallaway, Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, and Neil Williamson, President of Free Enterprise Forum, joined Jerry Miller on “Real Talk With Keith Smith” powered by YES Realty Partners and Yonna Smith! “Real Talk” airs every Wednesday and Friday from 10:15 am – 11 am on The I Love CVille Network! “Real Talk With Keith Smith” is presented by Charlottesville Settlement Company, LLC, El Mariachi Mexican Bar & Grill, Fincham & Associates, Inc., Free Enterprise Forum, Intrastate Service Co and YES Realty Partners.

Ned Gallaway, Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, and Neil Williamson, President of Free Enterprise Forum, joined Jerry Miller on “Real Talk With Keith Smith” powered by YES Realty Partners and Yonna Smith! “Real Talk” airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10:15 am – 11 am on The I Love CVille Network! “Real Talk With Keith Smith” is presented by Charlottesville Settlement Company, LLC, El Mariachi Mexican Bar & Grill, Fincham & Associates, Inc., Free Enterprise Forum, Intrastate Service Co, Pearl Certification and YES Realty Partners.

Ned Gallaway of The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors & Jerry Miller were live on “Real Talk With Keith Smith” powered by YES Realty Partners and Yonna Smith! “Real Talk” airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10:15 am – 11 am on The I Love CVille Network! “Real Talk With Keith Smith” is presented by Charlottesville Settlement Company, LLC, El Mariachi Mexican Bar & Grill, Fincham & Associates, Inc., Free Enterprise Forum, Intrastate Service Co, Pearl Certification and YES Realty Partners.

Since I first began this newsletter in July 2020, I've published almost all of the regular newsletters concurrently with the podcast version. The Charlottesville Quarantine Report was something I started on March 15, 2020 as an experiment on a day when I wasn't a journalist as the world was about to change. In 1995, my first professional work was as an intern at WVTF Public Radio.I've always worked like a radio reporter. I love to work with sound, and even in the days I was at Charlottesville Tomorrow, I used audio software to do my work. I had always wanted to experiment with sonic versions of stories, but I was not in charge.Now, I'm the sole proprietor of a company I set up to do this work. At the base of it, I want to write up as much as I can about what's happening so more people might have an understanding and an account of decision-making processes. Since the beginning, the podcast and the newsletter have been published together.Since beginning to do a radio version that airs Saturday morning at 6 a.m. on WTJU 91.1 FM, I've realized that I'm taking the podcast version for granted. I've been using a lot of filters to do the hard work of editing for me, and as a result the sound quality suffered. Working with my colleague at WTJU, I've realized I have to begin producing the sonic version with more aural scrutiny. At the same time, I've been having a weird audio glitch on my primary narration recording computer, one that cost me valuable time. Most people read the newsletter rather than listen to the audio. But, yet, I know there are many of you who listen to the podcast. I would like more people who just read to listen, because I think what I do rivals anyone else doing local radio. I say that as a friendly competitor, because I really just want people to know things. In any case, it's time now to post this and get ready for the new set of stories. This podcast covers what I classify internally as CCE-649 and CCE-650 and carries the working title “Brain Breaking Necessary Decision” because a person who works by themselves depends on in-jokes to keep morale up.In this edition:* Albemarle County Board of Supervisors interrupt a meeting on the Comprehensive Plan to declare a state of emergency related to over a dozen wildfires, and evacuation orders have been issued for some parts of Albemarle and Louisa* Charlottesville City Schools appoint a new principal for Charlottesville High School* Charlottesville City Council goes through changes in revenues and spending in City Manager Sam Sanders' FY25 budget* The city's finance director briefs Council on the use of American Rescue Plan Act funds with an eye toward shifting unspent funds to other projects * Charlottesville City Council gets some follow-up answers to some budget questions I am looking for feedback. This and every other Town Crier Productions production is an experiment and I depend on those who have come to appreciate the work to tell me what they think. Charlottesville Community Engagement is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Diantha McKeel and Ned Gallaway of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors joined Keith Smith and me on “Real Talk: An Insider's Guide To Real Estate In Central Virginia” powered by The YES Team Realtors! “Real Talk” airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10:15 am – 11 am on The I Love CVille Network! “Real Talk With Keith Smith” is presented by Charlottesville Settlement Company, LLC, El Mariachi Mexican Bar & Grill, Fincham & Associates, Inc., Free Enterprise Forum, Intrastate Service Co, Pearl Certification and YES Realty Partners.

Ned Gallaway, Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, and Neil Williamson, President of Free Enterprise Forum, joined Keith Smith & Jerry Miller on “Real Talk With Keith Smith” powered by YES Realty Partners and Yonna Smith! “Real Talk” airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10:15 am – 11 am on The I Love CVille Network! “Real Talk With Keith Smith” is presented by Charlottesville Settlement Company, LLC, El Mariachi Mexican Bar & Grill, Fincham & Associates, Inc., Free Enterprise Forum, Intrastate Service Co, Pearl Certification and YES Realty Partners.

The I Love CVille Show headlines: Donna Price – The I Love CVille Show Spotlight Former AlbCo Supervisor Donna Price Has Retired Reflect On 4 Years On The AlbCo Board Of Supes How Is Albemarle County Doing? Pros? Cons? Biggest Accomplishments In Office? Any Regrets? UVA + Payment In Lieu Of Taxes – Is It A Reality? What Concerns You About Next 4 Years In AlbCo? What Changes Would You Like To See In AlbCo? Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air Donna Price, Former Chairwoman of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, joined me live on The I Love CVille Show! The I Love CVille Show airs live Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The I Love CVille Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible and iLoveCVille.com.

It's the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month of the Twenty-Third Year of the Twenty-First Century. That's 105 years since the Armistice that ended World War One. That's a good reason to put out a special edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement to honor Veterans Day and to mention a few other things. This is also the 600th edition of the newsletter and podcast, and it's good to day to reach a milestone. I'm Sean Tubbs. On today's program:* The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors honors Veterans Day * A delegation from Guatemala is coming to visit Charlottesville* There will soon be another round of maintenance of trees on Charlottesville's Downtown Mall First shout-out: Virginia Veterans Services FoundationIn today's holiday-focused public service announcement, there are 700,000 veterans living in Virginia after serving in the armed forces in conflicts ranging from World War Two to the present day. Many need assistance from time to time, and the Virginia Veterans Services Foundation exists to provide that help. They seek contributions to support:* Virginia Veteran and Family Support* Veterans Care Centers* Virginia Values Veterans Program* Virginia Veterans Cemeteries* Veterans Benefits ProgramVisit the Virginia Veterans Services Foundation website to learn more.Albemarle County Supervisors marks Veterans Day Today is the 85th anniversary of Veterans Day and earlier this month, the Albemarle Board of Supervisors marked the occasion. “Throughout our nation's history, the United States of America has called on its citizens in uniform to serve and to protect our national security,” said Donna Price, the chair of the Albemarle Board of Supervisors and herself a veteran and is a retired U.S. Navy Captain in the Judge Advocate Generals. Price read from a proclamation recognizing the continued celebration of the national holiday.“On this day and every day, we remember the millions of patriots who have served and sacrificed for the betterment of our nation,” Price said. There are many veterans serving in Albemarle County government and in Albemarle County Public Schools and the proclamation is intended to salute their contributions now and in the past. “We, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, do hereby recognize November 11, 2023 as Veterans Day and celebrate all who have served our country around the world,” Price said. Deputy County Executive Trevor Henry is also a retired Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy. “In local government and in schools we believe we have well over 200 employees that in a prior life raised their right hand to support and defend our Constitution,” Henry said. “And when there period of service ended via either retirement or an obligation, they also found their way to our organization.”Three of those employees appeared before the Board to tell a bit of their stories and what they do now. Sergeant Dale Shoop served in the U.S. Army from 1983 to 1986 with some of that time in the demilitarized zone in Korea. He now works in Community Development as an inspector.“Heartfelt acknowledgment to my great grandfather, my grandfather, and my uncle for serving in the Royal Air Force, the Royal Army, and Royal Navy in Great Brain and England,” Shoop said. “Thank you to my father who served in the United States Army and my son who served in the United States Army and continues to serve in the intelligence sector.” Sergeant Roger Snodgrass served in the U.S. Coast Guard from 2002 to 2007 before joining the U.S. Army where he served under active duty through 2014. “Sergeant Snodgrass joined Albemarle County as a police officer in 2014 and currently holds the rank of sergeant on evening shift patrol,” Henry said. Snodgrass thanked the county for being an organization that's friendly to veterans. “As an individual who has multiple friends and family members in other local government, I do have the opportunity to say that this is a high performance organization,” Snodgrass said. “With our Board of Supervisors, our county executive's office, and our command staff with Albemarle County police department, they allow us to be able to provide outstanding customer services, day in, day out.”Reynaldo Avali served in the U.S. Army Reserve as a bridge crew member with the 299th Engineering Division beginning in 1995 with multiple deployments to Iraq. “During the first deployment to Iraq, they placed two bridges over the Euphrates River for combat operations,” Henry said. “The second time his unit was responsible for maintaining the bridges, training Iraqi engineers, and responsible for removing six bridges for retrograde operations.” During that time, Avali has also worked in building services for Albemarle County Public Schools where he continues to serve. Supervisor Bea LaPisto Kirtley thanked all of the veterans assembled in Lane Auditorium for their service. “It is something that you all do for us to keep our democracy safe, to keep all of us safe,” LaPisto Kirley said. “It is a solemn oath that you take to protect all of us and please be aware that all of us appreciate it. I think all of America really appreciates your service.”Supervisor Ned Gallaway expressed his appreciation as well and said he recently went back to his hometown to clear out his parents' home.“And we found my dad's formal dress uniform which  I had never seen in my life,” Gallaway said. “My brother-in-law who also served was navigating me around the different patches and such telling me, informing me what those were. And then we also found in a trunk a bunch of letters that my grandfather sent my grandmother during the war, but we found the official communication that he was [missing in action]. He was a prisoner of war and he thankfully was able to return at the end of World War II and he became a police officer.” Supervisor Diantha McKeel took the opportunity to share some resources that are available through Region 10 to veterans. Take a look here if you would like more information. “Region 10 currently has a partnership with Virginia Lock and Talk with resources available for all individuals including veterans to receive medical lock boxes and bags as well as trigger locks for firearms to assist individuals and families in locking up lethal means,” McKeel said. “Virginia Veterans Service Foundation also has a homeless veterans' fund and has been able to provide one-time assistance to homeless veterans to support rent, utility, and rental deposits.”   McKeel said Region 10 has also recently hired a peer support specialist to specifically assist veterans. Supervisor Ann Mallek used her time to mention the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2044 in Earlysville and American Legion Post 74 in Shadwell.“These organizations take care of their own,” Mallek said. “They raised funds most recently to buy a new medical transport van to help their fellows get to remote medical services.”Those services are currently a one-way 90-mile drive to south of Richmond. Mallek called for a veterans clinic to be located closer to home, particularly with the potential for expansion at Rivanna Station. Mallek also put in a plug for an organization called Living Free Together which also provides support to veterans and military families.  Price thanked Mallek for bringing up the role that families play and said that she was grateful for support from hers during her career. “Military service is frequently a family affair,” Price said. “From the Civil War through World War One, World War Two, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, to today…My father, a 97-year-old World War II Navy Combat vet. My son, a major in the Marine Corps. Myself with my own service. You'll find that people who work with or serve the county often have other family members who similarly provide public service.” Albemarle County also held a ceremony at 11 a.m. to mark Veterans Day.   Guatemalan Sister City delegation visiting next week Technically, Huehuetenango is not one of Charlottesville's Sister Cities. Instead, the western Guatemalan community is a Friendship City which is one step away. Either way, a delegation from that community will be visiting next week. “The goal of the delegation's visit is to forge initial ties between the government and citizens of Charlottesville and Huehuetenango,” reads a press release announcing the trip that will take place Monday through Wednesday. This is the first time more than one person from Huehuetenango has visited the area since the relationship was formalized in 2021.  There are two public events happening:* Coffee Open House, Tuesday, November 14, 9:00 – 11:00, Omni Hotel (212 Ridge McIntire Rd, Charlottesville, VA): This is a chance to learn more about Charlottesville's Sister and Friendship Cities and an opportunity to meet the delegation and drink free Guatemalan coffee brought from Huehuetenango. * Public Reception and Program, Wednesday, November 15, 6:00 PM – 7:30 pm, City Space (100 Fifth St NE, Charlottesville, VA): Charlottesville Mayor Lloyd Snook and Huehuetenango Mayor Gustavo Cano will signing of the Friendship declaration between the two communities. “The event will feature Marimba Music, a short program featuring words of friendship and welcome between the two cities and a choral arrangement from CHS ensemble.” The way toward this relationship dates back to the work of The Ixtatán Foundation, a group formed in 2001 to help build a high school in a small town in the greater Huehuetenango province. Charlottesville prepping for more work on Downtown Mall treesA dozen and a half people gathered on a recent Monday evening on the Downtown Mall outside the Charlottesville Parks and Recreation Department's offices to learn more about impending tree work to address safety. Urban Forester Steve Gaines held a laser pointer and directed it towards a dead branch he said presents a hazard. “If you think about like mid summer or in the weeks that we have the holidays coming up,” Gaines said. “How many people are going to be walking on the Mall? Thousands a day.” Gaines said his job as an arborist is to protect people and the trees themselves by trying to understand how they may react. “What is the probability of that branch failing? And if it does fail, does it land on another branch on its way down? Is it going to hit a building? Is it going to hit a person? What's the probability? When might it happen? Would it take a major wind event? A major snow event, something like that?” The bosques of Willow Oaks planted in the mid-70's are a very important component of the historic Lawrence Halprin design for the pedestrian mall. Many are also approaching their 60th year and their health has not always been closely watched. In December 2015, a report was published that called for a management plan. (read the report)“Despite the good initial outward appearances of the tree planting, the stand of oak trees is in a fragile, declining state,” reads the executive summary of that report. “The overly tight spacing of the trees and the insistence on paving right up to the base of the trunks of the trees has set in motion a series of biological factors that is beginning to push many of the trees to the point of failure.”  In the summer of 2017, there was momentum toward putting a management plan in place with another tree walk similar to the one from late October. (Could Downtown Mall trees be on the chopping block?, Kayli Wren, Charlottesville Tomorrow, July 26, 2017)Downtown Mall tree management faded as a priority as other events took place in the summer of 2017. Earlier this year, the city moved forward with a plan to remove several damaged or dead trees. Urban forester Steve Gaines held another walk on October 30 to prepare for another round of maintenance. “The purpose here was mostly to inform folks about tree work that is very likely coming this winter once the trees go completely dormant,” said Steve Gaines, the urban forester for the City of Charlottesville. “We will be going through to do some pruning. We call it crown cleaning as in we are removing some of the obvious hazards. Two inch deadwood and above.” Gaines said the event also had provided an opportunity to explain more about a forthcoming plan to manage the trees on the Downtown Mall going forward. The firm Wolf Josey Landscape Architects won the contract from the City of Charlottesville for the management plan.The work that Gaines talked about on October 30 was more pressing and continued work done in January of this year.“Every year I do an assessment and I take pictures and hit trees with the mallet and figure out what we're doing with decay,” Gaines said. Gaines held the event and will do more like it in the future because he understands how important the trees are to Charlottesville. “This is the Downtown Mall's tree, so it's a very sensitive, very historic topic and people feel very strongly about these trees and we just want to make sure that everybody is well-informed about what is going on with the trees and make people realize that they are going through an inflection point right now and to some degree there is some hazard,” Gaines said.“Most of those bigger limbs are very dead,” he said to the group while looking at one cluster of trees in front of the parking garage. During the tour, Gaines also explained more about how the trees interact with fungus, with bugs, other chemicals, and how they're affected by a changing climate. Stay tuned for more information about trees on the Downtown Mall and across the entire area. Reading material:* Charlottesville moves forward with apartment-quashing land buy, Hawes Spencer, Charlottesville Daily Progress (paywall) November 8, 2023* Charlottesville High School principal resigns, Jason Armesto, Charlottesville Daily Progress (paywall) November 9, 2023* Bigger at last: Text for historic marker recognizing Charlottesville slave trade revealed, Hawes Spencer, Charlottesville Daily Progress (paywall) November 10, 2023Concluding notes for #600Saturday editions feel good to produce, especially after taking a couple of days off in which I tried to not even think about this work. This week's time change took its toll on me, which I always hope won't happen but does all the same. Rest is not my ideal state of being, but it's good to be ready for the rest of the year. There's still so much to get through, and I'm grateful you're here to read or listen. As there is no regular schedule as of yet, you can find out if I'm publishing on a given day by looking at my page on Substack Notes. I also talk a little from time to time about the fact that is a business and there's plenty of room to grow. If you'd like to support this work and help it grow, do consider a Substack subscription or become a Patreon supporter. As with Election Day, today is not the day for the hard sell. I just want you to read or listen and to help me grow the audience! Ting supports a lot of great work and great spaces here, and if you're in the market for high-speed Internet, give them a try! Maybe you're in the market for a new high speed internet provider? If so, check out Ting! If you sign up for Ting at this link and enter the promo code COMMUNITY, you'll get:* Free installation* A second month for free* A $75 gift card to the Downtown Mall This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

T.J. Fadeley, Albemarle County Board of Supervisors candidate, joined Kyle Miller live on The Kyle Miller Show! The Kyle Miller Show airs live Thursday from 2:15 pm – 3 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The Kyle Miller Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible and iLoveCVille.com.

Be bald, and be free! That's the slogan for one of the supposed holidays for October 14, and I hesitate to even mention it at all except to say I represent. I've always thought of pawns as bald, and this is National Chess Day as well. Supposedly it's also National I Love You Day, but rest assured that Charlottesville Community Engagement has that sentiment every day with a sunrise and a sunset. I'm Sean Tubbs. In this edition:* A Charlottesville man was killed by gunfire early this morning in the 200 block of East Market Street* Charlottesville has announced that the opening of an overnight shelter on October 21 will coincide with a restoration of closing times in Market St. Park * A public hearing date has been set for University of Virginia Foundation's request to rezone part of the North Fork Discovery Park to include up to 1,400 residential units* Snippets from two candidate forums for the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Candidate running to bring common sense to the Rivanna Seat on the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors stops by to tell us what he would do about the school bus driver shortage and the bad cell coverage in the county.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The I Love CVille Show headlines: Albemarle Supervisor Donna Price Interview How Is Albemarle County Doing? Pros? Cons? Rivanna Station: $58 Million For 462 Acres In AC Can Supervisors Help Solve Bus Driver Shortage? Likelihood Of Expanding 5% Development Area Likelihood Of Allowing Commercial To Residential Price Facebook Post On “Woke Policies & DEI” What Concerns You About Next 4 Years In AlbCo? Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-air Donna Price of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors joined me live on The I Love CVille Show! The I Love CVille Show airs live Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The I Love CVille Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain and iLoveCVille.com.

T.J. Fadeley, Albemarle County Board of Supervisors candidate, joined me live on The I Love CVille Show! The I Love CVille Show airs live Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The I Love CVille Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain and iLoveCVille.com.

Mike Pruitt, Albemarle County Board of Supervisors candidate, joined me live on The I Love CVille Show! The I Love CVille Show airs live Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The I Love CVille Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain and iLoveCVille.com.

The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors will decide behind closed doors on buying up some private property with the taxpayers' money... What? You're NOT ok with that?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How do the wheels of the bus go round? How is the community squaring a desire for a more robust public transit system with the existing logistics? There are no direct answers to those questions in this or any other edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement, but this particular episode will inform you of some current thoughts by movers and those who tell the movers what to do. I'm your host, Sean Tubbs, somehow remembering a Ratt song… what comes around goes around. But will it get you there on time?  On today's program:* A brief summary of who's who and what's what in area transit providers * The Afton Express reports on ridership in its first 16 months of operations and looks ahead to the future* The CEO of Jaunt provides a glimpse into how it is recovering from recent funding errors caused by potential mismanagement * Albemarle School transportation is raising the bar on driver pay* The University Transit Services talks about their current night pilot and need for drivers* Charlottesville Area Transit briefs the Albemarle Board of Supervisors on its contract to provide microtransit service later this yearFirst shout-out goes to Camp AlbemarleToday's first subscriber-supported public service announcement goes out to Camp Albemarle, which has for sixty years been a “wholesome rural, rustic and restful site for youth activities, church groups, civic events and occasional private programs.”Located on 14 acres on the banks of the Moorman's River near Free Union, Camp Albemarle continues as a legacy of being a Civilian Conservation Corps project that sought to promote the importance of rural activities. Camp Albemarle seeks support for a plan to winterize the Hamner Lodge, a structure built in 1941 by the CCC and used by every 4th and 5th grade student in Charlottesville and Albemarle for the study of ecology for over 20 years. If this campaign is successful, Camp Albemarle could operate year-round. Consider your support by visiting campalbemarleva.org/donate.An introduction to this installmentToday's edition is a little different. I've written about transit planning in this community for many years and was present at a February 2008 meeting of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors and the City of Charlottesville where they heard from consultants who suggested the creation of a Regional Transit Authority. For various reasons, the idea was shelved but came back in the form of a Regional Transit Partnership. That group has met since the fall of 2017 to talk transit. Here are some highlights of where we are right now:* Charlottesville Area Transit continues to be a six-day a week service due to staffing shortages caused by the pandemic that remain challenging despite a raise for starting drivers and mechanics to $21 an hour. Route changes for the city-owned service went through a public process in 2021, but implementation remains delayed.* Jaunt continues to rebound from allegations of fraud and misuse of public funds by its former CEO. Those allegations forced Jaunt to receive less funding for a time but new CEO Ted Rieck recently made the rounds of local governments to speak of the agency's plans.* The University Transit Service continues to be a separate entity that exists to serve students, faculty and staff in a highly concentrated area. UTS receives no federal funding and its schedule depends on whether the University of Virginia in session. * There is an ongoing study to recommend a governance structure for an expanded regional transit system. More on that as we go through this newsletter. Now, to some individual stories. Afton Express to expand service in 2023 One of the topics discussed over the years at the Regional Transit Partnership has been planning for new service in the Staunton area and the Charlottesville area. The Afton Express launched on September 1, 2021 and the Central Shenandoah Planning District Commission recently issued an annual report for the first 16 months of service. “Despite launching the service in the midst of a global pandemic when many commuters were working from home, a small group of dedicated riders showed up and have continued riding ever since,” reads the executive summary of the report. “This group of passengers grows each month.” In all, 12,261 people used the service from September 2021 to the end of last year. On the western side of the mountain. the most popular pick-up spots are the Waynesboro Park and Ride Lot and the Staunton Mall. On the eastern side, Central Grounds Garage and the UVA West Hospital Complex. Fares are $3 one way, or $25 for ten rides. The report also explains how service times were adjusted to reflect an increase in traffic as the pandemic continued to recede last spring. The report also looks ahead to the future with an expansion of service as well as a conversion from start-up funds for a demonstration to recurring funding through the section 5311 formula. Afton Express is part of the BRITE service and the idea is this would become another of their regular routes. “The expansion will add a third bus into the rotation to increase frequency of service. With additional stop times in Charlottesville and adding a fifth trip in the evening, Afton Express will be able to serve more commuters with schedules outside of the traditional 9:00 am to 5:00 pm work hours.” Interested in checking out the service? They started a new schedule on Monday. Take a look and let me and others know what you think. Jaunt provides update at Regional Transit Partnership Yesterday I got an email that the Regional Transit Partnership for February has been canceled. So, let's quickly go through some of the highlights of the January 26 meeting. Charlottesville Area Transit Director Garland Williams was not present, nor was one of Albemarle's Deputy County Executives. We'll hear from them later.Every single meeting of the RTP begins with a chance for people to speak out about transit-related issues. At the January meeting, the town manager of Scottsville put in a word for Jaunt, the only transit service to serve his community and Buckingham County. “I just want to represent the Scottsville neighbors who rely on this service,” said Matt Lawless. “Elders going to appointments and the few younger commuters who are really happy to use Jaunt regularly in their commuter service.” That cued up an update from Jaunt to begin the year. Jaunt is a public service corporation with stock held by five area localities.  (view the presentation)“Our organizational structure is the same as [Greater Richmond Transit Company] in Richmond,” said Ted Rieck, the CEO of Jaunt. “We think we're a good investment. Other studies have shown that every dollar spent on transit turns over seven times in the community.” Rieck does not shy away from acknowledging a rocky few years for Jaunt. “Jaunt has been set with challenge over the last couple of years,” Rieck said. “That's no news. A couple of years ago the agency became embroiled in controversy with staff members that made some bad decisions.” One of those was to mix federal funds for rural service with federal funds for urban service. The Federal Transit Administration penalizes such actions. This will have a strain on the ability to purchase new rolling stock that serves the rural area. Rieck said a future Regional Transportation Authority will have to contend with many of these same issues. Jaunt is planning for the future by being ready to provide microtransit service, planning for the use of alternative fuels, and recovering ridership that is still rebounding post-pandemic. They have applied for a grant to begin implementing the recommendation of a committee that suggests going electric is the answer for fixed-route service. Albemarle Schools continues to seek ways to address drive shortagesOne of the main issues facing any transit agency is the shortage of drivers. That's certainly the case for pupil transportation at Albemarle County Public Schools. Charmane White is the director of transportation and she said her team is preparing a strategic plan to address the issue. “Part of that recruitment and retention, as you know, is that we went up to $21.50 an hour,” White said. White said the system has also implemented a step scale for experienced drivers and one plan is to let people know of the potential. “Meaning we have drivers now making $32, $35, $38, $40 an hour because of their years of experience,” White said. Another component will be outsourcing of pupil transportation to private companies. White said employees have some trepidation. “This doesn't mean we're eliminating jobs,” White said. “Absolutely not. What we're trying to do is give some relief for our employees. Right now they're doing a lot of double-back runs and I'm trying to figure out a way how I can help.”One request for quotations that's currently out there is for buses that can transportation grade 3 elementary students to a field trip to Amazement Square in Lynchburg this March. (view the RFQ)White said the fleet now has two electric buses which are soon going to be put on the road. They have also added more 14-passenger buses which do not require a commercial's driver license. UTS continues night-service pilot, should receive four electric buses this yearThe University Transit Service offers 15-minute headways while school is in session. Last year, the service began to offer some late-night service. Kendall Howell is the assistant director of UTS.“We run one route that kind of goes through most popular areas like the library, the Corner, the dorms,” Howell said. “And then we run what used to be known as Safe Ride but it has been rebranded as UTS On-Demand.” Howell said that more data on the service will be brought before the Partnership in the future. He added that UTS has four battery-electric buses on order and they will be available this summer. “But we'll have a ribbon-cutting probably in September or October and we hope those buses join our service before the end of the year,” Howell said. Howell said UTS also suffers from driver shortages and needed 12 additional drivers as of the January meeting of the RTP.  He said UTS recognizes the important role that drivers play. “The main thing I think for me is this concept of elevating the bus driver in the public consciousness from sort of an entry level position to a trade, a trade that you choose along the level of an electrician or a plumber,” Howell said. A brief CAT update The update from Charlottesville Area Transit was given by Juwhan Lee, the agency's assistant director. He said ongoing studies include an alternative fuels study, a transit strategic plan, as well as planning for microtransit. We'll hear more about microtransit in a moment. But the biggest issue is the lack of drivers and Lee said the city will pattern a similar program to Albemarle's step scale program. Lee also said the city would like to hire third-party vendors to help with its driver shortage for the school system as well. Governance study updateWork continues on a study for what it would take to bring all of the various transit agencies under one umbrella, even if just for the purposes of securing more funding. The firm AECOM is receiving $150,000 for the work. There will be a more full update at the March meeting of the Regional Transit Partnership, but if you want to know more background, I've got you covered:* Regional Transit Vision update, May 20, 2022* Partnership briefed on potential vision for regional transit, June 1, 2022* Albemarle and Charlottesville officials weigh in on Regional Transit Vision, June 14, 2022* Council considers spending $30K toward governance study; Jaunt hopes to play a role, September 23, 2022* Charlottesville Area Transit to operate on-demand demonstration project in Albemarle, August 24, 2022* Governance study: A primer on regional transit systems, December 15, 2022Stories could be written about the cumulative price of all of this planning. Will any of it ever come to pass, or is it make-work? It's not my job to answer that last question, but I do remind you I was in the room on February 11, 2008 when I was so much younger then, but I'm older than that now. Second shout-out: Rivanna Conservation AllianceIn today's second Patreon-fueled shout-out, interested in helping a local organization keep our local river clean and protected? The Rivanna Conservation Alliance is holding an open house on Wednesday, February 15 at their offices on River Road in Charlottesville. Come by anytime between 4 and 7 p.m. to learn about their programs and the many ways you can get involved. Staff will be on hand to share information about monitoring, restoration, education, and stewardship activities. New and current volunteers are welcome! Light refreshments will be provided. Visit rivannariver.org to learn more. Planning continues for CAT to run microtransit in Albemarle County Charlottesville Area Transit has a contract to work with Albemarle County to provide microtransit service in the area along U.S. 29 in the urban ring as well as in the Pantops area. “Microtransit is an on-demand transportation solution really being implemented across the nation and here in Virginia,” said Jessica Choi, a transit planner with the firm Kimley Horn. “Folks can make real time trip requests and those trips are dynamically routed and programmed through the application and the vehicle is dynamically routed to serve those trips.” Microtransit is seen as a way of providing an alternative to driving for people who live in Albemarle's growth areas. In January, the Board of Supervisors got an update on how preparations are going for service to begin later this year. Last year, the Board of Supervisors agreed to apply for a grant from the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation to find a one-year pilot of the service.. That's similar to the pilot for the Afton Express. The idea was to provide service in Pantops and U.S. 29. “We funded our portion of the grant and Charlottesville Area Transit made application for this pilot program and it was awarded last summer,” said Deputy County Executive Trevor Henry at the January 18, 2023 meeting of the Albemarle Board of Supervisors.The total amount of the grant to Charlottesville Area Transit is for $1.94 million, including a match from Albemarle of $388,000. The service is owned solely entirely by the city of Charlottesville. CAT hired the firm Kimley Horn to provide logistical support to get the project up and running. “Kimley Horn was brought in to augment CAT staff, to evaluate the program, best practices, options as far terms of implementation with a focus on execution and customer experience  in these two areas,” Henry said. This service would operate as a CAT-branded service according to Choi. “One of the things that we did want to make clear to you all and about this service is that this microtransit service and the operator will be operating under the CAT umbrella of services and not be its own standalone entity,” Choi said. The service on U.S. 29 would operate from 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and would feature three vehicles which are much smaller than the large buses used on fixed-route services. “The projected riders per weekday is 75 with the potential to grow to 360 daily riders and an average wait time for riders of less than 15 minutes,” Choi said. There would be only one bus for Pantops which would operate on the same schedule. The projected number of riders is 25 a day with a growth potential to 240. Charlottesville Area Transit will issue a request for proposals for a third-party to provide the microtransit service. “And then the [request for proposals] will come back as part of our finals and hopefully come back to the Board hopefully in April or May timeframe to kind of give you a detailed analysis of where we are,” said Garland Williams, the manager of Charlottesville Area Transit. Williams said a date for when the service will launch depends upon the results of the RFP. There are many different components. “So the software implementation, that could take anywhere from four to six months for implementation so whoever we procure as an operational partner, the implementation from installation to testing and training could take four to six months to make sure we work out all of the bugs,” Williams said. Then there's an open question of what the fare would be if one is charged. CAT is currently operating fare-free through a grant from the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation.  He said because CAT doesn't charge now, adding a fare for microtransit could trigger a need for federal review of compliance with the Civil Rights Act in a process known at Title VI. The budget for the grant also includes $135,000 for marketing and advertising to make sure people know about the service. Supervisor commentsSupervisor Diantha McKeel has been a member of the Regional Transit Partnership since it was formed in 2017. She said it is critical that CAT and Albemarle pull this off. “Whether or not our community chooses to use this pilot will determine the interest in transit ridership in our community, so it's critical,” McKeel said.McKeel added that she felt the hours were too limited and might not work for people who work at Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital. Henry responded that the hours were those that were specified in the grant application. “As we experience the project, we certainly could look to expand it if it is successful,” Henry said. Williams said the RFP could be set up with a foundation of the stated hours but an add-on could be listed for additional housing. McKeel said she was concerned about having the service branded as Charlottesville Area Transit. “Based on what has happened with the pandemic and the decrease in ridership and the struggle around bus drivers in our community, many folks have an impression that CAT… they struggle with CAT,” McKeel said. “Let's talk about it. Let's face it. And I have a lot of folks who say CAT is not reliable in my urban ring. How are you going to address that if the microtransit service is labeled CAT?” Williams said that marketing will help with that service, and that the third-party service would be responsible for staffing and providing the vehicles. “From the community standpoint, when they call that number, that will be a dedicated group of drivers that are dedicated strictly to microtransit and it won't be pulling from the existing numbers of drivers,” Williams said. Williams added that microtransit drivers do not need a commercial driver's license, so that will open up the potential pool of applicants. Supervisor Jim Andrews said he was concerned that if the ridership doesn't materialize, the cost could be expensive. “A quick calculation based on the 75 plus 25 is 100 riders per day, and if that's six days over 50 or 52 weeks, that's about 30,000 trips a year,” Andrews said. “When you consider the amount of money being put into it at about $75 per trip if it is not scalable.” Williams said that is a valid concern but he believes there is pent-up demand on the U.S. 29 and Pantops corridors that will lead to higher ridership than the conservative estimates included in the original study that led to the DRPT project. “I think those numbers are kind of the floor but I don't think those are the ceiling,” Williams said. Supervisor Ann Mallek said she wanted whatever firm is hired to have a track record for delivering this service already and not learning how to do it at Albemarle's expense. She said she's also concerned about lack of service on Sunday service. “It is a real burden for people who get off shift and its dark and it is raining and they're walking down U.S. 250 to get home, and that's really hard on a Sunday,” Mallek said. “And we've certainly heard about that circumstance both to the hotels and hospitality locations as well.” Currently CAT is not offering any Sunday service and has not done so since the pandemic due to driver shortages. Supervisor Ned Gallaway said he's supportive of the pilot because he doesn't think fixed-route transit will work on U.S. 29. For instance, how would that ever help someone get from Woodbrook to the Rio Hill Shopping Center without a car? “When [Fashion Square Mall] was a vibrant location and you could get people from downtown to the Mall and vice versa, that was an effective fixed-route,” Gallaway said. Gallaway was fine with going fare-free but riders should be asked what they would be willing to pay. He said he just wants it up and running.“This speaks to our climate action policy, this speaks to helping eliminate traffic congestion,” Gallaway said. “This helps with economic development because more people could be out and moving around in the local economy spending their dollars where they are going.” How will it all turn out? How will you know? Charlottesville Community Engagement will strive to tell you the story. Reading material for when you're on transit: * FRA To Expand Passenger Rail Grant Amount, AASHTO Journal, February 2, 2023Housekeeping for #497This is perhaps the longest stretch between two podcasts in a long while. Part of this is due to a trip I took last week in which I did not take everything I needed. Part of this is due to a quick illness I seem to have contracted on Sunday. And part of it is because I wanted to do a transit edition. I also disclaim I briefly worked as an advocate, and part of that time I spent trying to get people to use the bus.Since the pandemic, I stopped being a regular rider as I work from home, but I'm still interested in how the various policies come together, or don't come together. Transit is often seen as the solution to congestion that comes with more people living in the community, but who is going to make sure that all of the visions come to pass? This newsletter is the only information outlet that seeks to cover transit as a beat, and it's just me doing the work. Do the things that get announced at meetings come to pass? There's so much to write about and that's what I intend to keep doing. But I need your help. Not just in the form of new paid subscriptions to this newsletter via Substack, but I need your perspective. What do you think? What are the barriers that keep you from getting on a bus? That's an ongoing conversation and one day I'll figure out how to include more of your voices in this podcast.For now, it's on to the next one. So this one ends with a notification that Ting will match your initial Substack subscription. That's a big deal because it allows me to keep paying my bills. I am not a non-profit and and I will not seek grant funds. Doing so allows me to be independent. It's only me who decides what I write about, and this time, I felt it was important to write about transit.What about Ting? Well, if you're looking for high speed Internet, consider signing up. If you sign up at this link and enter the promo code COMMUNITY, you'll get:* Free installation* A second month for free* A $75 gift card to the Downtown MallThanks for Wraki for music and the Fundamental Grang for whatever it is that that entity does.   This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

