Podcast appearances and mentions of ryan mckay

There is a new host on the show today! Listen and find out who it is.Greg and Ryan are back on the podcast to discuss their beginnings all the way to present day with the recent release of the Atomic Kings self-titled album on vinyl. Get this vinyl album while you can.  The Atomic Kings consists of four Phoenix area residents who can create a sound that will send you back in time.Check out the album here:Click Here to get the album on AmazonClick Here to follow Atomic Kings on FacebookClick Here for Ryan McKay solo work

Our March 2024 New Music train is so amazing it can go from Dublin, UK to South Carolina in a single trip. Liam McIndoe and Harris King are on hand to guide you through tunes from Ryan McKay, Earth Tongue, Bedbug, Real Farmer and Terry Allen. Rockin' the Suburbs on Apple Podcasts/iTunes or other podcast platforms, including audioBoom, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon, iHeart, Stitcher and TuneIn. Or listen at SuburbsPod.com. Please rate/review the show on Apple Podcasts and share it with your friends. Visit our website at SuburbsPod.com Email Jim & Patrick at rock@suburbspod.com Follow us on the Threads, Facebook or Instagram @suburbspod If you're glad or sad or high, call the Suburban Party Line — 612-440-1984. Theme music: "Ascension," originally by Quartjar, covered by Frank Muffin. Visit quartjar.bandcamp.com and frankmuffin.bandcamp.com. 

Originally released in April 2016: BJ is joined by Ryan McKay and A.D. Adams from The Shabby Road Record Show for an unfiltered discussion about the elephant in the room of rock and roll: rock stars and their unabashed fondness for underage girls.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Originally released November 2015: Battle of the Podcast All Stars is a tournament that pits rock podcasters against one another to determine who is rock trivia king, hosted by Ken Pardo and moderated by Eric Miller of Pods and Sods. The second battle of round one features Ryan McKay from The Shabby Road Record Show, Craig Cohen from the Slycast and Zilch and Ken Mills from the PodKISSt and Cheap Talk. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Originally released December 2015: Battle of the Podcast Allstars is a tournament that pits rock podcasters against each other to determine who is rock trivia king, hosted by Ken Pardo and moderated by Eric Miller of Pods and Sods. The final battle features the three winners from round one: BJ from Rock and/or Roll, Ryan McKay from The Shabby Road Record Show and Randy W. Hall from That Dandy Classic Music Hour. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ken Ronk, Ryan McKay and Jimi Taft talk about their band the Atomic Kings, their record company Tone House Records, their new single "All I Want" and reminisce about how we all crossed paths so many years ago.

Ryan talks about his years with Luis Prima Jr and the Witness, Crash Street Kids, his first ever solo album called Ryan McKay and the Broken Brains as well as his latest project, Atomic Kings. He also talks about being a family man and how his wife and kids helped him finish his home made solo project.

Quincy, IL native Ryan McKay stops by for a chat. This singer/songwriter, guitar player, and guitar teacher shares his journey. We talk influential albums, first bands, first gigs, and first instruments. He talks about his decision to pack his car with a cheap guitar and an amp and move to Phoenix and what he did to start over in a big city. He talks about his run with his band Crash Street Kids, being a side man for Louis Prima Jr for 10 years, and making his first solo album "Ryan McKay and the Broken Brains" from which he shares his song "FIB." For more information on the album, please visit: https://www.youtube.com/@ryanmckaymusic

METAL BOB AND BAZOOKA PHIL SIT DOWN FOR A CHAT WITH RYAN MCKAY (ATOMIC KINGS)

This interview is with Sofia Torres-McKay and Ryan McKay of Cramoisi Vineyard. In this interview, the couple speak about each of their lives before wine, how they met, and what got them interested in Oregon Wine. They talk about beginning Cramoisi Vineyard and go through their learning process of how to grow, make, and sell wine. They also discuss biodynamic farming, naming their brand, and creating their tasting room and wine club. Sofia discusses her role as Co-Founder and Vice President of AHIVOY, a non-profit aiming to empower and educate Vineyard Stewards and create opportunities for Latinx and Hispanic vineyard workers. She goes over the program's origins, its milestones, and what she sees in its future. Later, the couple describe the year 2020 and what the pandemic and harvest fires meant for their lives and their business. At the end, they talk about the growth of the industry and what they see for the future of themselves, Cramoisi, and Oregon Wine. This interview was conducted by Rich Schmidt at Cramoisi Tasting Room in Dundee on June 4, 2021.

The Atomic Kings are the guests on the show this week. Greg, Ryan, Jimi, and Ken got together to discuss their upcoming album to be released on Tone House Records. The guys were fresh off of recording the instrumental tracks prior to doing this interview. Their hilarious personalities are infectious and their chemistry produces something special on stage.Like the Atomic Kings on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/atomickingsband/Tone House Records: https://tonehouserecords.comHear Greg incessantly pester Ryan:  https://www.youtube.com/c/BizarreGuitarPress release from Tone House Records:Atomic Kings Sign With Tone House RecordsFormer Badlands Bassist Greg Chaisson To Release New Album with Atomic Kings who will release their debut album through ToneHouse Records.Featuring Greg Chaisson formerly of Badlands and Red Dragon Cartel, Ken Ronk on Vocals, Ryan McKay on Guitar and Jimi Taft on drums to create the thunderous sound that is Atomic Kings.A note from our sponsor:Want to enjoy nature, but don't have the equipment? Let American Patriots Extreme Outdoor Club be your all inclusive camp outfitters! No tent, no ATV, or an idea of how to set-up? No problem! Let the guys at APEX OC put it all together for you. Find them on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, or call (480)708-1564 to set up your extreme Outdoor excursion. Primitive, survival, firearms & archery, and wilderness or standard first aid, & CPR instructional courses also available! American Patriots Extreme Outdoor Club is a veteran owned and operated organization that gives back to the disabled veteran community; giving all inclusive ATV/UTV trail guides, hunting trips, and camping trips to our wounded veterans! Now offering sporting dog training, and standard obedience conditioninghttps://www.facebook.com/APEXPatriotsOutdoorsThe (all) UnknowingWhat does it mean to know? Besides the obvious, it means that we stop considering what...Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

CWB is joined by Orchard Lake St. Mary's infielder and Michigan State commit, Ryan McKay, for the second annual Michigan High School Baseball Player Draft. Hear who the 3 "managers" selected for their teams!

