Podcasts about Buckingham County

The Strasburg Rams have earned their right to play in The Class 2 State Championship as they take on Graham. Hear from Rams Head Coach, Tripp Lamb on the last two victories over Buckingham County and Poquoson and the preparation for the State Championship Game.We hope you enjoy! Please make sure you Share! Like, Comment and SubscribeStay tuned for more High School Sports coverage to come on The Kirby on Sports Podcast.A huge thanks to our sponsors!PM+ ReservesShenandoah PrimitivesTransformative Alignment GroupMark Francis with ICON Real EstateBarrett Pest and Termite ServicesMark Lynch with Guild MortgageShenandoah Musicwww.kirbyonsports.com --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thekirbyonsportspodcast/support

The Strasburg Rams are hosting Buckingham County in The Region 2B Final after last week defeating Riverheads and only holding them to seven points. Hear from Rams Head Coach Tripp Lamb on the win last week and preparing for The Region Final at Ram Stadium. Stay tuned for more High School Sports coverage to come on The Kirby on Sports Podcast. A huge thanks to our sponsors! PM+ Reserves Shenandoah Primitives Transformative Alignment Group Mark Francis with ICON Real Estate Barrett Pest and Termite Services Mark Lynch with Guild Mortgage Shenandoah Music www.kirbyonsports.com --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/thekirbyonsportspodcast/support

Violet Brydon (Vicky) Ritchie, a former insurance agency owner and a St. Mary's Hospital volunteer for more than 30 years, died May 3, 2024 after a lengthy illness. She was 94. Her passing followed the death of her husband, Robert Francis Ritchie III, in 1985. She is survived by her sons Robert F. Ritchie IV of Dillwyn, Va., Bruce Brydon Ritchie of Tallahassee, Fla., and Glenn Robins Ritchie of King George, Va.; a niece Sandra Duncan White of Richmond; four grandsons and five great-grandchildren. She will be cremated following a small family memorial service on May 9 in Buckingham County,...Article LinkSupport the Show.

Dr. Larry Alan Massie (80), of Henrico, Virginia, passed away on December 9, 2023, surrounded by his loving family. Larry dedicated his life to the education of children across the state of Virginia. As Superintendent of Schools in Russell County and Buckingham County he impacted many lives greatly and was named Superintendent of the Year by the state of Virginia multiple times. And as Interim Superintendent of Schools for Orange County, Lynchburg City, Botetourt County and Grayson County he was dearly beloved and received the key to the city of Lynchburg. Larry took great pride in mentoring others. He held...Article LinkSupport the show

Early voting for the VA General Assembly begins Sept 22! Ramona Christian, chair of the Buckingham County GOP, say the embattled registrar's office there is ready... but the need more poll workers.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Joe holds court on how even the simplest of decisions can be corrupted, and not always for overtly evil causes.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Live, from the gas-lit streets of Buckingham County, VA! (Plus the Center at Belvedere visits)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The leftists try to shame republicans into ceding the authorities won at the ballot box and the central figures, Leo and Tambra check in with us.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Back from the 56th GOP convention with new analysis of the tumult in Buckingham County and WHY it's happening.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

JT gets into why The Supreme Court didn't rule against Google, Mason on his "Final Exercizes" Weekend and the GOP nominee for the 56th House District Tom Garrett visits.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

More tension in Buckingham County, and a Memorial Day tradition returns!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Protecting the voice of the minority, that's what our country is charged with doing... but is it? Then JT visits with Supervisor from embattled Buckingham County Jordan Miles (D-Maysville)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A.I. want's you to watch NBC29? / More intrigue at the Buckingham County registrar's office. / Hayden Ludwig from Restoration of America on Virginia's exit from E.R.I.C. / How it all goes together.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Buckingham County, Virginia Rebuilds its Election Staff After Harassment Causes Entire Department to Resign Today's Script:  (Variations occur with audio due to editing for time) Today's Links now located below scriptYou're listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.Buckingham County, Virginia is rebuilding its elections department after its entire staff quit due to conspiracy-fueled chaos.  Its election registar left in March after persistent & baseless accusations of voter fraud in the 2022 midterms, with one critic calling out at a public meeting, “I am putting you on notice — for treason!” NBC News and the Farmville Herald report that the allegations began after a Democrat won a school board race by nine votes.  The loss caused the county GOP chair Ramona Christian to complain of a lack of Republican election volunteers at the polls.   The Herald reports that in county precincts last November, there were 54 unaffiliated volunteers, 17 Republicans, and 12 Democrats.   Registrar Lindsey Taylor resigned in March, telling NBC that QUOTE “Mentally, I just — I couldn't take it anymore.”  Three other staffers also left, leaving county voters  no way to register to vote.   April 11th, the County appointed an interim replacement registrar, Luis Gutierrez, a criminal justice PhD student at Liberty University.   In the turmoil, the members of the electoral board have also turned over, including one, who along with GOP Chair Ramona Christian, had a picture taken in March with MyPillow CEO & conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell at a conference.   Two new board appointments have been made, and a third is pending. We have lots more at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org.  For the American Democracy Minute, I'm Brian Beihl.Today's LinksArticles & Resources:NBC News - Hounded by baseless voter fraud allegations, an entire county's election staff quits in VirginiaFarmville Herald - Buckingham County Electoral Board Won't Renew Registrar's ContractFarmville Herald - Buckingham County adds a new registrar, electoral board memberCenter for American Progress - Protecting Election Workers and Officials From Threats and Harassment During the MidtermsBrennan Center for Justice - Poll of Election Officials Shows High Turnover Amid Safety Threats and Political InterferenceGroups Taking Action:Center for American Progress, Election Official Legal Defense Network, Common Cause VAPlease follow us on Facebook and Twitter and SHARE!  Find all of our reports at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org#Democracy  #DemocracyNews

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

IN THE NEWS:The end of fossil fuels is blowing in the wind. The Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind proposal would be a massive new wind farm off the coast of Virginia Beach. But only if state regulators approve it. That decision is expected in the next month or so, even the membership of the three-member commission is in flux. Do a better fracking job: That's the message from the Government Accountability Office, which says the federal agency responsible for regulating pipelines needs to do a better job with availability of data and consistency of enforcement. Opponents of pipelines say a lack of transparency and inconsistency of enforcement go way beyond the problems outlined in the GAO report. The Golden Goose. Virginia is sitting on one of the largest uranium deposits in the world in. Plus the recent discovery of gold in Buckingham County is reopening old discussions about commercial mining operations. Lawmakers are about to considering a ban on gold mining in Virginia that would be similar to the longstanding ban on uranium mining in Virginia, which dates back to the early 1980s.At the Watercooler: Former Congressman Tom Garrett is seeking a return to the House of Delegates, while Delegate Sally Hudson is running for the state Senate against Senator Creigh Deeds.Learn more at http://linktr.ee/JacklegMediaSponsored by the Substance Abuse and Addiction Recovery Alliance of Virginia

Prospectors hope to strike it rich in rural Buckingham County, about 60 miles west of Richmond. Residents are worried the mining process will contaminate fundamental things like air, soil, and even drinking water. Buckingham County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jordan Miles joins Thomas and Michael to discuss why he thinks a ban on gold mining would be a good idea to protect his constituents--and where such proposals might stand in the General Assembly.Learn more at http://linktr.ee/JacklegMediaSponsored by the Substance Abuse and Addiction Recovery Alliance of Virginia

When a Canadian company started looking for gold in Buckingham County, area residents were alarmed.  They knew that activity could threaten their water supply, and they asked the state legislature to step in.  Lawmakers asked the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to do a report on the possible impacts of gold mining here.  […]

William Perkins Flippen joins the podcast via William Kevin Flippen, the occasional co-host and his son. William was born in Buckingham County, but grew up in Richmond, Virginia. William was #8 out of thirteen kids and their first house in Richmond only had an outside bathroom. William said being a kid in Richmond was fun as they had a lot of open areas to play in and he used that to hone his skills at the game of Marbles. William started working at twelve and he talked to Paul and Kevin about some of the jobs he had as kid and an adult. He also talked about how he met his wife Nettie and about his first meeting with her family. He talked frankly about losing a child and then joyfully about he and Nettie adopting their daughter Denise first in 1968 and then Kevin in 1969. He talked about how much he loved his three grandsons … the three B's … Brody, Briggs and Beau. Kevin asked his Dad what he would tell their kids and he offered some sage advice. He finished by saying “The good Lord has blessed me all my life” and he told one last story from his childhood.