While it may seem like this is the same newsletter and podcast over and over again, it will be unlike any other of the 492 other editions. It will be the 493rd and it will have its own distinct flavor. Which may be odd because as far as I know, there's no way to convey narrative through the taste buds. But Charlottesville Community Engagement is intended to do what it can for aural and visual pathways. I'm the host, Sean Tubbs, still hesitant to experiment with an olfactory version of the program. On today's show:* Charlottesville City Council whittles 20 candidates for a replacement seat down to six in advance of Monday's public hearing * A longtime member of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors has died * A top Albemarle County executive is set to retire* There are now two candidates seeking the South District seat on the Nelson County Board of Supervisors* And Albemarle Supervisors commemorate Black History Month  This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

It's the eleventh day of the eleventh month, marking the time 104 years ago when Armistice ended the First World War One. Today we mark it as Veterans' Day and local government is closed. This is the first edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement after a brief break to get ready for all that is yet to come. Today, though, is a good day to look back and all of those who have done so much to get us to this point. On today's show:* A round-up of election results from the area * Albemarle County recognized veterans Day* Charlottesville City Council gets a report from Interim City Manager and discusses recent violence downtown and possible solutions Sign up to get all of the free newsletters and podcasts and considering paying to help support the work!First shout-out: Free jazz concerts coming up week of November 15In the first subscriber-supported shout-out, the Charlottesville Jazz Society wants you to know about an upcoming series of free concerts by Professor Bill Cole and the Untempered Ensemble. The Untempered Ensemble are artists in residence at the University of Virginia Department of Art and will give three free concerts the week of November 15th. The group includes members of Indigenous American (Wabanaki and Nipissing), Asian-American, and African-American descent. The musicians play a wide variety of wind, string and percussion instruments from six different continents offering audiences the opportunity to form a world view of sound.The shows:* Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 5:00 pm | Memorial to Enslaved Laborers, UVA Grounds | FREE* Wednesday, Nov. 16 at 7:30 pm | The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center | FREE* Thursday, Nov. 17 at 7:30 pm | The Dome Room of the Rotunda, UVA Grounds | FREEFor more information about Professor Bill Cole and the Untempered Ensemble, visit arts.virginia.edu. Election results across the planning districtThe results are now more or less in for Election 2022 in Virginia but let's go through some of the details. Republican Bob Good defeated Democrat Joshua Throneburg to win a second term representing Virginia's Fifth Congressional District. With 354 precincts of 378 reporting, the Virginia Department of Elections lists Good with 57.86 percent of the vote. He carried 21 of  the 24 localities in the Fifth District. Throneburg only won in Albemarle County, Charlottesville, and Danville. Nearly 87 percent of voters in Charlottesville cast a ballot for Throneburg, compared with 66.1 percent in Albemarle, and 53.2 percent in Danville. Just under a dozen Albemarle residents voted in the 7th District due to the small sliver. Fourteen people voted for Republican Yesli Vega and seven people voted for Democrat Abigail Spanberger. Overall, Spanberg was re-elected to a third term with around 52 percent of the vote. The only other election on the ballot in both Albemarle and Fluvanna was for Scottsville Town Council. Two candidates were on the ballot, and several people made a write-in bid. Final votes won't be counted on Monday but incumbents Meredith Hynes, Dan Gritsko, and Bill Hyson were all re-elected. Turning to Greene County, Vega won the county with 60.8 percent of the vote. Kimberly Breeden Tate won an uncontested race to be Commissioner of Revenue. Rebecca Roach won an uncontested race to be on the School Board representing the Stanardsville District. Michael A. Payne won an uncontested race to be Mayor of Stanardsville. Three people were on the ballot for four seats on the Stanardsville Town Council and all three made it as did a write-in. There was a contested School Board race in Louisa County, where Lloyd Runnett defeated David Harold Rogers in the Mineral District with 67.8 percent of the vote. R. Garland Nuckols remains the Mayor of the Town of Louisa in an uncontested race. In the Town of Mineral , Ed Jarvis leads Pamela Harlowe with 98 votes to 70 votes with slightly more votes to be counted. For information on Town Council races in Louisa County, visit the Virginia Department of Elections webpage. Albemarle Supervisors mark Veterans' DayToday is Veterans Day and nine days ago, the Albemarle Board of Supervisors passed a resolution honoring the occasion. Donna Price, Chair of the Board of Supervisors, read from a proclamation. “WHEREAS, the United States of America, founded on the principles of liberty and justice for all, has called on her men and women in uniform to protect our national security,” Price said.* The preservation of our national interests, our rights and our freedom, has been ensured by the service of these individuals* On Veterans Day we remember and pay tribute to the millions of patriots whose courage and sacrifice have secured our freedom and defended our values both at home and abroad* Over one hundred veterans continue to serve their country in public schools and government as teachers and other professionals providing services to the students and citizens of Albemarle County* These veterans employed by Albemarle County Public Schools and Local Government deserve recognition for their continued service.“NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors hereby recognizes all veterans and the men and women that are currently serving in our armed forces around the world; an BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors hereby appreciates and honors the continued contributions and sacrifices of the Armed Forces veterans employed by local government and public schools,” Price read. Price herself is a retired U.S. Navy Captain in the Judge Advocate General's Corps. Albemarle Police Lieutenant Elizabeth Gomez accepted the proclamation. She enlisted in the Army National Guard in September 1991 and served as a combat medic and ambulance driver, becoming a police officer in 2000. “We do what we do now based on our choices earlier on in life to serve and protect our community,” Gomez said.While local and state government may be closed today, information about resources is available on the internet. A good place to start is the Virginia Department of Veterans Services and the Central Region. Second shout-out: UVA Helps Ensure Climate Resilient Buildings, Landscapes, & CommunitiesIn today's second subscriber supported shout-out, UVA Lifetime Learning, Office of Engagement, has an event this Saturday morning for readers following climate action and resilience planning. At the UVA School of Architecture, faculty, staff, and students are leading innovative research on climate resilient buildings, landscapes, and communities — from the coastal landscapes of Virginia's Eastern Shore and the Chesapeake Bay region to community development in the Arctic; from renewable biomaterials for building construction to new planning methods for restorative urbanism. Join Dean Malo André Hutson this Saturday morning at 10 a.m. for an opportunity to learn more about this exciting work, the diverse methods of community-centered design research it employs, and the actionable ways it addresses the future health of our built environment. This takes place at Alumni Hall as part of the More than the Score program or watch online! Register on Eventbrite for Designing for Climate ResilienceCharlottesville Council discusses gun violence; many governance details in written report The Charlottesville City Council had a full meeting on Monday, and one I'm finally able to get to after taking a couple of days off from a deadline. We start the coverage with the consent agenda, which included an extension of the contract for the Robert Bobb Group for the services of Interim City Manager Michael C. Rogers. According to a staff report, that will give enough time for a new police chief to be hired as well as for Council to adopt a strategic plan. Then there's also the matter of the budget. No one spoke during the opportunity to comment about the contract extension. Next, there was a review of the written city manager report followed by comments about recent shootings in the area. Let's go through the report first: (read the report) * Rogers said a new executive director for the Police Civilian Oversight Board will be hired as soon as possible. The Board's operating procedures will be reviewed by Council at their meeting on December 5. * New procurement rules adopted by Council in October will make it possible to use private dollars to help pay for energy savings projects in large capital projects. (story on InfoCville)* New employee Ben Chambers is now the transportation planner for the Department of Neighborhood Development Services. The position is intended to help address a backlog of stalled projects. Council was briefed on a “reboot” for transportation planning this past May. (story on InfoCville)* More people are seeking out the services of the Office of Human Rights with 2022 volumes higher than all of 2021. We'll hear more about a proposal to hire two more staff for the office in a future installment of the program. * The average review time for a building permit is now below is now down below 40 days according to a chart provided in the report. That's because the city sought help from the University of Virginia with a backlog and hiring two people to serve as both a new building code official and a support services manager. The new goal is to bring reviews down to 14 days, which the report states will take hiring more personnel. In City Manager Rogers addressed the recent shootings on the Downtown Mall. “A week or so ago there was a violent incident on the mall at one of our establishments that resulted in the death of someone and two bystanders being hit by stray bullets,” Rogers said. Rogers convened a meeting with Friends of Downtown Cville to discuss the incident and steps to improve security.  “When there is violence in the community in a concentrated period, naturally people are going to be upset and people are going to fear being in the location where those things are occurring,” Rogers said. “By and large when you consider the statistics in our community, it's still safe.”  Interim Police Chief Latroy Durrette offered some statistics about responses to calls for services related to gunfire. (view the data)There were 185 such calls in 2017 and 181 calls in 2018. “A slight decrease in 2019 with 172,” Durrette said. “In 2020, we started to see an increase of 298 and a greater increase in 2021 with 322.As of October 23, there have been 211 calls for service for shots fired. Durrette said shots fired incidents are not common on the mall and he showed maps showing where they are focused. For this year, that's the Tenth and Page neighborhood as well as the Orangedale-Prospect area according to one of the images. He said he has increased patrols on the Downtown Mall. City Councilor Brian Pinkston said he was more concerned about reducing gun use in the parts where it is concentrated. “Whenever I talk to folks, people remind me that this is complicated, the causes and how we try to effect change is complicated too because there are unintended consequences,” Pinkston said. Vice Mayor Juandiego Wade was at that Friends of the Downtown Cville event which was attended by a wide variety of stakeholders.“People came together from all sides of the community to talk about a very serious issue and I think we had some really good discussions,” Wade said. “Some of those discussions included de-escalation. I think that there was some understanding that when police arrive at these scenes, a lot is going and they want to preserve the scene. Part of it is that we wanted to talk about de-escalation,”Rogers said the city has been speaking with law enforcement at the University of Virginia about sharing information and resources. “We'll be following up on that and I think that there's opportunity for the city, the county, and the University law enforcement to join forces and approach this as a truly regional issue,” Rogers said. During matters from the public, several people addressed the issue including Emily Morrison of the Front Porch, a music training entity with space on 3rd Street SE.“My staff would  benefit from de-escalation trainings in the event of a conflict near our building so that we can know what to do in the event of an emergency,” Morrison said. More from this City Council meeting in future installments of the show. Articles you may have missed from other outlets:* Charlottesville and Albemarle County get bluer, Alice Berry, Daily Progress, November 9, 2022* Youngkin to propose new agency for workforce development, Markus Schmidt, Cardinal News, November 10, 2022* Maybe it's not just ‘the economy, stupid': winners and losers from the 2022 midterms, Bob Lewis, Virginia Mercury, November 11, 2022 (commentary)An inventory of end notes for #458We begin the end with a humbling confession. I got the beginning of the November 8 newsletter wrong by writing without actively engaging my brain. Election Day is the first Tuesday of the month unless it's the first day of the month, or something like that. I won't correct this error but will lead people to this blurb. These blurbs come at the end of a lot of writing. Is it possible I made this error just to bring new readers to this point? Possibly. The point of this section is to thank subscribers and point out that Charlottesville Community Engagement is a service of Town Crier Productions, a company formed to write as much as possible. Sometimes that does mean taking a quick break which I did Wednesday and Thursday. If you want to know when the next edition may come out, do consider joining the Chat function in Substack. It's still a work in progress, but I'm exploring non-Twitter alternatives. All of this work is paid for by many of you readers and listeners via Substack, in addition to the various individuals and entities who pay me through Patreon. More details on that later, as you don't need to read that every time. But, I do want you to know I appreciate the one in four who pays to keep my attention focused on a wide variety of things. You support my beat reporting which allows me to see patterns and incongruities. Ting match Substack subscriptions, though. I have to mention that! And even if you don't sign up for a paid subscription to this newsletter, Ting wants your business, and if you sign up through a link in the newsletter you will get free installation, a $75 gift card to the Downtown Mall, and a second month for free. Just enter the promo code COMMUNITY. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

On today's program:* The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors adopts Strategic Plan goals to help guide budgetary decisions* The Charlottesville City Council and Planning Commission are asked to weigh in on efforts to rewrite the city's zoning code to reduce obstacles to development* The two bodies largely support eliminating minimum lot sizes but there was more concern from at least one City Councilor about an idea to increase density for deeply affordable housing projects  This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Neil Williamson, President of Free Enterprise Forum, Ned Gallaway, Albemarle County Board of Supervisors and General Manager of CarLotz, and Christine Jacobs, Executive Director of Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission, joined Keith Smith and me on “Real Talk With Keith Smith” powered by YES Realty Partners and Yonna Smith! “Real Talk” airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10:15 am – 11 am on The I Love CVille Network! “Real Talk With Keith Smith” is presented by Ally Property Management, American Pest, BC Harrop Photo LLC, Charlottesville Settlement Company, LLC, Closure Title & Settlement Co., Fincham & Associates, Inc., Free Enterprise Forum, Intrastate Service Co, Keller Williams Alliance, Pearl Certification, Ross Mortgage Corporation, Sigora Solar, Stanley Martin Homes and YES Realty Partners.

You can tell a lot about a person by what they think about the noise that emanates from the bagpipe, a woodwind instrument perhaps best associated with Scotland but with origins that might date back to the Hittite people from three thousand years ago. Even if are not a fan of the combination of melody and drone, July 27 is the day to appreciate this unique musical instrument. Perhaps this is the day you buy one for the enjoyment of your friends, family, and co-workers? I’m Sean Tubbs, and not a cent or shilling is being paid to Charlottesville Community Engagement by Big Bagpipe. Sign up to make sure each email finds its way to your inbox. Payment isn’t necessary but does tend to help keep the electrons flowing to make the work possible. On this version of the show:Charlottesville continues to prepare for a school year in which more students will not be able to catch a yellow school busTwo new members will soon join the Charlottesville Planning CommissionA former member of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors has diedCharlottesville City Council hears from the interim City Manager on how $14.8 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding could be spent First shout-out is for LEAP’s new Thermalize Virginia program In today’s first Patreon-fueled shout-out: Have you been thinking of converting your fossil-fuel appliances and furnaces into something that will help the community reduce its greenhouse gas emissions? Your local energy nonprofit, LEAP,  has launched a new program to guide you through the steps toward electrifying your home. Thermalize Virginia will help you understand electrification and connect you with vetted contractors to get the work done and help you find any rebates or discounts. Visit thermalizeva.org to learn more and to sign up!  Preparations continue in Charlottesville for more to walk to school Classes begin for Charlottesville City Schools in four weeks and work continues to prepare for a year in which more students will not be eligible to get a ride on a school bus. A driver shortage has led the school system to expand walk zones that are still being finalized. “We are hoping to let families know this week about their current bus eligibility and whether they have a bus request on files,” reads an email update sent to parents interested parties on Monday. “This status update will tell families if their child is in a walk zone or eligible for the bus.”The notice also states that priority will be given to families living further away from schools. The actual bus assignments will be released in August. Last week, the city administration told City Council that staff is recommending using $500,000 from the city’s share of the American Rescue Plan Act to help pay for safety improvements. “We’ve added $500,000,” said interim City Manager Michael C. Rogers. “Higher amounts were suggested. In talking with staff we believe that we have other funds in the budget that can actually exceed the amount that has been suggested in the past by some of the communications from people but this is a high priority area and we are offering that up for your consideration.” More on ARPA later in the newsletter. In their update, city schools say they are in conversations with the city, parents, and community members about sidewalks and intersections that need to be improved. Last week, Deputy City Manager Sam Sanders said the city government will follow the school system’s lead.“What we’re doing is working directly with schools and trying our best to make sure that their priorities are what we prioritize and what we do to help them through this process because we’re seeing this as everyone’s issue,” Sanders said. Sanders said the work to address safety concerns will continue past the first day of school. “And then to go beyond that and basically reboot our Safe Routes to School program,” Sanders said. “That’s what this is really synergized at this time by allowing all this focus on what we’ve been doing and what we’ve been talking about doing.” Sanders said there are also conversations with Albemarle about how to collaborate on pupil transportation for special needs students. The school system is also encouraging people to report problem locations using the MyCville app or by phoning 434-970-3333, option #2. Two other ways people can become involved are: Take a walk along a school route and make your observations known in a Google Doc created by the school systemApply to be a regular or substitute crossing guard or walking school bus leader - paid positionsThe school system will hold a final “walk and talk” this Friday at Mount Zion First African Baptist Church from noon to 2 p.m. There will also be an online Q&A session on August 10 at 5 p.m. (register)Council make two new appointments to Planning CommissionWhen the Charlottesville Planning Commission meets on September 13, two veterans of other advisory bodies will take their place at the makeshift dais in CitySpace. Carl Schwarz served two terms on the Board of Architectural Review from 2014 to the end of last year. He’s an architect in private practice who lives in the 10th and Page neighborhood. Phil d’Oronzio has been the chair of the Housing Advisory Council Committee since August 2014. He’s the CEO of Pilot Mortgage who lives in the Belmont neighborhood. The pair join three Planning Commissioner who were reappointed by Council at their meeting on July 18.“By some accident of history we wound up with five different Planning Commissioners whose terms expire on August 31, 2022,” said Charlottesville Mayor Lloyd Snook. By Virginia law, the seats have to be staggered so that terms don’t expire all at once. To make that work, they had to technically reconstitute the body and reappoint everyone, even those who terms were not yet.Commissioner Hosea Mitchell was appointed to Seat One for a term expiring on August 31, 2023. Mitchell served a partial term in the late 2000’s before rejoining the Commission in June 2018 to fill an unexpired term. He is retired from a career in the medical business. Commissioner Rory Stolzenberg was appointed to Seat Two also for a term expiring on August 31, 2023. Stolzenberg first joined the Commission in October 2018.  He’s a software engineer with Lumin. Seat Three will continue the appointment of Lyle Solla-Yates whose term expires at the end of August 2024. Solla-Yates has been on the Commission since March 2018 and is the current chair. He works for the University of Virginia School of Architecture. Commissioner Liz Russell will continue in Seat 4 with a term that also expires at the end of 2024. Russell has been on the Commission since September 2020. She’s the director of planning, sustainability, and project management at the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. Seat 5 will continue to be occupied by Commissioner Karim Habbab until August 31, 2025. Habbab was appointed in June 2021 and is an architect with BRW Architects. The terms of Schwarz (Seat 6) and d’Oronzio  (Seat 7) and Schwarz will expire on August 31, 2026. The reconstitution of the Planning Commission comes at a time when the city is rewriting the Charlottesville zoning code to increase density. That’s a major objective of both of the Affordable Housing Plan adopted in March 2021 and the Comprehensive Plan updated in November 2021. Former Albemarle Supervisor Cooke dies at 90 A woman who served two terms on the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors has died. Patricia Cooke was elected in 1981 to what used to be called the Charlottesville District and was re-elected in 1985. According to her obituary in the Daily Progress, Cooke graduated from Lane High School in 1950 and opened a laundry business with her husband in 1956. She also had a bridal and formal wear company. A funeral service will be held on Friday.The Charlottesville District became the Rio District at some point during the tenure of Cooke’s successor, David Bowerman. Bowerman served four terms until retiring the Board at the end of 2004. He passed away in March 2020 while he was a sitting member of the Albemarle County Board of Zoning Appeals. In today’s other two shout-outs Code for Charlottesville is seeking volunteers with tech, data, design, and research skills to work on community service projects. Founded in September 2019, Code for Charlottesville has worked on projects with the Legal Aid Justice Center, the Charlottesville Fire Department, and the Charlottesville Office of Human Rights. Visit codeforcville.org to learn about those projects. The final comes from another Patreon supporter who wants you to go out and read a local news story written by a local journalist. Whether it be the Daily Progress, Charlottesville Tomorrow, C-Ville Weekly, NBC29, CBS19, WINA, or some other place I’ve not mentioned - the community depends on a network of people writing about the community. Go learn about this place today!Council briefed on potential usage of ARPA funds Charlottesville has now received all of the $19.6 million in funding it will receive from the federal government as part of the American Rescue Plan Act fund. Interim City Manager Michael C. Rogers gave Council an update at their meeting on July 18.“It’s been a big help for local government in terms of recovery from the impact of the pandemic,” Rogers said. Council has already appropriated $4.81 million of the funding and has an unallocated balance of $14.8 million. Money spent so far went to four different categories recognized by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Of that $14.8 million, $2.28 million was already designated for various uses during the development of the budget for the fiscal year that began on July 1. For the balance, Rogers suggested the following uses:For economic development:$750,000 to the Charlottesville-Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau to make up for revenue loss from decline in meals tax revenue. Albemarle County is also being asked to make the same contribution. $300,000 for improvements to the Downtown Mall coordinated with Friends of Downtown Cville. The Mall turns 50 in 2026 and Rogers said a task force may be formed to help mark that occasion and prepare for the next fifty years$100,000 for updates to wayfinding One million for a strategic investment fund for economic development$500,000 for the Meadow Creek Trail to close a gap for a VDOT-funded projectInternal uses:$829,000 for equipment replacement$200,000 for facilities repair$270,000 to augment the Human Resources including hiring a deputy director and a recruiter$200,000 to fund Council’s development of a new strategic planPublic safety: $1.4 million for additional COVID spending should future surges have a greater community health impact$1.1 million to help Charlottesville Fire Department with its accreditation, including hiring three more battalion chiefs for two years$450,000 to help retain personnel in the Charlottesville Fire Department$50,000 to help retain personnel for the Sheriff’s Office$500,000 for the “Safe Routes to School Fund” Human service support:$700,000 for the Emergency Assistance - Pathways program which would include additional rental assistance$1.63 million for affordable housing and homeless services$500,000 for the Community Health Initiative $1 million for the Agency Investment Fund $580,000 for Community Arts Investment$176,000 for the Office of Human Rights to hire an investigator to look into claims under the Fair Housing Act $40,000 for an emergency generator for a city shelter that would be used in major catastrophes The combined $2.63 million for affordable housing and the agency investment fund would be disbursed through a competitive process separate from the “Vibrant Community” process the city has used since 2019 to allocate funding for nonprofits. The Community Health Initiative would support public health projects.“Think of this funding as being available for a previously floated idea of the Community Care Team or something of that nature in order to do a really needed and wonderful pilot to see what would be the best support for our community,” said Deputy City Manager Ashley Marshall.Council was to have discussed a proposal for a Community Care Team at its meeting on February 7 but the item was pulled. The topic did come up as part of a Council work session on May 2. Councilor Brian Pinkston noted that additional on-going positions were being proposed to be created with the one-time ARPA money.“Hiring people with one-off type of funding is something we’re trying to be careful of,” Pinkston said. Rogers said those positions would be proposed to continue into the future and the city would have to find other funds to cover them. Councilor Michael Payne questioned the use of $750,000 to go to the CACVB. The city’s economic development director said the money would help the destination marketing organization with a current cash flow situation caused by the way it is funded. “There’s a two year lag in the funding cycles so the money wasn’t needed two years ago,” said Chris Engel. “It’s needed now because that cycle is playing through.”Council got a briefing on the CACVB in June and learned that the agency received $680,000 from ARPA that flowed through the Virginia Tourism Council. (read the story)“Given that state support I’m a little skeptical about how much is really needed for the CACVB as well as whatever specific measurable deliverables we will get for that investment,” Payne said.  Council will be asked to take action on the appropriations at its August 1 meeting. There’s also an additional $2.52 million for which Rogers has not made any suggestions for how it should be spent. “We look forward to our dialogue on this,” Rogers said. “This is meant to be a first start to set us on a direction to address some things we really need to address in the coming months and thought that these funds would be a good way to do it.” Thoughts? Leave a comment below. Housekeeping items for episode #412That’s another program in the archives, and in a few days you’ll be able to read these stories on the Information Charlottesville website I created to help me keep track of what I’m reporting. Want to read articles on land use in Charlottesville? Click here!What about infrastructure updates? Click here!How about climate action? Elections in Virginia? The archive grows each week!All of this is supported by readers and listeners under the Town Crier Productions company I formed two years ago and am still learning how to operate. I’m breaking even, but I’d very much like to find a way to grow. There are ways to do that!For one, if you sign up for a paid subscription through Substack, Ting will match your initial payment! And, if you sign up for their services through this link you’ll get a free standard install, your 2nd month free, and a $75 downtown mall gift card! Enter the promo code COMMUNITY for full effect. Music on the podcast version of the show comes from the D.C. sensation Wraki, and you can support their work by paying whatever you want for the album regret everything on BandCamp.My sincere hope today, though, is that someone will go and buy a bagpipe. If you do, please let me know. If you have one already, record yourself and send me the audio! Or any exotic instrument, really. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Halfway through the year? Today’s the 181st out of a scheduled 365, so we’re technically 49.5 percent of the way through 2022 though the fiscal calendar resets at the clock strikes midnight! This is Charlottesville Community Engagement, a newsletter and podcast that has sought to keep track of these things for nearly two years. Thanks to readers and listeners for helping keep the beads of the abacus in motion. This work is free, but it does cost me to put the time in. Sign up for a paid subscription, and Ting will match your initial payment!On today’s program:Albemarle Supervisors hire Staunton’s former city manager as the new county attorneyAn update on a federal lawsuit to force a House of Delegates race this fall Charlottesville City Council is briefed on the properties it owns inside and outside city limits and learns there has not been one central locationCouncil ponders giving up a “paper street” and denies a request to give up a small sliver of land in North Downtown First shout–out: JMRL to kick off the Summer Reading ChallengeIn today’s first subscriber-supported public service announcement, the Summer Reading Challenge put forth by Jefferson Madison Regional Library continues! You and members of your family can earn points for prizes in a variety of ways, such as reading for 30 minutes a day, reading with a friend, creating something yourself, or visiting the library! You can also get two points just by telling someone about the Summer Reading Challenge, so I guess I just added two more! Visit JMRL.org to learn more about this all ages opportunity to dive into oceans of possibilities! Legal drama continues in second suit to force 2022 House of Delegates election There are 131 days until the general election and a new lawsuit to force a Virginia House of Delegates race is still alive. Richmond resident Jeffrey Thomas Jr. filed a suit against the Board of Elections in the Eastern District of Virginia earlier this month that picked up a dismissed complaint that the legislative boundaries in place for the 2021 race were unconstitutional. As I reported earlier this month, Judge David Novak had set up a schedule for how information related to the case was to be filed. That schedule has not been followed. Thomas filed an amended complaint on June 16 that added two additional plaintiffs from two other legislative districts, one of whom is the former president of the Loudoun County NAACP.  Both are appearing pro se, or without a lawyer. The motion also added the Department of Elections as a defendant. “Plaintiffs and all other voters and residents in [House District 71], [House District 32], and [House District 10] have had their voting strength and political representation unconstitutionally diluted or weakened by the failure of Defendants to conduct, enact, or oversee decennial constitutional reapportionment, redistricting, or elections,” reads paragraph 54 of the amended complaint. The state responded in a motion objecting to the addition of the new plaintiffs and sought a new schedule. Judge Novak responded by granting an extension to July 1 for the defendants to file a motion to dismiss the case. A joint stipulation of facts was filed on June 24, but the next day, Thomas filed a motion requesting sanctions against the state for not agreeing to 47 facts that were in previous stipulations. Many of these relate to the population imbalances across the old districts with the most populated being at 130,192 residents and the least having 67,404 people. The plaintiffs allege this is a violation of the Equal ProtNovak denied this motion on Tuesday, and we wait to see if a motion to dismiss is filed by Friday. Former Staunton City Manager to serve as Albemarle County AttorneyAfter a months-long search, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors has hired the former City Manager of Staunton as its next county attorney. Steven Rosenberg will start work on July 27. “The Board has taken a lot of time to find somebody that not only possesses the skills and the abilities that we seek in a county attorney but also is the person that joins our organization at the right point in the progression that we are attempting to achieve as an organization,” said Supervisor Ned Gallaway who headed up the search. Rosenberg became Staunton’s Deputy City Manager in May 2013 and was promoted to the top job in July 2019. He left the position in January 2022, according to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to that, he was associate general counsel of the University of Virginia for five and a half years. He was also Augusta County attorney from May 2003 to December 2007. Rosenberg did not make comments at the end of a closed meeting yesterday but is quoted in a press release. "During my nearly two decades as a neighbor of Albemarle County, I’ve become familiar with the county, most notably its quality of life and the strength of its organization—one committed to excellence and a culture of service. I am excited to join the Board and staff in such a positive environment and to work with them to serve the Albemarle County community,” shared Rosenberg.Albemarle closing Mint Springs beach until further nticeToday could be the last day to swim at Mint Springs near Crozet this summer. Albemarle County has announced the outdoor swimming area will be closed until further notice, but the beaches at Chris Greene Lake and Walnut Creek will remain open Thursday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Those two places will also be open on July 4. The reason is a lack of staff, according to an Albemarle County’s director of communications and public engagement. Charlottesville continues to operate only one outdoor pool a day to combat their shortage of lifeguards. Washington Park is open Sunday through Wednesday with Onesty Pool only open on Sundays. Second shout-out goes to Camp AlbemarleToday’s second subscriber-supported public service announcement goes out to Camp Albemarle, which has for sixty years been a “wholesome rural, rustic and restful site for youth activities, church groups, civic events and occasional private programs.”Located on 14 acres on the banks of the Moorman’s River near Free Union, Camp Albemarle continues as a legacy of being a Civilian Conservation Corps project that sought to promote the importance of rural activities. Camp Albemarle seeks support for a plan to winterize the Hamner Lodge, a structure built in 1941 by the CCC and used by every 4th and 5th grade student in Charlottesville and Albemarle for the study of ecology for over 20 years. If this campaign is successful, Camp Albemarle could operate year-round. Consider your support by visiting campalbemarleva.org/donate. Charlottesville Council briefed on city-owned propertyThe city of Charlottesville owns 170 pieces of property and another 18 in conjunction with Albemarle County. Does it need all that land and space? That was one of the undercurrents of a discussion and briefing Council had at a work session on June 21. “The approximate acreage of city-owned properties within the city is 798 acres and over 2,800 acres of city-owned properties located within [Albemarle] County,” said Brenda Kelley, the city’s redevelopment manager based in the Office of Community Solutions. Kelly said at the outset what would not be in her presentation. (view the presentation)“This discussion will not include a discussion on streets, alleys, paper streets and paper alleys which are basically unimproved streets and alleys,” Kelly said. More on one of those later in this installment. City-owned properties include the fire stations, City Hall, the schools, parks, and other properties. Lesser known properties include an L-shaped half-acre parking lot on West Main Street that leads to the half-acre Starr Hill Park and a quarter-acre parking lot on Estes Street in the Fifeville neighborhood. In 2019, the city purchased just over an acre of land adjacent to Jordan Park for $270,000. “And the previous property owners had already platted these six lots so this is another city-owned property that at some point we probably need to look at the possible development of affordable housing,” Kelly said. “That’s one of the discussions we had early on when the city first approved the approval of the purchase of this property.” In the county, the city of Charlottesville owns 67.56 acres on Avon Street Extended with some of that property being used by Charlottesville Area Transit. The city also owns 1,023 acres at the Sugar Hollow Reservoir and ten acres at the Albemarle Lake subdivision, both purchased originally for water supply. All of this land takes management.“We do have some challenges when we talk about city-owned properties,” Kelly said. “We need to develop a better consistent process when we have requests to dispose of the properties or acquire the properties. Maintaining these properties. Are there departments currently maintaining these properties? We think a lot of them are being maintained. And are any of these properties developable?” As with city leases, no one has been coordinating all of the information over the years. Now Council has a chance to act on policies for what to do next. “And there [are] a lot of properties that are adjacent to right of ways and is that something the City Council wants to look at,” Kelly said. “Do we want to approach adjacent property owners and see if there is an interest in putting those on the tax rolls.” Kelly said staff will come back to Council with another summary of city agreements not tied with leases that may not be coordinated in one central office. “We have now the information we need to start addressing the concept even of consistent policies and a consistent point person to work all of this out so we will be coming back to you,” said interim City Manager Michael C. Rogers.Rogers said there is an opportunity for Council to determine what it would like to do going forward. City Councilor Michael Payne said he wanted to know if this might help resume discussions of creating a city-owned land bank to acquire property for public purposes. “We’re land-locked, ten and a half square miles,” Payne said. “Our single most valuable asset is the land we own and I think land acquisition in particular is the single most important action we can take, both for economic development and affordable housing.” Deputy City Manager Sam Sanders said there could be a future conversation about a land bank ordinance, but the research is meant to get Council to a point where they would have enough useful information. “This all is a centralizing effort at this time so we can get our arms around what we have but really it is this conversation that is going to feed us on what next steps we want to take,” Sanders said. Councilor Magill seeks policy on conveying of “paper” streets to landownersLater on in the meeting, Council had several items related to land use. One of them was a request from the owners of a lot on 6th Street SW in Fifeville for the city to convey to them a strip of property. (staff report)“And this property is a platted 20 foot right of way that is labeled Oak Street,” said Lisa Robertson, the city attorney.That section of Oak Street has never been built and it what’s known as a “paper” street. Council closed a 77-foot section of that same paper street in 2010 between 6 and 6 ½ Streets. In that case, one half of that former city property went to straddling property owners. No one initially spoke at the public hearing, but City Councilor thought she and her colleagues should put a pause on the conveyance. “Until we figure out holistically what we’re going to do with the paper streets, the piecemealing of people who know to be able to come to City Council or to come to get the street closed, I don’t feel it’s a fair overall process,” Magill said. Magill said until the process is more clear, she would like Council to stop granting them until the policy is more clear. Vice Mayor Juandiego Wade said he’s handled many paper streets when he was a planner. He said he was okay with deciding them on a case by case basis because every property may have unique conditions. “I think it would maybe be hard to come up with an overall city policy because each one might be different,” Wade said. The two property owners did want to speak at the public hearing, but had not been recognized but later did have the chance to have their say. “Currently the actual alley isn’t in great condition,” said Vignesh Kuppusamy. “There’s a tree that fell over in a recent storm that’s dead and kind of rotting there so we were also thinking that if we were to do this and be granted the land together with the owners of 313 we could clean the area up and make it look nicer.” Wade supported the idea of developing a policy, but said he would feel comfortable granting this conveyance. So did Councilors Brian Pinkston and Michael Payne.“To be honest I haven’t thought about it too much but my initial reaction is that shouldn’t hold us up on doing some on a case by case basis,”  Payne said. The matter will come back up for a second reading at Council’s next meeting on July 18. Council denies request to give up 0.02 acres of land on 9th Street NEIn a similar matter, Council denied a request from a landowner to be given a 0.02 acre vacant lot at the corner of East Jefferson Street and 9th Street for free. Charlottesville Mayor Lloyd Snook said there are two chestnut trees on the property. (staff report)“The trees are huge and they’re beautiful and they’re worth more to the city I suspect then they would be to the neighbor,” Snook said. “My own feeling about is that we should not be in the habit of giving away real estate especially if it’s on a road where we may decide we want to have a bike lane or a wider sidewalk.”The property is within the jurisdiction of the East High Streetscape project.The owner of the adjacent property, Thomas Gierin, said those trees are infested with ivy and he said the city is not equipped to take care of the maintenance. He said he could take better care of the property. “I have worked with the city arborist office to have them come out and perform maintenance,” Giren said. “They did come in I believe in February to do some maintenance and I spoke with them about doing the things it would to make those trees healthy and thriving and they said ‘we’re just here to keep the branches away from the street.”Gieren said he would be paying property taxes if he owned the land, and that he would grant an easement for any future transportation project. Councilor Magill said she would prefer the city to retain ownership.“One of the most expensive things about doing sidewalks and doing everything else is the getting the right of way and by giving up land that we have the right of way to, we limit ourselves and potentially cost us significantly more in the future.” Snook said he felt there could be a negotiation with Gierin to work out a deal.“I’m certainly not prepared to say yes but I’m also not prepared to say, no, never,” Snook said. Council voted 4-1 on a motion to deny the request with Wade dissenting. Support the program!This is episode 402 of this program and it contains stories you’re simply not going to see anywhere else. Town Crier Productions is not a nonprofit organization, but around a third of the audience has opted to contribute something financially. It’s similar to the old days when you would subscribe to a newspaper. I subscribe to several, myself! If you are benefiting from this newsletter and the information in it, please consider some form of support. I am not a nonprofit organization and most of my time is spent in putting the newsletter together, which includes producing the podcast.Supporting the program through a Substack contribution or through Patreon makes it very easy for me to get paid and every single dollar that I get makes me want to work that much harder to serve the community. In just under two years, I’ve produced hundreds of stories that seek to give you information about how decisions are made in our community and in the Commonwealth of Virginia.For more information on all of this, please visit the archive site Information Charlottesville to learn more, including how you too can get a shout-out! Thank you for reading, and please share with those you think might want to learn a few thing or two about what’s happening. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors discusses possible solutions to what it calls a panhandling crisis… The state department of health relaxes its guidelines for those exposed to COVID-19… Today, the General Assembly will take up the governor's 38 amendments to the state budget, so we have reporting on some of the more important amendments, and analysis of what's going on in Richmond….