Welcome to January 11, and on this day in history, a lot of things have happened. What are they? That’s not the subject of this podcast and newsletter, which is called Charlottesville Community Engagement. What is the subject of this podcast and newsletter? The Magic 8-ball says “ask again later.” Until then, I’m your host, Sean Tubbs, with another documentation of a few things that have happened and a look ahead to others. Charlottesville Community Engagement is free to receive! Sign up today and decide later if you want to pay to keep this service in service!On today’s show:The Blue Ridge Health District holds a town hall on the pandemic surge amid record hospitalizations in Virginia Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin names his medical advisory team The Sheriff of Fauquier County is Governor-elect Youngkin’s choice to serve as Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland SecurityMore bills are pre-filed before tomorrow’s start of the General Assembly including a halt to Virginia’s minimum wage increase And the Albemarle Planning Commission will take up a rezoning for a hotel on Pantops First Patreon-fueled shout-out! The Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Campaign  is an initiative that wants you to grow native plants in yards, farms, public spaces and gardens in the northern Piedmont. Winter is here, but spring isn’t too far away. This is a great time to begin planning for the spring. 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 or the Piedmont Natives Plant Database! Think spring! Pandemic surge expected to continue as omicron spread continues The January 2022 COVID-19 surge continues with another 16,681 new cases reported this morning by the Virginia Department of Health and the seven-day average for new cases is 17,037. Virginia set another new one-day record on Saturday with 26,175 new cases. The seven-day percent positivity has increased to 36 percent. Today, the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association reports another new record of COVID hospitalizations today with 3,845 with 589 of those patients in intensive care units and 328 on ventilators. That’s a record for ICU patients, but today’s ventilator count matches exactly one year ago today. Today in the Blue Ridge Health District, there are 352 new cases and the percent positivity has increased to 29.1 percent. Ryan McKay is the director of policy, planning, and operations for the BRHD and he and others spoke at a Town Hall last night. (view the slides)“We are currently experiencing the highest transmission of COVID since the pandemic started and it’s a pretty drastic increase in what we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks,” McKay said. “And really what we anticipate is that it will continue to increase.” McKay also said these numbers are likely all an undercount as some testing is happening at home and those numbers are not reported to the Virginia Department of Health. Last week’s winter weather also delayed testing events. “These numbers seem a little bit cold but there’s a very human element to all of this in terms of individuals getting sick,” McKay said. “There’s the risk of long COVID which has been proven over the last two years of the pandemic. And then there are broader societal, economic, and infrastructure related impacts that we’re beginning to see.” McKay said the key is getting people vaccinated and boosted. Dr. Michael Williams is the director of the Center for Health Policy at the University of Virginia. He said the surge is causing a strain on staff and resources. As of yesterday, there were 89 COVID patients at UVA Health.“The ripple effects work outward from the units in which we take care of these patients which has become more than just out specialized units,” Williams said. “The ripple effects work their way back into the operating room where I spend a lot of my time as a surgeon where patients are having a difficult time to start there are elective and we’ve had to prioritize patients who have cases like cancer and heart disease that are unstable to make sure those that delayed.”Williams said this extends to emergency rooms and urgent care facilities, which are also feeling the strain during this surge. People are asked not to go to the hospital to get a COVID test. “Honestly if you come to our [emergency department] at UVA Health for a COVID test and that’s the only reason you’re there, you will wait and and you will wait and you will wait because there are people who are sick with any number of things.” Williams said people who need a PCR test should visit their primary care physician or visit a testing center.Dr. Taison Bell spends a lot of time in the intensive care units at UVA and never expected that he would be seeing a record number of COVID patients.“When a patient does have COVID we do have to manage them differently regardless of what their underlying problem is,” Bell said. “We have to put them in isolation so they don’t transmit to other people. Sometimes when they need to be discharged, the rehab facility may not clear them for transfer until they have a negative COVID test so patients stay in the hospital longer. They demand more resources. That makes it overall harder to take care of these patients and it puts a strain on the system.” Dr. Bell said the omicron variant has led to infections in people who are vaccinated and boosted and he explained why. “The vaccines were specifically designed to prevent serious illness and they continue to do that consistently,” Bell said. “We were spoiled early on because they were so effective when it came to preventing infection but omicron has proved to be a very challenging variant. It has shown an ability to try to get over those initial hurdles but that backstop of preventing you from getting seriously ill is still holding firm.” Dr. Bell said most of his patients are still unvaccinated, and he encourages everyone to get their shots, get their booster, and continue to wear masks. “We can expect more people to get infected but if we’re vaccinated and boosted, we can keep people out of the hospital and keep the strain off of the health care system,” Dr. Bell said. Just as this post was about to be published, Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin named the members of an advisory team related to the pandemic. “I recognize the severity of the virus and the significant loss that it has caused. Virginians should rest assured that we are monitoring this variant and doing everything we can to be smart about this. I will enter office ready to reopen Virginia, support our healthcare heroes, and protect the lives and livelihoods of Virginians,” Youngkin said in a release. They are: Chair: Dr. Marty Makary, M.D., M.P.H., Johns Hopkins MedicineNancy Howell Agee, President and CEO, Carilion ClinicKathy Gorman, M.S.N., R.N., F.A.A.N, Executive Vice President and COO, Children’s NationalAlan Levine, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Ballad HealthBogdan Neughebauer, M.D., PhD, MBA, CPE, FACP, FIDSA, Sentara HealthcareAnand Shah, M.D., M.P.H., former Deputy Commissioner for Medical and Scientific Affairs at FDAEx-Officio:Secretary of Health and Human Resources John LittelSenator Siobhan DunnavantSenator Todd PillionAlbemarle Planning Commission to hold public hearings on Pantops hotelThe first meeting of the Albemarle Planning Commission begins tonight at 6 p.m. and two of the items on the agenda are public hearings to clear the way for a hotel on Pantops on U.S. 250 just to the west of the Rivanna Ridge Shopping Center. The matter went before the Pantops Community Advisory Committee for an update at their meeting in November. Andy Reitelbach is a senior planner with Albemarle County. “The applicant has submitted this application to request to amend the application and proffers associated with two previous rezonings,” Reitelbach said. The amendments are needed to allow the use of a hotel, which was not anticipated in the rezoning that created the Rivanna Ridge Shopping Center. “The project is in the Rivanna Magisterial District and the parcel is a little over 2.6 acres in size,” Reitelbach said. The plan had not changed since it was before the CAC at a community meeting in January. One aspect of the plan is that left turns onto U.S. 250 will not be permitted. Justin Shimp is the civil engineer for the project. “As some of you are all aware VDOT is getting ready to put up a median up Route 250 all the way from the Wawa up to the top of the mountain and that will restrict our ability to make a full l left turn out of our site,” Shimp said. The Albemarle County Planning Commission meets virtually at 6 p.m. and has two new voting members in Fred Missel and Luis Carrazana. Missel is director of design and development at the University of Virginia Foundation and Carrazana is the associate architect of the University of Virginia. (meeting info)For more information, read Pantops CAC gets a look at the Overlook Hotel from last January on Information Charlottesville. Council meeting in closed session todayAt publication time, City Council is in closed session to interview prospective candidates for the interim city manager position. Late last year the city hired the Robert Bobb Group to provide internal staff to perform the duties of city manager. During the closed session, they are meeting with Bobb directly. Stay tuned until tomorrow’s edition for any potential news. Listen to the podcast to hear the closed session motion, the first such event by this new City Council. Today’s second Patreon-fueled shout-out:With winter weather here, now is the time to think about keeping your family warm through the cold Virginia months. Make sure you are getting the most out of your home with help from your local energy nonprofit, LEAP. LEAP wants you and yours to keep comfortable all year round, and 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!Fauquier County’s Sheriff to head public safety in VirginiaGovernor-elect Glenn Youngkin has selected the Sheriff of Fauquier County to serve as the next Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security. That person oversees the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority, the Virginia Department of Corrections, the Department of Criminal Justice Services, the Department of Emergency Management, and the Department of Fire Programs. Robert Mosier was elected in November 2015 to serve Fauquier County and according to the press release he embraced “new technologies for the enforcement of criminal, illegal drug and gang activities, modern