Do you have milk? Do you have the grain? Grab a pot and find a stove, and it’s time to celebrate National Porridge Day! Each and every day there are so many things to celebrate, such as today’s honoring of Women in Engineering Day. However, this 399th edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement is not being faithful to National Typewriter Day as it is composed on an abacus. On today’s program:The Thomas Jefferson Planning District takes the Regional Transit Vision to Fluvanna and Greene countiesAlbemarle County reports on an eviction diversion program And a brief update on the ongoing COVID-19 situation 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!  COVID-19 update Today the Virginia Department of Health reports another 3,085 cases of COVID-19 with a seven-day positive result percentage of 17.4. The trends for both metrics are heading down, but Dr. Costi Sifri of the University of Virginia Health System said that could change. “I actually think we’re sort of at a plateau where we’re seeing continued transmission in the community,” Dr. Sifri said. “My sense is that it’s not increasing but it is has been at a fairly consistent level now for the last several weeks or maybe even up to a month.” The big news in the past week has been federal approval of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines for children under the age of five but older than six months. “The doses that are used for these young pediatric vaccines is dose-reduced so when Pfizer and Moderna trialed these vaccines they made sure to use a lower dose for the reasons of wanting to make sure it was safe,” Dr. Sifri said. New versions of the mRNA vaccines are being developed to address newer strains. “That is being looked at right now this month by the [Food and Drug Advisory Committee],” Dr. Sifri said. “So at the heart of the question is do we need a reformulation or a coformulation of the COVID vaccines to account for Omicron?” The Blue Ridge Health District will begin their administration of the vaccines to children at a clinic from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Charlottesville/Albemarle Health Department at 1138 Rose Hill Drive. They’ll also be on site at Tonsler Park on Cherry Avenue from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. check the Blue Ridge Health District’s website. Albemarle and LAJC have teamed up to prevent evictionsAlbemarle County and the Legal Aid Justice Center helped prevent 158 evictions in a pilot program that ran from December to this May. Albemarle County sent out a press release this morning announcing the results. "Many rent-relief programs are phasing out, yet there remain many Albemarle families still deeply affected by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Supervisor Chair Donna Price is quoted in the release. “Low-income households have not recovered as quickly, and programs such as this provide additional stability for households continuing to face financial hardships, using federal relief dollars to fund legal services and to provide wrap-around support.”Albemarle committed $200,000 from its share of the American Rescue Act Plan to the project. The Legal Aid Justice Center is being paid for legal counsel for households that qualify.“The program requires consideration for the impacts of contesting evictions on landlords who own less than three units and prioritizes mitigation efforts to secure outstanding funds for landlords while keeping families housed,” the release continues. The program will continue through June 2023. 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. Public meeting tonight for Regional Transit Vision planThe final public meeting for the development of a Regional Transit Vision will be held tonight in an online format. The Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission is overseeing the study, which seeks to come up with an aspirational document for enhanced public transportation throughout the entire Charlottesville area including Buckingham County.The draft document has gone before the Charlottesville City Council and the Albemarle Board of Supervisors, as I’ve reported. But the Regional Transit Vision also has been to the outlying counties. Last week, Boards of Supervisors in both Fluvanna County and Greene County had a briefing. “It started in the summer of 2021 with assessing the situation,” said Lucinda Shannon, a planner with the TJPDC. The $350,000 study was conducted by the firms AECOM and Jarrett Walker + Associates.“So they looked at the existing systems, they looked at the land use planning, and the transit market potential for the entire region and kind of assessed where would be good places for transit to be,” Shannon said. “They also worked with the public and identified goals and visions for the region plan and priorities for what this community wants to see in a vision plan.”All of that engagement was done online, as the study got underway during the pandemic. Tonight’s meeting is also virtual. The work has resulted in a constrained plan that would be paid for through new tax powers granted to a Regional Transportation Authority, as well as an unconstrained plan that did not factor how the expanded transit service would be paid for. For a sense of scale, the constrained plan would have an annual cost estimate of $26 million whereas the unconstrained plan would be $70 million a year. The unconstrained plan would mean buses operating at full service, seven days a week, including fixed-route service between Ruckersville between Charlottesville. “All day fixed-route service from Ruckersville to Charlottesville would add services to three percent of residents and it would also reach 11 percent more jobs in the county,” Shannon said. One Supervisor asked if the plan includes one item he would like to see. “Does it include light rail? Does it include those kinds of things?” asked Steve Bowman of the Monroe District. “Because I’ve always thought that down U.S. 29 would be an ideal place to put a light rail all the way down.” The TJDPC previously studied light rail in a 2004 report that looked at the future of passenger rail service in Virginia. By the time a few years later when there was discussion of a Regional Transit Authority, that vision had been reduced to something called bus rapid transit. Shannon said the consultants in the new vision have included that in their recommendation.“I think that what they want to is propose things that the community will accept and can be funded so right now they are proposing a Bus Rapid Transit up and down Route 29 so there would be service up to the airport so from Charlottesville on U.S. 29 on up to the airport with 15 minute service,” Shannon said. Greene Supervisors did not have a long discussion of the matter.  The next day, Shannon made the trip to Palmyra to speak to the Fluvanna Board of Supervisors about the plan. “So this is a collaborative effort to evaluate and establish a clear long term vision  for transit in our region, and not just the city,” Shannon said. “And it’s kind of like all of the things we’d like to buy and then the next study that we’re hoping to do is a transit governance study that would start in July.” Shannon gave more details on what the “unconstrained” vision means.“The unconstrained vision we wanted to be ambitious and creative and come up with what we could do if there was no budget and there was no fund limit on funding for that concept,” Shannon said. As stated above, that would mean 60-minute fixed-route service to Charlottesville from surrounding population clusters. “These routes would go to Scottsville, Crozet, Lovingston, Palmyra, Louisa, and Ruckersville seven days a week,” Shannon said. One Supervisor said that would be an improvement for Fluvanna residents who currently use the public transit that’s available. “Right now people going to the city on Jaunt to the doctor’s office have to stay all day until Jaunt comes back to pick them up,” said Supervisor Mozelle Booker of the Fork Union District. Supervisor Tony O’Brien of the Rivanna District supported the concept of expanded transit.“I love the idea of expanding rural transportation,” O’Brien said. “So critical not just for the environment but also for those who are constrained by their finances and or ability to drive. So anything we can do to make it better for people to be able to access other areas of Central Virginia I think is wonderful.” Shannon said the details of how to implement the vision will come during the governance study. “We will be engaging you again once the governance study starts and our objective for the governance study is to really work with all the counties and be inclusive and come up with a plan for the funding of the services that works for all the counties, both urban and rural together,” Shannon said. Tonight is your chance to weigh in at a meeting that begins at 6:30 p.m. tonight.  Details of both visions and a link to the meeting are availaleYou can also take a survey on the topic. Have you done so yet? Let me know in the comments. (take the survey)Comments will be taken through July 15. Previous coverage:Regional transit vision may suggest resumption of Regional Transit Authority foundation, December 14, 2021Regional transit vision update, May 20, 2022Partnership briefed on potential vision for regional transit, June 1, 2022Albemarle and Charlottesville officials weigh in on regional transit, June 14, 2022Support the program!There’s a lot of information in this installment of this program, which is the 397th edition of the program. About a quarter of you are paying something to help keep Town Crier Productions in business. I have never been a very good salesperson, and won’t overly pitch.But, 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 heat is on, on the street, and this installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement is ready to get inside your head, on every beat. With apologies to Glenn Frey, this is not an 80’s music nostalgia newsletter and podcast, but the idea is to look back at some of what’s happened recently while anticipating the changes that will come this summer. It’s May 19, 2022, and I’m your host, Sean Tubbs. Sign up today to not miss a beat! On today’s show:The annual median income in the Charlottesville area has increased 19 percent over last yearAlbemarle Supervisors further discusses ways to incentivize developers to build housing for those with lower than that median incomeThe new CEO of Jaunt explains that a new page is turning toward cooperation with Charlottesville Area TransitA Pittsylvania County group seeks a second referendum on sales tax increase for education Shout-out: RCA seeks input on the restoration of Riverview ParkThe first Patreon-fueled shout-out today is for the Rivanna Conservation Alliance and their work with the City of Charlottesville on the restoration of Riverview Park. The RCA aims to restore a 600-foot section of the Rivanna riverbank in an area that’s designated for public access to the waterway as well as a 200-foot section of a dangerously eroding stormwater channel nearby. Another community meeting will be held in the near future to get your feedback on the work should be prioritized. Visit rivannariver.org to learn more about the project, which seeks to help Riverview Park continue to be a welcoming place to exercise, cool off, paddle, fish, play, explore, observe nature, and escape from the day-to-day stresses of life. Spring COVID-19 surge continuesTo begin today, a quick look at the latest COVID numbers from the Virginia Department of Health. Today the VDH reports another 3,836 positive COVID tests done through the PCR method, and a number that does not count at-home tests. The seven-day positivity rate for tests has increased to 15.2 percent. The seven-day average for new cases is now at 3,078. This surge of cases has so far not resulted in fatalities anywhere near what was seen in previous ones before vaccines were easily available. The seven-day average for new daily deaths is at three per day. According to the Virginia Healthcare and Hospital Association, there are 60 COVID patients in intensive care in Virginia, with 23 of them on ventilators. Pittsylvania County group wants to try again on sales tax referendum Last November, voters in Pittsylvania County on the south side of Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District had on their ballot a referendum on whether or not to approve a one percent sales tax increase to fund school improvement projects. The measure failed on a 23-vote margin according to election night results from the State Board of Elections. This Tuesday, the seven-member Board of Supervisors got an update on a campaign to try hold the referendum again this year, based on enabling authority that passed the General Assembly in 2020. Martha Walker is the chair of Pittsylvanians for a Brighter Future, an advocacy group that seeks passage this time around.“One cent, one penny, will generate $3.8 million each year for the 19 years that we will be allowed to have that one cent sales tax added,” Walker said. Under the same enabling authority, Danville voters voted in favor of the referendum and the sales tax increase has gone into effect. Speaking directly to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Walker said her organization will be seeking to educate the public on what improvements would be funded. “You know that ten elementary schools will be focused on safety and getting rid of those trailers by building those new classrooms,” Walker said. Charlottesville asked the General Assembly to be allowed to hold a referendum for its school system. Legislation passed the Democrat-controlled Senate, but failed to get out of a committee in the Republican-controlled House of Delegates. There is still no state budget, an issue of increasing concern to school systems throughout the Commonwealth. Jaunt CEO talks transit with Charlottesville City CouncilThe relatively new CEO of the transit agency Jaunt introduced himself to the Charlottesville City Council Monday and also had the chance to re-introduce a public service organization plagued by recent controversy. Ted Rieck started with fundamentals. “Our basic goal is to enable people to live their lives independently and with dignity and we’ve been doing this for about 42 years,” Rieck said. (view his presentation)Jaunt serves the six localities of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission as well as Buckingham County. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires equivalent service to fixed route transit for disabled individuals, and Rieck said Jaunt performs this role for CAT for those who live within three-fourths of a mile of a bus stop. “We also provide in some of the outlying counties circulator or intra-county service,” Rieck said. “We also provide links from the counties to Charlottesville and then we also provide commuter services into Charlottesville and [the University of Virginia].”Rieck was hired last October by Jaunt. The agency’s Board of Directors asked the previous CEO to resign after irregular transactions were reported. That continues to have an impact on Jaunt’s budget. “We had our CEO make some judgment errors in terms of spending money,” Rieck said. “That triggered an audit and that discovered some issues that Jaunt wasn’t doing very well.” Rieck said Jaunt was making progress in correcting the errors pointed out in the audit, including misapplication of funds intended for rural use for urban purposes. There were also questions about administrative costs. “We overstated some of our statistics which allowed us to get more state funding and federal funding that we were entitled to,” Rieck said. “This was an error that the prior CEO basically hoarded the data and did not share that with anybody.”Rieck said Jaunt had to pay Virginia back a over a million dollars and that has happened. Record-keeping has now been improved. The previous CEO was Brad Sheffield, who also served one term on the Albemarle Board of Supervisors. During that time, he was hired on as Jaunt’s director. Rieck said other anomalies have been discovered and Jaunt is cooperating with the ongoing investigation. He said Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation officials will visit Jaunt’s headquarters next week for further discussions. Better cooperation?Rieck said as the legacy of the Sheffield era continues to play out, he wants to build a partnership with Charlottesville Area Transit, and he’s in close contact with CAT Director Garland Williams.“We are working together,” Rieck said. “I don’t believe Jaunt and CAT have played very well together in the past. We are turning a new page on that I believe.” That includes more frequent meetings to discuss common issues, such as driver shortages. Another issue is how to transition to a fleet that doesn’t run on fossil fuels to meet the community’s expectations on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Jaunt is also seeking members to join an Alternative Fuel Advisory Committee to oversee a study for which Kimley Horn has been hired to run. Applications are due May 27, and the process will build off of a study that Charlottesville Area Transit is also running for their fleet. (apply)They are also building off of conversations that have been taking place at the Jefferson Area Regional Transit Partnership. In April, that group heard from transit officials in Burlington, Vermont about how fixed-route transit can carry students to public schools. Those conversations are now occurring here, according to Rieck. “Today we discussed opportunities where we could see CAT bus routes overlapping areas where Albemarle County students live,” Rieck said. “Many of these people could conceivably take a bus to the high school, other schools as well. If that works out, we could save five or six bus operators for the school district. Doesn’t sound like much, but it’s really huge.”Other avenues of regional exploration include the creation of a Regional Transit Authority and development of an app to help people navigate public transportation. Rieck said Jaunt could also play a role in addressing the need for service to Crescent Halls, a Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority property whose residents have demanded door-to-door service be restored when the building reopens. He said the current service by Route 6 sees a large bus trying to navigate a small access road for which it was not designed. “And my understanding is that’s an awkward movement for a larger vehicle to do so the thought would be to have Jaunt provide that service instead of the main route,” Rieck said. Details to come in the future as Rieck said detailed conversations had not yet occurred. Council pressed Rieck on whether Jaunt’s troubles with the Virginia Department and Rail and Public Transportation were over. “First of all, are there any more shoes about to drop, and second, do you have a sense of when you will be past the shoe-dropping phase?” asked Charlottesville Mayor Lloyd Snook. Rieck said the long-standing issue is a pattern of mixing rural and urban funds that dates further back into Jaunt’s recent history. He said he’s being transparent with city, county, and state officials, as well as his board of directors. “So I don’t think that there’s any more shoes to drop and if there is, that’s the one,” Rieck said. Second shout-out: The Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Campaign It’s springtime, and one Patreon subscriber wants you to know the Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Campaign is a grassroots initiative of motivated citizens, volunteers, partner organizations, and local governments who want to promote the use of native plants. This spring the group is working with retailers across the region to encourage purchase of plants that belong here and are part of an ecosystem that depends on pollination. There are plenty of resources on the Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Facebook page, so sign up to be notified of lectures, plant sales, and more!Albemarle Supervisors discuss incentives for housing planThe Albemarle County Board of Supervisors continued a conversation earlier this month about how to incentivize developers to build units to be sold below market value. The six-member Board last discussed the matter in February and pushed back on the idea of creating an overlay district in the county’s zoning ordinance. (previous coverage)“The main question today that we would like some feedback on after listening to the information that’s provided is [whether] an affordable dwelling unit program something the Board would be interested in and staff reviewing?” asked Stacy Pethia, the county’s Housing Policy Manager. (view her presentation)The General Assembly has already granted Albemarle enabling authority to pursue such a program, which would allow the county to require a certain percentage of units be rented or sold at affordable prices to households at 80 percent or lower than the median income. This requirement would be triggered by a rezoning or a special use permit. Supervisors adopted the Housing Albemarle plan last July but delayed much of the implementation until these details could be worked out. Before they got too deep into the conversation, Pethia said the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has now released updated calculations for area median income for 2022. “That is now $111,200 annually and to put that into perspective, that is a 19 percent increase over last year’s area median income increase,” Pethia said. The median income for the Washington metropolitan area is $142,300 and the median income for the Lynchburg metro is $78,900.  We’ll come back to this in future stories about housing. (find the calculations for your favorite metro area)Pethia said after the work session in February, staff opted to come forward with the affordable dwelling unit program that is authorized under state code. “And the enabling legislation really doesn’t place many restrictions on what the county can do and what that program looks like,” Pethia said. “It does require we provide density bonuses but beyond that we are pretty open in the percentage of the affordable unit set-asides that we may require, the depth of that unit affordability, the length of the affordability for those units, and we also have the opportunity to include additional incentives within that ordinance above and beyond the density increases.”Pethia said there are about 500 such programs across the United States. Commonalities between them include: An identification of how many units the locality needs to be affordable standardized amount per unit for developers to pay into a fund rather than build units The right for the locality or its designee to purchase or rent affordable units that are actually constructed. Several localities in Virginia have such a program, such as Loudoun County. “They adopted their ordinance in 1999 and do require 6.25 to 12.5 percent of the units in projects to be affordable housing,” Pethis said. “Those units need to be affordable for 15 to 20 years depending on whether they are for sale or rent.” Pethia said around 2,500 units have been created under this policy in Loudoun. Fairfax County has a similar ordinance and has created nearly 3,000 units. For Albemarle, Pethia said county staff are recommending density bonuses, requiring 20 percent of total new units to be affordable as per Housing Albemarle, allowing non-profits to purchase “affordable” units for which the developer can’t find a qualified buyer, and a cash-in-lieu fee is a developer doesn’t want to build the units. Such a program is not yet ready and Pethia wanted feedback on whether they should proceed. Supervisor Ann Mallek had this question. “Is there a way that we can put a hold on new applications until we get this process adopted?” Mallek said. “I’m very concerned that another 5,000 units will come in in application that we will somehow be forced to accept the applications and then we will lose the opportunity to get a much better result.” Supervisor Bea LaPisto-Kirtley said she supported the idea of the creation of a waiting list of people and families who are eligible to rent or purchase affordable units due to their income level. “The waiting list would be extremely important to have a waiting list otherwise I can see this whole project failing if we don’t have a waiting list of qualified income buyers,” LaPisto-Kirtley said. Supervisor Ned Gallaway said that he did not want to see a list of stiffly-written incentives that might preclude flexibility. “I hope we don’t get caught in the trap of saying that even if we put an example of incentives our, or encouraged incentives, or whatever the wording is, that we’re saying that that’s it, and that we have a process in place that allows for consideration of other incentives,” Gallaway said. “Each project will be different. Each spreadsheet is different.” Gallaway also supported the cash-in-lieu program in order to be able to pay more funds into the county’s affordable housing trust rather than rely on surpluses. A more detailed plan will come before the Board of Supervisors for a work session in August followed by a public hearing in September. Help Ting help support Town Crier productions!For 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. 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