Flag Day. National Bourbon Day. World Blood Donor Day. Monkey Around Day? These are some of the potential ways to mark June 14, the 165th day of 2022. What you choose today is up to you, but I do hope you’ll take a look or a listen at this installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement, a program that also wants you to make sure you know that some consider this is also National Pop Goes The Weasel Day. Now, where can I find some tupenny rice and some treacle?Know people interested in transit issues? Send them this particular edition of the newsletter so they can find out about the Regional Transit Vision plansOn today’s program:Details on the next steps for a second lawsuit to force a House of Delegates election this yearAlbemarle and Charlottesville’s elected bodies each take a look at the Regional Transit Vision plansGovernor Youngkin announces a series of grants to help increase capacity fo small agricultural producers, such as a water-powered mill in Nelson CountyAnd Albemarle County releases a report on climate vulnerability and risksToday’s first shout-out: ACHS to provide update on Race and Sports projectIn today’s first subscriber supported public service announcement, the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society continues work gathering stories for their project Race and Sports: Athletics and Desegregation in Central Virginia. Tonight at 7 p.m. they will provide an update on Facebook Live and Zoom with two people who lived through the era. Garwin DeBerry graduated from Burley High School in 1965 and Steve Runkle graduated from Lane High School in 1960. They will be sharing how the families, neighborhoods, and communities in which they grew up shaped their experiences and of school desegregation. Tune in to the ACHS event on Race and Sports tonight at 7 p.m. (Zoom registration)Status hearing held for new lawsuit seeking House of Delegates election this NovemberThe state of Virginia has until June 24 to file a motion to dismiss a new lawsuit that seeks the Commonwealth to hold an election for the House of Delegates this year. Richmond resident Jeffrey Thomas Jr. filed a federal suit in the Eastern District of Virginia last week that picks up similar arguments made by Richmond attorney Paul Goldman for why some think the House districts currently in place are unconstitutional. Goldman’s suit was dismissed for lack of standing nearly a year after he filed. Thomas and representatives from the Virginia Attorney General’s office were in court yesterday for a status update in the case. Judge David Novak issued an order requiring both parties to file a joint stipulation of facts by June 17. Thomas will have eight days to respond to whatever the state of Virginia files. The state will have five days to respond. No date has been set for another hearing. For more information, read coverage in the Virginia Mercury. Albemarle County releases climate vulnerability assessmentOne item on tomorrow’s agenda for the Albemarle Board of Supervisors is a 176-page document that identifies how the county and its residents will be affected by shifting weather patterns. The Climate Vulnerability and Risk Assessment looks ahead to how extreme heat, drought, wildfires, and flooding may affect the area. There’s also the threat a changing climate will bring new pests that will affect crops. (read the document)The assessment is a step toward developing a climate resilience plan.“Some of the changes are unavoidable and even while we try to mitigate and reduce the severity of climate change, we also need to prepare for some of those impacts,” said Gabe Dayley, Albemarle’s climate protection coordinator. Dayley said the climate action plan is intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to meet regional goals to be carbon neutral and fossil free by 2050. He made his comments on the Let’s Talk podcast produced by Albemarle’s communications and public engagement department. “Our vulnerability and risk assessment looks at the kinds of specific local weather changes that we can expect,” Dayley said. “Things like increasingly intense and long heat waves or sudden and more severe rainstorms that lead to flash flooding.” Visit the county’s website to hear more. The report was put together with support and work from the Piedmont Environmental Council. In disclosure, that group is a sponsor of the Week Ahead newsletter. Water-powered grain mill in Nelson gets support from AFID grantThis is Ag Week in Virginia, and Governor Glenn Youngkin has announced the latest recipients of the state Agriculture and Forestry Industry Development grant program. The program provides matching grants to small agricultural producers such as Potter’s Craft Cider which used a $50,000 grant as part of a package to move operations into Neve Hall off of U.S. 29 in 2019. This time around the grants focus on infrastructure. Nelson County requested financial assistance for Deep Roots Milling to upgrade a water-powered grain mill built in the late 18th century. According to the press release, the $22,500 in state funds will help pay for a new sifting room and new bagging equipment. Other recipients include $25,000 for Piedmont Processing of Gordonsville in Orange County to add more cooling space for its slaughterhouse, $25,000 for barge to serve a collective of oyster farms in Northampton County, and $9,000 for a commercial kitchen expansion in Bedford County. Read the press release for more information.  Today’s second goes to WTJU and the Radio Relics project In today’s second Patreon-fueled shout-out:  This year, WTJU 91.1 FM turns 65 and to mark the occasion, there’s a new micro-museum exhibition this summer! Radio Relics traces WTJU’s storied history of broadcasting for our community. As part of our 65th anniversary celebrations, WTJU has curated photos, artifacts, and t-shirts – so many t-shirts! – spanning more than six decades.The exhibition is free and will be open Monday-Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. from June 3 through July 29. The museum space is a renovated, vintage camper parked behind WTJU’s studios at 2244 Ivy Road in Charlottesville. WTJU’s Radio Relics exhibition shows off some of the artifacts collected over the years, many contributed by former WTJU General Manager Chuck Taylor.  In fact, there’s even a new initiative to raise money through the Chuck Taylor Fund for WTJU History. Contact General Manager Nathan Moore to learn more. Or donate today!Albemarle and Charlottesville officials weigh in on Regional Transit Vision Consultants hired by the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission are moving into the second phase of a community engagement effort for a $350,000 plan to create a regional transit vision to make public transportation a more attractive option. They have developed both a constrained plan that would anticipate around $26 million funds that might be generated through becoming a regional transportation authority with taxation power, as well as one that assumed funding would be found to increase the frequency of service. That has an estimated $70 million price tag. The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors had their review on June 1. “These concepts are here to help you imagine and understand what kind of outcomes are available at two different levels of investment,” said Scudder Wagg of Jarret Walker + Associates. This work will be completed before a second study will begin on how transit operations should be governed in the future.“So this transit vision study really is identifying the potential improvements to the regional transit system and establishing that long term goal and plan vision and the governance study is really what are the steps to get to that vision that we’ve defined,” said Tim Brulle of AECOM. He’s the project manager for the vision plan. The idea in both visions is to increase how often buses move through the community. “Frequency means freedom effectively,” Wagg said. “The more frequent service is, the much shorter the wait is, the much likelier you are to get somewhere soon.”Wagg said at the moment, around 60 percent of residents of urban Albemarle and Charlottesville are close to some transit service, but only about 15 percent are close to frequent service. Both visions expand the number of areas covered by on-demand service where people can call for service on the same day. Currently, a ride on Jaunt has to be booked a day in advance. But in general, the plan without identified funding would increase service. The unconstrained vision would seek to increase fixed-route service to seven days a week from morning into the evening. “One of the key things that is likely to significantly improve access to opportunity, particularly for people who work in retail, service, and hospital jobs where many people have to work evenings and many people have to work Sundays,” Wagg said. “Those types of jobs where if you aren’t there for them on Sunday, they have to have a car and therefore have to incur the high costs of owning a car.” Supervisor Ann Mallek is the sole elected official left from an effort in the late 2000’s to create a regional transit authority. She wanted to make clear the community tried once before for a sales tax to fund increased transit, but a referendum did not make it out of the General Assembly. “Money doesn’t just appear when we don’t have the authority to raise it,” Mallek said. Supervisor Ned Gallaway said service along urban corridors in his district needs to be frequent to accommodate the new units that have been approved during his tenure, such as the Rio Point project that got the okay last December. He pointed out proponents argued transit could help mitigate traffic congestion.“Over a thousand units, 1,300, 1,400 units that are going to build out there, and if they’re sitting on a sixty-minute transit line, that’s not going to work,” Gallaway said. Gallaway said the on-demand transit pilot that Albemarle will begin next year will go a long way to helping determine what the county needs.Supervisors Bea LaPisto-Kirtley and Diantha McKeel had already seen the presentation because the Jefferson Area Regional Transit Partnership got a briefing in late May. McKeel wanted clarification on the role the University of Virginia Transit System would play in the vision. “We tend to think about UVA as doing their own thing,” McKeel said. “That’s what they’ve done for years with their students and faculty and staff. Having said that, I know they are working really hard with us at the regional transit partnership about coming together on transit in this community.” Wagg said that the unconstrained vision anticipates more involvement by UVA. “There is an obvious and enormous transit demand within and around a university and the Grounds at UVA needs really a high frequency service within a pretty limited space so it is understandable they run their own service,” Wagg said. Wagg said an idea in the unconstrained vision is to trade resources with UVA. For instance, a  Bus Rapid Transit system similar to the Pulse in Richmond could travel down U.S. 29 and terminate somewhere on Emmet Street. “And then the University could run a more community service that serves the Grounds as a primary focus but also serves the community at large,” Wagg said. Charlottesville City Council had their review on June 6. The presentation was much the same as what Albemarle and the Regional Transit Partnership saw, but Wagg repeated why having to wait on a bus that comes once an hour is an obstacle.“Relying on service every 60 minutes is extremely hard,” Wagg said. “You can think about relying on a 60 minute route is a little bit like if there was a gate at the end of your driveway that only opened once an hour. You had best be in your car with your coffee ready to go at 7 a.m. if you need to get out at 7 a.m. to get to work. And if you miss it, then you are not leaving until 8 a.m.” Wagg reminded Council that many of the current CAT routes do not operate on Sunday. City Councilor Brian Pinkston said the unconstrained vision is compelling and certainly appeared to be more attractive. But he expressed some skepticism. “This would be a great system to enact but how do we change behavior such that people would use it?” PInkston said. Wagg said if people have choices about how to get around, they’ll take transit. “A major reason people don’t take transit today is because it’s very unlikely to be useful to the trip they want to make,” Wagg said. For instance, Wagg said a trip from Pantops to the Piedmont Virginia Community College would take a very long time with multiple transfers. “Changing that dynamic of ‘will someone choose to ride’ is making it far more likely that the trip that they look up will be reasonably competitive to take transit,” Wagg said. Vice Mayor Juandiego Wade said he was concerned that outreach efforts have not been robust.“I’m just afraid that you may get input from the same people and we kind of know what it is,” Wade said. “We’ve got to do a better job of getting input. I can tell you if this is all you’re going to do, I can assure you of what we’re going to get.” Extra service will mean extra drivers, and Councilor Michael Payne said their needs must be taken into consideration up front. “We can drop any plans or changes we want but if we don’t have sufficient drivers to run those routes, it won’t work,” Payne said. “I know we’re already seeing significant problems in being able to maintain frequency of our current routes because of a shortage of bus drivers.” Payne is another member of the Regional Transit Partnership. He said the unconstrained vision should be a goal, but a realistic approach needs to be taken. “How do we, once this is finalized, bring it back down to earth and figure out what are the level of investments we need to specifically plan for here in the city and what are the specific steps needed to start to get Jaunt, [Charlottesville Area Transit], and the University Transit Service working together to move to that Regional Transit Authority?” Payne said. And that’s where the governance study would come in. If there was to be a regional authority, that could also include surrounding counties. The Greene County Board of Supervisors gets their review of the plan tonight, and its the Fluvanna Board’s turn on Wednesday. The next step is a virtual meeting on June 23 in which the consultants will present both the constrained and unconstrained visions. There’s also a community survey that seeks to gather input on the unconstrained and constrained visions. What do you think? No use telling me. Fill out that survey!Support the show by checking out Ting!For over a year one year now, Town Crier Productions has had a promotional offering through Ting!Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. Your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCPThe same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Donna Price of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors and Quinton Beckham, Principal Broker/Owner of Keller Williams Alliance, joined Keith Smith and me on “Real Talk With Keith Smith.” “Real Talk With Keith Smith” airs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10:15 am – 11 am on The I Love CVille Network! “Real Talk With Keith Smith” is presented by Ally Property Management, American Pest, Charlottesville Settlement Company, LLC, Closure Title & Settlement Co., Fincham & Associates, Inc., Free Enterprise Forum, Intrastate Service Co, Keller Williams Alliance, Pearl Certification, Ross Mortgage Corporation, Sigora Solar, Stanley Martin Homes and YES Realty Partners.

What’s shaking? Sounds like an appropriate greeting for Richter Scale Day. Have yourself tied in knots? An appropriate pose for National Pretzel Day. I know I am able to tell you this is the 369th edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement, a clear sign of how I honor Get Organized Day. I’m Sean Tubbs, the host of this regular newsletter and podcast about things both trivial and of massive importance. Help spread the word by sharing this installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement!In today’s edition: The Virginia Solar Initiative has the first ever survey of how localities in the Commonwealth regulate solar installations large and small The Village of Rivanna Community Advisory Committee in Albemarle will not be reappointed anytime soonCharlottesville City Council ratifies the issuance of $23 million in revenue bonds for Midway ManorAnd the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors get an update on Southwood in advance of a public hearing tonight for a rezoning for the second phase Shout-out to Camp AlbemarleToday’s first subscriber-supported public service announcement goes out to Camp Albemarle, which has for sixty years been a “wholesome rural, rustic and restful site for youth activities, church groups, civic events and occasional private programs.”Located on 14 acres on the banks of the Moorman’s River near Free Union, Camp Albemarle continues as a legacy of being a Civilian Conservation Corps project that sought to promote the importance of rural activities. Camp Albemarle seeks support for a plan to winterize the Hamner Lodge, a structure built in 1941 by the CCC and used by every 4th and 5th grade student in Charlottesville and Albemarle for the study of ecology for over 20 years. If this campaign is successful, Camp Albemarle could operate year-round. Consider your support by visiting campalbemarleva.org/donate. Survey released on solar rules across Virginia localitiesIn six years, the amount of electricity generated by solar panels in increased by 12,150 percent. That’s according to data cited in the first ever survey of Virginia localities on their policies related to permitting large utility-scale installations as well as rooftop panels. The survey was conducted by the Virginia Department of Energy and the Weldon Cooper Center at the University of Virginia and asked a series of questions to officials in Virginia’s 133 localities. “In Virginia, the permitting and siting of solar energy and energy storage facilities is heavily informed by local governments,” reads the report. “Therefore, to realize the full potential of solar energy development in Virginia, it is important to understand and support the solar experience, concerns and priorities of local governments.”One hundred and nine localities responded to the survey, which was conducted a year after the General Assembly passed the Virginia Clean Economy Act which among other things mandates that Virginia’s largest two investor-owned utilities be 100 percent carbon free by 2050. “The VCEA also deems 16,100 megawatts (MW) of solar and onshore wind to be in the public interest, greatly reducing the barriers for project approval with the State Corporation Commission,” the report continues.The survey is intended to help inform policy across Virginia, given that localities set the detailed rules for siting and zoning of solar facilities. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, electricity generated through solar in Virginia increased from 30 megawatts in 2015 to 3,675 megawatts in 2021.Smaller installations on homes and businesses are called “distributed” solar projects. That number has risen from 948 net-metering installations in 2011 to 26,237 in 2021. No plans to reappoint VORCAC There are eight vacancies on the Village of Rivanna Community Advisory Committee and the Albemarle Board of Supervisors has no intention of filling them any time soon. That’s according to Emily Kilroy, the county’s director of communications and public engagement. “The Board will not seek to make reappointments at this time, as Committee support right now is in a transition,” Kilroy wrote in an email to Charlottesville Community Engagement on Monday. The previous appointees resigned en masse in April after their April 11 meeting was canceled by the county for a lack of pressing issues. Committee members disagreed and announced their resignation in an April 19 Substack post. Albemarle County is currently reviewing the Comprehensive Plan, of which the Village of Rivanna Master Plan is a component. As part of that work, staff resources in the Community Development Department are not as available. “Recently, the Community Development Department’s long range planning staff have traditionally managed all CAC meetings and scheduling,” wrote Charles Rapp, the deputy director of community development, in a March 1 email. “To transition the primary focus to the comprehensive plan, staff is proposing a structured schedule for the CACs for the remainder of the 2022 calendar year.”That did not meet the favor of the former members of the Village of Rivanna Community Advisory Committee. Today, the Free Enterprise Forum is calling for the county to disband all of the Community Advisory Committees.To learn more about the Comprehensive Plan project underway, visit the AC44 pages on the Albemarle County website. This is not to be confused with the Air Canada flight between Vancouver and Dublin. What do you think? Leave a comment!City Council signs off on bonds for Midway ManorAt their meeting on April 18, City Council agreed with the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s decision to issue $23 million in bonds for a third-party to refurbish the Midway Manor housing complex in downtown Charlottesville.“It is assistance with the financing for the substantial rehabilitation of Midway Manor Apartments by Standard Communities,” said Michael Graff, a bond counsel with McGuire Woods. The funding will flow through the CRHA as a conduit for tax-exempt bonds, which requires the city to also issue its approval. “At a high level we will be ensuring that this property continues to provide affordable housing for at least the next 30 years through partnership with Virginia Housing and an allocation of Low Income Housing Tax Credits as well as renewing the subsidy contract that provides the current residents with a rental subsidy that is set to expire in two years,” said Steven Kahn of Standard Communities.Kahn said Standard is working with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to extend that contract for 20 years. He said that’s the maximum length HUD will allow. He also said there will be a substantial renovation of the units. “Sixty-plus thousand dollars per unit,” Kahn said. “Very little will be untouched. The things you typically think of for renovations is kitchens, bathroom, flooring, and electrical systems, absolutely. But also some of the behind the scene elements that can also plague older buildings if they are not invested in. Façade, windows, roofing.”Paragraph below updated on April 27, 2022Kahn said work on the elevator systems is currently underway.  More details was provided in a statement sent to Charlottesville Community Engagement on April 27.“We continue to plan for a comprehensive renovation and upgrade of Midway Manor, which is expected to begin later this year in conjunction with the implementation of extended affordability protections for the property. Recognizing that the elevators were in need of more immediate attention, we have accelerated the modernization of both elevators at the property, with on-site work currently underway. In efforts to minimize disruption to residents, one elevator car is being worked on at a time, with the entire project expected to be complete within the next 8 weeks.” - Steven Kahn, Director, Standard CommunitiesCouncilor Michael Payne also sits as a voting member of the CRHA Board. He voted to approve the bonds on February 28, but said he would vote on Council with “unease.” “There’s not a way for City Council to have baked in our approval a lock-step assurance for example when and if the elevator get renovated, how is this process going to go, so I will certainly be trying to watch it as closely as I can and be talking to residents throughout this process,” Payne said. Midway Manor sits on 2.32 acres and was built in 1981 according to city property records. Standard Communities paid $16.5 million for the property on January, 13, 2022. Today’s second shout-out goes to LEAPWe’re now well into spring, and many of us may have already turned on our air conditioning units for the first in months. To see what you can do to get the most out of your home, contact LEAP, your local energy nonprofit, to schedule a home energy assessment this month - just $45 for City and County residents. LEAP also offers FREE home weatherization to income- and age-qualifying residents. If someone in your household is age 60 or older, or you have an annual household income of less than $74,950, you may qualify for a free energy assessment and home energy improvements such as insulation and air sealing. Sign up today to lower your energy bills, increase comfort, and reduce energy waste at home!Albemarle Supervisors briefed on Southwood RedevelopmentTonight the Albemarle Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the rezoning of the second phase of the Southwood Mobile Home Park being overseen by a local nonprofit. (meeting info)Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville purchased Southwood in 2007 and entered into an agreement with the Board of Supervisors in 2016 to work with the nonprofit. A performance agreement for a public private partnership was signed in 2019 to govern $3.25 million in county investment. Supervisors got an update at their meeting on April 20, 2022. “That was shortly followed by approval of the phase one rezoning application and just to let you know, the rezoning application for phase two was submitted to the county in 2021,” Pethia said. Phase one is for 34 acres on the eastern and southern edges of the property, with a maximum of 450 homes, 270 units of which will be made affordable to residents through various interventions. There’s also a maximum of 50,000 square feet of non-residential space. Before describing phase two, Pethia gave an update on how the site plan for phase one has turned out. “The approved site plan will provide a total of 335 residential units, 211 of those are affordable,” Pethia said. “The affordable housing units include approximately 121 low-income housing tax credit units which will be located along Hickory Drive, 86 Habitat built units to be located in villages one and two as well as in block ten. Habitat units include condominiums, townhomes, and single family attached and detached units.”Pethia said Habitat has currently identified 37 Southwood households who are ready to move forward with purchasing their homes in phase one. Phase 2 extends the rezoning to the existing mobile home park. “If approved, phase two will approve 527 to 1,000 housing units, 227 of which will be affordable, including a potential sixty additional Low Income Housing Tax Credit units,” Pethia said. Phase 2 would allow for a maximum of 60,000 square feet of nonresidential space. The Planning Commission will review this rezoning tonight.Funding overviewIn addition to $3.25 million associated with the performance agreement, Albemarle has used $675,000 from the housing trust to help pay for costs associated with the first phase of the rezoning as well as the equivalent of $175,000 in county staff time. “Additionally, the county applied for and was awarded a little over $2.4 million in grant funding including a $40,000 Community Development Block Grant,” Pethia said. Pethia said Habitat estimates the total cost to develop Southwood will be $154.7 million, including the cost to prepare the sites and to engage with residents. “Habitat anticipates securing $131.1 million to cover the project costs,” Pethia said. “This amount includes funds that have already been received and that will be expended by the end of this fiscal year. The balance of total project funds include donations received through Habitat’s capital campaign, revenue generated through mobile home park operations, proceeds from the sale of land for market-rate housing, and funds Habitat anticipates receiving through federal and state grants, local government, and foundations.” Pethia said there’s a current $16.6 million revenue gap and county staff are looking to close it. Many sources will include a local match from Albemarle taxpayers. Another option would be increased funding from the housing trust or development of a new public private partnership. In March, MacKenzie Scott gave Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville $5.75 million. Habitat CEO Dan Rosensweig said the deficit already includes that spending. (Daily Progress story)“It’s a blessing and a curse because it’s already baked into this,” Rosensweig said. Another expense has been and will be removal of oil tanks under trailers as well as failing septic systems. “There were two areas of the mobile home park that are on failing septic right now and there is one area of the park that was draining directly into the part of the park that we are trying to develop and that was obviously a catastrophe,” Rosensweig said. “One of the things that we’ve had to do earlier than we thought was scramble to create trailer pads on the other side of the park that’s on [public] sewer. We’ve been moving people. Some folks moved out over the years and we purchased mobile homes and rehabbed them. So the first 80 or so families, we’re about halfway through moving them out of the park so we can decommission all of that septic.” Rosensweig said another 170 trailers are on failing septic and it is directly pouring into Biscuit Run and into the watershed. They’re applying for funding to install a sewer line into the park, but that cost is $6.5 million and the county will be asked to cover some of the cost. “It would also be infrastructure that we’re designing to be part of the second phase so it would be infrastructure that’s not temporary infrastructure, but permanent infrastructure,” Rosensweig said. The Planning Commission takes up the second phase of the rezoning tonight. Support Town Crier Productions through Ting!Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Ned Gallaway, Albemarle County Board of Supervisors and General Manager of CarLotz, and Neil Williamson, President of Free Enterprise Forum, joined Keith Smith and me on “Real Talk With Keith Smith” powered by YES Realty Partners and Yonna Smith! “Real Talk With Keith Smith” airs every Tuesday and Friday from 10:15 am – 11 am on The I Love CVille Network! “Real Talk With Keith Smith” is presented by Charlottesville Settlement Company, LLC, Pearl Certification, Intrastate Inc., Scott Morris – Home Loans and Sigora Solar.

Today begins the final week of the month as well as the last four days of 2022’s first quarter. There are so many ways to order time and to order our affairs as human beings as we move through a world that may or may not make sense, depending on how you count. I’m Sean Tubbs, I provide information on a regular basis in each installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement to describe a few of the things that have happened so far. Charlottesville Community Engagement is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.On today’s show:The area’s transportation decision-making body wants a future pedestrian bridge to connect Pantops with the Broadway Blueprint The University of Virginia’s School of Architecture hires its first Associate Dean for Justice, Equity, Diversity, and InclusionUVA no longer requires masks in classrooms, and an update on the COVID-19 pandemic Today’s first shout-out goes to WTJUAlgorithms know how to put songs and artists together based on genre or beats per minute. But only people can make connections that engage your mind and warm your heart. The music on WTJU 91.1 FM is chosen by dozens and dozens of volunteer hosts -- music lovers like you who live right here in the Charlottesville area. Listener donations keep WTJU alive and thriving. In this era of algorithm-driven everything, go against the grain. Support freeform community radio on WTJU and get ready for the station’s 65th anniversary this Friday, April 1! Consider a donation at wtju.net/donateCOVID-19 update: Masks now optional in UVA classroomsToday marks the end of the mask requirements in classrooms at the University of Virginia, but people are still asked to carry one in case they are asked to by someone else. “As we navigate the shift to most settings being mask-optional, we are encouraging everyone to treat each other with respect and common courtesy,” reads a March 25 email from Provost Ian Baucom and Chief Operating Officer J.J. Davis. The Centers for Disease Control now regard the COVID-19 Community Level to be low for Albemarle County and Charlottesville. This morning the Virginia Department of Health reports another 1,340 new cases and the seven-day average for percent positivity is now at 3.3 percent. There is a subvariant of the Omicron virus that is leading to new surges across the world including Hong Kong. That’s a place where Dr. Costi Sifri of the UVA Health System said has not yet experienced much community spread because of an early zero tolerance policy.“It is causing significant stress to their health system,” Sifri said. “There is this view that Omicron is less virulent than other COVID variants.”However, Dr. Sifri said that Hong Kong also has low vaccine rates providing a population base through which the Omicron subvariant can spread. “Here in the United States we’re seeing an increasing amount of B.A.2, the sister subvariant of the original Omicron strain,” Dr. Sifri said. “It’s growing in proportion nationwide. In our region it’s about 30 to 35 percent or so of all isolates.”Dr. Sifri said this subvariant is not as virulent, but does appear to be more transmissible and that it will become the dominant strain in a matter of weeks. Dr. Sifri said a local spike could happen as mask requirements are dropped and as more social gatherings.“I don’t think that’s guaranteed so I think there is also a possibility we could just reach a plateau at least for the near-term,”  Dr. Sifri said. “And of course, things may change if there is a new variant that emerges somewhere in the world that is able to essentially escape the protection that boosters and vaccinations have provided.”As of today, 72.7 percent of Virginians are fully vaccinated, but only 2.9 million booster doses have been administered. There’s still no word yet on whether an additional dose will be needed for the general population or just those who are at higher risk of developing a virulent infection.There are 76 new cases in the Blue Ridge Health District today. On March 16ths, Last week, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors voted to end the local COVID emergency, paving the way for in-person meetings beginning next week with the Albemarle Board of Supervisors.UVA School of Architecture hires Associate Dean for equity and inclusionThe School of Architecture at the University of Virginia has hired its first ever Associate Dean for Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. C.L. Bohannon will take the position in late July as he also joins the faculty as an Associate Professor in the Landscape Architecture Department. Bohannon is currently the interim director of the School of Architecture and Design at Virginia Tech, as well as founder and director of the Community Engagement Lab. “I am enthusiastic to collaborate with faculty, students, staff, and communities across the Commonwealth as we contend with long-standing socio-environmental inequalities,” Bohannon said in a news release on the School of Architecture’s website. “I believe that as creative practitioners, we have the necessary critical and creative tools to redress harms that have come from design and planning and that we can work with congruent integrity and practice.”The Community Engagement Lab will come with Bohannon to UVA. Second shout-out goes to a March 29 event happening at MorvenIn today’s second subscriber supported shout-out, the Morven Summer Institute at Morven Farm wants you to know about a seminar coming up on March 29. How are UVA students, faculty, and community partners collaborating to tell the stories of Morven? Researcher Scot French has spent over ten years studying Morven’s history and will provide glimpses into a course he’ll be teaching this summer on Recovering the Stories of Morven’s Enslaved and Descendant Communities.  The March 29 event is a chance for the public to get a preview of the four week course. If you’re interested, visit morven.virginia.edu to fill out an interest form. MPO selects Broadway Avenue / East Market location for pedestrian bridgeIf a bridge to cross the Rivanna River between Albemarle County and the Woolen Mills is ever built, the western end will be connected to East Market Street rather than Riverview Park. “It seems to me that the connection at the East Market Street provides an additional value or return on the investment in that it is connecting two activity centers from Pantops over to what’s being planned in that Broadway corridor,” said Albemarle Supervisor Ned Gallaway, the chair of the Metropolitan Planning Organization’s Policy Board.Transportation staff with the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission are working on an application for Smart Scale funding from the Virginia Department of Transportation for the project, which would have an eastern landing just to the west of the former State Farm regional headquarters. The MPO Policy Board voted 4-1 on March 24 to choose an alignment that would land at East Market Street. This alternative is more expensive with a preliminary cost estimate of $15.3 million compared to $11.3 million for the Chesapeake Street alignment. They also discussed whether the bridge should be “cable-stayed” or should be built on a “truss.” bridge. A cable-stayed bridge would require more maintenance, and there are questions about who would be responsible for the cost. “When we’re looking at new projects, we generally don’t try to promote or support projects that would provide an increased cost for maintenance when it’s not strictly necessary,” said Sean Nelson, the district engineer for VDOT’s Culpeper District. Nelson said if the cable-stayed bridge was selected, the localities would be asked to cover the additional maintenance. Albemarle Supervisor Ann Mallek wanted to know if that might affect the project’s Smart Scale score.“Getting something approved is my highest priority and I want to make sure that we are thinking about that rather than asking for the beautiful, blue crystal slipper,” Mallek said. “ Are we then not getting something at all then if we applied for the work boot?” The group opted to proceed with a truss bridge. No matter the type of bridge, the East Market / Broadway bridge would have two spans connected with a pier.City Councilor Brian Pinkston was the lone vote in favor of the Chesapeake Street option.“To me, if the least expensive, more likely to occur option is to have it at the park on the northern side,” Pinkston said. A majority of people on a stakeholder committee favored the Chesapeake Street option, as did the MPO-Technical Committee. More information needs to be gathered as part of a necessary environmental review and that will be gathered as the application is finalized. This includes impacts on historic sites well as the impact on the floodway. Nelson said one of the sites would provide more room for flexibility if the design needed to be amended to take into account potential impacts. “The Woolen Mills location there [are] more opportunities to mitigate at that location then at the other location,” Nelson said. Mallek said she supported the Woolen Mills option because of the county’s planning work. “There are things in the Broadway corridor which the county has been planning and working on for several years including more sidewalk connections and improvement of the connector road which would also benefit users of the bridge,” Mallek said. After Mayor Lloyd Snook offered his opinion, one member of the public who was on the call expressed their opinion.“I would vote for the southernmost route, the route that goes down to East Market,” Snook said. “Unbelievable,” said an unidentified voice in what may be one of the last awkward moments of the Zoom era of public meetings. Before the vote, nearby resident Jenny Milulski said she would have supported either option, but wanted the MPO to take Albemarle’s economic development planning efforts into account. “I just wanted to voice my enthusiasm for considering this project in tandem with the Broadway economic development plan,” Milukski said.The Albemarle Board of Supervisors recently received information about the Broadway Blueprint and the Economic Development Authority had a conversation about the document earlier this month (read the final study) Mikulski said the bridge would transform the way she thinks about where she lives.“For example it would only be a 1.5 mile walk from my house to the Kluge-Ruhe Museum,” Mikulski said. Currently that would be a three mile walk. Preliminary Smart Scale applications are due by the end of the month. A final application is due on August 1. The rankings will be released in late January. Support Town Crier Productions!Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to the Ides of March. Should you beware? I’d recommend always being somewhat skeptical, but willing to trust if there can be confirmation that your friends, Romans and countrypeople will lend you their ears and not their knives. This is Charlottesville Community Engagement for March 15, 2022. I’m your host Sean Tubbs, grateful that you’re here to lend me your ears or your eyes, depending on what format of the program you’ve decided to experience.Sign up to make sure you find out what happens next! On today’s program: Albemarle Supervisors take the first review of a $368 million operating budgetA very small fraction of that budget comes from a proposed 5 cent tax on plastic bagsSite plans are filed for two projects in AlbemarleAlso, it’s the two-year anniversary of the first installment of the Charlottesville Quarantine Report, a show I produced to figure out what was happening. Go take a listen to that first episode, which was the basis of this newsletter!Today’s first shout-out goes to LEAPYou don’t need the “luck of the Irish” to be safe and comfortable in your own home. To see what you can do to get the most out of your home, contact LEAP, your local energy nonprofit, to schedule a home energy assessment this month - just $45 for City and County residents. LEAP also offers FREE home weatherization to income- and age-qualifying residents. If someone in your household is age 60 or older, or you have an annual household income of less than $74,950, you may qualify for a free energy assessment and home energy improvements such as insulation and air sealing. Sign up today to lower your energy bills, increase comfort, and reduce energy waste at home!Plastic bag tax included in Albemarle’s next budget The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors has now held two work sessions on a proposed $565 million budget for the fiscal year that begins on July 1. The budget goes by the name Transform Albemarle and for the first time anticipates a very small portion of revenues from a tax on plastic bags.“It is proposed to be effective January 1, 2023,” said Andy Bowman, the chief of the Office of Management and Budget for Albemarle. Those revenues are projected to be $20,000, and Bowman said their use is limited. “And for this there are uses that are restricted by the state for environmental clean-up programs, pollution and litter mitigation programs, educational programs on environmental waste reduction, and also providing reusable bag to participants in the programs,” Bowman said.  Five localities have already taken advantage of a law that passed the General Assembly in 2021 allowing them to collect a five cent tax for each disposable bag, according to the Virginia Department of Taxation. Albemarle will monitor Roanoke, Alexandria, Fredericksburg, Fairfax County and Arlington County to see how much revenue they bring in. Albemarle Supervisors will also have to approve an ordinance to enable the plastic bag tax. The budget also anticipates a decrease in the personal property tax rate as well as an increase in the food and beverage tax as well as the transient lodging tax. Supervisor Donna Price said this would help the county become less reliant on its biggest source of revenue. “I really appreciate the county looking to take action to reduce the 68 percent of total revenues coming from the real estate tax and in particular the transient occupancy tax going up three percent,” Price said. “Those are tourists who come to our area. The meals tax going up two percent is not limited solely to transients who may come through and our tourists, but it’s a relatively small amount.” The budget will also need to be updated to reflect the Virginia budget, which has not yet been finalized.  The General Assembly adjourned on Saturday without doing so and a special session will be called to finish up. Albemarle Supervisors review $368.25 million operational budget When they were done talking about the revenues that make up the next budget, Bowman turned the Supervisor attention to the anticipated spending of $368.25 million. Forty-five percent is transferred to Albemarle County Public Schools. The next largest expenditure is for public safety at fourteen percent, followed by a 10 percent that goes to the capital fund mostly for debt service. Bowman went department by department to explain various aspects of the budget. One of the overarching themes is a need for workforce stabilization. Bowman said that seven percent of the county’s positions are currently unfilled. “We have included $2.8 million to fund a four percent salary increase that will be effective July 1 for our employees,” Bowman said. There’s another $500,000 for a study of how the county’s salaries compare to others, as well as another $1 million to implement that study. “The intent of this funding at this time is not to say specifically what will happen, but position the Board and the organization to move forward whenever that right time will be,” Bowman said. “The county does have need for a plan to evaluate its compensation.”Supervisor Ned Gallaway said he feels the county needs to attend to the issue, citing that seven percent figure again.“I mean 18 to 36 positions above usual turnover, and then we haven’t talked about retaining staff which the comp study is all about, frankly,” Gallaway said. Mia Coltrane became the new director of Human Resources for Albemarle in September, and she agreed the compensation study is intended to keep people working for the county “That’s one of the tasks of really getting a good pulse of every department  and where the energy needs to be focused,” Coltrane said. “We know public safety is one but as we’ve mentioned, it’s not just public safety. We’re seeing it across the board, even with [human resources].” The budget also anticipates the hiring of two temporary positions to help with community engagement on the Comprehensive Plan that is currently under review. Emily Kilroy is the Director of Communications and Public Engagement.‘The staff that are working on the Comprehensive Plan, which is estimated to be about a three-year endeavor, are the same team that currently supports the seven community advisory committees,” Kilroy said. “In order for them to focus on the work of the Comprehensive Plan there was an identified need to look at staffing those differently. So the thought was let’s bring in temporary positions sort of in alignment with the timeline for the Comprehensive Plan onboard to support the needs of those communities.” Another position will be based out of the Yancey Community Center in the southern portion of Albemarle.The recommended fiscal year 2023 budget continues a trend toward greater county spending on fire and rescue services. The FY21 actual budget saw $15.73 million spent in this category and that has increased to around $21.6 million in FY23. One reason for the increase this year is the addition of around the clock fire and rescue service operating out of the Pantops public safety station. “That is to further support and strengthen the fire rescue service there in the county’s development area,” Bowman said. “In the long term, this will also reduce our reliance on the city of Charlottesville for calls east of the city.” Albemarle is expected to pay Charlottesville around $240,000 for FY23, but Bowman said the contract between the two jurisdictions will soon be renegotiated. There’s another $100,000 in the budget to reimburse volunteer medics and firefighters for fuel used in the call of duty. “Volunteerism has been a special challenge of late and it’s not anticipated to get any better so something that will help show our volunteers the support we have for them is greatly appreciated,” said Supervisor Price. The budget also covers the cost to establish a Community Response Team to respond to public safety calls with people trained to deal with people in mental health crises. “This is an effort led by the Department of Social Services with a police officer, a firefighter/EMT, and a social worker working to respond to calls to individuals in crisis and depending on the details of the call, the team would adapt their response to best meet the critical needs of the person to ensure the safety of all parties involved,” Bowman said. A portion of the funding comes from the cigarette tax that has begun to be collected in Albemarle. Supervisor Diantha McKeel said the Community Response Team is a step in the right direction. “I am looking forward to an upcoming discussion among staff and the supervisors about how that team could be used to assist in our panhandling issues, many of who might fall into this category,” McKeel said. The recommended budget provides $275,000 in a reserve fund for a pilot project to run microtransit service on Pantops and U.S. 29 North.Review the video of the first budget work session on the Board of Supervisors’ website. The second is not yet available, but the third is scheduled for Thursday at 8 a.m. (meeting info)Today’s second shout-out goes to WTJUAlgorithms know how to put songs and artists together based on genre or beats per minute. But only people can make connections that engage your mind and warm your heart. The music on WTJU 91.1 FM is chosen by dozens and dozens of volunteer hosts -- music lovers like you who live right here in the Charlottesville area. Listener donations keep WTJU alive and thriving. In this era of algorithm-driven everything, go against the grain. Support freeform community radio on WTJU and get ready for the station’s 85th anniversary on April 1! Consider a donation at wtju.net/donate.New convenience center for Southern Albemarle likely to be delayedWork continues to design a new place for people in southern Albemarle to drop off household waste and recycling. Albemarle’s current budget included $1.1 million for a “convenience center” to be built in Keene. The idea had been to open the center this fall, but the county’s director of Facilities and Environmental Services said there will be a delay. “We are anticipating supply chain issues with some key elements including the trash compactors that will collect the tag-a-bag program as well as the containers themselves that collect the recyclables,” said Lance Stewart. “Everything’s made from steel.” The proposed FY23 budget proposed spending $180,500 for the first six months of operating at the new convenience center. The proposed capital improvement budget anticipates $1.62 million being spent in FY24 on a northern convenience center to serve U.S. 29 North. Site plans filed for 100 homes at River’s Edge and utility-scale solar projectStaff in the relevant Albemarle County departments have until April 21 to respond to two site plans for projects that have already been approved by the Board of Supervisors.One of them is for 100 units along the North Fork of the Rivanna River at the northern edge of the county’s development area. The Board of Supervisors approved a rezoning for River’s Edge in August 2020 that will allow for 32 three-story buildings and two two-story buildings at a density of three dwelling units per acre. The other is for a utility scale solar facility on a 145 acre property that will generate 12.5 megawatts of electricity. The project on Route 53 southeast of Charlottesville will disturb about 90 of those acres. Supervisors approved a change to the zoning ordinance in June 2017 that allowed for solar panels to be installed in the rural area with a special use permit. Support the program!Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