traffic safety concepts, enhancement of school safety and better partnerships with the community.” Mosier has been in law enforcement since he was 19 and Youngkin said he will lead efforts to increase pay and to fully fund police departments across Virginia. “Together, we will protect qualified immunity, and on Day One fire the Parole Board,” Youngkin is quoted in the release. Learn more about Mosier on the Fauquier County website. Inauguration Day is in four days. General Assembly bills continue to be filed, including one to stop the minimum wage increaseThe General Assembly session begins tomorrow and the trickle of pre-filed bills and turned into more of a torrent. Here are some highlights from recent days. Delegate Marie March (R-7) has a bill requiring localities to post copies of their elected body’s minutes on a website seven days after they are officially approved. (HB150)March also wants the state to create one single central database for all public records. (HB154)March has filed another bill limiting a governor’s emergency declaration to a 45-day period and limiting their power. (HB151) This is a common desire by Republican legislators, as Delegate Kathy Byron (R-22) has a similar bill (HB157) and another that would require the General Assembly to take any action on any emergency rule after a 45-day period. (HB158) Delegate Daniel Marshall (R-14) submitted (HB183)March also wants people injured on the job to be required to take a drug test. (HB153)Delegate Candy Mundon King (D-2) wants to amend the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act to require fingerprinting of all employees of companies that have more than four rental units. (HB160)The last General Assembly adopted a law requiring all municipal elections to be held in November, but a bill from Delegate David Suetterlein (R-19) would apply that only to municipalities over 200,000 people. (SB147)Delegate Chris Runion (R-25) has a bill to replace the charter for the Town of Grottoes in Rockingham County. (HB161)Delegate Margaret Ransone (R-99) has legislation that would take the ability of the town council of Colonial Beach to fire the police chief and give it to the town manager. (HB164)Ransone has another bill that would repeal provisions that are set to seal criminal records in some instances. (HB181)Delegate Barry Knight (R-81) has a bill that would authorize the issuance of $101 million in bonds to fund projects at James Madison University and Virginia Tech. (HB165)Delegate Daniel Marshall (R-14) would repeal the state’s minimum wage increase to $11 an hour. (HB171)Marshall has another bill that would allow localities to require screening of solar facilities from secondary roads. (HB172)Delegate Robert Bloxom (R-100) has a bill that would place limits on campaign contributions. (HB174)Another common thread this year is Republican desire to place restrictions on absentee ballots, and Bloxom is advancing several in HB175, HB177, and HB178. Delegate Ranson has a bill to repeal a provision that would allow voter registration up to election day. (HB185)Bloxom would also create the Forest Sustainability Fund. (HB180)Finally today, Delegate Jeffrey Campbell (R-6) has a bill that would create the Nitrile Glove Manufacturing Training Grant Program which would “support the recruitment and training needs of nitrile glove manufacturing companies located in the Mount Rogers Planning District.” (HB186)Support the program!Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP! The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

This week on CLD Talks I chat with Ryan McKay who works for the Citadel Youth Centre in Edinburgh. Ryan talks to us about Intergenerational Practice and they projects that they run, examples of good practice, how they adapted to the digital world his CLD journey and so much more. This is a must listen to anyone who is unsure about what intergenerational practice is and its benefits for all parties. https://twitter.com/CitadelYCLeith https://twitter.com/RyanRMcKay1 https://citadelyouthcentre.org.uk/ Twitter @CLDTalks to join the conversation

In today’s first Patreon-fueled shout-out is for the Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Campaign, an initiative that wants you to grow native plants in yards, farms, public spaces and gardens in the northern Piedmont. Native plants provide habitat, food sources for wildlife, ecosystem resiliency in the face of climate change, and clean water.  Start at the Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Facebook page and tell them Lonnie Murray sent you! On today’s show:An update on the Urban Rivanna River Corridor planAdvice and information from the Blue Ridge Health District Two Albemarle beaches remain open this weekend, and but another is done for the summerCharlottesville is cracking down on boat storage at the Ragged Mountain natural areaThis morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports another 2,244 new COVID cases and the seven-day percentage of tests that come back positive is now at 8.5 percent. Six months ago on February 17 that figure was 8.9 percent when the winter surge was beginning to recede. Now the figure has been climbing as the Delta variant of COVID continues to spread. Ryan McKay is the director of policy and planning at the Blue Ridge Health District.“We have been seeing an increasing number of cases on a daily basis really for about the last month or so so this current surge that we’re experiencing has happened somewhat quickly,” McKay said. McKay said the end of mandated social distancing and mask wearing means there are more close contacts than before, which adds to the tracing efforts. “Those who are testing positive are largely those who are unvaccinated, whether they are those who aren’t currently eligible to receive a vaccine, so children under the age of 12,” McKay said. “Or adults who for whatever reason medically can’t get vaccinated. And then obviously individuals who have not yet received their vaccine. So this Delta variant is much more contagious than we’ve experienced so far.”McKay said many of the new cases are tracing back to indoor settings, which is why health officials are recommending masks indoors especially for unvaccinated individuals. In the past week, Governor Ralph Northam has mandated facial coverings in Virginia schools, though some systems across the Commonwealth still plan to defy that order. McKay hopes people will do voluntarily in other indoor settings.“So anytime we’re indoors, individuals regardless of vaccination status, we want to make sure those individuals are wearing masks in indoor settings particularly if it’s a setting where there are a large number of individuals in an enclosed area to really try and minimize or reduce the spread,” McKay said. McKay said the Blue Ridge Health District expects cases to continue rising. With that, that means COVID testing is increasing. But, if you get a test at one of their events or facilities, you will not get notified if the result is negative. Here’s Kathryn Goodman, communications and public relations manager for the BRHD. “Instead we’re encouraging everybody to sign up for [the University of Virginia’s] MyChart and that’s where they can receive their test results within 12 to 24 hours,” Goodman said. People who have positive results will be contacted.Last Friday, the Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency authorization for a third dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine for certain people who are immunocompromised. Here’s Dr. Denise Bonds, the director of the Blue Ridge Health District. “We are now offering third doses to anyone who is moderately or severely immunocompromised,” Dr. Bonds said. “This third dose of vaccine should be 28 days from their second dose of either Pfizer or Moderna and moderately to severely immunocompromised individuals who meet that category might be individuals who had an organ or a stem cell transplant, or who have advanced or untreated HIV infection, individuals who are currently undergoing treatment for cancer, or certain medications that an individual might take that might weaken the immune system.”Dr. Bonds said the recommendation is to get the same kind of vaccine as the first two doses, but that’s not a requirement. Anyone who got the Johnson and Johnson vaccine should not get one of these doses, and health officials are reviewing a strategy to provide boosters to those individuals. To get the third dose, you will need an appointment. Dr. Bonds recommends talking to your doctor. Visit the Blue Ridge Health District site to learn more. Officials do not anticipate supply concerns at this time. Later in the evening, Dr. Bonds and other district officials presented to both the Places29-Hydraulic Community Advisory Committee and City Council. Dr. Bonds said she knew that some members of Council are concerned about the ailment known as Long COVID where symptoms seem to remain. She cited a recent paper in Nature. (read the paper)“They looked at lots and lots of papers and tried to combine all the data to summarize it in a cohesive fashion and what they found was that 80 percent of individuals who have had a confirmed COVID infection continue to have at least one symptom two weeks following their acute infection,” Dr. Bonds said. Dr. Bonds said the most reported of those symptoms is fatigue, followed by headache, attention issues, hair loss, and shortness of breath.Mayor Nikuyah Walker said she is concerned that many students returning to classes do not have masks designed to prevent airborne transmission of viruses. She also expressed concern that many who have not received a vaccine so far may not do so if they are treated negatively.‘We in this community are doing the same thing that people around the country are doing, and I’m sure the world, where we’re treating the vaccine hesitant as the vaccine hostile and pushing those people from even considering it or changing behaviors,” Walker said. Teletha Howard is leading up the Blue Ridge Health District’s community outreach to people who are vaccine hesitant, including Black community members. “I’m very honest when I talk to people,” Howard said. “I tell them my story and my story is that I did not get vaccinated as soon as everybody did because I was hesitant. So it took me a while and the reason why I was hesitant was because I wanted to have conversations with more people and with the medical professionals before I was confident in getting the vaccine.”Walker thanked Howard for the way she is approaching her work. Dr. Bonds said the district is there to provide vaccines when people are ready.