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: 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.On today’s show:The Pantops CAC hears about development projects and an extension of the Old Mills TrailThe Metropolitan Planning Organization endorses planning projects Virginia’s Constitution turns 50 tomorrowAlbemarle and Charlottesville launch a Buy Local campaign We begin today with some transportation news. U.S. 250 in Nelson County between Route 6 and I-64. has reopened to traffic two months after being closed after a rock slide. According to a release, that’s two weeks ahead of schedule. Lou Hatter is a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Transportation’s Culpeper District. “We had two contractors who were really focused on getting this work done as quickly as possible,” Hatter said. “The fact that U.S. 250 was not open created real issues particularly for people lived on Route 6, Afton Mountain Road.”The contractors worked six days a week and removed over 700 dump trucks of material removed from the failed slope. “It was a steep slope so the work had to be done in stages because they had to go in with equipment and level out an area called a bench that the equipment could work from and then they would reach up above that to remove the loose material.”Hatter said a series of something called a “soil nail” have been drilled into the rock.“They’re secured in place with a cement grout and then over top of that is overlaid a chain link material like chain link fencing, a mesh material and that’s secured to the rods,” Hatter said. Over top of the soil nails is a layer of straw and grass seed intended to grow vegetation quickly. Hatter said the contractors also identified another area where a slope might have failed, and this same process has been applied at that location. Credit: Virginia Department of TransportationIn addition to being the first day of Fiscal Year 2021, July 1 is also the 50th anniversary of Virginia’s current constitution. The 1971 Constitution replaced a version from 1902 which historic records show was created to make it harder for Black Virginians to vote and to enshrine segregation as the law of the land. That constitution imposed a poll tax and literacy requirements to vote. The 1971 Constitution was an attempt to remove those restrictions following federal bans as well as passage of the Civil Rights Act. Copies of all four of Virginia’s Constitutions are on view at the Library of Virginia through Thursday. Learn more about the 1971 Constitution in a press release sent out by the office of Virginia Governor Ralph Northam.Governor Northam inspects previous Constitutions with legal scholar A. E. Dick Howard. Howard led the process to write the 1971 document. Albemarle County and Charlottesville have launched a joint Buy Local campaign to promote small businesses in the area. The economic development offices in both jurisdictions will run the campaign and are looking for businesses that might want to participate in what’s being described “as a multi-channel, multimedia promotional and educational campaign.” From the release:“Locally-owned, independent businesses with a brick-and-mortar facility in the City of Charlottesville or Albemarle County interested in being featured in the campaign should contact Jennifer Schmack at jschmack@albemarle.org (for Albemarle-based businesses) and Jason Ness at nessj@charlottesville.gov (for Charlottesville based-businesses).” Today is the official last day for Rebecca Carter as administrator of Buckingham County, according to the Farmville Herald. Carter moved to the county south of Albemarle in 1986 when her husband was transferred to a job with CSX. Soon after she went to work for Buckingham County as an administrative assistant. In 1994, she became administrator. Carter announced her resignation last December due to her husband’s failing health. Wayne Carter died in April, and Rebecca Carter told the Farmville Herald she plans to spend her retirement helping with the family farm. There’s an effort underway in Albemarle County to extend the Old Mills Trail along the Rivanna south of Pantops. That was one piece of information told to the Pantops Community Advisory Committee during their briefing on the Urban Rivanna River Corridor Plan, a joint planning effort intended to encourage greater collaboration between Albemarle and Charlottesville along a common border. Tim Padalino is a planner in Albemarle’s parks and recreation department.“There is an existing section of the Old Mills Trail as I think most viewers and attendees know,” Padalino said. “It’s approximately two and a half miles in length between Darden Towe Park on the upstream section and the I-64 bridges downstream, the current ending of the trail.”Padalino said the proposed extension would go further downstream to Milton through an area that is currently overgrown and wild. If turned into a trail, people might be able to walk to a spot that is also being planned for a better place to end a journey on the river itself. “So for example the vision for the Rivanna Greenway and Blueway includes future development of an expanded improved public landing and river access sport at Milton as well as some type of a new trailhead facility at Milton,” Padalino said. The extension will pass over land owned by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. Padalino said a primitive pathway does exist, but it’s not sanctioned. The idea would be to use crushed stone as a trail bed rather than paving the four mile long, six foot wide trail. There’s also no funding yet for the extension. “It’s not officially maintained and it’s not permanently authorized for public use,” Padalino said. “Some easement acquisitions are still necessary before beginning final project design and funding request and grant applications and everything else that will come in the weeks and months ahead.” The extension to Milton will pass in some section close to the railroad, which will be owned soon by the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority. It will also pass by the Luckstone quarry. “And part of the arrangement and agreement between Luckstone and Albemarle County is to make sure that trail users can remain safe while passing through an active quarry,” Padalino said. Prepared by Albemarle County Parks & Recreation with support from Albemarle County Community Development – Geographic Data Services Division.Padalino made his comments at the Pantops Community Advisory Committee. That group also got updates on development projects under construction or under review. Senior planner Cameron Langille said contractors hired by the Virginia Department of Transportation continue to work on converting the junction of U.S. 250 and Interstate 64 into a “diverging diamond.”“As it stands that project is still on track to be completed at the original date of March 2023,” Langille said.Planners are reviewing a new 1,000 square foot building at the Pantops Shopping Center.“There’s a flat green grassed area there that they’re going to install some new parking into and then the new building is going to be a drive through car wash,” Langille said. Across U.S. 250, the façade of the former Battlefield/Malloy Ford has been demolished. Malloy moved to U.S. 29.“What they’re doing is to try to build the façade back because they’re looking to get some new auto dealerships to go back to that site,” Langille said. A site plan is nearing approval for The Hampton Inn to be built on State Farm Boulevard. A second hotel The Overlook is still in the review process for a rezoning application. “The applicant has told us that they want to continue going through reviews with staff until our comments have gotten to a point where the applicant feels comfortable moving forward to a public hearing with the Planning Commission,” Langille said. Langille said a proposal to build 130 apartment units on South Pantops Drive next to the Overlook Condominiums has been withdrawn. In its place is a new development for 40 townhomes. Two former fast food franchise buildings in the Pantops Shopping Center have closed in the past year. A Burger King remains vacant while the Hardees has a new tenant. “Tobey’s Pawn Shop has gone on in and occupied that space,” Langille said. “They just did some work inside of the building but really didn’t change anything else on site.”The Pantops Community Advisory Committee will next meet in August and will take off the month of July. Time for another subscriber-supported public service announcement! The Friends of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library are having a Warehouse Sale at Albemarle Square Shopping Center (300 Albemarle Square) Friday, July 9 through Sunday, July 11 from 10-6 each day. There will be Fiction, Mysteries, SciFi and Fantasy, Cookbooks, Military, Biographies and YA and Children’s Books There will be a capacity limit of 80 shoppers. Proceeds benefit our regional public library system, JMRL, serving Charlottesville, Albemarle, Greene, Louisa and Nelson.*Finally today, time to go through some of the June 23 meeting of the Metropolitan Planning Organization Policy Board. To recap, that’s the federally-mandated body that approves transportation funding. It’s made up of two Charlottesville City Councilors, two Albemarle Supervisors, and the head of the Virginia Department of Transportation’s Culpeper District. The MPO adopted a resolution supporting an effort by the city of Charlottesville to seek additional funding to support the Meadow Creek Trail. Chris Gensic with the city’s Parks and Recreation Department said the city received a Transportation Alternatives grant of $300,000 two years ago for the project, which according to the staff report was for “the design and construction of a bike and pedestrian bridge across Meadow Creek as part of the U.S. 250 Commuter Trail from Hydraulic Road to Brandywine Drive.” That amount included $75,000 in local funding. However, that amount will not be enough to cover the project.“After doing some discussions with VDOT and thinking it through, we came up with a plan where A, you can’t just build a bridge that isn’t connected by a full multi-use path,” Genesis said. “There’s paths in that area but they are recreational dirt surface paths. In order to construct the entire project, to get all the funding in at once and hire one contractor and just get it all done, we’ve decided to apply for a second round of funding.” The request this year is for $500,000 and will require $135,000 in local funding as a match. A second city department is also making a Transportations Alternative Project grant request to fund the existing Safe Routes to School program for the next two fiscal years. More specifically, the funding would cover the cost of a full-time coordinator.“That coordinator helps to implement programs in the city schools, things like Bike and Walk to School day events, helmut giveaways, neighborhood bike repair,” said Amanda Poncy, the city’s bicycle and pedestrian coordinator. “Working with the city school division to better understand how kids are getting to school, and also building a website and social media presence.”The MPO approved resolutions of support for both, and a third for a planning grant for future of the Amtrak station on West Main Street. Jessica Hersh-Ballering is a transportation planner with the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission. “This is a small station but it serves a lot of riders,” Hersh-Ballering said. “The size of the station doesn’t currently meet the needs of our numbers of boardings and alightings and with continued investment by the state into rail and passenger rail, it will continue to not meet those needs.”If funded, the TJPDC would create a master plan for the site. More on all three of those projects as 2021 continues. We’ll also hear more the rest of the year about the candidates for projects for consideration in the next round of VDOT’s Smart Scale process. The deadline isn’t until next year, but pre-selection work is underway. Potential projects for the MPO to consider are:A roundabout at the intersection of District Avenue and Hydraulic RoadAn extension of Hillsdale Avenue to the U.S. 250 bypassA bike and pedestrian crossing of the Rivanna River Multi-modal improvements for Avon Street between Mill Creek and Belmont Bridge Multi-modal improvements for 5th Street between Southwood and Harris RoadA grade-separated interchange, or “flyover” at U.S 250 and U.S. 29 Interested in more information in any of these stories? Take a look at the video. If you have any questions, let me know and I’ll try to help. That’s what I am here to do! A “flyover” interchange was suggested as a candidate by a member of the Citizens Transportation Advisory Committee This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s 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 three projects that are underway.  