The only constant is change, a dynamic that frustrates many but a phen upon which others thrive. Charlottesville Community Engagement is intended to document as much of what’s coming as possible in the hopes that more people can affect outcomes if they simply have information. It’s March 9, 2022, and I’m your host, Sean Tubbs. Charlottesville Community Engagement is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.On today’s program:The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals hears arguments in a case that could require the Virginia Board of Elections to hold a House of Delegates race this NovemberAnother church in Charlottesville wants to build housing on its propertyAlbemarle’s top official explains to business leaders how the county works And one of Charlottesville’s former city managers has dropped a suit against the City Council ‘And singer songwriter Michael Clem talks about his upcoming appearance at the Center at Belvedere First shout-out goes to the Rivanna Conservation AllianceIn today’s first Patreon-fueled shout-out, the Rivanna Conservation Alliance wants wildlife and nature photographers to enter their first-ever photography contest! They want high-resolution photos related to the Rivanna watershed and the winning entries will be displayed at the 2022 Riverfest Celebration on May 1. The two categories are 16 and under, and those over the age of 17. You can send in two entries, and the work may be used to supplement Rivanna Conservation Alliance publications. For more information, visit rivannariver.org.Community meeting for 72-unit apartment complex on Locust Grove church propertyThe Mount View Baptist Church on St. Clair Avenue in the Locust Grove neighborhood is seeking a rezoning to allow for the construction of up to 72 units on their lawn. “With this rezoning request, Mount View Baptist Church seeks to remain operational on the property and expand opportunities to serve the community by requesting to have the ability to establish a day care on their property,” reads the announcement for a community meeting tonight. Shimp Engineering has been hired to oversee the land use application process for the 3.4 acre property. Sixty of the units would be built in a series of “linked townhouses” and the rest would be for the church to build in the future should they want to do so. The property has potential road connections onto several roads in the neighborhood. Not all of the property is connected to the church. An entity called Route 250 Homes purchased two single family homes that front onto Otter Street last June, and these two properties are being added to the church’s property. A community meeting for the rezoning begins at 6:30 p.m. tonight. (register) (more information)Former City Manager Richardson withdraws suit against the cityAn attorney for former Charlottesville City Manager Tarron Richardson has filed a motion with the United States Western District Court ending a lawsuit against his former employer. Richardson had filed a civil rights suit against the City Council and the city attorney in November alleging his rights were violated by the terms of his severance agreement. However the suit was not formally served to the city until late December, and the individual defendants were never served. The motion from attorney Kevin French is a voluntary dismissal with prejudice. For more information, read Ginny Bixby’s story in the Daily Progress. Federal appeals court hears oral arguments in suit to force 2022 electionA three judge panel of the United States Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has heard arguments in a case that could force the state of Virginia to run elections for the House of Delegates this year, and then again in 2023. Richmond attorney Paul Goldman has argued those elections in 2021 are unconstitutional because the districts are based on Census data from 2010, and he sued the state Board of Elections. However, the 40-minute session largely dealt with procedural issues such as whether Goldman has the legal standing to bring the case forward or whether the appeals court was the appropriate venue. (hear the arguments on Youtube) Andrew Ferguson is the Solicitor General for Virginia, and he inherited the case from the previous administration. “The plaintiff in this case contends that Virginia broke the law when it failed to hold the 2021 election on the basis of Census data that did not exist when the electoral process began,” Ferguson said. “We strongly disagree, but the question before the court today is whether it has Article 3 jurisdiction to decide this case at all.”Article 3 refers to the U.S. Constitution which lays out how the nation’s courts systems should work. Ferguson argued that Goldman could not demonstrate how he was personally harmed by the elections. Last week, he filed a motion to return the case back to a lower court in order to get a ruling on that issue before taking up Goldman’s underlying claim. Ferguson argued the court should not even weigh in on what is referred to as a “sovereign authority” claim. “I think that the reason that sovereign immunity shouldn’t be addressed before determining standing is that if the court were to issue an opinion on sovereign immunity but subsequently determined there had never been any standing in this case, that sovereign immunity opinion is effectively an advisory opinion because the court never had jurisdiction to issue it in the first place,” Ferguson said. After a long and legally nuanced discussion about this issue, Goldman was asked to go ahead and make his argument which is built upon a 1981 federal case called Cosner v. Dalton that forced Virginia to hold House of Delegates’ elections in 1982. Goldman argued that the current districts are not balanced by population, a violation of the “one-person, one-vote principle.” “I am asking and am here for an election in 2022,” Goldman said. “They say there won’t be an election in 2022. I want to run in 2022 and the state says they’re not going to hold an election in 2022. I say Cosner says I have a right to run in 2022. They say it doesn’t.” Goldman said the legal remedy should be a new election to ensure that people are properly represented as is their Constitutional right. But he said his standing is based on being a potential candidate. “I gotta wait until 2024 before my new district kicks in,” Goldman said. “I am still represented by the people picked in the old districts and that’s the harm, that’s why you can’t do it. That’s the unusual circumstance in this case.” Goldman cited data that shows the imbalance. “There’s one district that’s got 130,000 people in it and there’s another district with 67,000,” Goldman said, “They propose that doesn’t change until 2024. That blatantly unconstitutional and I’m in this courtroom today to try to get justice,” Goldman said In rebuttal, Ferguson continued to press on the question of Goldman’s legal standing, but said the Commonwealth would not be afraid to argue against his claims.“If the courts conclude that Mr. Goldman has standing to maintain his claim, we will vigorously defend the constitutionality of the 2021 election,” Ferguson said. “We do not think the 14th amendment requires states to reapportion on the basis of Census data that don’t exist when the electoral process has begun.”The three judges will take the matter under advisement and will issue an opinion at a later date. For more on the topic:Fourth Circuit hears arguments in case challenging Virginia House of Delegates election, March 8, 2022, Courthouse NewsSecond shout-out goes to an arboreal event at the Virginia Festival of the Book In today’s second subscriber-supported Public Service Announcement, the Charlottesville Area Tree Stewards wants to draw your attention to a Virginia Festival of the Book event coming up on March 16. Michelle Nijhuis will lead a virtual conversation on “Seeing Trees, Saving the Great Forests”. Nijhuis will speak with forest scientists and preservationists Meg Lowman and John Reid. Lowman is the author of The Arbornaut: A Life Discovering the Eighth Planet in the Trees Above Us. Reid is the co-author of Ever Green: Saving Big Forests to Save the Earth. The event on March 16 begins at noon. To register, visit vabook.org. Albemarle County officials address business community at Chamber eventOn February 18, the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce held the first ever State of the Community forum, where leaders from Charlottesville, the University of Virginia, and Albemarle got the chance to introduce themselves to business leaders. Yesterday’s edition of this program featured comments from city officials, and today we’ll hear from county leaders.Emily Kilroy is the director of community and public engagement for Albemarle County. She said she wondered why there had never before been a gathering with city, county, and UVA officials.“It felt like such a natural convening of our community’s leaders,” Kilroy said. “And of course being together today, we are reminded that the community is not just our individual pieces of the pie, but we all do together to grow the entire pie.” County Executive Jeff Richardson said the event was a chance to discuss what he called community opportunities and to introduce his leadership team to the Chamber. “The most effective leaders anticipate where the community is headed and they see changes before others do,” Richardson said. Richardson recently put that statement out to community leaders and there were some common threads about what they thought was needed.“Three basically said equity, access, [and] affordable housing, which means good paying jobs and access to health,” Richardson said. “So it’s keeping the community affordable at all economic levels, that was three out of six.”Richardson said one person said there was a need to find a “new normal” post pandemic and  another said shoring up support for public safety first responders. Richardson said local government needs to be working in all of these areas. “It’s not just one thing,” Richardson said. “It’s so many things.” The county’s strategic plan is intended to prioritize where county investments should go. For Richardson, that means making sure his employees are stable and that there is investment in economic development.  (read the strategic plan)“Recently at the end of our past budget year, we closed the year our better expected financially so an example of this working in real time is that we put $5 million in our economic development fund, $4.1 million was transferred to capital to move infrastructure along, $3.1 million into a dedicated housing fund, and $1 million went to our workforce stabilization which made our human resources director very happy,” Richardson said. Richardson urged people to apply for vacancies on various boards and commissions. There’s a list on the county website if you’re interested. The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors will hold its first budget work session today beginning at 3 p.m. (meeting info)See also: Richardson presents $565M “Transform Albemarle” budget to supervisors, Information Charlottesville, February 23, 2022Michael Clem to kick off The Center’s Thursdays around Five series This next piece is more of a podcast piece, but I advise clicking on the songs below as you read! The Center at Belvedere opened in June 2020 to offer a gathering space for people of all ages with a new facility with much more room than the former facility on Hillsdale Drive. The relatively new Center has a performance space, and this Thursday singer songwriter Michael Clem will kick off a concert series for the press. “For over 30 years, Michael Clem has been playing bass, singing, and writing songs for the national touring act he co-founded, Eddie from Ohio,” reads the event listing on the Center’s website. “Since relocating to Charlottesville, he’s established quite a foothold in the musical scene.”It’s a return performance for Clem, who appeared there last fall. “This is a very well-attended event,” Clem said. “People from the community come out and they bring their lawn chairs, and I’m playing in basically like a theater-type of environment. This wasn’t just me playing incidental white noise music while people were gabbing and socializing. They were there focused, facing forward, giving the singer songwriter exactly what a singer songwriter would want! An attentive crowd!” Clem said the last show was an artistically satisfying event where he got to play original songs and he’s looking forward to playing Thursday’s show. I spoke to Clem two years ago at the beginning of the pandemic. Like so many others, he began performing online to people at home, and contributed the proceeds to restaurants. “I felt really bad for these businesses that were taking such a hit, specifically the ones who butter my bread, the restaurants and the music venues,” Clem said. “And a number of them didn’t survive the shutdown which is really sad.” One of them that survived is the Local, where Clem hosts a singer-songwriter open mic night on Mondays, though that’s currently on what he called Omicron hiatus. The downtime also allowed him to take on a personal challenge. “I decided I would dedicate the month of April to writing one song a day, and I did!” Clem said. “I’m not saying that every song was great but just having that exercise was important to battle the hypocrisy because I teach a songwriting class and that was another thing that moved online. My songwriting class is through the Front Porch, and I did a number of them on Zoom.”Clem said he would play some of these songs, some of which are on an album he produced with Rusty Speidel. You can hear some of them tomorrow night at the first Thursdays Around Five. The website states the event begins at 5:01 p.m. The event is free, but registration in advance at the Center is required. (register)Support the program!Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Two is the only even prime number, an odd fact to point out on this February 22, 2022. We are twenty days past the predictions of large rodents and less than a month away from the spring equinox. Time does move fast, but we’re still only 14.5 percent of the way through the year. Oh, the things you’ll learn in every installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement! I’m your host, Sean Tubbs. On today’s program:Albemarle County Supervisors discuss incentives for developers to build housing units below market rateMidway Manor may have a new future in which part of the downtown Charlottesville property will remain age and income restrictedA round-up of planning for other affordable housing projects in Charlottesville Albemarle County wants state regulators to require CenturyLink’s successor to maintain old copper telephone linesAnd Charlottesville wants the public to get a zoning 101Patreon-fueled shout-out to LEAPWhen you think of romance, you might not immediately think of energy efficiency - but the folks at LEAP think keeping your family comfortable at home is a great way to show you care during the month of love. Your local energy nonprofit wants to make sure you are getting the most out of your home all year round, and LEAP offers FREE home weatherization to income- and age-qualifying residents. If someone in your household is age 60 or older, or you have an annual household income of less than $74,950, you may qualify for a free energy assessment and home energy improvements such as insulation and air sealing. Sign up today to lower your energy bills, increase comfort, and reduce energy waste at home!Pandemic update: Percent positivity below ten percentThe waning of the omicron surge of COVID-19 continues as the Virginia Department of Health reports a seven-day average of positive PCR tests of 9.6 percent, below ten percent for the first time since December 21. Case loads are still high, with a seven-day average of 2,423 new cases a day. Today the Blue Ridge Health District reports another 168 new cases. Deaths associated with the omicron surge continue to be recorded. As of today there have been 401 total COVID deaths in the Blue Ridge Health District and 18,230 statewide over the past 23 months. Albemarle County offers comments on transfer of CenturyLink assets to LumenThis week, the State Corporation Commission is holding two meetings on a petition from Lumen Technologies to take over control of CenturyLink. Among the public comments submitted so far is the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors who sent a letter on February 10 summarizing concerns they made to Lumen officials at a January 12 meeting. As part of the deal, the new company would acquire copper-based assets and the county wants to make sure that service continues. (hearing webpage)“Many of our vulnerable communities live in the rural areas of our county, where topography and distance often preclude cellular coverage,” the letter reads. “For these residents, this copper-plant is a vital lifeline for accessing 911 service, particularly during and after severe weather events.” The letter also includes dozens of complaints about CenturyLink service for “terrible and ineffective customer service” and for a lack of maintenance of older equipment. (letter and complaints) (second set of complaints)For anyone interested in learning more, there is a whole repository of documents available for public review, including Lumen’s petition to the SCC. Midway Manor subject of new affordable housing developmentThe Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority will hold a public hearing next Monday on the issuance of up to $23 million in bonds that would be used by a California-based company to redevelop Midway Manor. In January, the property sold for $16.5 million, more than double its 2022 assessment of $7.5 million. According to a legal notice published in the Daily Progress, the new company has requested the CRHA issue up the exempt facility bonds “to assist the Applicant in financing or refinancing a portion of the costs of acquiring, constructing, renovating, rehabilitating and equipping an age restricted affordable housing development to be known as Midway Manor Apartments, to consist of 94 one-bedroom units and 4 two-bedroom units.”The notice states in capital letters that taxpayer funds will not be sought to pay back any of the debt that Standard Midway Manor Venture LP will incur. To learn more about exempt facility bonds, visit the Legal Information Institute at the Cornell Law School. Since February 1, Midway Manor is now under management by the Franklin Johnston Group. Financing of the houses is provided by the U.S. Department of Housing through the Section 8 program, which bases rents on the income of tenants. In an email this morning, CRHA Executive Director John Sales said the agency’s only role will be to issue the bonds. Low-Income Housing Tax Credit applications underwayWe are in the season when providers of affordable housing are preparing applications for Low Income Housing Tax Credits in advance of a March deadline. Summaries have been sent to the agency formerly known as the Virginia Housing Development Authority and that’s required notifications to localities. (read all of the summaries)Piedmont Housing Alliance is seeking credits for 30 rental units at the Monticello Area Community Action Agency property on Park Street. These will be four one bedroom units, 22 two bedroom units, and four three bedroom units. The Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority seeks credits from the housing authority pool for 60 units for Phase 1A of the Sixth Street redevelopment with half of them being one bedroom and the other half being two bedroom units. This is separate from Phase 1 of the Sixth Street redevelopment, for which CRHA is seeking credits from the housing authority pool for 44 units with eight of them one bedroom, 20 two bedroom units, and 16 three bedroom units. CRHA is also seeking credits for 113 units in the second phase of redevelopment of South First Street. These would replace existing units and would consist of 19 one bedroom units, 38 two bedroom units, 26 three bedroom units, 15 four bedroom units, and 15 with more than four bedrooms. Last week, the company that is constructing the development of Friendship Court issued a press release announcing the groundbreaking from January. The firm Harkins is based in Columbia, Maryland. “Friendship Court’s redevelopment will be the largest construction of low-income housing for the area in over 20 years,” reads the release. “A multi-phased project, Phase 1 will consist of 106 units with buildings 1 and 2 totaling 35 stacked townhome-style units, while building 3 will include a one-level structured parking garage and three levels as a wood-framed, center corridor apartment building.” The project is being built to Passive House standards and will be Harkins’ third such project. Charlottesville releases Zoning 101 presentationThe next new information in Charlottesville’s rewrite of the zoning code won’t be available until mid-April when staff and Rhodeside & Harwell will publish a document with an inventory of the existing housing stock versus what could be built under the new future Land Use Map. This will take the form of a Diagnosis report and an Approach report. In the meantime, the city and the Cville Plans Together team has published a new page to provide an education on what the zoning process is all about. “Today’s zoning also has a number of flaws and barriers to development previously identified by City planning staff, elected and appointed officials, and others,” reads the Cville Plans Together website. “This process is an opportunity to cure these flaws and remove the barriers to the kind of development that is described in the updated Comprehensive Plan.” In January, a group of anonymous Charlottesville property owners filed suit in Charlottesville Circuit Court seeking to overturn the validity of the Comprehensive Plan. Read more in my January 12, 2022 story on that lawsuit. Shout-out to the Charlottesville Jazz Society In today’s second subscriber-supported public service announcement: The Charlottesville Jazz Society at cvillejazz.org is dedicated to the promotion, preservation, and perpetuation of all that  jazz, and this Sunday the Society is sponsoring the return of Jane Bunnett and her all-female band from Cuba, Maqueque. A concert will be held at 7 p.m. at Unity of Charlottesville where Maqueque will play music from their latest release On Firm Ground/Tierra Firme. Get tickets online with discounts for students or members of the Charlottesville Jazz Society.Albemarle Supervisors discuss incentive package for housing Last July, the Albemarle Board of Supervisors adopted a housing plan that seeks to increase the number of units guaranteed to be rented or sold below the market rate. Housing Albemarle was adopted without a system of incentives to developers to keep those prices lower than they otherwise would be. That came back to the Board on February 16. Albemarle Housing Coordinator Stacy Pethia has suggested creation of an overlay district in the zoning code that would allow for reduced fees and other waivers in exchange for creating lower-priced units. “We did engage with developers and we had four meetings with developers between June and October of last year,” Pethia said. “During the first two meetings, staff listened to developer concerns and discussed housing policy goals. Based on that feedback collected during those meetings and research into incentive programs implemented in localities within Virginia and across the country, staff developed a list of potential incentives that could be in a package.”The overlay would be restricted to Albemarle’s development areas and would be optional, meaning developers would not have to participate. If they did, there would be the possibility of many ways their bottom line could be assisted. “They would offer a bonus density, reduction in building permit fees, and flexibility in design and parking standards,” Pethia said. The overlay would also allow developers to bypass the zoning process in some places if they build to the maximum density allowed in the Comprehensive Plan. At a minimum, twenty percent of units would need to be kept below market rate at levels identified in Housing Albemarle. “And the number of affordable units to be required would be calculated prior to applying the density bonus,” Pethia said. “This would provide developers with additional market rate units to help offset the cost of making the affordable units available. The incentive plan will also address a gap in Albemarle’s current policy by creating a waiting list of people who will qualify for below-market opportunities based on their income. “It’s really difficult to market the affordable units to income-qualified households and that’s really an important issue,” Pethia said. “It has meant that many of our for-sale units in particular have turned market-rate without being purchased by income-qualified households.” In public comments before the discussion, Neil Williamson of the Free Enterprise Forum wanted waivers for affordable housing projects to be mandatory rather than at the discretion of staff. “The reality is that Albemarle’s fast diminishing development areas where the easiest parcels to develop have been developed,” Williamson said. “That means parcels left to develop will likely require a special use permit. While the policy anticipates this reality, the opportunity for staff denial is too great.” Williamson also said he wanted more robust incentives such as expansion of the development area as well as the county paying the hook-up fees to the Albemarle County Service Authority for water and sewer. “Considering the importance of affordable housing to the community, certainly providing $20,000 per affordable unit is not too much to ask,” Williamson said. That would be expensive to the county. Pethia said the recent approval of Premier Circle, Rio Point, and RST Residences created 414 below-market units. If the developers were to be 100 percent reimbursed, that would cost the county $5.6 million. Supervisors were asked if they supported the idea of an overlay. Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley said she did, but not want to expand past a certain area.“I for one do not want to see development go into the rural areas and to keep development in the development area,” LaPisto-Kirtley said. Supervisor Chair Donna Price (Scottsville District) said there will come a point in time when that boundary will be adjusted, but not yet.“We’re already at the point where we have to fill in more, build up higher, or we have to expand the development areas so it’s important for community members to understand we have to look at ways to try and achieve all of our objectives which includes as long as possible limiting the amount of the development area,” Price said. Price was also skeptical of reducing parking standards at this time. “We do not have a comprehensive transportation system that can get everyone throughout the community wherever they need to do,” Price said. Supervisors approved the Rio Point on 27 acres in late December which will see a total of 328 units in an apartment complex on land that is currently undeveloped. That’s in the Rio District which is represented by Supervisor Ned Gallaway. He had looked at the draft calculation for bonus density. “So Rio Point, if I’m understanding the answer, would have allowed 1,300 units the way the math was done?” Gallaway asked Pethia.“That is correct,” Pethia said. That would be based on provisions in other programs that grant a 45 percent increase in density based on the gross density. The actual calculations will change as the incentive package is further tweaked.Gallaway suggested having the overlay apply only in certain parts of the county, such as those already identified in small area plans such as the Rio Road plan.  However, he added he is not opposed to any ideas at this point in the development of the incentives. Supervisor Jim Andrews (Samuel Miller District) said he wanted staff to take a deeper look into the results that have happened in other communities that have created developer incentives. “I would be really interested in hearing more about looking not only at what they’re doing but how successful they are at what they’re doing,” Andrews said. “Loudoun County’s proposals for example, their program I guess has been in place long enough to have a little bit of history. It looks to me like it’s having some success. Those are the ones we want to emulate if we can, if they work for our circumstances.”Supervisor Ann Mallek (White Hall) said she needed more information and for detail. “I am very concerned about an overlay that applies to every piece of direct because there is a great difference between the capability of one lot versus another to actually accomplish something and have a product where people would want to live,” Mallek said. Staff will return to the board with more information at a later date but Supervisor Gallaway pointed out that the package’s adoption will take until after the one year anniversary of the adopting of Housing Albemarle. General Assembly updateWith just over three weeks to go, action is moving fast in the General Assembly, with bills that passed in one house with a close partisan vote now meeting their fate in committee meetings. These include:The Senate Commerce and Labor Committee  killed a bill yesterday to cap the minimum wage at $11 an hour. The vote was 11 to 4. (HB296)That committee also defeated a bill to not move forward with subsequent increases mandated by a previous General Assembly. That vote was 12 to 3. (HB320)A bill to allow employers to pay less than the minimum wage if they have fewer than ten employees was also defeated 12 to 3. (HB1040)Bills to restrict collective bargaining by public employees were also defeated. (HB336) (HB337) (HB341) (HB883)The Senate Committee on Education and Health ended consideration of a bill that would made it easier for School Boards to dismiss new teachers by extending probationary periods. (HB9)The Senate Judiciary Committee defeated a bill that would have reduced penalties for violating the state’s concealed weapon laws on a 10 to 5 vote. (HB11)On a 8 to 7 vote, the Senate Rehabilitation and Social Services Committee ended consideration of a bill that would have required the parole board to review the transcript of the trial for each incarcerated person up for parole. (HB435)Support the program!Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Ned Gallaway, Albemarle County Board of Supervisors and General Manager of CarLotz, Neil Williamson, President of Free Enterprise Forum, joined Keith Smith and me on “Real Talk: An Insider's Guide To Real Estate In Central Virginia” powered by YES Realty Partners! “Real Talk” airs every Tuesday and Friday from 10:15 am – 11 am on The I Love CVille Network! “Real Talk” is presented by Charlottesville Settlement Company, LLC, Pearl Certification, Intrastate Inc., Scott Morris – Home Loans, Shenandoah Joe and Sigora Solar.

Steve Harvey, Candidate for Albemarle County Board of Supervisors (White Hall District), joined me live on The I Love CVille Show! The I Love CVille Show airs live before a worldwide audience Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network.

Diantha McKeel, Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, and Ted Rieck, CEO of JAUNT, joined Keith Smith and me on “Real Talk: An Insider's Guide To Real Estate In Central Virginia” powered by The YES Team Realtors and Yonna Smith! “Real Talk” airs every Tuesday and Friday from 10:15 am – 11 am on The I Love CVille Network! “Real Talk” is presented by Charlottesville Settlement Company, LLC, Pearl Certification, Intrastate Inc., Scott Morris – Home Loans, Dairy Market, Shenandoah Joe and Sigora Solar.

There are only two more days left in 2021, but there’s still so much to review and look back on. We’re in the strange time between the past and the future when the present seems like it is time to relax. But there’s no relaxing on Charlottesville Community Engagement, a program that seeks to bring you as much information as I can about what’s happening in local government with a pinch of whatever else seems to fit. I’m your host Sean Tubbs.Charlottesville Community Engagement seeks new readers and listeners. Sign up today for free, and decide later if you’d like to support the work financially!On today’s program:Virginia sets a one-day record for new COVID casesA lawsuit filed by former City Manager Tarron Richardson moves forwardThe Virginia Supreme Court approves new legislative and Congressional maps for the CommonwealthRepublicans continue to file bills that seek to undo measures passed under a Democratic General AssemblyAlbemarle Supervisors learn about the biggest increase in property assessments in county historyIn today’s first two Patreon fueled shout-outs:You’re listening to Charlottesville. Community Engagement. A long-time supporter wants you to know: "Today is a great day to spread good cheer: reach out to an old friend, compliment a stranger, or pause for a moment of gratitude to savor a delight."The second comes from a more recent supporter who wants you to go out and read a local news story written by a local journalist. Whether it be the Daily Progress, Charlottesville Tomorrow, C-Ville Weekly, NBC29, CBS19, WINA, or some other place I’ve not mentioned - the community depends on a network of people writing about the community. Go learn about this place today!Omicron surge continuesVirginia has set a one-day record for new COVID-19 cases with 12,112 reported today by the Department of Health. The previous number was 9,914 reported in mid-January. The percent positivity has increased to 17.4 percent. The Blue Ridge Health District reported 371 new cases, which is also a one-day record. Richardson suit against the city proceedsCharlottesville City Council and other parties have been served with a lawsuit by former City Manager Tarron Richardson. Richardson filed suit in the Western District of Virginia in mid-November alleging breach of contract and violation of his First Amendment rights. A summons was issued to City Council on Tuesday, as well as city attorney Lisa Robertson and former city attorney John Blair. The parties have 21 days to respond. (Former City Manager Sues Charlottesville, November 24, 2021)New legislative districts now in effectVirginia’s new Congressional and legislative districts are now in place for the next nine years, effective immediately. The state Supreme Court has approved new districts for the House of Delegates, state Senate, and the eleven members of the House of Representatives in Congress. These were drawn by two Special Masters after a bipartisan commission failed to reach consensus in October. Those maps were amended following public comments earlier this month. “Redistricting is a complex task, one that requires the balancing of multiple competing factors,” wrote Sean Trende and Bernard Groffman. “Unfortunately, it simply was not possible to incorporate every single request while remaining within the bounds of Virginia and federal law.”Albemarle and Charlottesville will remain in the 5th Congressional District, though Albemarle’s border with Greene and Orange counties will now be its northern edge. The 5th will continue to cover points south to North Carolina including the cities of Lynchburg and Danville, as well as the town of Farmville in Prince Edward County. Fluvanna, Louisa, and Nelson are also within the 5th. An earlier map drawn by the Special Masters had split Albemarle into two. “The existing congressional map splits 14 counties 16 times,” the masters continued. “The existing Senate of Virginia map splits 46 counties 78 times. The existing House of Delegates map splits 60 counties 138 times. By comparison, the submitted congressional map splits 10 counties a total of 11 times.”A small section of northwest Albemarle is within the 7th District. There’s even a Twitter account. The 5th District formerly extended up into northern Virginia, but the new districts tend not to split counties. Greene and Orange counties entirely within a redrawn 7th District along with Culpeper, Madison, Spotsylvania, and Stafford counties, as well as the city of Fredericksburg. Fauquier, Loudoun and Rappahannock counties are now in the 10th District as well as portions of Prince William County. In the Virginia Senate, Albemarle and Charlottesville are now within the new 11th District, as well as Amherst and Nelson counties, as well as a portion of western Louisa County. Fluvanna County and the rest of Louisa are in the 10th. Greene County is in the new 28th district along with Madison, Culpeper, and Orange counties. In the Virginia House of Representatives, the city of Charlottesville is now in the 54th House District as well as some of the urban ring of Albemarle. The rest of Albemarle is now within the 55th House District as well as portions of eastern Nelson County. The rest of Nelson is in the 53rd as well as all of Amherst County and the northern half of Bedford County.  Under the former system, Albemarle was split by four districts. Resources:Final Congressional Map dated December 27, 2021Final Senate Map dated December 27, 2021Final House of Delegates Map dated December 27, 2021Memo from the Special Masters detailing changes from the mapBill filed to revoke localities’ ability to ban firearms on public propertyThe General Assembly begins in less than two weeks and the slow trickle of prefiled legislation is picking up into more of a steady stream. Here are some highlights:Delegate Buddy Fowler (R-Glenn Allen) has submitted a bill to increase the age an infant can be surrendered to a hospital or emergency medical services agency from 14 days to 30 days. (HB16)Fowler has another bill that would exempt members of the military from being prosecuted for paramilitary activities unless there is malicious intent. (HB17)Another bill from Fowler would allow localities flexibility in paying school board members. Currently the law defines the salary for each locality. (HB18)Fowler also submitted a bill allowing public auctions to satisfy liens to be advertised online, whereas currently these must be printed in a newspaper of record. (HB21)Delegate Wendell Walker (R-Lynchburg) filed a bill allowing adults to become free from any medical mandate. (HB22)Walker has also filed a bill repealing a prohibition on firearms in places of worship (HB23)Walker submitted legislation requiring photo identification in order to vote (HB24)Incoming Delegate Tim Anderson (R-Virginia Beach) filed a bill that would exempt the first offense for possession of child pornography from a new program that allows for reduced sentences through credits. (HB25)Anderson also filed a bill that would revoke the ability for localities to adopt ordinances to ban firearms from public property. (HB26)In today’s second subscriber-supported shout-out:Algorithms know how to put songs and artists together based on genre or beats per minute. But only people can make connections that engage your mind and warm your heart. The music on WTJU 91.1 FM is chosen by dozens and dozens of volunteer hosts -- music lovers like you who live right here in the Charlottesville area. Listener donations keep WTJU alive and thriving. In this era of algorithm-driven everything, go against the grain. Support freeform community radio on WTJU. Consider a donation at wtju.net/donate.Albemarle Supervisor brief on reassessment, five-year financial plan, and surplusAs the calendar year concludes, localities in Virginia are just about to enter the third quarter of their fiscal year. Earlier this month, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors got an update on how the county’s finances look as the start of budget season approaches. First, they got an update on the county’s assessments for 2022, which were made available a month earlier than usual. Peter Lynch is Albemare’s assessor. “Because of the mail issues that we’ve had, I wanted to mail the ordinances earlier so we have a target date of January 14 to mail the notices this year,” Lynch said.Lynch said an unreliable mail system resulted in the land use revalidation process being difficult this year. There are 4,052 parcels that receive a lower tax rate due to some agricultural or open space use. Sales made after Lynch’s December 15 presentation are still factor into the official assessment which by law is made on January 1.“Any information up to that date that happens in the market can be used to contest the assessment,” Lynch said. Lynch said this year has seen the highest number of sales in Albemarle so far, with 2,311 sales recorded as of the date of his presentation. He said there would be at least another hundred before the end of the year. As of December 15, Albemarle is on track to have the highest average increase in property assessments at 8.32 percent. Within the county, the Scottsville Magisterial District saw the largest increase with 11.14 percent, and the lowest is in the Rivanna district with 7.17 percent. The assessment of properties with apartments increased by 11.8 percent, whereas commercial properties are flat. Hotel properties declined 22.9 percent in 2021, but recovered by just under a percentage point this year. “Shopping centers also went down a lot and they recovered some of what they lost,” Lynch said. Offices declined for a second year in a row with a 4.15 percent average decrease in worth. “People stopped going to their offices but they kept paying their rent,” Lynch said. “At this point those leases are turning over for lower amounts, lower rents, and we’re starting to see more effect on those offices.” Assessments are directly tied to next year’s budget and the amount of revenue that will be generated through the property tax. After Lynch’s presentation, supervisors had a work session on the five-year financial plan. Albemarle had $13.2 million in leftover funds from fiscal year 2021.Here’s how staff is recommending using that money:$4.1 million transfer to the Capital Improvements Plan$5 million to Albemarle’s Economic Development Fund to help attract new businesses through the Project Enable plan$3.1 million for the Albemarle Housing Fund, bringing the balance to $5 million$1 million for workforce stabilization Supervisor Diantha McKeel said she wanted some of the capital funding to go toward building more urban parks. Supervisor Donna Price agreed, and said she would like to see county investment in the Rivanna Trail. “I’d really love to see the trail around Charlottesville and Albemarle, the Rivanna river trail, because that provides relatively easy access to almost everyone in our urban ring and that really would improve the quality of life,” Price said. Based on the surplus and the assessments, staff is not anticipating any increase in the real estate property tax rate for the year. Staff asked Supervisors if they had any interest in increasing transient occupancy or the meals taxes and if they wanted to explore tax relief programs. Part of that is due to a trend towards property taxes making up a larger percentage of the budget. “It’s going from sixty percent back in FY07 coming closer to seventy percent in FY22 and FY23,” Birch said. “We need to try and diversity as best we can away from real estate taxes.” Planning staff will incorporate a plastic bag tax into the FY23 budget. Albemarle can increase the meals tax rate to six percent and can increase the transient occupancy tax if it chooses. One supervisor wants the county’s rates to be the same as the city’s. “I think anything that we do to match Charlottesville is appropriate,” said Supervisor Diantha McKeel. “If the sales tax in Charlottesville is something, it should be the same in Albemarle.” Supervisors took no formal actions and the budget will come back before the Board in the February. Support the program!Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Ned Gallaway, Albemarle County Board of Supervisors and General Manager of CarLotz, joined Keith Smith and me on “Real Talk: An Insider's Guide To Real Estate In Central Virginia” powered by The YES Team Realtors and Yonna Smith! “Real Talk” airs every Tuesday and Friday from 10:15 am – 11 am on The I Love CVille Network! “Real Talk” is presented by Charlottesville Settlement Company, LLC, Pearl Certification, Intrastate Inc., Scott Morris – Home Loans, Dairy Market, Shenandoah Joe and Sigora Solar.