“Everyone needs a different amount of information,” Dr. Bonds said. “Everyone needs different questions answered. And, really, the way to help people who are vaccine hesitant is to help feel them reassured and answer their questions, not to be antagonistic towards them.”In today’s second 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.The rest of today’s show logs information related to water. If you have a boat stored at the Ragged Mountain Natural Area, you’ll need to remove it by September 17. That’s when the city of Charlottesville will begin to enforce a ban on doing so that’s codified in the city’s ordinance. Non-motorized boats are allowed on the city-owned reservoir. They just can’t be stored there. The swimming beaches at Chris Greene Lake and Mint Springs Valley in Albemarle County will be open this weekend for one last hurrah, but the season is over at Walnut Creek. These places are open Thursday through Sunday. The Rivanna River serves as the boundary between eastern Charlottesville and the Pantops area of Albemarle County. To the north is the Pen Park within Charlottesville, and the river meanders south to the Sentara Martha Jefferson complex. The area has been studied for many years, and the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission has been working on a study intended to unify future planning and implementation efforts. Nick Morrison is a planner with the TJPDC who updated the Charlottesville Planning Commission at their meeting on August 10. (TJPDC page on the plan)“The goal of this phase of this planning project was to develop a vision and an action plan for that urban section of the corridor,” Morrison said. Morrison said a vision statement makes the argument that the Rivanna River is one of the community’s “greatest assets.” On the Charlottesville side, there’s a new apartment building nearing completion on River Road. Planning is moving forward with at least one pedestrian/bicycle bridge over the Rivanna. On the Albemarle side, apartments are planned along State Farm Boulevard and the fate of the State Farm headquarters building remains unknown. Their employees no longer have to report to work to do their duties. The idea of the plan is to coordinate infrastructure, and to make sure attention is being paid to the impact on the environment. “In terms of environmental protection, high-level, looking for approaches to protect any sort of sensitive biological or ecological areas, any sort of improved ongoing coordination between the city and the county, particularly in water quality and conservation,” Morrison said.   Commissioner Jody Lahendro noted that the report contains dozens of action items. “Where do you go from here?” Lahendro asked. “I’m worried about creating yet another report that is just overwhelming with so many action items that are so disconnected that it goes back on a shelf. What’s the implementation for this?”Sandy Shackelford, the director of planning and transportation for the TJPDC, said that before the plan is finalized, her staff will identify short-term goals as priorities. “My thought was that we focus on sort of the foundational action items that are going to be needed to build off of these other ones, so focusing on things like inventorying existing infrastructure or conditions, or systems, or things like that,” Shackelford said. Lahendro said he felt the cultural inventory conducted to date does not go far enough to protect certain areas that may have been Monacan sites. “You just assume that everybody wants to be able to visit all these cultural sites,” Lahendro said. “I expect there’s some prehistoric sites along this river that we don’t want to have people going with metal detectors ravaging and destroying.”Commissioner Rory Stolzenberg suggested the plan should take note of desire from many to limit additional parking spaces. He also said the plan should address transit. “The only thing that actually about transit is about signage from transit stops, which I think is good, but I think it would make sense to have stuff about connections to the river area both transit and pedestrian and bicyclist,” Stolzenberg said. “I’m also a bit confused by this idea that adding pedestrian facilities means we must add more parking as well.”The TJPDC is also helping Albemarle County with a study of how to expand transit, with the Pantops area being one of the study areas. (check the August 11 CCE for that story)Commissioner Liz Russell said language should be more clear about helping community members and visitors learn more about the history of the river, if it’s going to include a section on that topic. She noted the plan already includes examples from how other communities have utilized their riverfronts, such as Greenville, South Carolina and Richmond.“You know the Richmond case study really I think says very beautifully that ‘helping visitors develop a fuller understanding of different aspects of people’s lives throughout the history of the region will help them understand strong connections and understanding.’ I really think we’re not quite making that point in like why are we talking about the history, and what could that mean in anyone experiencing any of these opportunities within the corridor.”This is the second phase of the planning process. So far, there’s not a concrete plan for a third, but Shackelford said it would be more to design future infrastructure. “If you look at the Richmond plan, they ended up with a master plan where they put things on paper,” Shackleford said.Shackelford and the draft Rivanna plan refer to the Richmond Riverfront Plan, adopted by that city council in November 2012 and amended nearly five years later. Commission Chair Hosea Mitchell cautioned the plan should not be to create an urban environment such as in Richmond or Greenville. “We don’t want to be that developed I don’t think based on the emphasis on protecting the environment, protecting the river, being the prime directive,” Mitchell said. Commissioner Stolzenberg said he felt developing along the river in a way that put more eyes on it could be beneficial. “If you had apartments or restaurants that kind of fronted the river and had access to it, that would create a positive feedback loop where we would care more about the quality of the river, and more people would be able to use the river,” Stolzenberg said. “That might detract somewhat from the sense of being out in the wilderness but you can get that on the James, right?”The plan was originally to have been adopted by December 2020 but the pandemic affected the timeline. The Albemarle County Planning Commission has not yet had a presentation on the latest draft.What do you think about the Rivanna River plan? Let us know in the comments. I’ve spent a lot of time writing about plans, and this newsletter was created in part to keep the plans from being put on shelves and forgotten. I’m not here to say what should happen, but I want to shed light on previous studies, plans, decisions, and all sorts of things about what I’ve seen in my time as a reporter. Please consider becoming a subscriber through Substack or a Patreon contributor to help ensure I can keep doing this. And definitely share with someone you think might be interested! This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s anonymous support comes from something we’ll call the Valley Research Center and thanks to a generous contribution that provides much of the bumper music you’re hearing on the program. This came in the form of a donation through the Zelle platform, and I am grateful for the support. On today’s show:Blue Ridge Health District opens up Phase1C  The latest from UVA Health System on the pandemicVirginia’s vaccine coordinator provides an update on Johnson and Johnson supply, which may be affected by a mixing error On Thursday, the Blue Ridge Health District held another press briefing to explain how things would work as another phase of the vaccination schedule opens up. But first, policy and operations director Ryan McKay gave some context on recent history,“It’s been really just over three months, maybe three and a half months, since the vaccination campaign began first with our health care systems in the health district and then in January when we began as a health district really vaccinating in earnest members of the community in Phase 1A,” McKay said. As of March 31, BRHD had administered 135,000 doses in the six localities under its jurisdiction, with nearly 50,000 fully vaccinated. “We do know that there is approximately 200,000 to 205,000 individuals 16 and above who technically will be eligible at some point to get vaccinated so we still have a ways to go,” McKay said. Source: Blue Ridge Health DistrictMcKay said that a “significant increase” in doses was due to hit the district in April. A slide in the presentation listed about 14,620 first doses of both Moderna and Pfizer vaccines would be available the week of April 5. “I think our increase is a little bit more than we had anticipated,” McKay said. McKay said 4,000 doses of the one-shot Johnson and Johnson would be administered on Friday and Monday at the former J.C. Penney location.“So we’re beginning to see that significant increase that we need in order to move more quickly in the vaccination campaign,” McKay said. On Thursday, the Blue Ridge Health District opened up to Phase1C. Kathryn Goodman is the communication manager for BRHD. “We are opening up to Phase1C,” Goodman said. “We want to make sure that everybody has the opportunity to schedule appointments and so the VAMS system has many appointments available over the next two months. There are plenty of appointments that we we want people to get in there and schedule.” Governor Ralph Northam said vaccinations will be open to everyone beginning on April 18, but for now, it’s the turn for Phase1C.“The Blue Ridge Health District has officially launched today into Phase1C of our vaccine distribution,” Goodman said. “This includes everyone you can see here, everyone from restaurant workers to finance workers and other public figures, public works individuals who are really important to keep our community operating.” Indulge me for a moment as I peel pack the fourth wall a little. About half an hour before the briefing began, I got an email from the Centers for Disease Control saying it was my time to schedule an appointment. I pre-registered with the Virginia Department of Health a few weeks ago. I asked probably one of the most personal questions I’ve ever asked as a reporter.