On today’s show: Housing updates from Regional Housing Partnership UVA President Jim Ryan kicks off the Tom Tom Foundation’s Race and Equity ConferenceThe City of Charlottesville is advertising for a slew of management positions Crescent Halls renovation moving forward with a date scheduled for a virtual kickoff A brief look at the pandemicToday marks the beginning of the Tom Tom Foundation’s Race and Equity Conference which is a pay-what-you-can virtual event that seeks to explore “the intersection of workplace and community.”The title of the multi-day series is From the Classroom to the Boardroom and is intended to address income disparities. The conference website cites the latest report on family self-sufficiency from Ridge Schuyler of the Network2Work program at Piedmont Virginina Community College.  (Orange Dot Report 4.0, January 20, 2021)“In our hometown, Charlottesville, Virginia, 35% of Black families do not currently earn enough money to meet their basic needs, compared to 14% of white families,” reads the conference website. “Targeted interventions can help address this racial inequity where its impact is most often felt—in our classrooms, boardrooms, and on the pathways in between.” University of Virginia President Jim Ryan kicked off the event this morning.“As we focus on re-building community, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, innovation and collaboration remain critically important, especially around issues of diversity, equity and inclusion,” Ryan said. Ryan said efforts to improve the overall community are underway and that the Classroom to Boardroom conference would provide highlights.“Throughout this week you’ll hear from local and national leaders on their experiences and perspectives,” Ryan said. One of those national leaders is Symone Sanders, who served as press secretary to U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders during his 2016 presidential campaign before becoming spokesperson for Vice President Kamala Harris. Symone Sanders was the keynote conversation this morning. She was asked to speak about some of the challenges and barriers she has experienced as a Black woman.“I think we can all identify with the ‘isms’ and Donna Brazile, a good mentor of mine, a former chair of the Democratic National Committee and a former CNN political commentator, Donna Brazile was a political commentator before people had jobs as political commentators!” Sanders said. “She said something to me that I will never forget and will share it with you now because I think it is the best encapsulation of the answer to your question. She said racism, sexism, ageism are not going anywhere tomorrow. We have to work to eradicate it. We have to call it out.”The event continues this afternoon with two more panel discussions. At 1 p.m. the topic is “Ascension: Joining Together to Rewrite the Code” and will be a discussion of the social fabric required for art and community to grow featuring Sahara Clemons, William Jones, and Lisa Woolfork moderated by Sarad Davenport. At 3 p.m. the topic is The Transformative Value of Diversity and Inclusion and is moderated by Mary Coleman, the executive director of the City of Promise. Visit the Tom Tom Foundation’s site to learn more and register for the pay-as-you-can event which runs through April 8. (website)Visit the site to learn about the rest of the Classroom to the Boardroom conference on Race and Equity*A groundbreaking date has been announced for the renovation of Crescent Halls. The Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority will hold a virtual renovation kickoff celebration at 4 p.m. on April 14 at 4 p.m. “The ‘skeleton’ of the building will be preserved, but all of the residential units, building systems, underground infrastructure, common areas, exterior spaces, parking areas, etc. will be as-new,” reads a description of the renovations on the CRHA website. For more information on the project, read a four-page design overview produced by the Public Housing Association of Residents (PHAR). Last October, City Council approved a performance agreement that will be used by the CRHA’s redevelopment nonprofit to govern how $3 million in city funds will be used both for Crescent Halls and the first phase of South First Street. Groundbreaking for the latter took place on March 7. (watch groundbreaking) (read previous story)The CRHA will hold a work session tonight at 5 p.m. at which they are expected to adopt a budget for FY22. Following that, the CRHA’s safety committee will meet. (Zoom registration) Image of the what the “Frontside” of a renovated Crescent Halls will look likeDo you or someone you know want the chance to be Charlottesville’s next Director of Neighborhood Development Services? The city is taking applications through April 2 for the position, for which a vacancy was created when Alex Ikefuna was demoted to deputy director in February 2020. (Daily Progress article)‘The ideal candidate must have experience and knowledge with all aspects of Planning and Development operations and a proven track record in managing a complex organization while demonstrating the ability to work with many stakeholders in a highly engaged community,” reads the application for the job, which has a salary range between $100,000 and $150,000. The NDS director is not the only position that is open:City Attorney - $150K to $176K - application closes April 2Director of Social Services - $100K to $150K - application closes April 2Office of Human Rights Manager - $73 to $81K - application closes April 2 Deputy City Manager for Operations - $100K to $158K - application closes April 9“Recent retirements, natural attrition and newly created positions of several key leadership posts have positioned the City to be able to make a major organizational culture change in serving our community and meeting the contemporary needs of our governmental staff,” reads a line posted within each of the above applications. A blurb from the application brochure outlines the duties of the NDS directorYou’re reading Charlottesville Community Engagement. In this subscriber-supported public service announcement, the days of live music at clubs are in our future, but if you feel safe and want to check out people playing together in a safe environment, the Charlottesville Jazz Society has a running list of events coming up on their website. The Charlottesville Jazz Society is dedicated to the promotion, preservation and perpetuation of all jazz. Check them out in the link in the newsletter.  The Central Virginia Regional Housing Partnership met earlier this month and got updates on various initiatives underway.  One of them involves helping outlying communities write policies for ensuring the existence of housing affordable to people with lower incomes. Christine Jacobs is the interim director of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission. “We are creating a draft Comprehensive Plan chapter for each of the jurisdictions within the planning district commission,” Jacobs said. “The City of Charlottesville, Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa and Nelson.” Jacobs said there will also be a chapter in the regional plan that offers strategies on how the localities can work together to increase the overall supply of housing.“We now have a draft of all six of the locality chapters,” Jacobs said. “We have been working directly with staff specifically in Albemarle and Charlottesville since they have been doing so much work on their end with their affordable housing plans.” Jacobs said the regional plan will also include a map which shows the areas in each locality where zoning exists for multifamily buildings and other dense residential uses. A draft of the regional plan will come to the RHP’s executive committee in May and will come to the full RHP board in June. The plans will be presented to localities in the summer and will go to the TJPDC Board in August. Albemarle’s Housing Plan next goes to the Albemarle Planning Commission in May. Charlottesville’s City Council endorsed an affordable housing plan earlier this month. “Basically we’re taking their very large plans and condensing it into our chapter so that they are a part of this entire regional plan,” Jacobs said. Supervisor Diantha McKeel asked where the University of Virginia’s housing plans fit into the region. On March 10, 2020, UVA announced a ten year plan to build up to 1,500 units on land currently owned by UVA or its real estate foundation. Colette Sheehy, senior vice president for operations and government relations at UVA, gave an update.“We did a solicitation and we have hired a consultant to help us, her name is Gina Merrett,” Sheehy said. Merrett is with Northern Real Estate Urban Ventures. “This is not a consultant who will build affordable housing for us,” Sheehy said. “This is a consultant to guide the University through the process to get to the point where we would do a [request for proposals] to the developer community to build affordable housing.”Sheehy said UVA’s main contribution will come in the form of land and that a community engagement process is being developed now. During the meeting, members of the RHP were asked to give a “value proposition” for the body. Jacobs went first with her thoughts.“I think by having a regional body that’s looking at this issue comprehensively, how it relates to transit and transportation, how it relates to equity and health, I think we put ourselves in a position to be considered to administer the Emergency Rent and Mortgage relief program,” Jacobs said. The TJPDC administered over $1.6 million in relief in the second half of calendar year 2020.The TJPDC administered the program for its first six monthsArchitect Greg Powe went next.“This is a regional crisis,” Powe said. “It affects all of us. This is the only group I’m aware of that brings together all of us that are impacted by and can positively resolve the problem. I think there’s incredible value to have the private sector interfacing with the municipalities and with the nonprofits interacting with the institutions.” Chris Henry of the Stony Point Development Group followed.“We’re one community and this group represents that community and how we come together to solve that problem so I think that’s the fundamental essence of the Regional Housing Partnership,” Henry said. RHP Chair Keith Smith of Fluvanna County said he has been discussing the possibility of bringing Augusta County and Waynesboro into the group. The TJPDC has worked with the Central Shenandoah Planning District Commission on planning for a transit route now known as the Afton Express. Charlottesville City Councilor Lloyd Snook played off of that theme.“A value of doing this Regional Housing Partnership through the TJPDC also ties in with the Regional Transit Partnership,” Snook said. “I’ve always said these days, affordable housing for the Charlottesville market is in Waynesboro or Buckingham County. It’s not in Charlottesville. It’s really not in Albemarle very much.”City Councilor Michael Payne agreed.“There’s really only been one project since I’ve been on Council where Council hasn’t approved greater density than what’s allowed by-right so I definitely agree that something is going to need to happen regionally because the supply-side solutions, if only Charlottesville is doing supply-side solutions, it’s going to have a much smaller impact than regionally,” Payne said. Before we go today, a brief update on the pandemic. The number of new cases reported each day by the Virginia Department of Health remains steady, even as the number of vaccinations each day continues to increase. Today there are another 1,432 new cases and the percent positive rate is at 5.8 percent. Last week that metric was 5.6 percent. Over 1.3 million Virginians are now fully vaccinated, or 15.5 percent of the total population. The seven-day average for doses administered per day is 61,681 a day. Yesterday the Blue Ridge Health District announced it would receive 1,500 first doses and 1,000 second doses of Moderna, 2,340 Pfizer first doses, and 4,000 Johnson and Johnson doses. That does not include allocations that now go directly to the UVA Hospital. The announcement also stated the health district is not yet able to expand to Phase 1C.“Unfortunately, our supply of COVID-19 vaccines remains limited this week, despite our numerous requests for an increase in supply,” reads the announcement. “We are unable to meet the demand for the number of people in our District who currently qualify for a vaccine.”Take a look at the Blue Ridge Health District’s Facebook page to learn more. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Virginia's General Assembly has passed a bill to study the effects of gold mining, after concerns about a proposal in Buckingham County’s Union Hill; Governor Ralph Northam is joining calls for an investigation into the state's parole board; a new pedestrian traffic signal goes up in the West End; and other local news stories.