Steve Harvey, Candidate for Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, joined me live on The I Love CVille Show! The Albemarle County School System is considering a drastic change on how it grades its students. Learn more here: https://ilovecville.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/A-Repair-Kit-for-Grading.pdf The I Love CVille Show airs live before a worldwide audience Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network.

In today’s first Patreon-fueled shout-out is for the Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Campaign, an initiative that wants you to grow native plants in yards, farms, public spaces and gardens in the northern Piedmont. Native plants provide habitat, food sources for wildlife, ecosystem resiliency in the face of climate change, and clean water.  Start at the Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Facebook page and tell them Lonnie Murray sent you! On today’s show: Charlottesville Area Transit makes some route adjustments and some examples of the “partnership” in the Jefferson Area Regional Transit Partnership An epidemiologist at the University of Virginiaexplains key differences between the current pandemic surge and the winter surge The Free Enterprise Forum releases its annual report on local government spending trendsThe number of new COVID cases in Virginia has exceeded 3,000 for each of the past four days, with 3,518 reported by the Virginia Department of Health. The percent positivity is 10, which means one out of every ten tests is coming back as a confirmed case. There have been 254 reported COVID deaths since July 27. The VDH updated a dashboard today that tracks cases by vaccination status. Due to a variety of factors, this is a difficult one to update every day. Here are two conclusions listed on the site:“Between January 17, 2021 and August 21, 2021, unvaccinated people developed COVID-19 at a rate 13.3 times higher than fully vaccinated people and 2.6 times higher than fully vaccinated people,” reads the section below “rates by vaccination status.” “As of August 21, 2021, 4,767,990 Virginians have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19,” reads one under “vaccine breakthrough cases.” “ Of these people, 0.2 percent have developed COVID-19, 0.009 percent have been hospitalized, and 0.0017 percent have died.” Dr. Costi Sifri is the director of hospital epidemiology at the University of Virginia. He told members of the press today that the term “breakthrough case” is a bit misleading in a time when the delta variant is so prevalent. “Some of us are concerned by the word breakthrough suggesting that it is a vaccine failure and most of these infections that have occured are not failures,” Dr. Sifri said. “Most of these infections that occurred after vaccinations really are not failures. People have received the vaccine and the vaccine has done its job. It’s kept people out of the hospital. It’s kept them from serious consequences of COVID.” The seven-day average for new cases now is where it was in early December as the winter surge hit. Let’s hear one interchange between UVA Health public information officer Eric Swensen and Dr. Sifri. Eric Swensen:“The number of new cases is now in the 3000’s which is roughly about where they were sort of shortly after Thanksgiving of last year. So the question is really, what’s different if anything between now and then and should we be concerned that case count has risen back to where it was?”Dr. Costi Sifri:“There is one huge difference and that is that we now have an effective vaccine and we did not have one in November that was being used and distributed. Our vaccination started December 15 and nationwide it started that week. So what we’re seeing right now is almost entirely preventable. That is the big difference and the frustration.” Eric Swensen:“Should people be avoiding crowds at this time until those third doses are more widely available for people. For some context, Liberty University is on a campus-wide quarantine through  September 10. What are your thoughts on people being out and being out in crowds?” (LU page on their temporary mitigation period)Dr. Costi Sifri:“This gets into sort of the gray areas and challenges I think with COVID that are often individually based. Part of the calculation is whether you are vaccinated or not vaccinated. What is the nature of the event? Is the crowd 40 people out on a mountaintop or 500 people in an indoor arena? And what is your level of risk tolerance? The risk tolerance may not only be you but it may be the people that you live with. The kids that are home, loved ones, family members. I think that is a very specific answer. I think again if we’re vaccinated, that’s very effective. If you’re in a situation with crowds, wearing a mask is easy to do. You should be doing it if you’re indoors in the state right now where we have substantial or high levels of COVID transmission in nearly every county of the state.”More on the pandemic as we move forward. A regional pro-business group that takes a close look at local governments in the region has released its annual report on spending habits. The Free Enterprise Forum’s Choices and Decisions report is a Local Government Spending Index that compares municipal expenditures in Charlottesville as well the counties of Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, and Nelson. “The analysis seeks to develop and track over time an objective metric to capture the spending trend in each locality and determine if this trend can be correlated to other trends occurring within the locality,” reads the report. One metric generated is per-capita operational spending, and Charlottesville ranks highest with a 2020 figure of $4,975.75 per resident. Albemarle is next at $3,398.44, followed by Nelson at $3,090.44, Louisa County at $3,026.44, Greene at $2,804.17, and Fluvanna at $2,559.43. The index is modeled after the Consumer Price Index, a metric used by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics to measure the cost of goods and services over time. The Free Enterprise Forum uses data from the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Auditor of Public Accounts. Review the whole report on their website. There’s also a spreadsheet with all of the data. *If you’re interested in becoming directly involved in Charlottesville government, the city is looking for applicants to many boards and commissions, ranging from the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail Authority to the Youth Council. If you’re interested in transportation, there are vacancies on bodies like the Jaunt Board of Directors and the Citizen’s Transportation Advisory Committee. For housing, there’s the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority or the Community Development Block Grant Task Force. Either way, if you’re interested in experience, even applying for these positions is a good way to get involved. Visit charlottesville.gov to learn more. (release)You’re reading Charlottesville Community Engagement. In today’s second Substack-fueled shout-out, Code for Charlottesville is seeking volunteers with tech, data, design, and research skills to work on community service projects. Founded in September 2019, Code for Charlottesville has worked on projects with the Legal Aid Justice Center, the Charlottesville Fire Department, and the Charlottesville Office of Human Rights. Visit the Code for Charlottesville website to learn more, including details on projects that are under way. Before we get to a quick review of the Regional Transit Authority, two small pieces of Charlottesville Area Transit news. First, the free trolley-style bus that runs between downtown and the University of Virginia will return to traveling down McCormick Road through the heart of UVA Grounds. Second, additional service will be added to Route 9 during peak hours. That route currently travels between the University of Virginia Hospital, the Piedmont Family YMCA, Charlottesville High School, and downtown Charlottesville. CAT Director Garland Williams said the move is being made in the short-term to help with the start of the school year. “Because we know there was going to be potentially some high schoolers that were going to use our service, we added additional service during the peak periods of time on Route 9,” Williams told the Regional Transit Partnership on Thursday. According to the last seven years of ridership data, Route 9 is one of the least traveled of all of the current CAT routes whereas the trolley-style bus route has consistently had the highest ridership. The current Route 9 will change its configuration if Council agrees to the route alterations that have been under public review this year. Under its new alignment, Route 9 will travel between downtown and Fashion Square Mall via the Piedmont Family YMCA in McIntire Park. Other routes will serve the UVA Hospital. Review all of the changes here. One of the people who will take a final vote on the proposed transit changes is City Councilor Lloyd Snook. He became vice chair of the Jefferson Area Regional Transit Partnership on Thursday and explained why he was interested in serving on that advisory body.“My main interest in transit has been that I am convinced that Charlottesville is needing a transition from being a suburban-thinking town to being a city-thinking city and transit is an important part of that,” Snook said. “It’s also an important part of an affordable housing strategy and a city planning strategy.”Another member of the Regional Transit Authority is the interim executive director of Jaunt, Karen Davis.“I’m pleased to let you know that ridership is coming right back and this is trending up and our services are back to full service in all areas,” Davis said. “Despite the driver shortage that we’re seeing.”Davis said that includes the Crozet Connect service, which had been running on a limited schedule due to the pandemic. Another of the partners is the University of Virginia Transit Service, who joined as a voting member of the advisory body. Davis said the two transit providers recently got together for discussions. “They got picked up in a Jaunt bus, brought to our home base, and we had three hours of meeting where we were brainstorming, where we made connections, and from here we have committed to meeting regularly and setting some priorities,” Davis said. One example of a current conflict that might be resolved is that Jaunt vehicles cannot directly pick up or drop off passengers who are headed to the Emily Couric Cancer Center. One place Jaunt buses can go is the Center at Belvedere, where Davis recently met with Director Peter Thompson. The Center is a non-voting member of the Regional Transit Partnership will also be served by Charlottesville Area Transit’s Route 11 when the service changes are made. Now back to that driver shortage. There are several area transit agencies and each of them need more people to work behind the wheel.“I was just taking steps to put a recruitment bonus in place only to realize that both CAT and UTS have totally offered much bigger bonuses so I have to address that program line,” Davis said.Davis said she is retaining her existing drivers, and only one that she knows of has gone to work for CAT. CAT is paying a $2,400 bonus for new drivers who work for at least nine months as well as existing drivers. New and existing UTS drivers will get a $2,500 bonus.“It’s going to be a $1,000 payout right away for our standing staff and $1,000 for new staff, and then after two full semesters of driving, the rest of the bonus,” said Becca White is the director of UVA’s Parking and Transportation. White said she has been tracking closely the number of faculty and staff who have opted to pay for spaces as the pandemic continues. “As we know, transit and parking are tied together very closely so we’ve been watching that uptake of parking permits because that’s oftentimes an indication of how many people are back in the office and what potential riders we have for CAT or Jaunt or Afton Express,” White said. “On August 1, about 55 percent to 60 percent of the academic employees had purchased their permits as compared to pre-COVID. Just in the last three weeks that number has now increased to 85 percent.”White said ridership on health employee shuttle routes have increased as the semester approaches. The academic routes that serve Central Grounds have increased to 10,000 passengers a day. Before COVID, that number was around 15,000.“And all of that service is in the last mile,” White said. “Every bit of it.” U-Heights is an apartment complex on Ivy Road in Albemarle County that is no longer served by University Transit Service. However, there is a large immigrant and refugee population. White has worked with management at U-Heights to provide mobility for residents who are no longer served by fixed-route transit. The theme of collaboration continued. The Regional Transit Partnership is staffed by the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission. Garland Williams is the director of CAT. “On the third of September, TDJPC staff will be over for a visit,” Williams said. “I want to kind of introduce them to my team and get them the lay of the land.”That will include a look at capital projects that CAT will pursue. A major purchase in recent years has been automatic passenger counters that will help provide more accurate ridership counts. Williams said these have been installed on all buses and the data is being validated. But what about those route changes?“We are in the final processes of getting the approvals,” Williams said. “The last piece that we have to do which we will hopefully be able to kick off next Friday is to get a consultant on board to finish up the required Title VI review from the changes based on the feedback we got from the community. Once that is done it has to go to Council and we’ll also share that information with Albemarle County Board of Supervisors.” Title VI refers to the Civil Rights Act, which requires a public process before making changes on routes paid for with federal funds. That means there is no set date for when the forthcoming changes will be made. That will require installation of new bus stops at places that currently do not have them, as well as removal of the stops that will be discontinued. A reason for the delay has been to address the driver shortage. CAT is down 22 drivers and pupil transportation for city school is down 20. More from the Regional Transit Partnership in an upcoming newsletter. Thank you for reading! Next up is the Week Ahead newsletter on Sunday, followed by another attempt to get one of these CCE newsletters done each weekday. Each week I get a little more efficient, which means I can bring you more information. And it’s all thanks to those of you who have contributed financially. I have taken my previous experience as a freelance journalist and created a one-person newsroom. Rather than give a set of links today, I just wish you a happy 239! This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s Patreon-fueled shout-out:What’s your perfect holiday weekend in Charlottesville? Hanging with friends outside... Great live music... Maybe breaking a Guinness world record? Then mark your calendar for WTJU 91.1 FM's Freefall Music Festival -- Saturday, September 4 starting at 3 p.m. at IX Art Park. Live performances by Zuzu's Hot Five, Susie and the Pistols, and Good Dog Nigel. There will be an attempt to form the world's largest human music note at 7:30 p.m. Plus, a hot dog and veggie dog cookout for our whole community. Find out more at wtju.net.On today’s show:Albemarle Supervisors to spend more on rural broadband initiativesSupervisors also agree to further review of the homestay ordinanceAn update from the UVA Health System on the latest in the pandemicA database error has prevented a specific number of new COVID cases from being reported by the Virginia Department of Health. Assume they’ve gone up since Friday. This morning, the Food and Drug Administration fully approved the use of Pfizer vaccine, removing the emergency use tag that has been in place. Dr. Costi Sifri welcomed the move. He’s the director of hospital epidemiology at the University of Virginia Health System. “We’ve all been waiting for this day and are very excited to see that full approval has been granted,” Dr. Sifri said. “We know that there are some people in our community who were waiting for that, that felt that full approval was needed before they felt entirely comfortable with the vaccine despite the fact that I think it’s been clear that the vaccine has been safe and effective for months and months now.”Dr. Sifri said this may mean that more institutions will feel more comfortable requiring vaccinations. One such entity is the U.S. Department of Defense, which will not make vaccinations mandatory. There are still no approved vaccines for children under 12, but work is underway toward that effort.“Those clinical trials are going on right now by Pfizer and Moderna and we’ve heard we may start to hear some results of those studies as soon as September,” Dr. Sifri said. Another new vaccine development that Dr. Sifri said might come in September is guidance on whether those who took the Johnson and Johnson would benefit from a second shot. The UVA Health System is also placing more restrictions on visitors to its medical facilities beginning on Thursday. “For in-patients, two designated visitors can be identified by the patient,” said Bush Bell, the administrator of hospitality and support services. “They must remain the same for the duration of the patient’s stay.”Only one visitor will be allowed for out-patient procedures as well as emergency room visits. “And as always, patients who are being evaluated for COVID or are positive will not be permitted visitors unless they are pediatric patients or adults with special needs,” Bell said. The rest of our stories today come from the Albemarle County Board of Supervisor’s meeting from August 16, 2021. The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled earlier this month that the Federal Communications Commission must provide more information about why it has not updated its policies on the potential health effects of mobile phones and the towers that allow them to communicate. The court ruled on August 13 that the F.C.C. must give further justification for a claim that its current regulations are sufficient to "protect against harmful effects of exposure to radiofrequency radiation unrelated to cancer." (read the ruling)The Environmental Health Trust and others had sued the F.C.C. for failing to adequately explain why a process to update rules last adopted in 1996 was abandoned. The ruling directs the FCC to provide a "reasoned explanation" for why it continues to base testing procedures for cell phones on 25-year-old guidelines from 1996, to address the health effects of radiofrequency radiation on children in a world where cell phones are ubiquitous, and to address the impacts of radiofrequency radiation on the environment. Supervisor Ann Mallek raised the issue during consideration of a cell tower on county-owned land at Walnut Creek Park.  "Should we be stopping accepting more and more of this possibly non-compliant [towers] when the rules get straightened out?" Mallek asked. "Wouldn't it be sensible to have the rules straightened out first before we have more things that are put up in the county that we then have to deal with after the fact?"County Attorney Greg Kamptner explained that the F.C.C. halted their review of those guidelines in 2019. "And that process could have ultimately resulted in  updated regulations pertaining to the radiofrequency standards," Kamptner said. "The court also made it clear that it was not making any decision on the viability of the 1996 standard."As a result, Kamptner said the ruling does not affect current applications. In this case, the matter before the Board was whether County Executive Jeffrey Richardson should sign the application from Verizon."It also doesn't affect the federal law preemption of state and local governments from considering radiofrequency emissions in their wireless related decisions and their regulations," Kamptner said. Mallek was the lone vote against the resolution to authorize Richardson to sign off on the application. You’re reading Charlottesville Community Engagement. Interested in the history of the public library system in the area? This subscriber-supported public service announcement urges you to consider tuning Wednesday in to the next edition of the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society’s next video presentation, which is the second part of a look at the The Local Library Centennial: When does "Public" become Public? Filmmaker Lorenzo Dickerson and Jefferson Madison Regional Library director David Plunkett return to talk about how many of the anniversary projects they talked about in January have now been realized!  Exhibits created by the ACHS commemorating the 100-year anniversary of the Public Library system have been installed on the 3rd floor of JMRL’s Central Branch. Learn more by watching this live event or by visiting albemarlehistory.org. (register on Zoom) (Facebook Live)Watch part one here! Supervisors also got an update on how Albemarle’s staff proposes to use the remaining balance of the American Rescue Plan Act funding the county will get in the current and next calendar years. In all, Albemarle will receive $21.2 million in ARPA funds from the federal government. In June, the Board of Supervisors approved a framework for how to spend it. That includes $4 million for support for human services and economic development, an initial $3 million for broadband initiatives, and the balance for capital budget and fiscal planning for upcoming budget years. Nelsie Birch is Albemarle’s chief financial officer. “We will be making a recommendation to increase the funding from ARPA to support our broadband efforts,”  Birch said. Specifically, staff recommended using an additional $1.5 million in the ARPA balance to cover the local match for potential projects funded through the Virginia Telecommunications Initiative (VATI).  Supervisors approved the idea and awards from the state program will be made in January. Mike Culp is the head of the newly created Broadband Accessibility and Affordability Office. “This VATI session we’re going to have at least it seems like 60 to maybe 100 applications so it just goes to show the Commonwealth is really taking a good look at this and they’re going to be funding a lot more programs this year so let’s be in that bucket,” Culp said. Last week, Albemarle released $800,000 of that human services funding for the emergency financial assistance program. There have been many requests for Albemarle to follow Charlottesville in using local ARPA funding to hire attorneys to represent people who are going to be evicted. Albemarle has so far not committed that funding. Emily Kilroy, the county’s director of communications and public engagement, said Albemarle is covered under the extension of the national moratorium on evictions. She also said the county’s approach has been direct payments to those with demonstrated needs. “The Emergency Financial Assistance program that ran from June 2020 through June 2021 provided direct funding to support rent and mortgage payments,” Kilroy sent in an email. “This program was able to serve 2,653 residents, and approximately $2 million of federal CARES Coronavirus Relief Funds were distributed, primarily for rent/mortgage payments.”As mentioned, another $800,000 in funding has been made available. Later that afternoon, Albemarle had a work session on the future of the homestay ordinance, which regulates transient lodging such as AirBnB in the county. The current rules were adopted in 2019 and were intended in part to make sure those who are renting out their homes are complying with regulations. “The number of non-compliant new listings is declining so our message is getting out,” said zoning administrator Bart Svoboda.Svoboda said county staff wanted to know if certain changes should be made to the ordinance. One current regulation is that houses and structures being used for transient lodging are setback at least 125 feet away from a property, unless the Board grants a special exception. “The 125 foot setback reduction is by far our most sought after special exception,” Svoboda said. “Forty-two have been submitted, 29 have been approved, and we still have ten pending.” The Board agreed to allow staff to make changes to the ordinance to allow for administrative approval of those special exceptions. Svoboda said that would depend on whether sufficient screening was present as well as other factors. Other changes might be to change the rule that requires rural area property owners to live in the structure they rent out. Svoboda said he will return to the Board with details about those possible changes after the beginning of calendar year 2022. Supervisors also agreed to continue hiring a third-party to assist with inspection. For more details on this issue, read Allison Wrabel’s story in the Daily Progress. Interested in the shout-outs you hear? Consider a $25 a month Patreon subscription to get a message to the audience! Contact me if you have any questions, as there are a few guidelines. But your support will help the program continue to be produced as often as I can get it out the door! This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s Patreon-fueled shout-out: With the summer heat in full swing, your local energy nonprofit, LEAP, wants you and yours to keep cool. LEAP offers FREE home weatherization to income- and age-qualifying residents. If you’re age 60 or older, or have an annual household income of less than $74,950, you may qualify for a free energy assessment and home energy improvements such as insulation and air sealing. Sign up today to lower your energy bills, increase comfort, and reduce energy waste at home!On today’s show:A new nonprofit launches to promote regional entrepreneurial activitiesA quick review of a recent stakeholder meeting on increasing transit in urban AlbemarleSeveral area destinations receive state funding for tourism marketingAlbemarle County seeking a consultant to help lead upcoming rewrite of the zoning ordinanceThe Virginia Department of Health today reports 2,117 new COVID cases, the highest one-day count in four months. The percent positivity is now at 7.5 percent. The seven day average for new cases is now at 1,733. The Blue Ridge Health District reports another 52 cases today. The percentage of Virginians fully vaccinated is now at 54.8 percent, a number that includes children. The number of adult Virginians fully vaccinated is now 65.8 percent. The seven-day average of shots per day is now 14,124. Source: Virginia Department of HealthNext week, the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles will open a window in the Scottsville Town offices. The DMV Select will open on August 16 in the second floor of Victory Hall at 401 Valley Street. DMV Select offices allow for limited transactions such as picking up registration decals, but do not issue driver’s licenses. For a full list of services, visit the DMV website. You’ll need to schedule an appointment and masks are required. (schedule an appointment)Speaking of Scottsville, repairs have been made to the library following heavy storm damage in late July. The library reopened yesterday at 1 p.m. A new nonprofit is launching in the Charlottesville area to support regional entrepreneurship. Venture Central is to be a partnership between the city of Charlottesville, Albemarle County, the University of Virginia, and the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce. The group has announced the first members of the Board of Directors and will begin a search for an executive director. According to a release, Sarah Rumbaugh of the firm Relish will serve as the chair. Other board members include the economic development directors of both Albemarle and Charlottesville. Governor Ralph Northam has announced the award of $861,080 in matching grants through the Virginia Tourism Corporation’s Recovery Marketing Leverage Program. The initiative exists to help expand the Virginia is for Lovers brand and to encourage new tourism marketing partnerships. (see a full list of recipients)The Charlottesville Convention and Visitors Bureau will get $10,000 for Birthplace of Virginia Wine programDairy Market will get $20,000 for Charlottesville’s Bite-Sized Adventures: A Foodie Bucket ListFront Porch Cville will receive $19,980 for Rivanna Roots: A Riverfront Concert Series 2022Blackburn Inn and Conference Center in Staunton will receive $20,000 for Sip, Stay, and Explore: Hiking Trails and Virginia WinesThe Heifetz International Music Institute at Mary Baldwin University will get $2,182.50 for a marketing programWaynesboro Economic Development and Tourism will receive $10,000 for EXPERIENCE WaynesboroWayne Theater Alliance will get $10,000 for an outdoor production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor DreamcoatPicking back up from the August 4, 2021 meeting of the Albemarle Board of Supervisors, that body agreed to apply for $314,000 in Community Development Block Grant funding for a food security program. Stacy Pethia is the county’s housing policy manager.“The proposed project would serve a total of 470 individuals and households through three distinct programs,” Pethia said. These are $110,000 for a grocery card gift program to serve up to 220 households, and $144,000 for the Local Food Hub’s Fresh Farmacy program to provide fresh produce for 18 months to 100 households. The funding would come specifically from a COVID relief program. Supervisors also agreed to amend a special use permit that allows the Monticello United Soccer Club to operate on land off of Polo Ground Road. Scott Clark is a planner with Albemarle County. “The proposal would increase the number of total number of fields to seven although only four would be used for play at any one time,” Clark said. “This is to enable them to move feels around, rest fields, prepare fields.”The land is within Albemarle’s rural area, and there are no permanent facilities on the property. There is no increase in the number of parking spaces. “This property could easily return to agricultural use in the future with a very low impact on the site,” Clark said. The Mon-U soccer field is on Polo Grounds Road, which is just to the north of where the furthest Charlottesville Area Transit route currently stops. That won’t change when the city-owned and operated agency alters its routes later this year, but CAT is conducting a review of how to expand service to the north. So is Albemarle County and the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission. You’re reading Charlottesville Community Engagement and time for another subscriber-supported public service announcement. The Charlottesville Jazz Society at cvillejazz.org is dedicated to the promotion, preservation, and preservation of jazz, and there’s no time like now to find a time to get out and watch people love to play. The Charlottesville Jazz Society keeps a running list of what’s coming up at cvillejazz.org. This week, find out that the Michael Elswick Gathering plays at the Pub at Lake Monticello on Friday and the Eric Franzen Trio plays at Early Mountain Vineyards on Saturday. Take a look at cvillejazz.org. At the same time, Albemarle County and the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission are doing the exact same work as part of a study partially funded by the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation. Boris Palchik is a transit planning project manager with Foursquare Integrated Transportation Planning, a firm hired to help conduct the work. The other consultant is Michael Baker International. Palchik ran a meeting on July 26 that sought to get initial feedback for the study.“It’s really a feasibility study and implementation plan for expanding transit service in both population and employment centers in Albemarle County,” Palchik said. The July 26 meeting was for northern Albemarle County along U.S. 29, and one on July 28 was held for Pantops. We’ll focus on July 26 first. (watch the video)Palchik said the study may not result in several new fixed routes, but may include a combination of on-demand routes and other new transit options. The work consists of a market analysis, a service analysis, and stakeholder outreach. “The market analysis is looking at the underlying environment in which transit operates or needs to operate in the study area,” Palchik said. “The service analysis is looking at what’s happening today on the ground in terms of ridership and productivity.”Stakeholder outreach includes the July meetings and other ways to get a sense of what people might want and need in expanded transit. In addition, to Charlottesville Area Transit, Jaunt provides service in the area through on-demand, one fixed-route service, and through its partnership with Greene County Transit. “There’s really many different ways to provide transit service and each of those ways has its own ideal operating environment,” Palchick said. “When we’re looking at the market analysis, we’re trying to understand the environment that exists so we can make recommendations that are appropriate.”That means taking a look at population density, the built environment, employment opportunities, and other factors to measure the potential for public transit to work. “Transit service is most effective and most efficient in areas that have higher density,” Palchick said. “The kind of tipping point for where fixed route transit service really begins to make sense is once you have more than five people or jobs per acre.”Research conducted so far indicates moderate-to-high transit potential south of the South Fork of the Rivanna River. The highest population density in the area is along Commonwealth Drive, which is currently served by CAT’s Route 5. Service gaps are north of Rio Road and in the Hollymead / Forest Lakes area. A slide from the July 26 presentation (download)This work also comes at a time when Albemarle continues to become more dense, with more properties coming online such as North Pointe, Brookhill, and numerous other developments that will be more dense than single family homes. Palchick said the stakeholder analysis specifically sought out information that may not have come through their initial review. During the service analysis, stakeholders were shown older information on CAT routes, several of which are changing in the coming months. There will be alterations to Route 5, Route 7, Route 8, and Route 11, all of which serve Albemarle’s northern urban area.  