“Sean Tubbs, you are on with the Blue Ridge Health district,” said Lachen Parks, Charlottesville’s marketing and social media coordinator.“Something strange just happened,” I said. “I just got a notification from VAMS at 1:30 p.m. I am not in a priority category. I now have an appointment for tomorrow at Fashion Square Mall. How did that happen?”“So, all of the appointments that we’re pulling right now are based off of prioritization on either Phase1A, 1B, or 1C, so it is likely that somehow in the information you shared you fell into one of those categories. Media do fall into phase 1C so if you indicated that as an option that would be why. But we haven’t sent it out to everybody just yet that’s preregistered.” Goodman said the Health District would be sending out notifications over the next week. “We are working weekends at this point so we will certainly send invitation out tomorrow and over the weekend so if individuals in 1C don’t hear from us by mid to late next week, they should email us or give us a call and we will help them schedule an appointment,” Goodman said. If you have not registered yet and you want a vaccine through the Health District, register now.  Phase 2 opens up on April 18. “That’s going to be way we know that individuals want to get vaccinated and how we would send you the invitation to create the account in VAMS and then to schedule the appointment,” McKay said.  (watch the BRHD briefing) The following day, the University of Virginia Health System held its weekly briefing for the press. Depending on supply, the Seminole Square Shopping Center is also ready to get shots in arms. Dr. Costi Sifri is the director of hospital epidemiology. “At full operation, we can vaccinate on the order of 14,000 to 15,000 people per week just at our Seminole Square location,” Dr. Sifri said. He added the influx of new Johnson and Johnson doses will allow that number to be realized. “We are hearing about and are anticipating increase allocations from federal sources so we are looking at expanding our days of operation at Seminole Square,” Dr. Sifri said. One of the issues with moving rapidly to mass vaccination has been uncertainties in the supply lines for vaccines. Dr. Sifri said it has so far been difficult to schedule appointments several weeks into the future not quite knowing what the supply will be. “It’s very difficult to do that two or three weeks from today because we don’t exactly know how much vaccine we’ll have on hand,” Dr. Sifri said. “However, I think we’re pretty confident at this point. We’re not 100 percent confident. But we’re pretty confident we’re going to be able to open up appointments that are going to occur later, several weeks, three or four weeks in the future compared to what we’ve been doing in the past. There were some weeks that we had no new first dose vaccines. The supply to us was zero for a week. I think we’re past that point and we can become a little more liberal and I think that will help everybody. It will help us with our planning and it will certainly help people to be able to get their vaccines scheduled.” Yesterday, the number of doses administered in the Commonwealth crossed the 4 million mark as reported by the Virginia Department of Health. The seven-day average is now 73,218 doses administered per day. “We’re reaching a point where 35 to 50 percent of individuals have at least some level if not a high level of immunity to COVID-19, so we’re making some progress,” said Dr. Sifri. “However that does mean we still have something on the order of half the population that remains susceptible to COVID infection and its serious consequences.” Source: Virginia Department of HealthOne of the big questions is whether enough people will get vaccinated quick enough to avoid another surge. The number of new cases reported each day is still quite high, with a seven-day average of 1,415 a day. Today the seven-day percent positivity continued its gradual climb and is at 6.4 percent. That metric was 5.7 percent a week ago.  Dr. Sifri said now is not the time to stop wearing masks and following all of the other mitigation steps. “I am concerned about a fourth wave,” Dr. Sifti. “There are places in the U.S. in Michigan around Detroit and the New York City area where we are seeing increased case counts and those have been trending up for the last three or four weeks so that is a concern. The second issue is that we’re seeing in Europe some significant increases in cases in different countries of Europe. I don’t think we should anticipate that spring is going to be a respite from this. It certainly wasn’t a respite last year where we saw a significant wave of infection that occurred in April and May of last year. There’s no reason to think that couldn’t occur now.”On Friday, UVA President Jim Ryan announced that Final Exercises will be held in a modified manner on May 20. “All graduating students will have the opportunity to walk the Lawn and process to Scott Stadium for their ceremony,” Ryan wrote in a posting on the Major Events website. “Each graduate will be permitted two guests in Scott Stadium.” Ryan said students who graduated from the Class of 2020 will also have an opportunity to walk the Lawn in a special ceremony on May 16. A year ago, none of these events were happening. Dr. Sifri said as long as mitigation measures are taken, he is okay with Final Exercises proceeding. “Which are going to be things like social distancing and wearing masks and limiting gathering sizes that we should be able to provide graduation and it should be a great experience,” Dr. Sifri said. “If the weather will allow,  graduations occur outside. They occur with close families that are together. If you limit the size of groups and have social distancing and can do things outdoors, which allow things like the virus to disperse. And finally, as much as possible, have people vaccinated.” I’m one of those people who is now vaccinated. Knowing I would be getting my dose a few hours after the UVA briefing, I asked what side effects might happen with the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. “They’re actually not too bad,” Dr. Sifri said. “It’s going to be for the most part local pain and discomfort at the injection site and some fatigue and perhaps some low-grade fever for up tp several days afterward.”As I record this, it’s been just over 24 hours. I woke up in the middle of night with chills, a few digestion issues, and fatigue. I’ve slept on and off today, but for the most part, I feel okay. Still reeling from the new information and wondering what this all means for our future. However, it’s important to not get too far ahead of ourselves. At the time I was getting my shot, Virginia vaccine coordinator Dr. Danny Avula was giving his own briefing, and there may be an issue with further Johnson and Johnson supply making its way into the logistics chain. (Baltimore Sun article)“We are waiting to hear the impact of the news from the Johnson and Johnson production plant up in Baltimore on Wednesday,” Dr. Avula said. “Fifteen million doses were sequestered as a result of poor mixing and so I think those doses will be completely taken offline which means that the future delivery schedule is a bit up in the air. It does appear that our doses that are coming next week will still be coming which is good news because that’s over 200,000 doses that we were expecting and that we had ordered and will be coming in next week. I don’t yet know what that will mean for future weeks but we are eagerly anticipating updates from the federal government about Johnson and Johnson’s production schedule.”Dr. Avula said the goal is for Virginia to have 125,000 Johnson and Johnson doses per week. Beginning tomorrow, April 4, health districts across Virginia have permission to move into Phase 2.  That doesn’t necessarily mean people will get appointments right away.“That means open eligibility, it does not mean open pods,” Dr. Avula said. “People won’t be showing up for walk-in pods but it does mean that people will be open to openly self-schedule into appointments regardless of any eligibility criteria.”To be clear, Phase 2 will be open to everyone over the age of 16. Testing is still underway for vaccines in children. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s subscriber-sponsored public service announcement, the Albemarle County Solid Waste Alternatives Committee, or SWAAC, wants you to join the effort to clear up litter from the landscape as part of the Keep Virginia Beautiful initiative. SWAAC wants you to put on some gloves, grab a bag, take a walk, and pick up items that people have discarded. When you’re done, they want you to tell them how much you picked up, and where. Visit keepvirginiabeautiful.org to help SWAAC and other groups across the Commonwealth better address litter in our community.  In today’s show:Highlights from Governor Ralph Northam’s March 23 press conferenceThe Blue Ridge Health District explains why they don’t want you to travel to another one for a doseMore information from the University of Virginia Health System Today’s show focuses solely on the pandemic, and where we are as we continue through the 13th month of this experience. On Tuesday, Governor Ralph Northam announced the easing of some restrictions on human gatherings. (watch on YouTube)“I’m optimistic about our numbers in Virginia,” Northam said.Today the Virginia Department of Health reported 1,799 new cases of COVID-19, and the seven-day average for new cases is 1,411. The seven-day average for positive new tests is 5.6 percent, which is where it’s been for the last three weeks. In Virginia, 14.2 percent of the population if fully vaccinated. Northam and First Lady Pam Northam are among that number, having received the Johnson and Johnson vaccine earlier this month.“We were vaccinated a week ago Monday and we’re feeling great,” Northam said. “It’s exciting that our country now has three safe and effective vaccines and as we know, more may be coming.” Northam said the federal government is increasing supply of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine and more doses are on the way. On Tuesday he said mass vaccination centers have entered operations across the state, including one in Danville that we’ll hear about later in the program. Northam touted their efficiency. “If you’ve seen one of these mass clinics, you’ve probably been amazed at how well they’re run,” Northam said. “People guiding you where to park, where to check in, where to go next. The clinics I have seen and heard about have been well-oiled machines, and that is all do the hard work of thousands of people determined to get their fellow Virginians vaccinated as quickly as possible.” Northam said Virginia is on track to open vaccinations to everybody by May 1.