Today'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! On today’s show:The population of the Charlottesville area has grown by over ten percent in the past ten yearsThe Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission says goodbye to Chip BoylesCharlottesville City Council discusses the capital improvement budgetIn six days, Chip Boyles will officially become Charlottesville’s City Manager. Last Thursday, the Board of Commissioners of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission said goodbye to Boyles in his capacity as their executive director. He has been there since April 2014.  Greene County Supervisor Dale Herring is Chair of the TJPDC Board and he read from a proclamation.“Whereas the influence and reputation of the TJPDC and the quality of programs and services during Chip’s tenure has been greatly enhanced by the vision, skills, and passion he brought to TJPDC’s mission, therefore be it resolved that the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission expresses enduring gratitude and appreciation for the generous and faithful service provided to the TJPDC and this region by Chip Boyles.” Dale HerringCommissioner Keith Smith of Fluvanna County said Boyles took over at a time when the TJPDC had opted to not renew the contract of a previous director. “We were in a bad way and just to do a 180, it was purely upon his skill, his leadership, and that funny accent of his, people apparently trust him,” Smith said. “Who knew?”Charlottesville City Councilor Michael Payne said he appreciated the comments from other TJPDC Commissioners. “I’m just incredibly excited to work with Chip going forward and I think there are really bright days ahead for the region as a whole,” Payne said. Nelson County Supervisor Jesse Rutherford praised Boyles’ optimism but also made a threat in jest. “Michael and you all, I’m just saying,” Rutherford said. “My threat out there of saying that if this doesn’t go well, we will ban all fruit products and beverages from going into Charlottesville from Nelson County. That’s a serious one and whoever the reporter is in here, write that down!” Rutherford also sounded a more positive tone. “We look forward to the success of Charlottesville,” Rutherford said. “That is not only important to Nelson County but the region. I can’t say this enough, but we have sent you our best, alright?” One of TJPDC’s achievements with Boyles in charge is the creation of the Regional Transit Partnership, a gathering of various agencies that has spent the last few years laying out the foundation for a more integrated system. Recently the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) awarded TJPDC a grant to help build more of the framework.“This award is $175,000 for the development of a regional plan as recommended by the Regional Transit Partnership,” Jacobs said. “There is a match for this of $175,000 to be provided both by Albemarle County and the city of Charlottesville over two fiscal years.” This plan will involve coordination between Charlottesville Area Transit, the University Transit Service, JAUNT and Albemarle County. The DRPT also awarded a $106,500 grant to TJPDC to study expansion of transit in Albemarle. The county will have to pay half of that as a match. “This study is to develop the financial feasibility of new transit services in three different areas,” Jacobs said. “Route 29 north, Monticello, and Pantops.”The TJPDC also coordinates regional priorities for Community Development Block Grants. Applications to the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development from non-urban localities are due on March 26. “As of the end of January, we’ve already been notified of one project in Louisa County for a planning and infrastructure grant for affordable housing,” Jacobs said. “We know of a Nelson County potential grant for downtown revitalization of Lovingston. We have Albemarle County acquisition and redevelopment for an affordable housing project. And Scottsville has a redevelopment project going on.” The Virginia DHCD is now directly administering a rent and mortgage relief program to assist households during the pandemic, but the TJPDC was in charge of the program in the second half of calendar year 2020. “We were awarded a total grant of $1.8 million dollars for the region [and] $1.624 million of that went directly to pay for rent and mortgage relief for qualifying families,” Jacobs said. “That was 570 families in this region who were served with an average of $2,000 rent per household.”The state program is not covering additional mortgage payments at this time, but are still accepting applications for rent relief. Visit their website if you or someone you know needs assistance. Locally, the TJPDC has launched an online portal called Porch Light that allows people to find affordable housing opportunities. “If you know people who have rental properties, direct them to our website and they can go directly to the site,” Boyles said. “We need landlords to list their properties. It’s free. It’s easy.”Chip Boyles (lower right) presided over his final TJPDC meeting Nelson County Supervisor Rutherford said the COVID pandemic has brought a real sense of urgency about housing. “We’re going to be doing some hard soul-searching in Nelson County and what it is we can do to get some economies of scale and some more dense housing,” Rutherford said. Rutherford said he is aware that some newcomers to the area are choosing Nelson due to the provision of more broadband Internet. He said he has a tenant who works in Crystal City and commutes twice a week. “We’re going to see some major culture changes in our workforce and in how we operate on a business level,” Rutherford said. (watch the whole TJPDC meeting here)Population estimates publishedThe Weldon Cooper Center at the University of Virginia has released its annual population estimates for localities across the Commonwealth. Albemarle County has grown by 11.7 percent since the 2010 Census, with an estimated population of 110,545 as of July 1, 2020. The population of the City of Charlottesville increased by 13.8 percent to a population of 49,477. There are also increases in most other localities in the Thomas Jefferson Planning District. Fluvanna County jumped 5.9 percent to 27,202. Greene County is estimated to be at 20,323, or an increase of 10.4 percent. Louisa County increased by 11.6 percent to a population of 37,011 people. Only Nelson County is estimated to have declined over the past ten years, losing just over a hundred people to 14,904 people. When added all together, the planning district as a whole increased 10.5 percent to a total population of 259,432. Other planning districts that experienced that level of growth include Northern Virginia with 13.5 percent growth, the Rappahannock-Rapidan with 8.7 percent, the Richmond Regional at 10.6 percent, the Crater District at 7.7 percent and the George Washington Regional Commission at 14.9 percent. The U.S. Census Bureau, however, organizes localities into Metropolitan Statistical Areas. The Charlottesville MSA is similar to the Planning District, with the exception that Louisa County is replaced with Buckingham County. When viewed that way, the MSA grew by 10.4 percent. Buckingham County remained flat in the Weldon Cooper estimate with an increase of just 16 people. The U.S. Census results are expected to be posted later in the year, later than the usual release date of April 1. Charlottesville Council discusses capital budget at Feb. 3 work sessionDownload the presentation from the February 3, 2021 meeting here Later on today, the Charlottesville Planning Commission will meet with the Charlottesville Planning Commission to discuss the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) for the next fiscal year which begins on July 1, 2021. Last week, Council discussed the proposed $160 million CIP for the next five years. When they adopt a budget in April, Council will only approve actual funding for FY22 but looking ahead to the full five-year period helps give budget planners perspective about what capacity the city has incur more debt to cover capital projects. “If you look at sort of a ten year history, you will see that in 2012 our CIP was at $80 million,” said Krissy Hammill, a senior budget analyst with the city. “It ebbed and flowed until about 2017 but we still hovered around the $80 million mark. Since 2018, the CIP from 2017 to now, this draft, our five-year CIP has basically doubled.” Hammill said Council increased the amounts for affordable housing from $8 million in the 2012 five-year plan to $38 million in the current draft. Additional spending was allocated for education and transportation. “Of those three priority areas, we’ve essentially added $94 million of funding to a plan, of course the big chunk being the $50 million for the school reconfiguration,” Hammill said. “But I think it shows that in some respects with regard to the CIP plan, we’ve put the money where our priorities were, but we’ve also done that without taking anything away.” A $6 million city contribution for a joint General District Court with Albemarle is in the plan as is $10 million for a parking garage at 9th and Market Street to support the expanded courts complex.   The draft CIP contemplates issuing $121 million in bonds over the next five years to fund some of the projects, including about $74 million in projects already authorized by previous Councils. Hammil said that will come close to maxing out the city’s debt capacity for the foreseeable future. It will also cost the city more. “If we get to a point where we’re issuing $185 million or $195 million worth of debt, the debt service doubles,” Hammill said. “So you’re going to go from a debt service payment of roughly $11 million of $22 million.”That will likely require a tax increase to cover that additional payment, or the equivalent reduction in spending. There is currently no tax increase anticipated for the next year, but Hammil said they would need to plan for one soon should they decide to proceed with the full capital improvement plan. Council made no major decisions at the work session last week but did offer glimpses of their thoughts in a discussion. Councilor Payne said he would support deferring or canceling the $10 million for the parking garage and working to find another solution to guarantee parking for the courts complex. “I think we really need to at least initiate conversations on are there ways to meet that courts agreement outside of a new parking garage of that size and cost,” Payne said. “Not abandon that agreement. Meet it. Honor it. Honor our relationships and commitments with the county but see what we can do reduce that cost there.”  Councilor Lloyd Snook said he was also willing to rethink the garage.“I’ve been a real passionate defender of this parking garage but as someone who uses the parking garage that we have now, I’m looking around and seeing we don’t have a demand for parking right now,” Snook said. “Admittedly things are slow because of COVID, but we don’t know when that will end.” Payne said the city also needs to have a conversation about the full cost of middle school reconfiguration. Mayor Nikuyah Walker said she and Councilor Heather Hill sit on a committee with two school board members who are working on the issue while a cost estimate is developed. Walker said whatever the conversation, the focus must be on equity. She also said the city’s spending on housing must be tracked. The city is currently without a housing coordinator. “I don’t know where we are on replacing [John] Sales’ position,” Walker said. “I think it was Jeff Levien last time he was before us said there was still a vacant unit sitting in [Six Hundred West Main] because he could not find anyone to rent it.” Walker said she is also concerned about the future of the city’s investment in Piedmont Housing Alliance’s redevelopment of Friendship Court.“We make decisions based on relationships and not based on what people would do,” Walker said. “We are taking taxpayer money and investing those dollars and we should have some strings attached.”Staff has recommended not proceeding with additional funding for the West Main Streetscape, which has a roughly $52 million cost estimate to implement a design plan that cost $2.85 million in city funds to create. One Councilor was ready to de-prioritize local funds being use to move forward. “I do see the value and vision,” Payne said. “I just can’t justify it as being a bigger priority than these other things,” Payne said. The West Main project was split into four phases in order to secure funding from the Virginia Department of Transportation. Local funding is required for Phase 1 and Phase 2, but a third phase is being recommended for nearly $10.9 million in funding in the next Smart Scale round. I asked the Virginia Department of Transportation plan what would happen if Council decides to cancel the first two phases. Phase 3 covers the area between the Drewary Brown Bridge and Roosevelt Brown Boulevard. “The Phase 3 application would not be automatically removed,” said VDOT spokesman Lou Hatter. “It is a standalone project. From the process perspective the City would need to pass a resolution requesting that its Phase 3 application be withdrawn from consideration for funding.”Hatter said if the city does drop Phase 3, the funding would go to the next highest scoring project in Smart Scale, which is a roundabout at the intersection of Route 522 and Route 20 in Orange. Councilor Snook said he did not want to make a decision at the work session, and consensus was reached to do so at Council’s upcoming meeting next Monday. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Virginia is finally beginning to improve its COVID-19 vaccine distribution, after a clunky rollout… Residents of Buckingham County are worried about the environmental impacts that a potential gold mine will have there, and one delegate is proposing a bill to protect them… Meanwhile in the General Assembly bills to abolish the death penalty and provide LGBTQ protections advance, while those restoring parole and getting rid of qualified immunity are killed….