Learn more about the CAT changes here. Scott Elliff is a member of the Forest Lakes Community Association’s Board of Directors. The FLCA has used a portion of its homeowner association fees to fight development of a mixed-use development on Ashwood Boulevard known as RST Residences. Elliff took the opportunity to speak at a discussion on expanding transit to point out that the existing character of his neighborhood is suburban. “The challenge that’s happening up here is that we’re starting to get developments that are going to be by necessity pretty dense,” Elliff said. “There’s one that’s being planned which we’re opposing and hasn’t come before the Supervisors yet. It would be a huge high story development on the corner of Ashwood and 29.”Currently there is fixed-route transit service in the Forest Lakes area provide by Jaunt through their Route 29 Express.According to Valerie Long of the law firm Williams Mullen, 75 percent of the apartments in the RST development will be rented to people who can demonstrate household incomes between 30 percent and 80 percent of the Area Median Income. Elliff is concerned that if all of those people drive, it will exacerbate traffic congestion out of a neighborhood that only has two direct connections onto U.S. 29. “The only solution from a transportation standpoint that I can think of is to have a dedicated service that picks people up at those affordable housing apartment buildings and takes them non-stop down to Barracks Road, downtown mall, and UVA where the jobs are,” Elliff said. Elliff claimed there were no jobs in his area. In fact, let’s hear more of what he had to say. “We’re up here in a beautiful area,” Elliff said. “There are no jobs. There are retail jobs… in the shopping centers north and south. If it’s going to be heavily affordable housing, these are people who are going to be working retail and they’re going to be working as administrative assistants or something in small companies but not around here. This is completely residential.”Elliff’s claim made me look up the latest information from the Virginia Employment Commission on the top employers in Albemarle County.  Several of them are within close proximity to the Forest Lakes neighborhood and all rough measurements below are taken from the pool at Forest Lakes South using main roads and Google Earth. (VEC profile)#4 is the Department of Defense and the various military installations at Rivanna Station (4.77 miles away) #6 is the Crutchfield Corporation which operates by the Charlottesville Regional Airport (3.5 miles away)#7 is the Northrup Grumman Corporation located in between both sides of Stonefield on U.S. 29 (4.4 miles away)#9 is Wal-Mart located just south of the South Fork of the Rivanna River on US. 29 (2.2 miles away)#18 is Emerson (listed as G.E. Fanuc) on U.S. 29 north of North Pointe (5.2 miles) #29 is Costco in Stonefield on U.S. 29 (4.5 miles away)#32 is Target in Hollymead Town Center (2 miles away)#36 is MicroAire Surgical Instruments in the former U.S. Postal Service building off of Airport Road (2.75 miles away)#38 is Rosewood Village Associates with facilities in Hollymead Town Center (2.4 miles away) The RST rezoning goes to the Board of Supervisors on September 15. From the Albemarle County profile from the Virginia Employment Commission (download)Now, on to the July 28 meeting, which covered the Pantops area. Fewer people attended that virtual call. Pantops is currently served by Charlottesville Area Transit Route 10, which will also be changing as a result of the upcoming route changes. Here’s Boris Palchik with Foursquare once again reviewing a market analysis. “In the Pantops area north of U.S. 250, there are a number of key kind of activity generators like multifamily housing, the Social Security administration building, but it’s still showing fairly low density,” Palchik said. Dick Hiss, the chair of the Pantops Community Advisory Committee, asked if the various analyses conducted take a look at future land use changes. “Have you considered the changes that we see coming in the Pantops area such as the motor vehicle department going somewhere?” Hiss said. “That building has had a sign on it for years saying it is moving.”Hiss said he is also wondering if State Farm employees will return to that building. State Farm is the fifth largest employer in Albemarle according to the VEC. Sentara Martha Jefferson is the third. Gina Morss-Fischer, a public affairs specialist with State Farm, confirmed in an email to me today that employees assigned to the Charlottesville-Albemarle office will continue to work from home. Palchick said the stakeholder meetings are intended to take note of comments such as this. For a time, Albemarle County had been updating development dashboards which depicted what projects were coming up in the near future. These have not been updated since February 2020 in part because of the pandemic and in part because a staff member moved on. Charles Rapp is the planning director in Albemarle County. “The staff member that was previously managing the dashboards is no longer with the county so we have used this as an opportunity to collaborate with our GDS department and create an updated version of the development dashboard,” Rapp said in an email to me this morning. “This new approach will have automated updates regularly and should provide a more streamlined approach toward conveying information.  We are working through the final details now and hope to have it ready for the public soon.”(review the current Development Dashboards on the Albemarle website)But back to transit. Palchick said on-demand microtransit could be an option for parts of Albemarle in the future.“The main difference between microtransit and Uber and Lyft is that Uber and Lyft operate with a fleet of vehicles that are not infinite, but you never quite know what kind of vehicle you are going to get when you request a service,” Palchick said. “Whereas with microtransit you have a set fleet of vehicles and a set group of drivers that are operating the service so it is more predictable and can be more closely branded with the local public transportation service and be more closely affiliated with it.”Currently, Pantops is also served by Jaunt’s Buckingham Connect East service. “So this service operates between Buckingham County and destinations in Charlottesville and Albemarle County,” Palchick said. “Those destinations include downtown Charlottesville, the University hospital, Martha Jefferson Hospital and the Westminster Canterbury retirement community.” Westminster Canterbury is the 14th largest employer in Albemarle County. A slide from the July 28 presentation on Pantops (download)In addition to the meetings on July 26 and July 28, the consultants are holding individual meetings. The goal is to complete the study by next January in order to apply for funding from the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation to pay for a pilot project.Will any of this result in a better transit system? That means to be seen. Another thing I encourage people to see is the staff report of a February 11, 2008 joint meeting of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors and Charlottesville City Council to discuss a study for a Regional Transit Authority that would be one unified system. That never happened, but eight years later, a Regional Transit Partnership was formed to encourage collaboration between area systems. That body next meets on August 26. (RTA staff report) This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s Patreon-fueled shout-out: Help support black-owned business in the Charlottesville area. Check out the Charlottesville Black Business Directory at cvilleblackbiz.com and choose between a variety of goods and services, ranging from beauty supplies, professional services, and e-commerce. Visit cvilleblackbiz.com as soon as you can to get started.In today’s program:Albemarle Supervisors adopts a new housing plan but leaves a few loose ends related to incentivizing developers to build below-market housing units Governor Northam announces loans to local nonprofit groups to help cover costs of affordable projects Blacksburg gets a grant for electric vehicles and Amtrak invests in new trainsAlbemarle retains AAA ratings and Charlottesville opens up a new round of small business grants Three top bond ratings agencies have reaffirmed Albemarle County’s AAA bond rating, a financial status that gives the county lower interest rates. Albemarle is only one of ten jurisdictions in Virginia with the top rating from Moody’s Investor Services, S&P Global and Fitch Ratings. According to a press release, Albemarle issued $57.7 million in debt on June 24 to cover the upfront costs of projects such as the additions at Crozet, Red Hill, and Scottsville elementary schools. On the same day, Albemarle refinanced another $20.4 million in existing debt saving $2.5 million in interest payments on projects.“The savings will remain in the Capital Projects Fund,” said Albemarle Finance Director Nelsie Birch in an email this afternoon. “As the County embarks on its upcoming FY 23 – 27 long range financial planning process, this savings will allow greater flexibility and capacity as we plan for the future.”Amtrak has announced $7.3 billion in investment in 83 new trains to replace an aging fleet with an option to purchase over a hundred more. The new trains will be built by Siemens Mobility, a California-based company. Among the routes for which the new rolling stock will roll will be the Northeast Regional service, which travels between Roanoke and D.C.’s Union Station and points north. “The Commonwealth is committed to promoting, sustaining, and expanding state-sponsored passenger rail service across Virginia,” said Jennifer Mitchell, Director of the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation in a release. “Replacing a 40-year-old fleet, the new Amtrak trains will help us meet those goals with modern, dual-powered engines, improved operations, increased fuel efficiency, and lower carbon emissions – in both electric and diesel mode.”A second daily Northeast Regional train is expected to begin sometime in 2022. *The Town of Blacksburg and Blacksburg Transit have received a $5.15 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration to help attain its goal of having an all-electric fleet by 2032. The funding comes from the FTA’s Low- or No-Emission (Low-No) Grant Program and is part of a $182 million funding package split up between 49 projects across the country. “FTA's Low-No Program supports transit agencies in purchasing or leasing low- or no-emission buses and other transit vehicles that use technologies such as battery electric and fuel-cell power to provide cleaner, more efficient transit service in communities across the country,” reads a release from the FTA. “This year's funding opportunity prioritized applications with an environmental justice component as well as those that support workforce development to help America’s transit workers succeed even as their jobs change along with technology.”Last month, the director of Charlottesville Area Transit said his agency needs to study the issue further before proceeding with purchase of electric buses. One difference between Blacksburg and Charlottesville is topography, and Garland Williams said he has to be able to guarantee vehicles are able to reliably climb the city’s many hills and retain a charge. (review the other 48 projects) (Read the July 4 Charlottesville Community Engagement)Hat tip to an anonymous reader for sending this item. Charlottesville’s Office of Economic Development has announced the next round of a grant program intended to help small businesses in the city. The second round of the Building Resilience Among Charlottesville Entrepreneurs (BRACE) grant program will open on Monday. The first round distributed funding to 69 businesses to help survive the pandemic. The second is intended to help business get through the recovery period. Businesses can apply for up to $2,500 and must make a 30 percent contribution as part of the request. For more details, visit the city’s website.Governor Ralph Northam has announced another $21 million in housing loans for below-market housing that includes additional funding for four area projects. The Affordable and Special Needs Housing loans come through the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development. Piedmont Housing Alliance will receive $1.9 million for the first phase of Friendship Court, which will see construction of 106 new units on land that is currently green space. “Friendship Court was previously awarded funds through a competitive ASNH application, and this additional application supports the implementation of Zero Energy Ready Homes and Passive House certification standards, as well as permanent supportive housing units, which will provide select tenants with additional wraparound services on site,” reads a press release from the Northam administration. Virginia Supportive Housing will receive $1.46 million for the Premier Circle Permanent Supportive Housing project on U.S. 29. “Premier Circle Permanent Supportive Housing is the construction of 80 units for formerly homeless and low-income adults from the Charlottesville region. Each studio unit will be approximately 350 square feet and contain a kitchen and full bathroom, and resident amenities include phone and computer rooms, laundry facilities, a fitness area, and free Wi-Fi,” reads the release.Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville will receive $1.4 million for home ownership opportunities at Southwood. “Southwood Affordable Homeownership is the construction of 16 single-family condo units, five single-family attached townhome units, four single-family duplex units, and one single-family detached unit,” reads the release.” The 26 new homes will be constructed in the existing Southwood mobile home park and serve families relocating from substandard mobile homes in the park. The homes will serve residents at or below 60 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI).” The Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority will receive $934,000 for the first phase of the South First Street public housing project. “South First Street Phase One is the new construction of 62 one-, two-, and three-bedroom apartment units across three garden-style apartment buildings,” reads the release. “The development includes substantial indoor community resource space programmed and designed by residents. Outdoor amenity spaces and access to trails and recreational space along Pollack’s Branch will be available for residents and the surrounding community.”CRHA will also receive $835,000 in funding for the renovation of Crescent Halls. “Crescent Halls is the substantial rehabilitation of an eight-story building comprised of 105 apartment units for lower-income seniors in Charlottesville,” reads the release. “This renovation includes new unit layouts, finishes, plumbing fixtures and appliances, building-wide mechanical systems and windows, elevator modernization, and roofing that will support a photovoltaic array. The renovated units will continue to serve seniors and disabled residents, providing better access through the retrofitting of 11 units that will include roll-in showers, grab bars, roll under sinks, and front controls on ranges.”Read more in the Governor Northam’s press release.You’re listening to Charlottesville Community Engagement. In this subscriber supported public service announcement, over the course of the pandemic, the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society has provided hours and hours of interviews, presentations, and discussions about interpretations and recollections of the past. All of this is available for you to watch, for free, on the Historical Society’s YouTube Channel. There’s even an appearance by me, talking about my work on cvillepedia!The top priorities in Housing Albemarle (download the adopted plan)The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors has adopted an updated version of its housing policy after amendments were made to make clear that some sections of the plan would not be implemented until after an incentives package for developers is also approved. That had been a sticking point at the public hearing for Housing Albemarle that was held on June 16. The 99-page document contains many new requirements for “affordable” units. These include:Currently developers seeking a rezoning must provide 15 percent of units as affordable. The plan would raise that to 20 percent. Mechanisms would be developed such as deed restrictions to guarantee affordable rentals would be required to be below-market for a period of 30 years and that affordable for-sale units would be required to be below-market for a period of 40 years. A maximum rent for affordable units would be set at one-fourth of 65 percent of the area median income. Maximum sales price would be 65 percent of a federal guideline known as the HOME Program’s 1-Unit Purchase price. A maximum rent for “workforce housing” would be capped at 110 percent of the fair market rent as determined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The plan had been amended to state that all of the above “will follow approval of a package of developer incentives for affordable housing.” Supervisor Donna Price said she was concerned that such incentives may not be possible.“As I’ve continued to communicate with developers there are some concerns about whether we are realistically going to be able to meet those objectives,” Price said. “With regard to the for-sale affordable housing, whether the target metrics that have been set are going to be financially able to then be met.”There is a three-page list of what changes were made since the June 16 public hearing (download)Price said the plan was incomplete without the incentives package. Supervisor Liz Palmer asked when that would come back to the Supervisors for approval. Jodie Filardo is the Community Development Director for Albemarle County.  She said it will take some time. “In our last estimate, we created a very broad estimate that had us coming back within the year on those development incentives,” Filardo said. “Since the last meeting we have had one meeting with a gathering of developers really for a listening session to hear what the issues are from their perspective.”Filardo said ideas from that meeting are being reviewed by staff and staff will return to the focus group with some potential ideas for incentives. “And we expect to have those meetings wrapped up by the end of this month,” Filardo said. “That said, some of the suggestions from staff are actually going to require zoning ordinance amendments which are never quick. And so, while we’re working very hard to not have this take a year to get back to you all, it is going to take some time because we have a lot of stakeholders we need to vet this through.”Stacy Pethia, Albemarle’s Housing Coordinator, said work could begin to implement other parts of the plan while the incentives package is worked out.“Out of the 12 objectives and I think 49 strategies, 43 or 42 of those strategies could move forward,” Pethia said. “If the policy were approved today, we could begin working on everything else that’s in there.” Pethis said details of the affordability provisions could change as discussions with developers continue. Supervisor Ned Gallaway said the plan would be a living document that would change as implementation gets underway.“If things need to be adjusted, adapted, this isn’t as strong as this, I mean, there’s a ton of details that have to be worked out that this policy has set up,” Gallaway said.For example, Objective 6 is to create a Housing Trust Fund. “Funds can be distributed as either grants or loans to a variety of local partners including for-profit and nonprofit developers, affordable housing services providers, public housing authorities, or local government departments, as well as individual homeowners or landlords,” reads the plan. “Priorities for the use of housing trust fund dollars can be set to meet local priorities as housing needs change.”“There are so many details about this trust fund that remain unanswered and we don’t know where the Board is going to fall on that in terms of governance of a trust fund, where is the money going, is it going to be one fund?” Gallaway asked. “Two funds? Ton of details.”Gallaway said even without an official package of approvals, the Board could continue to vote on proposals that are in excess of the current policy. “If we approve this policy today and someone wants to bring us an application before the refinements of incentives are there, and they have an incentive idea, we can consider it,” Gallaway said. “Nothing holds us back from taking action.”Price was satisfied with the answers and the motion to approve the plan was approved unanimously.  I’ll have more from this meeting of the Albemarle Board of Supervisors in a future newsletter. (read the plan)Finally today, one property rights advocacy group in the area published a report today that makes the argument Albemarle’s rezoning process is preventing creation of more housing stock. The Free Enterprise Forum’s white paper is entitled Density Deferred, Density Denied and examines how three different projects were reduced in size from their original application to the final approved project due to neighborhood opposition. (download the paper)I’ll be appearing with Neil Williamson of the Free Enterprise Forum on the July 9 installment of the Real Talk program with Keith Smith and Jerry Miller. It begins at 10:15 a.m. and I’m not entirely sure what link to send to you. Do go take a look at our last appearance from June 11, which has all of eight views as of this recording. (YouTube link) This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s Patreon-fueled shout-out: Code for Charlottesville is looking for volunteers to help with the Summer Session of their Pro Bono Tech Consulting Shop! The Shop is a pro bono IT consulting and problem-solving service for nonprofit organizations in Charlottesville and Central Virginia. Code for Charlottesville assigns small teams of volunteers to work directly with someone at a nonprofit to solve a specific issue with tech, data, or web design. RSVP for the info session Monday, June 21 at 7pm at this link. In today’s edition:Albemarle Supervisors say goodbye to some key staff members and get an update on how the county will utilize America Recovery Plan fundingThe University of Virginia will soon close their community vaccination center at Seminole Square Shopping CenterA new connector road opens in Albemarle County Tomorrow is Juneteenth, marking the end of two and a half centuries of slavery in British colonies in North America as well as the young United States of America. The day parks the day in 1865 federal troops entered Galveston, Texas two months after the  Civil War to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation. Here’s Vice President Kamala Harris at a bill signing yesterday.“Throughout history, Juneteenth has been known by many names,” Harris said. “Jubilee Day. Freedom Day. Liberation Day. Emancipation Day. And today? A national holiday.”Harris said there is much more work to be done to address racism in the United States, but the creation of a national holiday makes a statement. In this case, it’s to acknowledge history that many continued to be enslaved in Confederate states long after the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect on January 1, 1863. “For more than two years, the enslaved people of Texas were kept in servitude,” Harris said. “For more than two years, they were intentionally kept from their freedom. For more than two years!” The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center will celebrate from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 19, with food, music, and “a non-sewing sewing event” from Stitch Please. That’s the podcast hosted by Lisa Woolfork. The event is free, but donations are encouraged. (register) For more on what’s happening this weekend to mark Juneteenth, visit this article on C-Ville Weekly. Watch Vice President Harris’ remarks on the WTVR 6 YouTube pageJust under half of Virginians are fully vaccinated according to the Virginia Department of Health. Becker’s Hospital Review ranks the Commonwealth number 16 among the 50 states and D.C. for percent of the population vaccinated, with Vermont at number one and Mississippi last. What do those numbers look like locally? Dr. Costi Sifri is director of hospital epidemiology for the University of Virginia Health System.“Right now 79.9 percent, you know, 80 percent of all adults in Albemarle County have received at least one dose of vaccine,” Dr. Sifri said. “In Charlottesville that number is 68.1 percent.” Dr. Sifri said Nelson is also at 68.1 percent and Louisa is at 56.7 percent. Tonight, UVA Health will hold a vaccine clinic at the first Friday’s After Five event in over 21 months. Justin Vesser is a pharmacy supervisor for UVA Health who said the event is in partnership with Red Light Management. “We know we wanted to go to the Downtown Mall because that’s where people have gathered in Charlottesville from all different walks of life so they offered the perfect space at the Pavilion,” Vesser said. “We’ve had a fair number of vaccinations there but even more important I think we’ve had a great series of conversations with people especially about the topic of vaccine hesitancy. We’ve seen hesitancy head on down on the Downtown Mall.” UVA Health will close their community vaccine center at Seminole Square by the end of July and move it back to the hospital’s west complex at Jefferson Park Avenue and Lee Street. Justin Vesser is a pharmacy supervisor for UVA Health. “The Seminole Square vaccine site has been a huge boon to the community,” Vesser said. “We’ve been able to offer just a massive number of vaccines there with a really good experience for everyone who’s gone there. But the roster there has gone down and down and down. I think that shows signs of progress that we’re reaching most people who at this point want to get the vaccine.” A program to bring vaccines to people in their homes will continue.“Those patients are often the most vulnerable among us who would potentially have the worst outcome if they were to get sick with COVID,” Vesser said, “We will continue to work with the fire departments and with the Blue Ridge Health District to offer those homebound vaccines until there’s nobody left, until there’s no demand for that.”The seven-day average for new cases is 139 a day and the seven-day average for positive results is 1.5 percent. The state of emergency will lapse on June 30. Yesterday, the Commonwealth’s Attorney in both Albemarle and Charlottesville issued a joint statement that anyone who decides after that day to continue wearing a mask for COVID purposes will not be prosecuted. “A state law making it unlawful to wear a mask in public with the intent to conceal one’s identity will go back into full effect on that day,” reads the statement. “The same law permits the wearing of masks to protect the safety of the wearer and other persons.”Source: Virginia Department of HealthA new piece of roadway in Albemarle County has opened this week. The $2.9 million Rio Mills Connector runs for a quarter mile between Berkmar Drive Extension and Rio Mills Road and is now complete. This road allows for a gravel road that had lead to U.S. 29 to be closed to traffic, including trucks that access the Luckstone Quarry in the vicinity. This project is one of six designed and built by Curtis Consulting as part of a single contract. Two other recently completed projects are the new traffic light on U.S. 29 at Interstate 64, and improvements to the Fontaine Avenue interchange with U.S. 29. Coming up next is the diverging diamond at U.S. 250 and I-64 and roundabouts at U.S. 250 and Virginia Route 151 and Route 20 and Proffit Road.  (VDOT’s design-build project page) Time now for another subscriber-supported PSA! The Rivanna Conservation Alliance is looking for a few good volunteers to help out on Clean Stream Tuesdays, a mile and a half paddle and clean-up to remove trash and debris from popular stretches of the Rivanna River. Trash bags, trash pickers, gloves, and hand sanitizer/wipes will be provided, though volunteers will need to transport themselves to and from the end points. Kayaks for the purpose can be rented from the Rivanna River Company. Visit the Rivanna Conservation Alliance's volunteer page to learn more about upcoming dates.The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors said goodbye Wednesday to three employees, two of whom are retiring and one who is moving on to the School of Data Sciences at the University of Virginia. Michael Frietas has been the Chief of Public Works for Albemarle for the past 15 years, and the resolution in his honor recognized his work to help the conversion of the former Yancey Elementary School into the Yancey School Community Center. Phyllis Savides was honored for 22 years in the county’s social services department as well as the director for the past several years. Here’s Deputy County Executive Doug Walker. “She is forever a champion of the underdog and that is a role that she relishes in all of our conversations by making sure that we don’t forget,” Walker said. The next person recognized hasn’t been with the county as long but has played a significant role in the past few years. Here’s County Executive Jeff Richardson. “I appreciate the Board’s formal resolution of recognition of Michael Freitas’ retirement and Phyllis Savides’ retirement,” Richardson said. “The third person this afternoon, Siri Russell, the situation is a little different. Siri will be leaving our organization at the end of the month and she will be taking a great opportunity to further her career.” Russell has been the director of Equity and Inclusion for Albemarle and will now be the Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the School of Data Science.“”The good news is that Siri Russell will still be part of our community,” Richardson said. “She will still be part of our organization as a key partner agency.”Richardson lauded Russell for her office’s recent annual report. For her part, Russell thanked the Board for taking the work seriously.“It’s been a resolve for equity, a commitment to inclusion, to a diverse community, to justice, to recognizing lesser told histories and stories and to really furthering the work,” Russell said. “To collaboration with our partners like the city, the University of Virginia, and others.” Russell and Supervisor Ann Mallek recently appeared together on a panel discussion run by the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society.  Later in the meeting, Supervisors discussed possible ways of using their share of American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding. At the public comment period, Roy Van Doorn of Charlottesville spoke on behalf of the area chapter of the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging, and Travel Association and asked for direct funding for recovery funds. “The ARP stipulates that 25 percent of these local funds be devoted to hospitality but the legislative text is not specific on how local governments should meet that goal,” Van Doorn said.Van Doorn pointed to a decline in property assessments for hotel properties, as well as the shuttering of the wedding industry for 15 months, as signs of how the hospitality sector has been hurt. Courtney Cacatian, the executive director of the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau, said tourism provided 3,400 jobs and generated $14 million in tax revenues for Albemarle.  In 2020, that changed. “COVID hit the tourism industry especially hard,” Cacatian said. “As our industry begins to climb back, it’s essential that we invest in promoting the county in order to have a strong recovery.”The CACVB is funded in through transient lodging taxes, which means the budget for marketing is down. Cacatian asked the Board to consider using the ARP funds to make up the difference as well as support for the lodging industry. “The lodging industry has not received local COVID relief to date and I humbly ask the Board of Supervisors to consider providing grants to the sector for recovery,” Cacatian said. Chief Financial Officer Nelsie Birch then briefed the Board on what’s happening with the ARP. In all, the county will receive $21.2 million from the legislation, and half has already been distributed to the county. Unlike with the previous federal CARES funding, the U.S. Treasury directly funded localities, bypassing state governments. Birch described the broad category for how $4 million of the first portion will be spent. “We wanted to continue the work that we had started with the CARES CRF funding that we did on human services, economic activity and business support,” Birch said. “The Board also supported the use of about $3 million for broadband, knowing that that’s probably not all that we may want to contribute, but there was significant funding for broadband.” The rest of the funding could go to help Albemarle government as an organization, but staff are still seeking to identify how the funding would comply with federal rules. The Treasury Department is still taking comments, and so Supervisors won’t be asked to take a final vote on how to use the money until July. Birch recommended a flexible approach to using the balance of the funding, given there are multiple sources of funding. “There is continued need right now because people are not out of the woods, businesses and households are not out of it,” Birch said. “The state is going to have a lot of funding available with respect to mortgage offset, rent relief, utility relief. We don’t yet know specifically how that is going to fund down to a local resident, but we know that there is something there.”The Albemarle Broadband Authority could take up how to use the $3 million at their meeting next Wednesday. The Board of Supervisors will appropriate the full amount of ARP funding at their meeting on July 7. Albemarle Chief Financial Officer Nelsie Birch presents to the Board of Supervisors This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Rob discusses the latest money-grabbing proposal from the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, as Supervisor Diantha "Taxantha" McKeel wants to saddle Albemarle County shoppers with a DC-style 5-cent grocery bag tax.   Also, retired US Border Patrol agent and current Breitbart contributor, Randy Clark, discusses the dire situation on the US southern border, how we got here, and how Joe Biden has turned a bad situation into a disaster.  