“And I’m confident that we will exceed it,” Northam said. “When our country sets clear goals, we meet and exceed them. In fact, President Biden set a goal of 100 million shots in his first 100 days and our country met that goal in 58 days.”Northam said the numbers are positive enough to begin to ease restrictions, beginning with the number of people who can gather at events. Beginning on April 1, changes will be made to the Forward Virginia plan.“Starting on April 1, social gatherings may have up to 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors,” Northam said.That includes weddings. “Entertainment venues will be able to operate at 30 percent of capacity and up to 500 people indoors. Outdoor venues can have up to 30 percent but won’t have a numeric cap,” he said. Northam used the example of the Richmond Flying Squirrels baseball team, who play in a stadium that can hold up 9,500 people. The new rules would allow attendance of just over 3,000 people. The rules for sporting events are a little different, though. “The number of spectators allowed for recreational sports will increase to 100 indoors, and to 500 outdoors,” Northam said. “Recreational sporting events indoors and outside will be limited to 30 percent of capacity.” Northam said other measures are still in place, including the number of people who can gather as well as required face coverings. Last week, leaders in Northern Virginia sent a letter to Northam asking why they weren’t getting more vaccines given that acceptance rates have not been as high in some areas of the Commonwealth. Dr. Danny Avula, the state’s vaccine coordinator, explained changes that are being made.“This is certainly something we’ve been monitoring since the beginning of January,” Dr. Avula said. “We’ve primarily started the allocation process based on population and then made some tweaks here and there based on the number of people living in a community who are 65 and over, or with underlying conditions, or the concentration of Black and Latino residents in different communities. So we are now getting to a phase of the vaccination roll-out where we are seeing demand start to wane and I think that is happening more so in rural communities. We’ve seen uptake slow down and those communities are starting to move from 1B to 1C and in response we and we have been for the last couple of weeks kind of shifting allocations to places that have more 1B demand.” But what about people who do not plan to get the vaccine when their time comes?“We realize that and I continue to encourage folks that these are safe, they are effective, and that we need as a community, as a society to get to about 70 to 75 percent of individuals receiving the vaccine to get to that herd immunity,” Northam said.Northam said another challenge will be how to get children vaccinated as they will need to be included in order to reach that goal. “The clinical trials taking a look at the messenger RNA vaccines, the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccines, have been started in children,” said Dr. Costi Sifri, the director of hospital epidemiology taking questions at a press briefing this morning. “The clinical trials are really going to be looking in addition to this marker of immune response and antibody response, they’re really going to be designed to take a look at safety questions,” Dr. Sifri said. Yesterday, the Virginia Department of Health confirmed that two COVID variants that originated in California have been identified in the Commonwealth. Dr. Sifri said the best ways to prevent them from spreading is to get vaccinated when the time comes, and to also continue to follow all of the protocols. As I said earlier, the percent positivity has been around 5.5 for the past several weeks.“There’s a steady level of new COVID cases right now so we’re no longer decreasing in many locations and that’s true here in Virginia as well,” Dr. Sifri said. “I think it is accurate to describe it a race between variants and vaccines. I think the great news is that we have great vaccines and we’re set to push those out rapidly and what we’re waiting for right now is just more supply.”Now we wait to see if the number of new cases begins dropping again, or whether a “spring surge” happens as large gatherings begin again. Dr. Reid Adams is UVA’s Chief Medical Officer. He said the reduced capacity at those large venues allows for people to be spaced out. “It doesn’t get away from the fact that people need to continue to social distance, wash their hands, wear their mask, and do all of the things that we’ve been doing for the past year,” Dr. Adams said. As spring does it thing, the beauty of blossoms cause many area residents to experience allergies, which share some of the same symptoms of COVID-19. Dr. Sifri recommended that people get tested for COVID to be on the safe side. “I think it is important as you’re starting to have those symptoms to make sure that you know exactly what’s going on,” Dr. Sifri said. “So, if you are having typical allergy symptoms and it is the flowering tree that you’re used to reacting to, maybe it’s a reasonable presumption that is that but it also does not hurt to also just be tested to make sure.” The Blue Ridge Health District held a press briefing on Thursday to explain why they do not want people who live here to travel to another health district to get vaccinations. But first, Dr. Denise Bonds gave a status update on vaccine availability. Remember that in February the health district was only getting about 3,000 doses a week. (watch the briefing)“The Health Department received 1,300 first doses of Moderna and 1,100 second doses,” Dr. Bonds said. “Additionally we received 2,340 first doses of Pfizer and we have a little bit of Johnson and Johnson that is available to use for some vaccination this week but it’s not a sustained amount.” Dr. Bonds said it is likely that increased allocations of vaccine will come in the form of the Johnson and Johnson shot. Another change is that the UVA Health is once again receiving doses directly from the Virginia Department of Health. “And UVA at Seminole Square will have 2,510 first doses of Pfizer, 1,170 second doses of Pfizer and 1,110 Moderna second doses,” Dr. Bonds said. Ryan McKay, the operations director for the District, asked people to register now, regardless of where you are in the queue.“Why this is important, one we want to understand and know who wants to get vaccinated but this helps determine allocation of vaccine to health districts across Virginia,” McKay said. “And so that data that is pulled from the state database helps inform the actual number of doses we may receive from one week to the next.” Earlier this week, a social media post prompted a wave of people who live here driving elsewhere as part of a phenomenon known as “vaccine tourism.” Kathryn Goodman is the communications director for the Blue Ridge Health District.“We’ve heard of a lot of different community members and students driving to Danville to get their first dose of the vaccine, and we’ve also heard from folks who are requesting that they can get their second dose here in Charlottesville,” Goodman said. However, the statewide system does not work that way.“Given the limited vaccine supply, we are unable to provide second doses for individuals who are going to these larger vaccination center clinics and that’s because our second doses relies on how many first doses are administered in our health district,” Goodman said. “So unfortunately we’re not able to provide those second doses and want to make sure people are aware of that.” Goodman said she was aware many have claimed they went because they thought doses were not being used. She said the Virginia Department of Health is working to address allocation issues.If people continue going outside of the district to get an unscheduled appointment, that could affect the supply that comes to the Blue Ridge Health District. “If we have a large number of individuals that got their first dose elsewhere but come to us for their second dose, that’s going to reduce the number of first doses that we will have available for that period of time,” Dr. Bonds said.For more on this specific issue, take a look at a press release sent out on Wednesday. Near the end of the briefing, Goodman said she understood people’s frustration. “The important piece behind this is that we everyone to be vaccinated,” Goodman said. “It’s just a matter of when everybody will be vaccinated, not if. If you want a vaccine, we will make sure you get one. It just has to take a little bit of time as it relies on our supply and the vaccine roll-out for vaccinating those who are at the greatest risk for death and disease first.”And to put that in perspective for today, 70 percent of cases in the Blue Ridge Health District have been in people under the age of 50. Ninety-nine percent of the 200 fatalities have been in people over the age of 50. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Biden fires staffers for past cannabis consumption, the War on Drugs continues to be deadly, New York is getting closer to legalization, and more cannabis news.Shout out to Ryan Mckay from Alaska Legacy Genetics for sending in a strain for Name That Strain.Footnotes:Biden White House Sandbags Staffers, Sidelines Dozens for Pot Use (The Daily Beast)5 White House staffers lose jobs over drugs, marijuana use (Associated Press) Family Calls for Justice and Biden's Help After Deadly Police Shooting in Del. (NBC Philadelphia)Man who died in Collin County jail was having ‘mental health crisis,’ attorney says (Dallas News)State to pay $475K to family of pot suspect killed by dozer (The Associated Press)New Mexico Governor Plans Special Session On Marijuana As Legalization Bill Stalls On Final Stretch (Marijuana Moment)House Reintroduces SAFE Banking Act To Normalize Cannabis Commerce (NORML)Support the show (https://www.youtube.com/cannabislegalizationnews)