Virginia is finally beginning to improve its COVID-19 vaccine distribution, after a clunky rollout… Residents of Buckingham County are worried about the environmental impacts that a potential gold mine will have there, and one delegate is proposing a bill to protect them… Meanwhile in the General Assembly bills to abolish the death penalty and provide LGBTQ protections advance, while those restoring parole and getting rid of qualified immunity are killed….

It’s Tuesday the Thirteenth of October which may not be an actual scary thing, but it is 2020, so let’s be a little extra careful today. I’m Sean Tubbs and this is the Charlottesville Community Engagement Newscast and Newsletter. If you’ve only read if to this point, today’s the day to listen. Don’t be scared to click the button!Today’s installment, and all the other installments, is made possible by contributions from readers and listeners either through purchasing a subscription to this newsletter or setting up a monthly donation through Patreon. All of it goes to making sure I can continue keeping an eye on things for the foreseeable future. About ten percent of you so far are doing so, and I thank you for that. *As the newsletter goes to production, there are several information technology problems affecting state government websites. That includes the Virginia Department of Health as well as the registration database for voter registration. The problem traces to a fiber cut in Chester according to a tweet from the Virginia Information Technologies Agency. Crews are working on the issue. Yesterday, the Albemarle registrar reported that over 20,000 ballots have been cast by county residents, or about a quarter of the total registered voters. Almost 11,400 votes were made in-person and 9,431 were received in the mail.  Charlottesville’s registrar reported there have been 4,738 in-person voters and 3,197 mail-in ballots received as of yesterday at 11:40 a.m. Charlottesville’s new fire chief will start on December 1 after wrapping up a long stint in central Florida. Dr. Hezedean Smith has been with the Orlando Fire Department since 1996 and is its current assistant chief. “In looking forward to starting my role on December 1, it will be a very special day for my family and I because I will join an organization that embodies itself as a family with integrity, respect,  and excellence,” Smith said. Smith began his public safety career in the Air Force. He has a Doctor of Management degree in Organizational Leadership and a master’s degree in Organizational Management from University of Phoenix. “It is worth noting that Dr. Smith has over thirty years of experience in the fire service and that he has an extensive array of experience from operations, to budgeting, to [Information Technology] to EMS operations as well,” said interim city manager John Blair. Smith said he looked forward to starting work. “Given the current challenges facing our nation, state and city, I look forward to utilizing my skills, my knowledge of emergency services and leadership and management skills to help move our city forward,” Smith said. Smith fills a vacancy left when Fire Chief Andrew Baxter resigned following a public dispute with former City Manager Tarron Richardson. Richardson himself resigned last month. The city is seeking a search firm to help with finding a permanent replacement. *Today in meetings, we report on Buckingham County for the first time. The Board of Supervisors there will hold a public hearing on a zoning change that would allow “core sampling for commercial use in an agriculturally zoned district with a special use permit.” Last month, the county’s zoning administrator told a Canadian company that work they had been conducting was in violation. The group Friends of Buckingham is calling for the change to be denied because it could lead to gold mining operations which would be harmful to the environment. Aston Bay Holdings has arrangements to explore nearly 5,000 acres of land in the county as they announced last March.“The parcel contains a recent gold discovery located adjacent to the past producing Gold – Pyrite Belt of Central Virginia,” reads the website. “The focus of exploration will be an associated gold-in-soil anomaly that extends for a distance of over 900 metres (m) with values up to 0.4 grams/tonne (g/t) Au in soil.”Virginia has a long history of gold mining but there has no been active commercial mines since 1947, according to the Virginia Department on Mines, Minerals and Energy. The Buckingham County Board of Supervisors begins at 6 p.m. and can be viewed on YouTube. *The Charlottesville Planning Commission will consider a multifamily dwelling unit on vacant land in Fifeville, south of the University of Virginia. The 2013 Comprehensive Plan calls for this to be low density residential, but the applicant is proposing a way forward. After that discussion, Commissioners will be briefed by consultants on the comp plan update. Jennifer Koch with Rhodeside and Harwell described the process to the Commission back in August. (meeting info)"The effort that we're calling Cville Plans Together is an effort that we as a consultant are working with NDS, the Planning Commission and others to continue the update to the Comprehensive Plan that was started in 2017, 2018," Koch said. "That includes a big focus on housing and housing affordability with a specific housing plan that will be part of the housing chapter of the Comprehensive Plan."The Albemarle Planning Commission meets at 6 p.m. for a work session related to a recycling facility by the airport that processes material from demolished buildings.  (meeting info)At the same time, Albemarle will hold a town hall meeting this evening for active and former military personnel who work for local government and the school system. One of the speakers will be Col. Lettie J. Bien (Ret.), Program Coordinator for the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce Defense Affairs Committee (DAC). The event is being put on by the Albemarle County Veterans Affinity Group. The Greene Board of Supervisors meets at 7:30 p.m. and one of the items on the agenda is an initiation of that county’s Comprehensive Plan, which was last adopted in June 2016. There will also be an update on the Shenandoah National Park, which gets a new superintendent this month when Patrick Kenney takes over.“Compared to 2019, Shenandoah National Park is enjoying a slight increase in visitation and in entrance fees,” writes Bill Henry in an email. “Visitation through August was up 1.6 percent. Weekends have seen visitation numbers that rival October leaf season weekends.” There will also be a presentation for a proposal for Stanardsville to become twinned with the village of Tarland in Scotland.“They both are nestled in a rural landscape, surrounded by rolling fields in the foothills of nearby mountains,” reads the materials. “The Piedmont region of Virginia and the Howe O’ Cromar in Aberdeenshire.” This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Outbreaks of COVID-19 in Buckingham County’s prisons make it second in Virginia in number of cases per capita… Nursing homes in the commonwealth still have trouble obtaining personal protective equipment… Meanwhile, the number of kids getting routine vaccinations during the pandemic has dropped, and doctors say that could create another problem….