Ned Gallaway, Chairman of The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, and Charlottesville City Councilor Lloyd Snook, joined Keith Smith and me on “Real Talk: An Insider's Guide To Real Estate In Central Virginia” powered by The YES Team Realtors! “Real Talk” airs every Tuesday and Friday from 10:15 am – 11 am on The I Love CVille Network! “Real Talk” is presented by Charlottesville Settlement Company, LLC, Pearl Certification, Intrastate Inc., MarieBette Café & Bakery, Scott Morris – Home Loans and Dairy Market.

In today’s Patreon-fueled shout-out...your local energy nonprofit, LEAP, offers FREE home weatherization to income- and age-qualifying residents. If you’re age 60 or older, or have an annual household income of less than $75,100, you may qualify for a free energy assessment and home energy improvements such as insulation and air sealing. Sign up today to lower your energy bills, increase comfort, and reduce energy waste at home!In this installment: Charlottesville’s public housing board gets an update on safety, demand for housing choice vouchers, and a status report on Crescent Halls renovationAlbemarle cuts the ribbon on its new community engagement van… no relation to this newsletter!An informal partnership came together this month to rebuild a boat launch in Riverview Park A very brief question about the Alberene Soapstone quarryThe pandemic is not over, but there are many signs that public life is returning. On Wednesday, members of the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors and senior staff gathered at Darden Towe Park to cut the ribbon on a new van that will be used to support community engagement efforts. Jeff Richardson is the county executive.“It is really good to be with everyone today and I think it’s very fitting that today we are at Darden Towe Park, which I would like everyone to know was our busiest park over the last 14 months  as we’ve worked through this crisis,” Richardson said. County Executive Jeffrey Richardson in person at the kickoff eventIn all, the parks system had a million visitors in the last year as people sought open space. This event was the first in-person celebration of a county service since January 31, 2020. “And on January 31, 2020, we had skate night at Yancey School Community Center, which was the kickoff for the community programming at that new community center,” Richardson said. Supervisor Ned Gallaway said the idea for the van came about last summer as community engagement staff visited parts of Albemarle.“They were popping up in the county at country stores, neighborhoods, parks with regularity to distribute cloth face coverings as needed,” Gallaway said. “And a lot of time went into packing and moving and unpacking materials and stuff spent the events out in the elements for several hours. This van provides a central location to store things and move materials.”The money for the van came from the county’s share of federal pandemic relief funds. But, the event was not just to show off the new community engagement van. The event was held to showcase the series of little libraries by stocking them with a pamphlet on Monacan history written by the late Karenne Wood and Diane Shields. Shields’ and her daughter Teresa Pollak spoke at the event. Let’s hear a long segment.“The land we are on is but a small portion of land inhabited by people who called themselves Yesan, which means ‘the people,’” said Teresa Pollak.  “[The people] inhabited the land in the interior portion of what today we call Virginia from the New River to the fall line at Richmond for hundreds of generations before the arrival of Europeans. Through years of warfare, disease, forced migration, and broken treaties, the original people were reduced to a fraction of their original members, living on a small portion of their original land. They were forced into assimilation by the dominant culture. “The descendants of the original inhabitants are still here today. I am one of those descendants. We are known as Monacan and we understand that the land is the people, and the people is the land and we are not strangers on any of that land that was once considered our territory. As we are able to have air to breathe, water to drink, remember that the original people, my ancestors have been stewards of the land for centuries and they have made it possible for us to enjoy many of our natural resources that we still have.” Diane Shields spoke as well.“For so many generations, the Monacan people were overlooked, or misdiagnosed, or miscalculated, or mis a lot of things,” Shields said. “Our people have been classified as different races than what they were. A lot of that has been corrected. I’m sure all of you are familiar with the Racial Integrity Law. That was a very difficult time for our people as well as all the other Indian communities because of the way we were classified. But those times are pretty much behind us. Now we work with the state to be able to correct birth certificates.” To learn more, go visit a county park and pick up the pamphlet.Teresa Pollak (left) and Diane Shields (right) The Rivanna River meanders down from Darden-Towe Park to Riverview Park which is on the western shore in the city of Charlottesville. Just in time for the Rivanna River Fest, work has wrapped up on an initiative to replace a boat launch and stairway at the park which washed away this past winter. According to a city press release, Woolen Mills resident Bill Emory approached the city this March with a plan to put in a new stairway using donated materials and labor. The Rivanna River Company, the Rivanna Conservation Alliance, and the Piedmont Environmental Council helped coordinate construction, which took place over a three-day period earlier this month. “The result is a new and improved river access point stairway engineered to withstand exposure to strong currents and future flooding events,” reads the press release. Credit: Gabe Silver, Rivanna River CompanyWe’re living in these days, but others have lived here before, spending days in built environments that are no longer with us and places of work that have long been out of business. In southern Albemarle and northern Nelson County, the Alberene Soapstone Company for many years operated out a quarry in Schuyler, fueling the economic fortunes of the village of Esmont.  Peggy Denby of the group Friends of Esmont is hoping to encourage the Albemarle Historic Preservation Committee and the county to take note of the remnants of the former quarry.“They’re beautiful,” Denby said. “I just wanted somebody to know other than me that these things do exist. And I think a story could be written to talk about every one of the pieces of building that are discovered and the process that happened when the quarry was operational.”This includes a canal, a system of trains, and so many other functions that are now gone. The land is in private ownership now. Denby wants the county to consider buying the land. Supervisor Ann Mallek said she purchased material directly from the quarry back in the 1980’s. “It is an incredible place but it will take a special owner to facilitate telling the story,” Mallek said. Mallek pointed out that most of the parkland the county receives comes about my donation. That’s been the case for the Byrom Reserve, Preddy Creek and the new Brook Hill river park. *You’re reading Charlottesville Community Engagement. This show has now been produced for nine and a half months, for people to listen to or read for free. I’m grateful for those who have been able to spend a little money to keep me self-employed, doing this work seven days a week. If you can spare the funds and want to support this show, right now if you pay for a subscription through Substack, Ting will match the amount! So if you’re paying $5 a month, $50 a year, or the very generous $200 a year founder’s subscription, Ting will match the amount in the name of supporting local journalism. This is how I want to spend my time, and every dollar spent goes to build up what is becoming a community resource. Click here to learn more about why Ting is making this effort! Pass it on! *For the rest of the show, we drop in on the April 26, 2021 meeting of the Board of Commissioners of the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority.This is the first week of the year with temperatures coming close to summer-like levels. That’s raising the concern of some Charlottesville residents who are concerned that hotter nights may lead to violence. Laura Goldblatt is one of seven commissioners on the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority, and at Monday’s CRHA Board meeting, she reported from the Safety Committee, which has been reviewing what comes next when a contract with a security firm expires this May. “If there’s going to be security or any groups in public housing communities, the ways that they want them to behave, the ways that they want to behave, what they expect from them, and what they think safety means to them,” Goldblatt said. “The other thing that I’ve heard very clearly from residents in those meetings is a real sense of urgency. People are really concerned about the change in the seasons and the summer coming on and they feel they need a concrete and firm plan and they need to understand what’s going on and they need that to be communicated.”Work has now begun on both renovation of Crescent Halls and construction of new units at the South First Street site. CRHA Chair Betsy Roettger said the time is coming when the CRHA’s development subcommittee will soon turn its attention to what will come next for redevelopment. “We really need to get moving on what we’re going to do next, the next moves and get it in front of residents quickly to get feedback,” Roettger said. Roettger said many of the new CRHA commissioners are relatively new to the group and it would be good for them to get a sense of how the CRHA got to this point.  “It needs to be soon because we’re going to be moving quickly with whatever site is next due to the tax credit application cycle,” Roettger said. The next deadline to apply for low-income housing tax credits from Virginia Housing is next March. There will be an update on redevelopment at a committee meeting next Thursday that members said they would attend, but the idea of an in-person retreat was floated. One Commission said she would prefer to continue meeting virtually for the foreseeable future. Virtual meetings are allowed under the state of emergency, but won’t be once Governor Ralph Northam lifts the order. David Oberg is the legal counsel for the CRHA.“State law does not allow at this point, but it’s very possible it’s going to be changed but at this moment, if the governor removes his emergency order, all local entities will be required to meet in person,” Oberg said. Roettger said she felt the in-person meetings had a dynamic to them created by the physical space in City Council Chambers.“To have us all sitting up high and residents that come sitting in the seats looking up,” Roettger said. There were other updates at the April 26 meeting as well. The wait list for federal housing vouchers opened for a week long period in late March. John Sales is the CRHA executive director. “We now have a total of 1,311 individuals on the waiting list for the [Housing Choice Voucher] program,” Sales said. “We’ve sent out 50 eligibility letters. About a fifth of those are living in public housing now.” Work at Crescent Halls is now underway, according to CRHA Deputy Director Kathleen Glenn-Matthews.“There’s a construction fence up, gravel driveway in the back, they’re getting prepped on the 8th floor,” Glenn-Matthews said. “Work on the first floor is starting May 17 and the substantial completion date right now is set for November 25, 2022.” Residents involved in planning for the second phase of the South First Street redevelopment have begun to meet once more. There was a meeting last night, in fact. The CRHA was awarded low-income housing tax credits for that project in the 2020 cycle. *Mixing up the end here to let you know about an upcoming podcast coming up that celebrates a place none of us have been able to go to for a year - Italy! Tour guide Tullia Maffei hasn’t been able to lead any of her usual adventures, but during the pandemic she teamed up with award winning journalist and producer, Allison Salerno to bring a little bit of that country’s people to your kitchen table or wherever you listen to your podcasts. You’ll now hear a quick promo of Italy - from the Heart!Subscribe in iTunes! This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s Patreon-fueled shout-out from an anonymous supporter: It may seem like we just had an election, but 2021 is once again a city, county, and state election year. Party primaries are coming soon on June 8, 2021. The deadline to register to vote, or update an existing registration is Monday, May 17, 2021. Visit the Virginia Department of Elections to learn more. On today’s show:The Albemarle Board of Supervisors gets an update on the courts expansion and renovationThe Moton Museum in Farmville commemorates 70 years since an important walkoutThere’s a new version of a planned multifamily development planned near Forest LakesThere are three upcoming forums for the Democratic City Council nomination raceOn Friday, federal officials lifted the pause on the administration of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. An advisory panel recommended that additional information about the risk of blood clots be given to people, and the Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration quickly urged states to proceed. Virginia Vaccine Coordinator Danny Avula issued a statement soon after stating that the pause should give additional assurances about the safety of the vaccination process.  (more in the Virginia Mercury)As of this morning, 28.7 percent of Virginians are fully vaccinated and just over 5.9 million doses have been administered. The Johnson and Johnson pause did not slow down the pace as there the seven-day average has remained in the mid-70,000’s. The number of new cases continues to decline this week. For two days in a row, the number of new cases has been under 1,000. That’s the first time that’s happened since late October. The seven-day average is at 1,117 today and the percent positivity is down to 5.4 percent. Source: Virginia Department of HealthThere are still six weeks until the Democratic Primary on June 8, but early voting has begun across Virginia. As of yesterday, 631 mail-in ballots had been requested in Charlottesville according to data contextualized by the Virginia Public Access Project. That figure in Albemarle is 2,276, 260 in Fluvanna, 153 in Greene, 238 in Louisa, and 118 in Nelson. There are three remaining campaign forums for the three Democratic candidates for the two nominations for Charlottesville City Council. The Public Housing Association of Residents will hold an event on May 12, followed by the Martha Jefferson Neighborhood Association on May 20. I’ll be holding an event with Neil Williamson of the Free Enterprise Forum on May 27. The Fry’s Spring Neighborhood Association on March 10 which you can access the audio on Information Charlottesville. There was also an April 6, 2021 event on the I Love Cville video platform.  Aerial overview of the new development (download the PDF)In March, residents of the Forest Lakes neighborhood dominated an Albemarle Planning Commission public hearing for a multifamily apartment complex planned for the intersection of U.S. 29. Go back and read that story if you have a moment. Now RST Development has filed a revised plan with the county that among other things reduces the number of units from 370 to 340. They’ll get there by eliminating 32 townhomes, planting more green space, and adding more landscaping to serve as a buffer. The new proposed unit mix is 254 apartments and 86 townhouses“The proposed buildings in RST Residences are carefully sited to mitigate any adverse visual impact to neighboring properties or public roads,” reads the narrative for the new application. “The tallest proposed building is the 5-story apartment building at the center of the Project. This building would be 540 feet from the intersection of Route 29 and Ashwood Boulevard, and over 320 feet from the property line with Ashland Townhomes.” The narrative states that 75 percent of the multifamily units will comply with affordability guidelines. There is not yet a date when the project is expected to return to the Planning Commission to resume the rezoning process. A list of changes made in this resubmission taken from the new narrativeA Farmville museum dedicated to that community’s role in the long legal battle to desegregate America’s public schools held a ten-hour live virtual event on Friday to commemorate an important event in of Virginia history. Cynthia Hudson is on the Board of Trustees at the which for twenty years has operated out of the R. R. Moton School, which was designated for Black students by the public school system. “Seventy years ago in 1951, students stood right here on this stage, stood up and walked out to protest overcrowding and other poor conditions in their high school,” Hudson said. “Although they didn’t know it at the time, the course of an entire nation would shift as a result of their actions.” A lawsuit was filed against Prince Edward County by the NAACP, and the case became one of five that resulted in the Brown vs. Board of Education case that ended legal segregation and the doctrine of separate but equal. (learn more on Wikipedia)“For decades, the Moton Museum has made itself the home of this vital, ongoing conversation that is just as alive today as it was then,” Hudson said.The walkout in 1951 was led by Barbara Johns, who will be the subject of the new statue that will represent Virginia in the U.S. Capitol. Here’s Delegate Jeion Ward of Virginia’s 92nd District with an update. “We are at the point now where we are looking at hiring a sculptor and making sure that we follow all state procurement laws and after the statue has been designed than we also have to have approval of the sculptor and that’s at three different stages of production by the architect of the U.S. Capitol,” said Delegate Ward. Ward said she credited the work of Johns and her fellow students for leading the way to desegregated education, but that did not end a divided society. “I always referred to myself as a Brown baby because it was the Brown vs Board of Education decision,” Ward said. “Although I was born when the decision was made, I never went to an integrated school and I should have gone my entire school years but I never went until my 12th grade year.” Cameron Patterson is the executive director of the Moton Museum.“What a powerful thing it will be when Barbara Johns’ statue takes its rightful place in the Statuary Hall collection,” Patterson said. “I think it will speak loudly to those young students across the commonwealth that they too can utilize their voice to create change.” The entire ten hour Moton Live event is available for review on YouTube. Up next, a brief look at the Albemarle County Courts expansion and renovation. Watch the event on YouTube and consider a donation*You’re reading Charlottesville Community Engagement. Tomorrow night at 6 p.m., the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society will have another of their “Unregulated Historical Meanderings” series. This time around Siri Russell of Albemarle County’s Office of Equity and Inclusion joins White Hall District Supervisor Ann Mallek on the county’s work “to support the sharing of Albemarle County history to broaden the scope of our publicly told histories to be more inclusive of our complete community.” The event begins at 6 p.m. Register on Zoom or watch on Facebook Live. *The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors got the first verbal update in a couple years on the renovation and expansion of the Courts Complex In Court Square. In December 2018, the Board agreed to proceed with a plan to work with the city of Charlottesville on a joint General District Court. That ended a few years where the Board entertained the idea of moving the courts to a new location outside of downtown Charlottesville. Trevor Henry is the Assistant County Executive. “This is a $44 million cost investment by the county and we believe it’s the largest capital investment the county has made in decades,” Henry said. The current fiscal year includes $5.3 million for the courts project and the draft capital budget for next fiscal year includes $25.17 million. The rest of the funding would come in future years. The costs are based on projections of future caseloads. Supervisors got an update at their April 21 meeting with new information compiled by Fentress Inc, a firm hired to review the planning work done to date. Kurt Schlauch is a senior consultant with Fentress, a company that has no relation with the firm Fentress Architects which has also been working on the design. Fentress Inc’s job has been to review how much would be need to accommodate future workloads of the court.“We look at how much business each court handles on an annual basis and look at the trends, then the number of judgeships and staff that are required to manage that caseload and handle that caseload and interface with the public,” Schlauch said.   Image taken from the staff report for the April 21, 2021 discussionFentress Inc. was hired during the pandemic at a time when so many ways of doing business were re-examined.   “You know, how might space planning  change and what technologies might be involved in the future that maybe have not been involved in the past,” Schlauch said. “Those items were really front and center for us.” Fentress Inc’s work also included consultation from Neal Goodloe, a planner with the Thomas Jefferson Criminal Justice Board.“We had some very important conversations with him about recent trends in law enforcement and prosecution locally and what we were seeing in some of the numbers,” Schlauch said.Albemarle is within Virginia’s 16th Judicial Circuit which has six judges. Currently Albemarle is handled by an equivalent of 1.4 judges with Judge Cheryl Higgins being the only one serving full-time. Steve White is with Fentress Architects. He said the court design will also take into account the ability for business to be conducted remotely. “There are a lot of things that actually COVID has accelerated,” White said. “Things like video arraignments now are very common as a result which are actually safer environments.” A reanalysis of cases under this new lens has caused both Fentress Architects and Fentress Inc to rethink how the new buildings will be laid out. “One full judgeship for that county caseload appears that it will be sufficient both in the short-term and at this juncture, even in the long-term” Schlauch said. Schlauch said an analysis of Charlottesville’s cases in addition to Albemarle’s means changes to the joint General District Court, which covers more routine infractions. Here’s Steve White again, talking about the second floor of the district court building.“One key difference between this court set and what was done a few years ago is that each of these courtrooms is now 400 square feet larger per courtroom and the reason for that is in discussions with the two judges that volume of traffic court is highly efficient if they can get as many people in the courtroom as possible,” White said. At the conclusion of the presentation, Supervisors approved a request to proceed to schematic design. A model of how the site might look in the future. It’s the final slide in the presentation given to the Board of Supervisors on April 21, 2021 (download it!)Last week, Albemarle County announced the creation of the Office of Broadband Accessibility and Affordability and the appointment of Michael Culp as its first director. Culp has been the county’s information technology director and has been spending time in that position recent initiatives to expand access to internet in rural portions of the county. Under his tenure, the Board of Supervisors authorized creation of the Albemarle Broadband Authority that has been awarded about $3.5 million in grants and helped put together public-private partnerships. The authority, which goes by acronym ABBA, meets next on Monday at 5 p.m. Michael Culp, the director of the new Albemarle Office of Broadband Accessibility and Affordability This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s Patreon-fueled shout-out from an anonymous supporter: It may seem like we just had an election, but 2021 is once again a city, county, and state election year. Party primaries are coming soon on June 8, 2021. The deadline to register to vote, or update an existing registration is Monday, May 17, 2021. Visit the Virginia Department of Elections to learn more at .elections.virginia.gov. On today’s show:Campaign finance reports are in for candidates in Albemarle and CharlottesvilleA developer of below-market housing units explains some of the financial details The Free Enterprise Forum takes a look at the make-up of local government revenuesThe first campaign finance reports are in for the Charlottesville City Council race and the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors. The Virginia Public Access Project has updated their campaign finance database with new reports from all of the Democrats who have filed in both races. Let’s start with the two seats for City Council. City Councilor Heather Hill is not running for re-election. Independent Mayor Nikuyah Walker announced re-election last year, but the Virginia Public Access Project does not yet include a report from her campaign. Four-term Charlottesville School Board member Juandiego Wade raised $55,544 in the first quarter of the year, with 77 contributions of over $500. That includes one $5,000 donations from Sonjia Smith and another $5,000 from Seminole Trail Management LLC. So far Wade has spent $13,893. Brian Pinkston, who ran for the Democratic nomination in 2019, raised $40,578 between February 7 and March 31 according to material published on VPAP. That includes 53 contributions of more than $100 including a $5,000 contribution from Seminole Trail Management LLC. Pinkston has spent $828 in itemized expenses and the total amount raised includes $7,685 in in-kind expenses. The report from Charlottesville Businessman Carl Brown shows the candidate has raised no money and spent no money, and has a campaign balance of $25. The VPAP update also does not include a report from independent candidate Yas Washington. In Albemarle County, there are reports for the three Democrats in the three magisterial district races. So far there are no independents or Republicans.Newcomer Jim Andrews raised $25,876 in his campaign to succeed Liz Palmer as the supervisor for the Samuel Miller district. That includes $2,518 from Liz Palmer’s campaign, and $5,000 donations a piece from Sonjia Smith and Michael Bills. Andrews’ campaign spent $928 and recorded $400 in in-kind expenses. Jack Jouett District incumbent Diantha McKeel raised $11,605 in the first quarter, and had a balance of $25,543 on March 31. McKeel spent $532. Rio District incumbent Ned Gallaway raised no money in the first quarter but began the year with a balance of $5,693. His campaign spent $28. So far, there are no independents or Republican candidates in any of the three supervisors races. One of the biggest issues facing any of the candidates elected this November is housing. There are many calls for local governments to invest more in subsidizing the cost to provide units to people whose household incomes are below the area median income. To educate policymakers throughout the wider area, the Central Virginia Regional Housing Partnership has been holding a speaker series to illustrate the challenges and obstacles from the perspective of the building and development community. Yesterday, on April 15, the guest was William Park, the president of Pinnacle Construction. He went through the many line items that go into a financial calculation about how much it costs to build new housing. He said at the moment, one of the major factors is rising prices for materials, with some elements costing as high as four times as much as they did a year ago. “Give you an example, I was just writing a purchase order the other day that I struggled to sign it,” Park said. “OSB 716 that we use many times for sheeting on our walls and our roofs. In an apartment project, we may have 30,000 sheets of OSB. Typically I’m in the $10 range. I signed a PO the other day for $42 a sheet.” Another factors are permits, taxes, insurance, recording fees, financial statements, legal fees, and everything it takes in order to get a building permit.“And then reserves that we have to set aside for working capital and initial operating deficit,” Park said. Park also detailed ways to help cover the costs in order to deliver housing units that can be rented out below what the market could bring in. These include grants from the federal or state government, as well as tax-exempt bonds from entities such as economic development authorities. Many projects Park has worked on involve Virginia Housing, formerly known as the Virginia Housing Development Authority. “They get a large portion of the tax-exempt bond allocation that goes to the state,” Park said. “The other tool that we use almost extensively for anything below the 60 percent area median income is the low-income housing tax credit.” You’ll often hear the acronym LIHTC for low-income housing tax credits. This has helped subsidize construction of “affordable” projects in Albemarle County ranging from Crozet Meadows to Wood’s Edge. In Charlottesville, recent projects with low-income housing tax credits include Carlton Views. There are different kinds of tax credits for different kinds of projects. (Virginia Housing page on low-income housing tax credits)“If we’re allocated tax credits, we sell those tax credits to a corporate entity and they in return get a dollar for dollar credit against their federal tax liability,” Park said. This builds equity in the project which brings down the amount that needs to be financed. This is a competitive process. In this year’s cycle, Virginia Supportive Housing is applying for tax credits for their portion of the redevelopment of the Red Carpet Inn. Piedmont Housing is applying for the tax credits for the 70 apartment units they are building at Southwood. (current applications)This slide from William Park’s presentation illustrates how tax credits are intended to work. Park said there are other options for projects that seek to provide an affordable rent for households who make between 60 percent and 80 percent of the area median income. Virginia Housing has a mixed-income financing program.“They have a particular program where they use taxable bonds,” Park said. “Twenty percent would have to be set aside for those tenants at AMI 80 percent or less. The other 80 percent could be unrestricted as far as rents, or you could choose the 40/60 option which would be 40 percent below 100 percent AMI and the balance 60 percent unrestricted.” The concept of “affordable housing” means different things to different people. Park said there are a lot of misunderstandings based on biases and prejudices. “When the low-income housing tax credit was first promulgated, one of the worst things they ever did was entitle it the ‘low-income housing tax credit’ because I think at that point everybody thinks you’re talking about people that don’t work, that have no other chance to provide anything to society, which is totally wrong.” Park said interventions to reduce rents provide places to live for service workers, including first responders and teachers. In an affluent community like Charlottesville, the area median income is high, at $93,900, putting many homes out of reach. Park suggested ways to help developers lower the cost of projects include expedited initial reviews, reduced parking requirements, and increased building heights. He also said a less adversarial relationship between developer and local government would also help.“The planning staff needs to be an advocate and really help get us through the process for this affordable housing because time is money and if we’re sitting there with a deal that we’ve looked at and the interest rate needs to be five percent, and all of a sudden this thing has taken eight or nine months to get through, and now interest rates are now six percent, well the deal may not work anymore, and that’s the reality of it,” Park said. The full recording of the event will soon be made available on the YouTube page for the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission. City Council adopted their budget for Fiscal Year 2022 this week, and we still wait to see the details on how a multimillion revenue shortfall will be closed for the current fiscal year. City Council will get an update on Monday. Albemarle will hold a public hearing on their budget on April 28 followed by adoption on May 5. But how did things go in fiscal year 2020, which ended last June 30. The Free Enterprise Forum has released its annual revenue report which analyzes how each government in the planning district gets it tax money. “The analysis seeks to develop comparative metrics to examine the taxation trends in each locality and determine if these trends can be correlated to other localities,” reads the introduction to the Revenue Report. “In addition, The Revenue Report seeks to promote understanding of the impact of business and economic development to diversify a locality’s tax revenue streams.” The report found that Charlottesville gets 35.7 percent of its local tax revenue from commercial sources, including property taxes paid by businesses. That compares to 27.3 percent in Albemarle, nearly 8 percent in Fluvanna County, nearly 20 percent in Greene County, 13 percent in Louisa, and 20.4 percent in Greene.For more on the report, check out the Free Enterprise Forum’s blog. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s Patreon-fueled shout-out from an anonymous supporter: It may seem like we just had an election, but 2021 is once again a city, county, and state election year. Party primaries are coming soon on June 8, 2021. The deadline to register to vote, or update an existing registration is Monday, May 17, 2021.On today’s show:Charlottesville hires a deputy manager for racial equity, diversion, and inclusionArea counties consider a cigarette tax Charlottesville Police seeks help in addressing a string of shootings this weekendThe Environmental Resilience Institute at the University of Virginia begins the Climate Ambition Summit tomorrowAlbemarle launches a grant program aimed at agribusiness Charlottesville has hired its first-ever Deputy City Manager for Racial Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. Ashley Reynolds Marshall is currently the chief executive office of the YWCA of Central Virginia in Lynchburg. Marshall is a Roanoke native with degrees from Hollins University, William of Mary School of Law and Virginia Tech, where she is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in public administration and policy. The new position will oversee the Human Services and Social Service Departments as well as the Police Civilian Review Board and the Office of Human Rights. Marshall begins work on May 10, 2021. The city is also seeking a new city attorney, neighborhood services development director, social services director, and a deputy city manager for operations. Ashley Reynolds Marshall (Credit: City of Charlottesville)The Charlottesville Police Department issued a press release this afternoon asking for community support in the wake of a series of shootings this month. The release lists four incidents where officers reported to shots fired. One man was shot Sunday evening in the 100 block of Hammond Street, a cul-de-sac in the Fry’s Spring neighborhood. “In addition to the major events over the weekend, CPD responded to 3 additional shots fired calls, 3 stolen vehicles, 29 disorders, and numerous mental health related calls,” the release continued. The cases are under investigation. Last Thursday, the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission got an update on the possibility of a regional cigarette tax. The TJPDC is leading efforts to create a body that would collect and distribute the revenues to participating localities. The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors had received an update at their budget work session on March 22. Lori Allshouse is the director of budget and performance management for Albemarle County. “During the 2020 General Assembly, they authorized the county to impose a cigarette tax of up to 40 cents per pack for counties,” Allshouse said. “Up until this time, only Virginia cities, Virginia towns, and Arlington and Fairfax counties have been able to impose a cigarette tax,” Allshouse said. If Albemarle proceeds with going through the various steps to levy the tax, any revenues would go to the general fund. Those steps include adoption of an ordinance following a public hearing. The tax has also been reviewed by the county’s Office of Equity and Inclusion (OEI)“As part of that process we began our consideration of this proposed tax by seeking first to understand who could be most affected by this tax and how could those impacts be experienced and mitigated,” Allshouse said. The Board will hold a work session on the equity impact assessment in August. Research on this topic found the cigarette tax would impact the poor and black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). Jason Inofuentes is a project and policy associate in OEI who cited a University of Pittsburgh study on the effects of taxation and smoking rates.“Where you see the highest decrease in smoking is in the highest incomes,” Inofuentes said. “There is overall some amount of decrease. There isn’t however any noticeable decrease in low-income communities.” Credit: Albemarle County If implemented, the goal is to have all localities in the area impose the tax so no one locality has a competitive advantage. David Blount is the legislative liaison for the TJPDC and he addressed the Board of Commissioner on Thursday. “I think from here we see that following this meeting within the next week or so that we would send out some materials to every jurisdiction in our region, which would be the city and the five counties as well as the four towns in our region, but also casting the net a little bit wider to some of the counties that adjoin our member counties,” Blount said. Blount is asking localities to consider resolutions to express interest in participating and to authorize their staff to participate in the discussion.“Certainly not asking anybody at this point to commit to anything, commit to participating, or commit to anything beyond just an interest,” Blount said. “I think by the time we get to summer time with June and July rolling around, we really want to be looking at what does this regional board look like? What are its functions? What is the make-up of the board? What is the legal makeup? Those types of things.” Greene County Supervisor Dale Herring representatives said his locality was interested. “I think what the TJPDC is doing is the direction we need to go on,” Herring said. Fluvanna’s representatives also said they were interested. Albemarle Supervisor Donna Price told the TJPDC that her county wants to pursue the regional approach. “We don’t anticipate that the revenue that is generated is going to be significant enough to result in a reduction of our property tax,” Price said. No referendum would be required if localities agree. More information as it becomes available. Credit: Albemarle County Regional budget updatesAt the end of the TJPDC meeting, Commissioners from all six localities had the chance to give updates. Jesse Rutherford is on the Nelson County Board of Supervisors.“Real quick, just want to say we’re looking at lowering our machine and tools tax as well as lowering our personal property tax rates,” Rutherford said. The public hearing for the Nelson County’s $41.7 million budget is scheduled for May 4 with adoption expected on May 11. (budget website)Tommy Barlow is on the Louisa County Board of Supervisors.“We’re still struggling along with our budget trying to figure out what to do with that and get it resolved,” Barlow said.Louisa’s proposed budget does not appear to be available on the county’s budget website. Adoption is expected on April 19. Albemarle has completed their cycle of five budget work sessions and adoption is scheduled for May 5.“We were able to cancel the last work session that we were going to have on the budget,” Price said. “We’re looking at getting about $10 million in the first tranche of funds from the federal government in May and the same amount next year. We know that at some point the federal government can’t continue to be providing these funds but they really have been a lifesaver for us this year.” Fluvanna County will have its public hearing on its budget on April 14 with adoption scheduled for April 21. Their proposed budget is based on a property tax rate of $0.884 per $100 of assessed value, down from the current rate of $0.925. Tony O’Brien is a member of the Board of Supervisors. “In our budget we’ve included taking out a loan of about $25 million to work on a new administration building and update some of our fire and rescue vehicles as well as the sheriff and busses as well too,” O’Brien said. Herring gave an update on Greene County’s budget.“Our tax rate will stay the same,” Herring said. “Our assessments did go up. We would have probably looked at lowering our [tax rate] this year if it wasn’t for our debt associated with our [Rapidan Service Authority] water authority.”For more details on that issue, read Terry Beigie’s story on the on-going issue. The Greene County Board of Supervisors convened this afternoon to vote on a resolution requesting that Orange and Madison counties allow Greene to leave the Rapidan Service Authority. The RSA objects with a plan to impound White Run to create a new reservoir and did not allow Greene to use a facility fee that had been charged to cover the cost of the project. Schematic image for White Run Reservoir projectThe application window opened today on a new grant program Albemarle County is offering to a specific industry affected by COVID-19. The Albemarle Agribusiness Resiliency Grant Program is aimed at farms and agricultural operations who have bit hit by the downturn. Awards of up to $10,000 are available for direct-market agribusinesses such as orchards, wineries, cideries and more. “One of our region’s greatest assets is the wealth of local farms, food businesses, and the resilience of our food system,” reads the pre-application. “COVID-19 has caused this system to be challenged in ways unimaginable.”The window closes on April 21. Finally today, local governments in the area as well as the University of Virginia have set ambitious goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 45 percent by 2030 and to be carbon neutral by 2050. Tomorrow, the Environmental Resilience Institute at UVA begins a series of virtual events designed to help connect many of the pieces together. Karen McGlathery is the director of ERI.“We decided to call it the Climate Ambition Summit because we have ambitious goals that we need to reach by 2050 if we’re going to have any chance of bending the curve with regard to climate change and climate warming,” McGlathery said. At 1:30 p.m. UVA Provost Liz Magill will interview Environmental Sciences Professor Scott Doney on what’s been learned in the last five years since the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “Frontiers of Climate Science is essentially what we’re calling it,” McGlathery said. “Essentially what’s happened in the last five years in terms of climate research that can really help us develop realistic strategies to address climate change both in terms of reducing the amount of carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere but also taking it out of the atmosphere.” The next event on Friday at 2 p.m. explores Climate Risk and the Opportunity for Private Capital. A Climate Justice panel will be held on April 13 at 2 p.m. “So we’ll be thinking about [how] every climate change issue is an environmental justice issue so both on the local scale but also on the broader regional and national scale,” McGlathery said. The final event in the four-part series is another interview between a top UVA official and an expert in the field.“The final event we have in the series is a conversation between President Jim Ryan and Dr. Arun Majumdar from Stanford University who was the head of the transition team for President Biden for the Department of Energy,” McGlathery said. “They’re going to be having a conversation about how we can as a society meet these ambitious net-zero carbon goals in the future.”The events are open to the public and will be recorded, very much in keeping with how our lives have been lived in the past year. McGlathery said there are lessons to be learned from the pandemic.“What the pandemic has taught us is that it’s possible to come together to address a broad societal issues that’s urgent and that seems almost insurmountable in the beginning, but the success of coming out with a vaccine in such a small time period shows that it’s possible to have a global strategy, to have an actual strategy,” McGlathery said. Visit the ERI website to learn more. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s subscriber-supported information announcement. This shout-out is in celebration of Stewart Johnston's birthday. In celebration, please consider donating to your favorite environmental charity in his honor. I’ll put a list at the end of the newsletter. Here’s to you, Stewart, and hope you have a good day. On today’s show:Solar panels are being planned for the long-closed Ivy Landfill The Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority is briefed on what to do with land for the never-built Buck Mountain reservoirOne candidate for City Council has failed to make the primary ballot and another’s slot is still pending The Charlottesville Area Community Foundation make a multimillion commitment to an affordable housing projectAnd the Local Food Hub moves its drive-through market to new location  Only four of the five candidates in the race for two Democratic nominations to City Council have qualified for the June 8 primary, and another’s slot is still pending. Yas Washington did not obtain the 125 signatures of registered city voters required to get on the ballot. That means Carl E. Brown, Brian Pinkston and Juandiego Wade are on the ballot, and the registrar’s office is still waiting to finalize Josh Carp’s paperwork. Carp did turn in at least 125 signatures but has additional paperwork that must be received by tomorrow at 5 p.m.However, a staff member in the Charlottesville registrar’s office told me this morning that Washington can still qualify for the November ballot as an independent should she choose to do so. In 2009, candidate Andrew Williams failed to qualify for the ballot in the Democratic primary, but later ran as a write-in candidate. Williams did qualify for the general election ballot in 2011 as an independent candidate.  Stay tuned for more information about upcoming campaign forums. The Charlottesville School Board has voted to designate Jim Henderson as the Acting Superintendent of the city school system. He’ll take over from Rosa Atkins, who retires as of May 31 and is taking a position in the Virginia Department of Education. Henderson worked in Charlottesville Schools for more than 40 years before retiring in 2020. He began as a teacher at Clark Elementary in 1975. (read more)Source: Charlottesville City SchoolsThe Charlottesville Area Community Foundation has made its largest ever grant with $4.25 million going to Piedmont Housing Alliance for their redevelopment of land on U.S. 29. Piedmont Housing is working with the Thomas Jefferson Area Coalition for the Homeless and Virginia Supportive Housing to redevelop the Red Carpet Inn site for a total of 140 units that will be guaranteed to be rented at prices for people with extremely low and very low incomes. Eboni Bugg is the director of programs for the CACF. “This first came on our radar last April when we received a grant application from TJACH and PACEM and the Haven regarding wanting to ensure that there was a non-congregate option for our homeless community members so that they could weather the pandemic without being in congregate shelter,” Bugg said.The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors rezoned the land for the project in February. The Red Carpet Inn will continue to be used as a shelter by TJACH in the short-term as the project moves forward. Bugg said the CACF’s investment is made in the spirit of community health. There will be an update on grant at an event on April 15. Anthony Haro of the Thomas Jefferson Area Coalition for the Homeless (TJACH) speaks with Eboni Bugg of the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation at the Red Carpet inn (Credit: CACF)Plans are being crafted to install solar panels atop 12 acres of the Ivy Landfill, which has been closed since 1998. The facility is now run by the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority to oversee a remediation program and now contains a Materials Utilization Center where people can discard various items. Dominion Power has been working on the project since 2017, but legislation allowing Dominion and Appalachian Power to proceed with solar energy facilities didn’t become law until last April. Phil McKalips is the director of solid waste. “We just found out about a month ago that our project has been selected by Dominion for the program,” McKalips said. “We’ve already reached out to neighbors in the area and seem to have gotten quite positive feedback from them.”Dominion will need up to a year to finalize interconnection agreements and construction could get underway next spring. The facility will be owned by the Community Power Group and not by Dominion, who will purchase the energy from CPG. They will pay the RSWA $800 per acre per year for a 20-year period. “There is a possibility of later on adding one megawatt, basically 50 percent increase if Dominion seems to think that will be advantageous,” McKalips said. Community Power Group will be responsible for maintaining the landscape and the panels. Albemarle County will need to grant a special use permit for the project. Under the plans, Dominion will get all of the green energy credits associated with the project. Source: Rivanna Solid Waste Authority meeting packet for March 23, 2021You’re reading Charlottesville Community Engagement. What do you know about rock music? Want to put it to the test? Join WTJU virtually on April 16 for their first-ever Trivia Night at 8 p.m. Join a team in the virtual pub and put your screens together to answer rounds of questions with themes that relate to rock, radio, and local lore. There will be merriment! There will be prizes! Trivia Night is just three days before the beginning of the rock marathon, a seven-day extravaganza to help fund the station. Visit wtju.net to learn more! After the solid waste meeting, the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority met and got a presentation on plans to continue owning and managing hundreds of acres of land in the White Hall district. “It’s up in the northern part of the county near Earlysville and Free Union,” said Andrea Bowles, the water resources manager for the RWSA      . The property was purchased in the 80’s for the proposed Buck Mountain Reservoir, but that project was abandoned when the presence of the endangered James River spinymussel was detected. That would have made permitting extremely difficult if not impossible.“There’s a total of 1,314 acres and it cost the Authority $6.95 million,” Bowles said.Some of the land is currently being used to satisfy the terms of an Army Corps of Engineers permit that allowed for the expansion of the Ragged Mountain Reservoir. “Back in 2012, we started working on our mitigation plan for the impacts that we had at Ragged Mountain Reservoir and we impacted a lot of streams and we impacted of wetlands so we used the Buck Mountain property as the stream restoration area or the stream mitigation area,” Bowles said.This meant planting of trees along Buck Mountain Creek and other waterways for a total of about 80,000 linear feet of new riparian buffers. “We planted over 40,500 trees and we placed 600 of those acres into deed restrictions,” Bowles said. In 2019, a landowner came forward to ask to buy some of the land back, and the RWSA Board directed staff to come up with a master plan for how the property should be managed.  “Whatever we’re doing up there, we want to address it through our mission and our values and our strategic plan goals,” Terry said. “So environmental stewardship, we would like to have water quality protection, operational optimization. We’d like to be efficient in how we use those properties and sustainable with the use of resources.”There are 484 acres that are leased for others for agricultural use generating about $1,900 a year in revenue and one recommendation in the plan is to increase the rents to market value. None of the deed restricted lands are leased. “And the other thing we would like to do is evaluate additional parcels for leases,” Staff has also reviewed the possibility of selling some of the land and what the development potential might be. They’re recommending demolishing one structure known as the Buck Mountain House and selling off lots, potentially netting the RWSA between $243,000 and $325,000. There’s also the issue of a bridge over a creek on RWSA land that is failing and many have liability issues. Staff is recommending removing the bridge after 2024, which is when the time RWSA will no longer need to use the bridge.Supervisor Liz Palmer said she needed to hear more voices on that last issue.“I’m just going to put out there that I think we definitely need to know what the neighbors thinks about this before we do anything and hear from them,” Palmer said. Palmer also said that other members of the Board of Supervisors have expressed concerns about selling the lots for development.“Can these be put into conservation easement to remove those development rights so we don’t have clusters of homes?” Palmer asked. No decisions were made and the plan will come back to the RWSA Board in the future.The RWSA Board was also presented with a $38.95 million budget for the next fiscal year, split between $20.533 million for operating expenses and $18,418 million in debt service. The public hearing for the budget will be held on May 25. Last year, the RWSA drew about a million from its reserves in order to prevent rate increases. Bill Mawyer is the executive director of the RWSA.“As we move forward into the next year we have reduced that contribution from our reserve  funds,” Mawyer said. The charges to the Charlottesville Department of Utilities will be increased by 7.6 percent and the charges to the Albemarle County Services Authority will increase by 14.3 percent. The RWSA sells water to the city and the ACSA on a wholesale basis, and those two entities retail rates for individual customers. The RWSA budget has more than doubled since 2007 due to capital projects to expand capacity and to make upgrades to becoming compliant with Virginia Department of Environmental Quality mandates. According to a cost-share allocation, Albemarle can expect larger increases in rates to cover the cost of increased capacity and redundancy. For a year now, the Local Food Hub has been running a drive-through market in order to connect local food producers with customers. They’ve done so in the parking lot of the former K-Mart, but have recently moved to a different space. The market now operates at Seminole Square Shopping Center on land owned by the Great Eastern Management Company. “We’ve realized over the past year that the desire for safe and convenient access to local food is strong and enduring,” said Local Food Hub Executive Director Kristen Suokko in a press release. “As the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel continues to brighten, we remain committed to bridging the gaps between our community and our farmers as effectively as we can.”The market operates on a preorder-only, drive-through basis. Ordering for the Wednesday market is open Thursday at 3:00pm-Monday at 2:00pm. Ordering for the Friday market is open Monday at 3:00pm-Thursday at noon. Place orders at www.localfoodhub.org/market.Some environmental organizations you might consider donating to for Stewart Johnston’s birthday:Blue Ridge Foothills ConservancyChesapeake Bay FoundationJames River AssociationNature Conservancy of VirginiaPiedmont Environmental CouncilRivanna Conservation AllianceSierra Club of VirginiaSouthern Environmental Law CenterVirginia Conservation NetworkVirginia Native Plant SocietyVirginia Outdoors FoundationWild Virginia This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