In today’s Patreon-fueled shout-out...your local energy nonprofit, LEAP, offers FREE home weatherization to income- and age-qualifying residents. If you’re age 60 or older, or have an annual household income of less than $75,100, you may qualify for a free energy assessment and home energy improvements such as insulation and air sealing. Sign up today to lower your energy bills, increase comfort, and reduce energy waste at home!On today’s show:The Blue Ridge Health District will move its vaccination clinic to Fashion Square Mall Albemarle and Charlottesville both get updates on budgetsCharlottesville Fire Department seeks to reduce risks through neighborhood assessmentsInitial site plan filed for parking lot for future Biscuit Run parkExit 124’s conversion to a “diverging-diamond” is underwayAn update on displacement at the Red Carpet InnThe pandemic has a knack for breathing new life into commercial spaces that have gone dormant if only for a temporary basis. Beginning next week, the Blue Ridge Health District will provide shots at the former J.C. Penney space in Fashion Square Mall. They have been doing so in the parking lot of the former K-Mart. The UVA Health System is providing shots at the former Big Lots.The Health District continues to go through health care workers eligible under Phase1A. Dr. Denise Bonds is the director. “There’s a few individuals we still haven’t reached yet, and then of course there are new individuals that have just taken jobs within that area and we will continue to prioritize those individuals,” Bonds said. “We are still working through our 1B essential workers and as I said we’re moving into manufacturing and farm and agriculture. We are vaccinating individuals who are 65 and older and those who are 16 to 64 with high-risk medical conditions.”Bonds said the district and UVA have administered nearly 100,000 doses. Next week they are expecting 11,650 doses, with 5,800 of those first shots and 2,000 the one-shot Johnson and Johnson version. The move to the J.C. Penney will allow the district to have up to 30 people administering vaccines at a time. Ryan McKay is the policy director for the Blue Ridge Health District, which has outgrown the tent. “While that tent has been serving a tremendous purpose and service to the community, it does present some challenges for us we operate,” McKay said. “When we have larger volumes of people, it puts people outside as opposed to inside. It sort of limits the amount of vaccinators we can have and the number of chairs we can provide for observation areas.” The J.C. Penney space offers 100,000 square feet of room and will begin operations on March 23 starting four days a week. “Provided that the vaccine allocation increased, we could administer up to 2,000 doses per day out of that location,” McKay said. Source: Blue Ridge Health DistrictEveryone who wants a vaccine is now being asked to go ahead and register with the Commonwealth at vaccinate.virginia.gov. Kathryn Goodman is the communications manager for the Blue Ridge Health District.  ‘We want everybody to pre-register right now,” Goodman said. “It doesn’t matter what phase you are in or when you will qualify. We want everyone registered in the state system.”Today, Governor Ralph Northam announced that schools and universities will be able to hold in-person graduation events later this spring. Events held outdoors will be capped at 30 percent of capacity or 5,000 people, whichever is less. Events held indoors may have up to 500 people or 30 percent capacity, whichever is less. According to a press release sent out today, Virginia school systems will receive $1.9 billion in direct funds from the American Rescue Plan adopted by Congress earlier this month. Source: Blue Ridge Health DistrictCharlottesville City Council met for more than six hours Monday and covered a lot of ground that I won’t fully get to in this newsletter. Council first got an update on the city’s financial forecast. Staff continue to monitor a potential $9 million shortfall in the current fiscal year with decreased meals and lodging taxes. Ryan Davidson is one of Charlottesville’s two senior budget analysts. He said one solution may be to use funding from the American Rescue Plan, but staff have not yet gone through all of the fine print. “We’re still going through what that means for us and restrictions and where it can be used but we do anticipate using some of this but we still need to figure out how we’re going to get, but we do anticipate using some of this to manage the shortfall,” Davidson said.  Next month’s report will include an updated forecast based on having three quarters of fiscal year 2021 in the books.  Download the full presentation on the city’s websiteThe Albemarle County also held a budget work session on Monday. At the beginning, Chief Financial Officer Nelsie Birch suggested dedicating a future work session to how Albemarle’s portion of the ARP funding would be used. That will give her and her staff to get more information. “I still at this point don’t actually know the amount of money we’re going to be receiving,” Birch said. “It’s somewhere around $21 million.”More from Albemarle in a moment. Council also got a report from the fire department on their new approach toward Community Risk Reduction, which is intended to lower service calls through various preventative measures. Joe Powers was hired from Henrico County to be the first deputy chief for community risk reduction. “We’re one of the few fire departments across the United States that has invested in community risk reduction at an executive level,” Powers said. “From a traditional standpoint, we’ve always heard of fire prevention as a part of the fire department. We’re changing that mindset and taking it from a section of the fire department and making it an organizational process.”Part of the work involves reviewing neighborhoods, looking for specific threats, and then tailoring targeted messages. “The entire city doesn’t need a program on cooking fires or pedestrians crossing the street,” Powers said. “Maybe it’s certain intersections or certain neighborhoods.”A lot of the work has to do with gathering data that can help the department move away from one-size-fits-all approach to community education efforts. Another name for it is neighborhood risk assessment. “We also need to understand where our structure fires, but more so we need to know where asthma is occurring, allergic reactions, hazardous material calls, and cardiac arrests because all of those risks in areas of the city can be mitigated with our partners and in the fire department,” Powers said. I’ll have more from the City Council meeting in a future installment. The department has conducted risk assessments of individual neighborhoods such as this one for 10th and Page (full presentation)Albemarle Supervisors went through the county school system’s request as well as capital projects at their work session Monday.  Graham Paige is the chair of the Albemarle School Board.“We are projecting the current revenues of $205.8 million which is an increase of $12 million over the current fiscal year,” Paige said. “The majority of that increase, that $6.9 million, is a general fund transfer from local government which as you know is increasing in response to higher real estate assessments and other local tax revenues that so far have been impacted by COVID-19 less than anticipated.” Paige said the school board’s request is balanced, but if revenues come in higher than expected, the hope is that income can go to pay for a salary increase. The request includes an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour. One factor in the size of the school budget is the number of pupils. Katrina Callsen is the vice chair of the Albemarle School Board.“Next school year we are projecting an increase of more than 800 students over current enrollment,” Callsen said. “So moving from the 13,208 to 14,046.” Albemarle school staff will continue to adjust its budget as more information about state revenues comes in. They’ll adopt their budget in May, after Supervisors have adopted the county’s overall budget.Supervisor Bea LaPisto Kirtley took the opportunity to ask about summer school. There is a plan to hold a morning session and afternoon session for learning recovery. Superintendent Matt Haas also said the school system is reaching out to community partners to help provide some of the lessons and assistance with logistics.“We are putting out a request for proposals from our community partners that work with our students and often they have been great partners with the school system for field trips,” Haas said. That request for proposals carries the title “Summer Programming for Students and closes on April 2. Source: Albemarle CountySupervisors were also briefed on the $56.9 million capital budget for FY22. Several projects were paused in the current budget due to projected decline in revenues related to the pandemic as well as concerns about the uncertainty of the bond market. Albemarle’s chief of budget, Andy Bowman, said the bond market has stabilized, even if the rest of the economy has not yet done so. Interest rates are also lower than they were when the pandemic began, which will save the county money on debt service.“Working with our financial adviser, we were able to reduce our projected interest rates and that results in a savings of about $400,000,” Bowman said.Four new requests are proposed to be funded in the FY22 capital budget.“They are additional funding for economic development public/private partnerships,” Bowman said. “We also have $3 million in additional funding for the transportation leveraging program, another $6.3 million for Mountain View Elementary School expansion and site improvements, and the final project was a trailhead for the Moores Creek trail that will then make a connection to a greater trail network in the future.” Supervisor Ned Gallaway of the Rio District noted that opposition to development projects often draws upon concerns of overcrowded schools. “There is going to be a coming concern for elementary school seats up 29 north that has to be on discussion at some point,” Gallaway said. Today, the Albemarle Board of Supervisors appropriated one-time money from reserve funds for two projects. One is for a $1.1 million solid waste “convenience center” to serve southern Albemarle and the other was to have been $3 million to expand broadband projects.  However, the Board reduced that to $350,000 for now to see if funding from the ARP can be used for this purpose. (this paragraph was updated after publication)There’s another $3 million being set aside in a reserve known as the Business Process Optimization intended to build new systems for the Community Development Department. Kristy Shifflet is the county’s project management director.