Outbreaks of COVID-19 in Buckingham County’s prisons make it second in Virginia in number of cases per capita… Nursing homes in the commonwealth still have trouble obtaining personal protective equipment… Meanwhile, the number of kids getting routine vaccinations during the pandemic has dropped, and doctors say that could create another problem….

Sharon Ponton is the Stop the Pipelines Campaign Coordinator with us at BREDL and then George Jones is a student at Paine College studying History and is an intern with BREDL. Heird Properties are when, deeds were written where entire families, including children, owned properties and then the owner(s) died without a will, therefore, hundreds of their descendants today could own the property in common...meaning no one person has the ability to make decisions regarding the property. This puts all of the owners-in-common at risk of abuse by the industry which wants to condemn the property. I start by talking with Sharon about her work and courthouse research of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline easement documents recorded in Buckingham County, VA which led them to the heired properties. We also discuss the significance of heird properties and injustices which have led to these them. Then I speak with George about his personal experience learning that he owned heired property and getting to talk with his relatives in Georgia this past summer and also on getting his peers at Paine College involved and aware of heird property Contact and connect with Sharon and George: ponton913@msn.com and georgejones3rd@icloud.com Learn more about Heired Properties: https://www.americanbar.org/groups/state_local_government/publications/state_local_law_news/2016-17/fall/restoring_hope_heirs_property_owners_uniform_partition_heirs_property_act/ https://www.thebalance.com/what-does-heir-at-law-mean-3505555 Heired Properties and the Atlantic Coast Pipeline: https://friendsofnelson.com/bredl-releases-report-on-union-hill/ http://www.bredl.org/safeguard_americas_resources/200407_ACP_Invasion_during_Pandemic.htm https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/article185036078.html Heired Property information in Georgia: https://www.gaheirsproperty.org/heirs-property http://digital.ipcprintservices.com/article/A_Primer_on_Heirs_Property_and_Georgia%E2%80%99s_New_Uniform_Partition_of_Heirs_Property_Act%3A_Protecting_Owners_of_Heirs_Property/1528545/178482/article.html Keep up to date with what's happening at BREDL: http://www.bredl.org/safeguard_americas_resources/index.htm Background Music Credits: https://www.youtube.com/c/mbbmusic https://soundcloud.com/mbbofficial https://www.instagram.com/mbb_music

The first reported death in Buckingham County from COVID-19 is at a correctional center there… Governor Northam says Virginia will gradually begin lifting stay-at-home orders and other restrictions this Friday… Meanwhile, leaders in Northern Virginia say that region isn’t ready yet….