On today’s show:Albemarle local government and school employees may get a $1,000 bonusThe MPO Policy Board is briefed on several transportation projectsCharlottesville’s public housing board held an emergency meeting todayAnd Albemarle County begins taking public comment on a new housing policyToday's Patreon-fueled shout-out is for the Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Campaign, an initiative that wants you to grow native plants in yards, farms, public spaces and gardens in the northern Piedmont. Native plants provide habitat, food sources for wildlife, ecosystem resiliency in the face of climate change, and clean water.  Start at the Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Facebook page and tell them Lonnie Murray sent you!     The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors and the Albemarle School Board met last Thursday to begin the public side of the budget cycle. In Virginia, school boards do not have the power to raise their own money, so legislative bodies have to factor in school needs when setting a tax rate.  “We’re here to kind of kick off and get started with the things that roll right into our budget season which is right upon us,” said Albemarle Supervisor Ned Gallaway. “We are pleased to be with the supervisors as we start out with this budget season,” said Graham Paige, the chair of the Albemarle School Board. Recently, Albemarle unpaused several capital projects that were delayed due to the uncertainty involving the pandemic’s effect on the local economy. These include an addition at Crozet Elementary School. But, the main topic for Thursday’s meeting is a major factor that Albemarle’s budget staff need to consider as they tally up projected expenditures. Matt Haas is the Superintendent of Albemarle Public Schools. “I’m really grateful for this opportunity to be here with the Albemarle County School Board, the Board of Supervisors and our staff to have a conversation with what I think we all might consider is a high priority, compensation for our employees,” Haas said. Albemarle Superintendent Matt HaasHaas said this previous year has been very difficult for schools around the world as normal was turned upside down. There’s a lot of work that goes into providing the services associated with public schools. “Since then our employees, our teachers, our nurses, teaching assistants, building services staff, principals, bus drivers, aides, our child nutrition staff, and our leadership team have come together [and] treated every day as an opportunity to learn and improve, both virus mitigation and safety, providing for student and family needs in terms of meals and essentials and amazingly, high-quality teaching and learning, whether it is provided online or out at the school,” Haas said. This year, school employees did not get a raise due to the county’s decision to play it safe fiscally. A projected increase to a minimum wage of $15 an hour was also shelved. Still, Haas sounded optimistic.“As you know, it’s a new year, “ Haas said. “Although some of the events we have witnessed since January 1 might make it seem like we’re still experiencing 2020, we’re now actually in 2021 and due to the smart moves of our local government and school finance staff, we are in better position than I thought we might have been right now.” But, are conditions favorable enough to increase compensation? On January 20, the Board of Supervisors were told that overall tax assessments in Albemarle were up 1.4 percent, which could bring in additional revenue depending on the property tax rate. Andy Bowman in the county’s budget office sounded a realistic tone. “T his will be the slowest growth in our reassessments since the Great Recession and that will be especially impactful in the revenue picture next year,” Bowman said. “As the Boards may know, a little more than half of the county’s operating revenue comes from real estate taxes.”Bowman said the budget office sees the economy as uncertain and unstable at this time. “We are seeing that the county revenues are stabilizing but we have not stabilized,” Bowman said. “And as the pandemic continues, we are not through that, either.” However, Bowman said budget staff have identified a source of revenue to provide for a one-time funding for several ways to shore up the county, including employee compensation using the term “stablizing the county’s workforce”. The budgets are still being prepared and will be presented in mid to late February. A third of the school’s budget comes from the state, and the rest comes from local taxes. That means the school’s budget depends on what is proposed in Virginia’s budget. Maya Kumazawa is the budget and planning director for Albemarle Schools. She said the system will receive more money than expected in the current fiscal year. “There are a few things listed in FY21 that add up to approximately $5 million that we are anticipated to receive in the current year above what we have adopted, so this would fall under one-time funding as Mr. Bowman described,” Kumazawa said. “In addition for next year, the Governor’s proposed budget includes a two-percent one-time bonus for SOQ funded positions which is likely to turn into a raise pending more information about revenue forecasts.” The elected officials were told that other major employers have already made the jump to $15 an hour. Dana Robb is with Albemarle’s human resources department.  “We are still seeing trends of some local employers moving towards [$15 an hour] or have, such as the city of Charlottesville, University of Virginia, and Sentara Martha Jefferson,” Robb said. The Commonwealth of Virginia is also increasing its minimum wage to $15 gradually through 2026. So, what’s the one-time proposal? Lorna Gerome is   Albemarle’s human resources director and she said the county was proposing…“To provide a lump-sum payment of $1,000 for all regular full-time employees and some portion of that for part-time,” Gerome said. “This would come out of existing year-end fund balance and we would be able to do it this spring.” For local government, that would use a maximum of $850,000 of the county’s surplus. For the school government, that would be a maximum of a $2.7 million drawdown of their fund balance of $8.6 million. The idea of the one-time payment had general support from both elected bodies. Here’s Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley of the Rivanna District. “I think this $1,000 lump sum payment is a way of saying ‘we see you, we recognize you, this is what we can do for now and we appreciate all you have done for us in making sure that local government runs for all of the people of Albemarle,” LaPisto-Kirtley said. Others, however, were concerned that the county has not been able to increase salaries. Dave Oberg represents the White Hall District. “From my perspective, I appreciate the thought of hey, look, we’re going to give a bonus,” Oberg said. “I get that. But the problem is that I think there’s a danger that assuages our guilt. We didn’t give you the raise that we thought we would give you, but we’re giving you a bonus. And I just think that’s a problem.” Supervisor Bea LaPisto-KirtleyLast week, the regional body that takes votes on transportation projects met for the first time in 2021.One item on the agenda was a public hearing on a cost increase for the Belmont Bridge replacement. That project has been in the planning stages for over ten years and set to get under construction this year. The cost estimate for the project is $31.1 million, or about six million higher than the most recent estimate included within the Metropolitan Planning Organization’s transportation improvement program. Charlottesville’s capital budget for the current fiscal year includes $5 million toward the project, and the draft capital improvement program includes $2.5 million. No one spoke at the public hearing. State and federal funding for the Belmont Bridge predate the Virginia Department of Transportation’s Smart Scale process. Results of the fourth round were recently released. VDOT engineer Chuck Proctor told the MPO Policy Board that the area was successful in getting many projects recommended.“In the MPO area there were 15 total projects, 13 of them were funded,” Proctor said. “The only ones that weren’t funded were the Hillsdale Drive South extension and the Fray’s Mill intersection on 29.”That last project is in the scope of an MPO study that will soon get underway to look at U.S. 29 between Airport  Road in Albemarle County and the intersection with U.S. 33 in Greene County. “The purpose of this corridor study is to develop broad transportation recommendations that complement the existing land use designations in the study area,” said transportation planner Jessica Hersh-Ballering. “This will not just be personal motor vehicles. This will be transit, bicycle, and pedestrian transportation. Source: Thomas Jefferson Planning District CommissionOn January 20, the Greene Planning Commission recommended approval of a zoning amendment that will allow construction to begin on 1,180 new homes off Preddy Creek Road. (Read Terry Beigie’s story in the Greene County Record to learn more)There’s also the possibility that Greene County could be added to the jurisdictional boundaries of the MPO. Sandy Shackelford is the director of planning and transportation at the MPO. “We’re also going to be recommending that we use a consultant to do an MPO strategic plan, specifically as we start looking at the possibility of changing the MPO boundaries,” Shackleford said. “We think this is a really good opportunity to review and define who it is that we’re serving. Who is our client? Is that the elected officials? Is it members of the public at large? Is that our local government bodies and staff? We really want to spend some time thinking about who it is that we are doing this work for.” MPO members were interested in a recommendation from staff to find ways to raise additional revenue for transportation projects through public-private partnerships. City Councilor and MPO Chair Michael Payne said he would welcome work from staff on how transportation programs can be altered to help address climate change. “Connecting our climate action plan project to our capital projects and transportation projects, [and] think about how they interact with induced demand and emissions from transportation,” Payne said. Toward the end of the meeting, the MPO was briefed on a pair of grants intended to expand transit in the region. One is a $350,000 grant to create a regional vision for transit, and the other is a $106,215 feasibility study for expanded transit in Albemarle. “The $350,000 for the vision plan is intended to go beyond any work that the Regional Transit Partnership has already done,” said Hersh-Ballering. “Like what Richmond did, we’re trying to come up with a really clear plan for what kind of investment all of our transit agencies are going to make in the future. It will not get down to the details of route planning or determine how many vehicles to buy.”  Finally, this was the last MPO meeting run by Chip Boyles, who will become City Manager on February 15. Christina Jacobs will serve as interim director of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission while a search is conducted by Boyles’ replacement. Albemarle County has released a draft housing policy that seeks to increase the number of units by thousands. “By fostering a variety of housing types that are affordable to individuals and families with diverse incomes, Albemarle County seeks to ensure a thriving, sustainable community for all, today and well into the future,” reads a description of the plan on the online questionnaire for Housing Albemarle. The plan is based on forecasts that show Albemarle growing to a population of over 138,000 people by 2040. The Housing Albemarle draft suggests 11,750 more units are needed by then, and the document is intended to suggest ways to get there. That could include increased density in development areas, creation of permanently affordable housing on county-owned land, and designation of Housing Rehabilitation Zones. (Weldon Cooper projections) The questionnaire will be open through February 15. The Board of Supervisors will have a public hearing on Housing Albemarle on March 17. Finally today, the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority held an emergency meeting to discuss the employment contract of executive director John Sales. Sales joined the agency last August after a brief stint as the city’s coordinator. At the end of a closed session, CRHA Commissioner Lisa Green read a motion.“I move that the Board direct the Chair with the assistance of counsel to communicate directly with the executive director regarding proposed changes to his employment agreement,” Green said. Personnel matters are one reason government bodies can close meetings to the public. There was no other information about what the contract change might include, but Brandon Collins of the Public Housing Association of Residents had this to say.“PHAR on the whole thinks that Mr. Sales is doing a fabulous job,” Collins said. “We’re really glad he’s here and we hope that’s reflected in whatever it is you all are talking about today.” This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s show is supported through every contribution made by readers and listeners so far, either through a Patreon contribution or a subscription through Substack. Someone even paid me $2 through Venmo for a long story I did this week on West Main Street! This newsletter and newscast will remain free as long as it’s been produced, and your donation helps others learn information about the community as well. Thanks to those who have given initial support! *The Virginia Department of Health is reporting another 1,180 cases of COVID-19 today and the state remains at a percent positivity at five percent. In the Blue Ridge Health District, there are another 28 cases reported. Another death has been reported from Louisa for a total of 77 in the district. The percent positivity in the district is at 2.4 percent today. *The University of Virginia has announced they will begin their spring semester on February 1 with classes ending on May 6. There would be no spring break. According to a message from Provost and Chief Operating Officer Liz Magill, the plans reflect a cautious approach. “They also reflect our confidence in the capacity of this University and its people to continue to limit the spread and keep each other safe,” Magill said. “As we finish this semester strong and look to the future, we are ready to put those lessons to work to advance the mission of this University as safely and effectively as we can.”This year’s semester will end on November 24 with online exams in December. The January term will be all online. No decision had been made yet on how graduation ceremonies will be conducted for both the Class of 2021 and the Class of 2020. Read more on UVA Today.*The Charlottesville School Board met last night and heard details of a proposal to gradually return younger students to in-person instruction in early 2021 on a hybrid model. They did not take a vote. Under the proposal,  pre-K, kindergarten,1st and 5th grade students would return to school two days a week beginning on January 11. Second, third, fourth and sixth grade would return on January 19. Ernest Chambers teaches health and physical education at Burnley-Moran Elementary and is a member of the committee that made the recommendation. (presentation)“We believe that a four-day model is optimal,” Chambers said. “We are concerned about the division’s ability to staff this model. A two-day hybrid model would reduce face to face contact with teachers,  but we recommend this over remaining virtual for the rest of the year.” The presentation lays out a list of requirements for reopening, such as a duty-free lunch for teachers and a plan for how sick days and quarantine days would be handled. Another is to create a plan for transitioning back to all virtual learning if schools have to close again.“This must be fleshed out,” Chambers said. “Do we need to close the school? The classroom? We need to work that out.” Families would have the option to remain virtual-only. A survey will be sent to parents. The full video will be available on the city school’s YouTube Channel. Earlier this month, the Albemarle School Board voted 4-3 to return to in-person education for Kindergarten through 3rd grade under a hybrid model beginning on November 9. This is known as Stage 3 under their rubric. Yesterday, Katherine Knott with the Daily Progress wrote a story about how more than half of eligible families want their children to go back to school at this time. *Virginia Senator Tim Kaine said he is hopeful for a Congressional agreement on a new round of stimulus funding, but there are other issues happening that are distracting the Senate and the House of Representatives. “We’re in the Senate this week in my view rushing a Supreme Court nomination that we should wait on until after the election, and continuing to delay action on a 5th COVID bill, a key of which has to be support for people facing problems with eviction or foreclosure,” Kaine said. “We’ve got to provide rent and mortgage support in the next COVID bill.” Kaine said one such bill was defeated in the Senate this week. He was a guest on a panel discussion held by the Central Virginia Regional Housing Partnership. That’s a program of the regional planning district.“In the Thomas Jefferson Planning District, you’ve got all kinds of challenges about affordable housing under normal pre-COVID times,” Kaine said. “It’s an area that’s had a lot of success economically but that leads to housing costs being significant in putting affordable housing out of the reach of many.”Kaine said that nationwide more than 8 million people are facing eviction. Locally, the TJPDC is administering this region’s allocation of CARES act funding for rent and mortgage relief. *A transit working group made up of Albemarle, Charlottesville and UVA officials talked about lessons learned as buses have been running at reduced capacity due to the need for physical distancing. Charlottesville Area Transit Director Garland Williams said CAT Director Garland Williams said his agency is using money from the CARES Act to cover the high cost of disinfecting buses. “There needs to continue to be that level of cleaning to make sure the public feels safe when riding public transportation,” Williams said. “Our cleaning bill is fairly high. We’re at half a million dollars already and growing.”    Another topic is whether transit agencies will resume collecting fares after the pandemic. On CAT buses, passengers now enter through the side door bypassing the farebox as a safety precaution. Albemarle County Supervisor Diantha McKeel said she wanted to know if that could be continued in the future as a way to boost ridership.  Chip Boyles, the director of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission, said he supported such a study but said the term “fare-free” can be misleading from a budgetary standpoint.“A lot of people think fare-free and it’s not,” Boyles said. “Somebody’s paying. It just may not be the end consumer handing a dollar bill over to the driver. Somebody’s paying, but I have seen it directly experienced where there are a lot of benefits.”During the pandemic, that means contactless transit. It also would mean not having to pay someone to account for collecting the fares, or installing expensive fareboxes. He said fare free transit usually works in college towns where the school picks up the tab. “Somebody writes one check instead of a million people handing over 75 cents,” Boyles said.Williams said he believes CAT could go fare-free in the future and he is working on a pilot project. For more from the discussion, read a longer story posted on a new website I’m slowly launching. *Now that the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors has adopted a Climate Action Plan, county staff is presenting it to various citizen groups. Last night the Places29-Rio Community Advisory Committee had a chance to learn more. The plan provides a series of strategies to help Albemarle achieve its goal of a 45 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 and to be emissions-free by 2050.“Transportation according to our 2008 greenhouse gas inventory makes up about 50 percent of the climate impact from the local community, government included, and buildings are another 45 percent,” said Greg Harper, the county’s chief of environmental services.  Some of the remaining percent comes from carbon emissions that emanate from landfills. While local landfills have been closed for a couple of decades, Albemarle’s carbon footprint does include the vehicle emissions used to truck solid waste to those that are open elsewhere in Virginia. Audrey Kocher of Places29-CAC said she would like to see more done to reduce waste.“I think recycling is what many community members see and react to and respond to is the trash all around and I think it’s one way that we could get people engaged in the climate change issues,” Kocher said. Andy Lowe, Albemarle’s environmental compliance manager, reminded the CAC that the county also has a Solid Waste Alternatives Advisory Committee. “They’re tasked with this specific topic, solid waste alternatives, increasing recycling, increasing organic diversion, reducing litter,” Lowe said.The SWAAC committee next meets on November 12. (Above: From the Climate Action Plan)*In one meeting today, the committee appointed to oversee over 60 projects to address safety concerns on Interstate 81 began meeting at 9 a.m. this morning. The Virginia Department of Transportation studied the entire length of I-81 in 2018 and identified nearly $2 billion in projects. The work is being funded through increased truck registration fees, a regional fuel tax, and an increase in the diesel tax that goes into effect on July 1 of next year. Some sections will be widened, in other places there will be additional lanes, and  in others curves will be straightened. (agenda) (April 2019 article)And in one meeting tomorrow, the TJPDC will hold the first of two virtual meetings to take input on the Urban Rivanna Corridor Plan, a joint planning effort between Albemarle and Charlottesville. The Rivanna River is a dividing line between the two localities. (project page)“In and near Free Bridge, Woolen Mills, and the Pantops area, the river corridor is and will be a vibrant place where people experience a quiet and serene natural environment, enjoy healthy outdoor activities and venues, and appreciate important historic and cultural points of interest,” reads a vision statement for the plan. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Note:  This is not a verbatim transcript but is the script for the show. Some of the actualities are written out, but not all of them.  Resources:Albemarle's emergency ordinanceCharlottesville's emergency ordinanceThe number of new cases of COVID-19 in Virginia increased by just over 1,500 according to released by the Virginia Department of Health on July 28, 2020. That’s the highest one-day total for all of July. Later on that day, both the Charlottesville City Council and Albemarle County Board of Supervisors voted to take steps to try to slow spread before University of Virginia students begin to return. (Mallek byte)(Blair byte) I’m Sean Tubbs, the creator of the Charlottesville Podcasting Network, and your host for this program and others that may soon be happening. Since March, I’ve been putting this show together to capture as much as I can of what’s going on during this pandemic. At an Albemarle School Board forum tonight, there was still this question.(byte) - from bonds4On today’s show, coverage of the Supervisor and Council meetings, as well as a quick drop-in on the Albemarle School Board’s third and final forum. Thanks for listening, and let’s get going.*First, a quick update on some information. The Virginia Department of Health reported another 1,505 cases of COVID-19 on July 27, the highest one-day total for all of July. The 7-day average for positive tests is at 7.5 percent for the fourth day straight. In the Thomas Jefferson Health District, another 48 cases were added on July 27.Governor Northam will speak at 2 p.m. today at a press conference to give updates on Virginia’s response to COVID-19. He last held such an event on July 14. Northam was in Hampton yesterday to unveil a $70 million grant package for small business that comes from the federal CARES Act. The Rebuild VA program will help up to 7,000 applicants to cover costs associated with the pandemic. (Northam1) “This grant program will provide up to $10,000 for small businesses and nonprofits to help them meet existing or unpaid expenses such as back due rent or utility payments,” Northam said. ”The funding can also be used to prepare for and respond to this this new environment,  whether that means purchasing PPE or hand sanitizers for employees or pivoting to a new business model to better serve their customers.” To be eligible, businesses must not have received federal loans from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) or other such initiatives. (press release)The University of Virginia will reopen its Aquatics and Fitness Center (AFC) and other athletic facilities on August 3, according to a report on the Cavalier Daily. Members of the AFC will need to reserve a space and space will be limited. Other areas that will reopen are the Snyder Tennis Courts and the Artificial Turf Fields at the Park. (UVA rec website)-And now, our main feature today.The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors and the Charlottesville City Council have both voted to limit occupancy in indoor restaurants and to require facial coverings in indoor spaces. The two resolutions were also endorsed by University of Virginia President Jim Ryan, even though the new rules are not binding on Grounds. Deputy County Attorney Andy Herrick said Albemarle’s ordinance change has three main components.(Herrick1.wav) “The first is a limit on indoor occupants at food establishments, wineries, breweries and distilleries. It would provide for a limit of 50 percent of occupancy. The second provision is a limitation on gatherings. While phase 3 statewide limits gatherings to 250 people, the proposed ordinance would limit gatherings to 50 people with certain exceptions.”Herrick said those exceptions are for outdoor food establishments, farm wineries, farm breweries, religious exercises, weddings, and for public demonstrations.  (Herrick2)“Finally section 6 of the proposed ordinance would have a face covering requirement which would require face coverings at indoor public places and outdoor public places at which six foot physical distancing is not possible.” Exceptions include residences, gyms, schools, religious institutions, and the county courthouSe building. The ordinance had been modified since the Board last took it up last week with input from Albemarle’s Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Hingeley. Supervisor Donna District of the Scottsville District likened the ordinance before the Board as a high-wire act. (Price1) “I believe as Supervisors that we have a responsibility for health and welfare as well as looking at the economic impact and that we are walking a bit of tight-rope here in trying to ensure that we take enough action without taking too much action. If we won’t take too enough action then we run the risk of our residents being infected and having spikes here that the rest of the country has seen. If we go too far then we have the potential of too much economic adverse impact.” Supervisor Price said she had to also weigh the impact of thousands of UVA students returning to the community. Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley of the Rivanna District said she had not heard any pushback the restaurant owners she had heard from. She said her goal in supporting the ordinance is to eventually reopen the economy. (Bea1)“I think we’ve gone above and beyond to address the issues to keep our community safe but also to support the businesses and make sure they can continue thriving and hopefully if we can get everything done further we can open up everything.” Supervisor Ned Gallaway of the Rio District urged anyone opposed to the ordinance to read it carefully before it goes into effect at midnight on August 1.(Gallaway)“And I won’t want folks to either think we’re being overly restrictive or not restrictive. Whether you’re for this ordinance or against this ordinance, I hope everybody will be mindful to read exactly what it is and isn’t doing. Supervisor Liz Palmer of the Samuel Miller District suggested signage be drafted for businesses so they can point to this as a county regulation. (Palmer)“So that their personnel have something to back them up. I know it’s very, very difficult in a lot of situations for employees in these businesses to stop somebody and say you must wear a mask to come in, so with the sign it’s helping them out and they’ll see that this is a county ordinance to do this,” Palmer said. Supervisor Ann Mallek of the White Hall District said she would have supported a more restrictive ordinance, because she is concerned that the state is not hitting the health metrics that would guide good public policy. (Mallek)“One set of numbers has been consistent since the very beginning and we have been told since the very beginning of this virus that falling numbers of cases for 14 days is needed before we know that we’re starting to make progress and that has been our goal. Not all these competing kinds of statistics.”Supervisors voted unanimously to support the ordinance,  which goes into effect at midnight on August 1 it will last for a period of sixty days. Herrick said the county is still looking into a policy to allow for restaurants to open more temporary outdoor seating. The ordinance does not affect the school system, who held the third in a series of town hall meetings to discuss potential options for the upcoming school year. The School Board will hold a meeting on July 30 to make a final decision, as will their counterparts in Charlottesville. UVA President Jim Ryan sent an email to the Board and Council stating support for the ordinances. (no soundbite) “Now more than ever, we see ourselves as partners with all of you and with our neighbors in Charlottesville and the surrounding counties,” Ryan wrote. “It has become a cliché to say that we are in this together, but in our case, the actions of a few people on Grounds or in the community really can affect everyone else.  That’s why we continue to monitor the situation on a daily basis, and why we are working to make the best possible decisions under ever-shifting conditions—as I know all of you are.”Supervisor Gallaway said he welcomed the partnership. (gallaway) “And as I know, as students return, as he said some of the coming months could be challenging so it is important to have that partnership remain strong and we work together as we keep our community safe.” Less than an hour later, four of the five City Councilors met to discuss a similar ordinance. City attorney John Blair described their draft as having stricter guidelines than those put forward by Governor Ralph Northam in Phase 3, which Virginia entered on July 1. Like Albemarle’s ordinance, the city’s will also limit in-person gatherings to fifty or less. (Blair1) “What this local ordinance would do would be to capture all indoor public spaces and it’s important to note that the ordinance itself.”The city’s ordinance has language that covers Councilor’s desire to make sure that not wearing a mask would not be an offense that would result in incarceration. Blair said Albemarle’s ordinance states that a violation would be a Class 1 misdemeanor, which could lead up to a year of jail time. Instead it would be a Class 3 misdemeanor.Councilor Lloyd Snook said he had been contacted by restaurant owners about the ordinance, which he supported because physical distancing rules also limit capacity by reducing available space. (Snook1) “My suspicion is that it’s not going to hurt them, and number two, it’s going to hurt them, if they’re truly trying to enforce what the law would require it,” Snook said.Deputy City Manager Paul Oberdorfer said Charlottesville and Albemarle will collaborate on a variety of efforts. One is an ambassador program to promote public awareness. (Oberdorfer) “And essentially setting up a joint effort to educate, inform, reinforce the idea of wearing masks and following the guidelines out in businesses as well as at public gatherings in place where people will be out in the public. As part of that proposal there were two elements to it. One would be a contracted service with a third party that we are proposing and the other piece of that would be using available staff within the parks and recreation department,” Obedorfer said. “They are customer service agents that are familiar with public engagement.”Oberdorfer said it was important to have a consistent message between the two places, and the same contractor would manage the program in both localities. During their deliberations, Councilor Snook said the metrics in the area may not necessarily tell epidemiologists what is going on. (Snook2)“New cases continue to rise rather quickly but they are not reflected in new hospitalizations or additional deaths and so the question I suppose, and what I’d like to be able to ask Dr. Bonds or somebody is that are we seeing a lot of marginal, technically COVID but not really symptomatic cases because we’re doing contact tracing now, and is the situation truly different from the way it was a month ago?” Charlottesville Mayor Nikuyah Walker was absent. The city’s ordinance also goes into effect on August 1. -Later on in the day, the Albemarle School Board held the last of three town halls on the county school system’s plans for the school year. Currently the plan is for students to return to class on September 8 if they choose on a hybrid model. But the county is also preparing for plans for going online only. The School Board meets on July 30 to make a final decision. Dr. Helen Dunn is the public affairs officer for Albemarle schools. (Dunn)“Today we really want to make this about hearing your comments, hearing your concerns and thoughts and feelings about reopening schools in the fall semester, so questions, keep sending them to me, keep sending them to your school board members.” At the beginning of the meeting, Dr. Denise Bonds of the Thomas Jefferson Health District was on hand to talk about the latest statistics. She also talked about how younger people are affected by COVID-19. (bonds1, bonds1a) (bonds2) One of the first people to speak asked what would happen if there were suddenly an outbreak in a school. Would the school be shut down? The whole school system? (bonds3) Let’s hear one question and answer from the night. (bonds4)And that’s it for this show. We’ll hear more about school policy in the days to come. I’m Sean Tubbs.

This brief look and listen at our region is sponsored today by the Charlottesville Podcasting Network, bringing you public affairs programming since 2005, cvillepodcast.com offers hours of audio from the community’s recent past. That’s cvillepodcast.com. *The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors and the Charlottesville City Council have both voted to limit occupancy in indoor restaurants and to require facial coverings in indoor spaces. The two resolutions were also endorsed by University of Virginia President Jim Ryan, even though the new rules are not binding on Grounds. Deputy County Attorney Andy Herrick told Supervisors Monday that Albemarle’s ordinance change has three main components.“The first is a limit on indoor occupants at food establishments, wineries, breweries and distilleries,” Herrick said. “It would provide for a limit of 50 percent of occupancy. The second provision is a limitation on gatherings. While phase 3 statewide limits gatherings to 250 people, the proposed ordinance would limit gatherings to 50 people with certain exceptions.”Herrick said those exceptions are for outdoor food establishments, farm wineries, farm breweries, religious exercises, weddings, and for public demonstrations.  “Finally section 6 of the proposed ordinance would have a face covering requirement which would require face coverings at indoor public places and outdoor public places at which six foot physical distancing is not possible,” Herrick said.  Exceptions include residences, gyms, schools, religious institutions, and the county courthouse building. The ordinance had been modified since the Board last took it up last week with input from Albemarle’s Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Hingeley. Supervisor Donna Price of the Scottsville District likened the ordinance before the Board as a high-wire act. “I believe as Supervisors that we have a responsibility for health and welfare as well as looking at the economic impact and that we are walking a bit of tight-rope here in trying to ensure that we take enough action without taking too much action,” Price said. “If we won’t take too enough action then we run the risk of our residents being infected and having spikes here that the rest of the country has seen. If we go too far then we have the potential of too much economic adverse impact.” Supervisor Ned Gallaway of the Rio District urged anyone opposed to the ordinance to read it carefully before it goes into effect at midnight on August 1. “And I won’t want folks to either think we’re being overly restrictive or not restrictive, Gallaway said. “Whether you’re for this ordinance or against this ordinance, I hope everybody will be mindful to read exactly what it is and isn’t doing.” Supervisors voted unanimously to support the ordinance,  which goes into effect at midnight on August 1 it will last for a period of sixty days. Herrick said the county is still looking into a policy to allow for restaurants to open more temporary outdoor seating. The ordinance does not affect the school system, who held the third in a series of town hall meetings to discuss potential options for the upcoming school year. The School Board will hold a meeting on July 30 to make a final decision, as will their counterparts in Charlottesville. University of Virginia President Jim Ryan sent an email to the Board and Council stating support for the ordinances. “Now more than ever, we see ourselves as partners with all of you and with our neighbors in Charlottesville and the surrounding counties,” Ryan wrote. “It has become a cliché to say that we are in this together, but in our case, the actions of a few people on Grounds or in the community really can affect everyone else.  That’s why we continue to monitor the situation on a daily basis, and why we are working to make the best possible decisions under ever-shifting conditions—as I know all of you are.”Less than an hour later after the Albemarle meeting, four of the five City Councilors met to discuss a similar ordinance. City attorney John Blair described their draft as having stricter guidelines than those put forward by Governor Ralph Northam in Phase 3, which Virginia entered on July 1. Like Albemarle’s ordinance, the city’s will also limit in-person gatherings to fifty or less. “What this local ordinance would do would be to capture all indoor public spaces and it’s important to note that the ordinance itself,” Blair said. The city’s ordinance has language that covers Councilor’s desire to make sure that not wearing a mask would not be an offense that would result in incarceration. Blair said Albemarle’s ordinance states that a violation would be a Class 1 misdemeanor, which could lead up to a year of jail time. Instead it would be a Class 3 misdemeanor.Councilor Lloyd Snook said he had been contacted by restaurant owners about the ordinance, which he supported because physical distancing rules also limit capacity by reducing available space. “My suspicion is that it’s not going to hurt them, and number two, it’s going to hurt them, if they’re truly trying to enforce what the law would require it,” Snook said.Charlottesville Mayor Nikuyah Walker was absent. The city’s ordinance also goes into effect on August 1. For more on the two meetings, listen to the latest episode of the Charlottesville Quarantine Report. * The University of Virginia will reopen its Aquatics and Fitness Center (AFC) and other athletic facilities on August 3, according to a report on the Cavalier Daily. Members of the AFC will need to reserve a space and space will be limited. Other areas that will reopen are the Snyder Tennis Courts and the Artificial Turf Fields at the Park. (UVA rec website)*Governor Northam will speak at 2 p.m. today at a press conference to give updates on Virginia’s response to COVID-19. He last held such an event on July 14. Northam was in Hampton yesterday to unveil a $70 million grant package for small business that comes from the federal CARES Act. The Rebuild VA program will help up to 7,000 applicants to cover costs associated with the pandemic. “This grant program will provide up to $10,000 for small businesses and nonprofits to help them meet existing or unpaid expenses such as back due rent or utility payments,” Northam said. ”The funding can also be used to prepare for and respond to this this new environment,  whether that means purchasing PPE or hand sanitizers for employees or pivoting to a new business model to better serve their customers.” To be eligible, businesses must not have received federal loans from the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) or other such initiatives. (press release)*The Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority will meet today at 2:15 p.m. for a virtual meeting. In a report to the Board of Directors, executive director Bill Mawyer said two groups at the University of Virginia are planning to study wastewater before and after students come back to trace "the prevalence of SARS COV 2 in wastewater as an indicator of community health and infection rate." (agenda)*In Greene County, the Board of Supervisors there will meet and get an update on their water supply plan. Last week, the Rapidan Service Authority voted 4 to 2 to stop the collection of monthly facilities fees that were intended to help cover the capital costs of a new reservoir. They meet in an open session beginning at 7:30 p.m. They’ll also get an update on COVID-19 from Greene’s emergency management director. (agenda) This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s sense of what’s going on is brought to you by the College Inn, a place that is ready to bring you a variety of food and beverages throughout Charlottesville via delivery. That includes ice cream! Place your order online at thecollegeinn.com or phone 977-2710. *Both the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors and Charlottesville City Council will convene today in special meetings to discuss moving each jurisdiction back into Phase 2 of the Forward Virginia plan. Supervisors go first at 3 p.m. with consideration of a new emergency ordinance to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. The Board met last Wednesday and discussed the matter for several hours, before delaying the vote. Now they’ll vote on an emergency ordinance that would require facial covering in all indoor public places and limit the number of people at outdoor gatherings to 50, with some exceptions. That’s what the restrictions were when Virginia was in Phase 2 in mid-June. The exceptions include churches, weddings, restaurants and wineries, as well as “expressive activity on a public street, public sidewalk, in a public park subject to park rules, and on other public property expressly designated for expressive activity by its governmental owner or occupant.”  The Albemarle ordinance if adopted would be in effect from August 1 to September 30. (ordinance)Charlottesville City Council will convene at 4 p.m. for its special meeting on an emergency ordinance. Albemarle Supervisors had discussed wanting to know if the city planned to impose more stringent restrictions than the state. The city’s ordinance mirrors the county’s with some differences. (city ordinance) The Louisa County Board of Supervisors also has a special meeting called for 3 p.m. today, but no agenda is available. The Jefferson Madison Regional Library Board of Trustees also meets at 3 p.m. for a regular meeting. All library spaces have been closed to the public since March. *Over the weekend, Virginia added another 2,203 new COVID-19 cases according to the Virginia Department of Health. The number of fatalities rose to 2,078 and the seven-day positive testing rate remained steady for three days at 7.5 percent. In the Thomas Jefferson Health District, another 49 cases were reported for a total of 1,600. On Sunday, the 7-day positive rate was at 6.7 percent. *An epidemiological model put together by the University of Virginia’s Biocomplexity Institute projects that will have around 15,000 new COVID-19 cases each week by early September. This week the number of new cases was 7,137 between Monday and Sunday, up from 6,760 the week before. The latest weekly report from the Biocomplexity Institute states that 12 of Virginia’s Health Districts are experiencing a surge in cases, including the Rapphannock-Rapidan District. The report states that 752,188 cases of COVID-19 have been avoided in Virginia so far but that could change is physical distancing continues to wane. "Cell phone data indicates that Virginians are increasingly returning to work and visiting local businesses, almost at prepandemic levels," reads the July 24 report. "This is good news, if residents and businesses follow the guidance in the Forward Virginia plan." (UVA Model)A fourth year football player at the University of Virginia has tested positive for COVID-19, reports the Daily Progress. T.J. Kitts of Tazewell had posted his result on Twitter but has since deleted the post. (Daily Progress article)* The Albemarle School Board will hold another virtual town hall meeting at 6 p.m. this evening to take comment and provide information about different options for the upcoming school year. Two previous sessions are recorded on the county’s website. (register here) On Wednesday, the Greene County School Board will hold a special meeting to vote on pushing back the beginning of the school year to September 8. The Greene County Record and Daily Progress report that more than a hundred teachers and parents have sent a letter to the school board requesting an online only option. *Albemarle County will hold a webinar at noon on the Lift Grant program which is expected to provide funding to up to 100 small businesses in the community. The initiative is part of how the county is using its allocation of the federal CARES Act. (register)*Thanks for reading. This begins the third week of a daily newsletter I’m putting together to try to make sense of a lot of information in these changing times. If you have information you’d like to share, or would like to support the programming, please contact me. Please send this on to anyone you think would be interested. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Jerry Miller was live on The I Love CVille Show! The I Love CVille Show headlines (Friday, July 24) 1. Will the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors push Albemarle back into Phase 2 on Monday? https://wina.com/news/064460-supervisors-accelerate-the-timetable-for-a-covid-19-ordinance/ 2. Nelson County goes virtual for its schools this fall. https://www.cbs19news.com/story/42408981/nelson-county-public-schools-announce-plans-for-school-year 3. Recent Town Hall on Albemarle County schools creates more questions than answers https://dailyprogress.com/news/local/education/town-hall-on-albemarle-schools-reopening-raises-more-questions-than-answers/article_e3c35163-7054-5b83-9c12-e1a7a70e3e49.html 4. Liberty University will not require students to wear masks when they return to school this fall https://richmond.com/news/virginia/liberty-university-wont-require-covid-19-test-for-returning-students-this-fall/article_c97f07b7-cc2e-5e4c-8aba-72859ab547c1.html?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_Richmond_Times-Dispatch 5. Mortgage Rates Fall To 30-Year Low https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/24/mortgage-rates-just-hit-another-record-low.html 6. Is the ability to work from home going to create the demise of big cities? https://www.wsj.com/articles/when-workers-can-live-anywhere-many-ask-why-do-i-live-here-11592386201?mod=e2fb&fbclid=IwAR2H4yhixEPPnzP3bhtoIoDJccxSzPpJGawJXFYhJmZqZiorRzIveoPfni4 7. What will the ACC do with football this fall? Will Notre Dame get to compete for an ACC Football Championship? https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/29530775/sources-proposal-let-notre-dame-vie-acc-title-2020 8. Wisconsin Athletic Director says the school will lose $100 million if there is no football this fall https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/29526443/barry-alvarez-warns-wisconsin-athletics-risk-football-season-canceled 9. Will the Pac-12 do a 10-game conference schedule this year? https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/29525113/sources-pac-12-plan-10-game-conference-only-football-slate The I Love CVille Show airs live before a worldwide audience Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network.

Harvey Mayorga, Co-Owner of Guajiros Miami Eatery, joined me live on The I Love CVille Show! The I Love CVille Show headlines (Thursday, July 23) 1. What in the world are the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors doing? https://dailyprogress.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/county-delays-vote-on-mask-requirement-restaurant-capacity-limits-till-aug-5/article_33c7f27f-fdf3-5ff9-b342-5a4c04e5de10.html 2. Charlottesville Area Transit employee tests positive for Covid https://www.charlottesville.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=273 3. Are college professors in trouble from a job security standpoint? https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/22/colleges-resort-to-last-ditch-efforts-like-layoffs-to-stay-afloat.html 4. C-Ville Weekly covers gambling slot machines inside Prime 109 https://www.c-ville.com/in-brief-tiki-terror-teacher-trouble-and-more/ 5. Virginia Film Festival announces shift to virtual format https://news.virginia.edu/content/virginia-film-festival-announces-shift-virtual-format-2020 6. UVa Hoops Star Malcolm Brodgon launches new charitable foundation https://dailyprogress.com/sports/former-virginia-basketball-star-malcolm-brogdon-launches-brogdon-family-foundation/article_51a3489b-419b-5318-8b2f-6f8ddb703df5.html The I Love CVille Show airs live before a worldwide audience Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network.

We discuss the Charlottesville City Council and Albemarle County Board of Supervisors' joint meeting as well as an update on the General Assembly. Also, a conversation with Jeff Bushman on a design contest for Invisible Cville.

Republican John Lowry is a candidate for the Samuel Miller District seat on the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors.  Three of the six seats on the board will be determined in the November 7 election. Other candidates in this race include: Liz Palmer (D).  Each candidate was interviewed by Charlottesville Tomorrow and asked 10 questions about their qualifications, priorities and important quality of life issues.  Included in the box at the right are links to the full transcript and audio recording of those interviews. Bio: John Lowry has lived in Albemarle County for more than 40 years. He met and married the former Nancy Feil at the College of William & Mary. His 35 year career of managing investment securities included branch management, registered advisor status, teaching and sharing his industry connections with others. Besides his family and professional duties he volunteered for many community groups. As Chair or President of these groups he gained experience in team management and patient, orderly meetings. His local government knowledge is extensive. With this track record he feels prepared for election. Education: BA 1969 College of William and Mary Current Occupation: Currently retired .  Previous political experience: Chair of Joint Airport Board, Chair of Economic Development Authority and Chair of Board of Equalization as well as an Election official (assistant Chief). Age on Election Day: 70 Neighborhood: Resident of North Garden, Red Hill School Road Hometown: Grew up in Williamsburg, VA Family: Besides my wife, a Charlottesville native, we have three children and six grandchildren. My two sons are Drs. – one a physician and one a college professor (PhD). My daughter is smartest of all– a Chapel Hill NC graduate. Interests: I am a runner, boater, singer, bagpiper, golfer and I do what is requested of me around home. Phone number : 434 296 4695 Email: johnlowry@lowryforalbemarle.com Website: LowryforAlbemarle.com Download

Democrat Diantha McKeel is a candidate for the Jack Jouett District seat on the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors. Three of the six seats on the board will be determined in the November 7 election. McKeel is an incumbent running unopposed. Each candidate was interviewed by Charlottesville Tomorrow and asked 10 questions about their qualifications, priorities and important quality of life issues.  Included in the box at the right are links to the full transcript and audio recording of those interviews.  Bio: A resident of the Jack Jouett District for 41 years, I was elected four times to the Albemarle County School Board and now serve as the Chair of the Board of Supervisors. My highest priority is to continue to lift the quality of life for our residents through regional and community partnerships and innovative programming that achieve responsible economic growth and a more diverse tax base; meet current transportation and housing needs; preserve rural areas and deliver high-quality public safety and education services. My highest responsibility is ensuring that government will achieve these goals by being inclusive, fair, non-partisan and cost-effective. Education: B.A. Bridgewater College (Sociology/elementary teaching certification); Licensed Practical Nurse (UVA); Certified Research Professional (ACRP) Occupation: Retired, UVA Cardiology Clinical Research Coordinator Previous political experience: Elected to 4 terms, Albemarle County School Board; elected to Albemarle County Board of Supervisors 2013, currently serving as Chair Age on Election Day: 67 Neighborhood or area of residence: Canterbury Hills Neighborhood, Jack Jouett Magisterial District Hometown: Staunton, VA Family: two adult children: daughter, Megan Armstrong and family live in Albemarle County; son, Thomas McKeel lives in Georgia; and Brody “Mostly” Beagle Other interests and experiences: traveling; reading; walking Brody; Adopt-A-Highway Committee Chair; John E. Baker Legacy Dinner Committee, supporting The African American Teaching Fellows (AATF); Gang Reduction through Active Community Engagement Committee (GRACE); Jefferson Area Board for Aging (JABA) board member; Daughters of the American Revolution, Jack Jouett Chapter; The Greencroft Club Board; former Mental Health Association Board and Charlottesville Municipal Band Fundraising Committee Website: votefordiantha.com Email: diantha.mckeel@gmail.com Telephone: 434-296-4931   Download

Democrat Ned Gallaway is a candidate for the Rio District seat on the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors. Three of the six seats on the board will be determined in the November 7 election. Gallaway is running unopposed.   Each candidate was interviewed by Charlottesville Tomorrow and asked 10 questions about their qualifications, priorities and important quality of life issues.  Included in the box at the right are links to the full transcript and audio recording of those interviews.   Bio: My interest in serving on the Board of Supervisors is about Moving Albemarle Forward. My vision of moving forward includes a focus on three top priorities: public education, public safety, and smart, sustainable economic development. The residents of Albemarle rightly have strong expectations to sustain a high quality of life and I’m running to ensure that it’s protected and enhanced in the coming years. Education: BFA Ohio University, 1996 EDD The Curry School, UVA 2014 Occupation: General Sales Manager, Mercedes Benz of Charlottesville Previous political experience: At Large Member Albemarle Co School Bd, 2011-15; Chair, 2014-2015 Albemarle County School Long Range Planning Advisory Committee, Rio District Member, 2011 Albemarle County Parent Council, Agnor Hurt Rep, 2010-2011 Age on Election Day: 43 Neighborhood or area of residence: Dunlora Hometown: Wheeling, WV Family: Wife - Julie; Daughters - Kaitlyn (16); Maggie (11); AJ (8) Other interests and experiences: Reading, kayaking, spending time w family, watching my kids play sports (soccer, field hockey, baseball), attending UVA Women's Soccer games  Website: www.nedgallaway.com Email: gallawayforsupervisor@gmail.com Download