The first reported death in Buckingham County from COVID-19 is at a correctional center there… Governor Northam says Virginia will gradually begin lifting stay-at-home orders and other restrictions this Friday… Meanwhile, leaders in Northern Virginia say that region isn’t ready yet….

Buckingham County, Virginia Sheriff William Kidd tells Cam Edwards that if Governor Ralph Northam wants to take guns away from Virginia residents, he should be the one to go and get them.

The SP Podcast hands out the weekly awards, breaks down the Goochland/Hopewell state final four matchup and takes a look at six teams in different situations in basketball season. Minute by minute: Weekly Awards including the Road Grader of the Week — Goochland’s Connor Duncan and Khalil Holman (:00-3:05), Offensive Player of the Week — […]

The SP Podcast hands out the weekly awards and takes a look at how and why it’s extremely difficult to advance to third round of the playoffs and why that makes Goochland’s eight region finals since 2000 so impressive.   Minute by minute: Weekly Awards including the Road Grader of the Week — Goochland’s Le’shon […]

The SP Podcast hands out the weekly awards and takes a look at the second round region playoff matchups with three teams locally left alive.   Minute by minute: Weekly Awards including the Road Grader of the Week — Louisa County’s Adrain Williams (:00-5:00), Offensive Players of the Week — Goochland’s Devin McCray and Buckingham’s […]

The SP Podcast hands out the weekly awards and takes a look at this week’s critical slate of games.   Minute by minute: Weekly Awards including the Road Grader of the Week — Woodberry’s Entire Offensive Line (:00-5:50), Offensive Players of the Week — Orange’s Jaylen Alexander, Madison’s Wade Fox, CHS’s Isaiah Washington and Albemarle’s […]

The SP Podcast hands out the weekly awards and takes a look at this week’s critical slate of games.   Minute by minute: Weekly Awards including the Road Grader of the Week — Woodberry’s Entire Offensive Line (:00-5:50), Offensive Players of the Week — Orange’s Jaylen Alexander, Madison’s Wade Fox, CHS’s Isaiah Washington and Albemarle’s […]

The SP Podcast hands out the weekly awards and takes a look at three problems that are good problems to have for local squads Louisa, Orange, STAB and Covenant.   Minute by minute: Weekly Awards including the Road Grader of the Week — Louisa’s Qwenton Spellman (:00-5:05), Offensive Players of the Week — Albemarle’s Mahki […]

Hear Reverend William Barber's full speech at the Moral Call for Ecological Justice in Buckingham County, VA. Original air date: 3/15/19

Reverend William Barber of the Poor People's Campaign of North Carolina, and former Vice President Al Gore, recently visited the community of Union Hill in Buckingham County, VA for the Moral Call for Ecological Justice. Original air date: 3/1/19

On this week's Second Look , WMRA's Emily Richardson-Lorente has the story of a church in Buckingham County, publishing the stories of its veterans... Christopher Clymer Kurtz explains Harrisonburg's scooter invasion... Andrew Jenner attends the (anticlimactic) school board meeting selecting the new name of Staunton's high school... Plus, we survey the week in Virginia politics.

On this week's Second Look , WMRA's Chris Boros plugs into the music of the Jon Stickley Trio... WCVE reports on how Virginia firefighters are working to protect their own from higher rates of depression and suicide... We have Virginia Public Radio reports on the wave of women swept into office from Virginia, and the latest on the Buckingham County compressor station....

Across the nation, natural gas production has been ramping up. In many communities, this has meant new pipelines, new promises, and new protests. How do we balance environmental concerns and the public good? Environmental engineer Andres Clarens (University of Virginia)explains the science. Jaime Allison (Christopher Newport University) argues that we can better understand pipelines by looking back to the early days of railroads. Economist Sarah Stafford (College of William and Mary) argues that pipelines require people to weigh environmental costs and economic benefits, and the results aren’t always what you’d expect. Sociologist Travis Williams (Virginia Commonwealth University) takes us to Union Hill, a historically African American community in Buckingham County, Virginia, where a natural gas compressor station is being planned.

In this first episode of 2018, the pipeline fight is entering a new phase. Tree cutting begins in Buckingham County, and MVP takes 300 landowners to court. Original air date: 2/16/18

Ruby and John Laury live in Buckingham County, Virginia, in Union Hill—a predominantly African-American community where Dominion Energy plans to build a compressor station as part of the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline. The station would use gas-fired turbines to pump gas through the system. The proposed pipeline would have only three compressor stations—one at each and, and one in the middle, where Ruby and John live. Here, they talk about why they think their community was chosen for this station, and what that means to them. The Land I Trust is a brand new audio storytelling project brought to you by the Sierra Club. In this series, we travel through the American South to talk with folks about the dirty energy projects that threaten their homes and the work they're doing to build a clean energy economy that allows all of our communities to thrive. Hear all of the first-person stories from The Land I Trust at http://www.sc.org/stories.

Original Air Date: 8/18/17 What is the human cost of the heart of a pipeline? In Union Hill neighborhood of Buckingham county, a plot of land is proposed as the site of a compressor station for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. Compressor stations are the heart of the pipeline, pressurizing gas to be pumped across hundreds of miles. A compressor station is the lynchpin of a pipeline, as well as the most dangerous piece of infrastructure. Union Hill neighborhood, where the station is proposed to be built, is a predominantly African-American neighborhood founded by slaves freed after the Civil War. How does the history of this neighborhood coincide with the construction of a large, noisy, dirty and dangerous compressor station? How have the people most affected by its construction responded? Have elected officials or corporate decision makers heard their voices? In the midst of turmoil surrounding historic erasure in the south, this episode tells the unique and troubling story of land, ownership and theft in the neighborhood of Union Hill, Buckingham County, Virginia.

HRN Happy Hour brings you a special interview with Basil Gooden, Ph.D., who is currently serving as the Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Secretary Gooden is a native of Buckingham County, Virginia where he and his family own and operate a cattle farm, raising Black Angus beef. His family farm also participates in tree farming and land conversation efforts. He is deeply connected to the industries that he supports through his work as Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry. Kat, Caity, and Patrick speak to Secretary Gooden about the diverse agricultural commodities that are grown and produced in Virginia – from well-known crops like peanuts and tobacco to craft beverages such as wine and cider. We learn that Virginia is the #1 producer of oysters on the East Coast and that agritourism is booming across the state. Tune in to hear more about Secretary Gooden's work to bridge the gap in Virginia's food systems, educate youth on opportunities in the agricultural sector, and promote Virginia's food and products around the world.

Dr. Carter G. Woodson was born in Buckingham County, Virginia on Dec. 19, 1875, to former slaves, James & Eliza Riddle Woodson. His father helped Union soldiers during the Civil War & moved his family to West Virginia when he heard that Huntington was building a high school for Blacks. From a large, poor family, Dr. Woodson could not regularly attend school. Through self-instruction, he mastered the fundamentals of common school subjects by age 17. Wanting more education, he went to Fayette County to earn a living as a miner in the coal fields. He was able to devote only a few months each year to his schooling. In 1895, at the age of 20, Dr. Woodson entered Douglass High School, where he received his diploma in less than 2 years. From 1897 to 1900, Dr. Woodson taught at Winona in Fayette County. In 1900 he was selected as the principal of Douglass High School. He earned his Bachelor of Literature degree from Berea College in Kentucky in 1903 by taking classes part-time between 1901 &  1903. Convinced the role of African American history & the history of other cultures was being ignored or misrepresented among scholars, Dr. Woodson saw a need for research into the neglected past of African Americans. Along with Alexander L. Jackson, Dr. Woodson published The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861 in 1915. He followed this book with The Mis-Education of the Negro in 1933. The Bronzeville neighborhood inspired him to create the Assn. for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915. Now known as the Assn. for the Study of African American Life and History, it ran conferences, published The Journal of Negro History, and "particularly targeted those responsible for the education of black children".

Carter Godwin Woodson (Dec. 19, 1875 – April 3, 1950) was an African-American historian, author, journalist and the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Woodson was one of the first scholars to study African-American history. A founder of The Journal of Negro History in 1915, Woodson has been cited as the father of black history. In Feb. 1926 he announced the celebration of "Negro History Week", considered the precursor of Black History Month. Carter G. Woodson was born in Buckingham County, Virginia, the son of former slaves, James and Eliza Riddle Woodson.[5] His father helped Union soldiers during the Civil War and moved his family to West Virginia when he heard that Huntington was building a high school for blacks. Coming from a large, poor family, Carter could not regularly attend school. Through self-instruction, he mastered the fundamentals of common school subjects by age 17. Wanting more education, Carter went to Fayette County to earn a living as a miner in the coal fields. He was able to devote only a few months each year to his schooling. In 1895, at the age of 20, Woodson entered Douglass High School, where he received his diploma in less than two years.From 1897 to 1900, Woodson taught at Winona in Fayette County. In 1900 he was selected as the principal of Douglass High School. He earned his Bachelor of Literature degree from Berea College in Kentucky in 1903 by taking classes part-time between 1901 and 1903. Courtesy of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carter_G._Woodson