“In FY21 we’ve begun building a roadmap, really how might we replace a new community development system as well as an enterprise resource planning, or ERP, effort in order to update our business systems for the modern workplace,” Shifflet said. “We understand this is a large undertaking but our technology in these areas are aging and limited.”The new system could help speed up review of land use applications. (review Albemarle’s recommended FY22 budget) Albemarle will hold another budget work session on March 18 and will set the tax rate for the current calendar. The current property tax rate is $0.854 per $100 of assessed value, and staff has not recommended an increase. You’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 eventual opening of a county park at the state-owned Biscuit Run property is one step closer to reality. The initial site plan for the first phase of Biscuit Run park has been filed with the Albemarle Community Development Department. The improvements are for a parking area with 75 spaces as well as an entrance from Route 20. The project has a capital budget of $2 million and is the first of many phases to add amenities to the 1,200 acre park, according to the Winter 2021 report from the Department of Facilities and Environmental Services.  Future phases have not yet been programmed in the capital budget. Source: Albemarle CountyAnother planned infrastructure project is moving forward into a more intensive construction phase. The conversion of Interstate 64’s Exit 124 to a “diverging diamond” increases the amount of vehicles that can travel through the signalized interchange. “The diverging diamond interchange briefly shifts vehicles to the opposite side of the road, eliminating traditional left turns that must cross over oncoming traffic,” reads a press release. “The new interchange will improve safety by reducing the number of spots where vehicles could collide and can handle more than 600 left-turn movements per hour, twice the capacity of a conventional interchange.”The speed-limit on U.S. 250 in the area has been reduced to 25 miles per hour. The project is expected to be completed by the fall of 2022 and is one of six projects being constructed by Curtis Contracting. Funding came from the second round of the Smart Scale process from the Virginia Department of Transportation. Curtis Contracting has already completed work at I-64’s Fontaine Avenue interchange and a connector road between Berkmar Drive and Rio Mills Road is nearly finished.Curtis Contracting will also build roundabouts at both the intersection of U.S. 250 and Route 151 and Profitt Road and Route 20.Source: Virginia Department of TransportationAnd finally today, Albemarle’s communications and public engagement director appeared at today’s Supervisors’ meeting to address concerns related to a recent rezoning applied for by the Piedmont Housing Alliance, Virginia Supportive Housing and the Thomas Jefferson Coalition for the Homeless. On February 17, Supervisors approved a change for the land where the Red Carpet Inn operates on U.S. 29 for a project that will eventually see between 80 to 140 housing units for people with low incomes. However, news reports have recently surfaced that existing residents of the Red Carpet Inn will be displaced. Emily Kilroy explained that there was a communication error. “The Thomas Jefferson Area Coalition for the Homeless has shared that as media reports came out about the family that had been living at the Red Carpet Inn on more of  a long-term basis, that when they became aware of the communication issue, they reached out to get a list of all the long-term tenants that have been living there,” Kilroy said. “There were ten households that were impacted with the closure of the Red Carpet Inn and they have made contact with all ten of those households. Seven of them have reached back out for support and they are working on an individual basis to find the best solution for their needs to get those individuals rehoused elsewhere in the community.” This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s Patreon fueled shout-out: The Local Energy Alliance Program, your local energy nonprofit, wants to help you lower your energy bills, make your home more comfortable, and save energy. Schedule your Home Energy Check-Up to get started - now only $45 for City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County residents. You’ll receive energy-saving products and expert advice customized to your needs. Sign up today!On today’s program:Officials with the Blue Ridge Health District lay out details for new statewide registration processCharlottesville still projecting a shortfall in the current year’s budget University of Virginia bans in-person gatherings *Today’s newscast is being completed while there are reports of long lines at the mass vaccination clinic at the Blue Ridge Health District. In a few minutes, we’ll hear from people from officials with the district, but I’ve been sent photos of long lines and reports of people who have been waiting for hours. More on that as I can get questions answered. A photo submitted by a reader of this newsletter this morningUpdate: The Blue Ridge Health District sent out this statement around the time of publication. The first shot administered in the Blue Ridge Health District was given two months ago to Dr. Ebony Hilton and since then there has been progress despite a limited supply of vaccines. Ryan McKay is the policy director at BRHD and he spoke at a press conference on February 16. “In our district, over 58,000 doses have been administered,” McKay said. “This includes vaccine that has been administered certainly by us at the Blue Ridge Health District. It also includes any other providers that are providing access to the vaccines so that would include Sentara Martha Jefferson and the University of Virginia Health System.” Recent snow and ice lead to cancellations of vaccinations and with more ice on the way, they’re preparing for more disruption. Today’s long lines are not related to this, at least according to what McKay said yesterday. “We had to reschedule appointments over the weekend related to weather-related issues which is also creating some of the scheduling issues that we’ve faced,” McKay said. “One thing we want to report now is that in anticipation of snow and what could be significant ice Thursday into Friday, we’re going to reschedule appointments on Thursday so anyone who has an appointment scheduled for Thursday will be rescheduled for Saturday and those who have appointments on Friday will be rescheduled for Monday.”Speaking yesterday, Blue Ridge Health District officials acknowledged concerns about what has been perceived to be an inequitable distribution of the vaccine. Rebecca Schmidt is the district’s director of partnerships and strategic initiatives. She said the goal now is to ensure everyone has access to doses as more supply continues to flow into the district. “We know that this system overall was not set up to be equitable,” Schmidt said. “But now we have a little more of an opportunity to plan for what an equitable policy might look like in our district. And I will say that we are not alone in this. Nationally, in communities across our country, everyone is really grappling with this really inherent challenge when you have limited supply of a vaccine how do you get it out to communities across our district who have very different needs?”Schmidt said that will lead to the creation of more ways for people to get vaccinated.“There shouldn’t just be one avenue or one way that you get access to vaccine,” Schmidt said. “There are likely going to be lots of different ways. We know that one size does not fit all.” At today’s Board of Supervisor’s meeting, Liz Palmer mentioned vaccinations will be given at Yancey Community School this weekend in Esmont. Those slots are full, but it is an example of the kind of different event that will be held as the pandemic continues. New system onlineA new statewide registration system for vaccinations went online yesterday morning, and this includes a phone number people can call in either English and Spanish, with access to translators for other languages. Kathryn Goodman is the communications manager for the Blue Ridge Health District. “As many of you know, our health district here has had multiple surveys going out for individuals who are 65 plus, those in Phase 1A and Phase 1B, 16 to 64 with high-risk medical conditions, etc,” Goodman said. “All of those surveys have now been transferred to the new statewide system. So the state system is intended for us to have a streamlined database so we can pull information for anyone in our community who needs to be vaccinated.” I have questions out today to find out what went wrong today.  Thank you to those who sent in photos. *As planning for mass vaccination continues, the pandemic continues to do what it does. There is a sudden spike today in the number of cases in the Blue Ridge Health District. District-wide there are another 173 cases reported today, with 80 reported from Charlottesville and 68 in Albemarle. These are the highest one-day number for both localities in for sometime, and quite possibly related to the return of the University of Virginia to in-person instruction on February 1. The University of Virginia has banned all in-person gatherings through at least February 26. The UVA COVID tracker reported 121 new cases on Monday, which is the largest one-day total since the dashboard was launched last August. For more information, read coverage in the Cavalier Daily. Earlier in the month, that newspaper also reported that fraternities and sororities were preparing for in-person gatherings. I highly recommend reading the Cavalier Daily when you can. Charlottesville’s one-day total of 80 is the highest since the pandemic began. (Source: Blue Ridge Health District) *Charlottesville City Council took action to bring its COVID-19 ordinance back into compliance with Governor Ralph Northam’s current state of emergency, which allows up to 25 spectators at sports gatherings. The city’s ordinance caps that at 10, whereas Albemarle County follows Virginia rules with the higher number of fans allowed. Councilor Lloyd Snook brought up the topic. “We have three Little Leagues that are active,” Snook said. “They draw from both the city and the county. The confusion right now is that under at least some interpretations and the interpretation they’ve been using, although they are allowed to practice in the city, they are not allowed to play their games in the city.” Council had the choice to either amend the city’s ordinance to bring the city’s definition of sporting events into line with Virginia’s or repeal the ordinance. Council chose the former on a 4-1 vote with Mayor Nikuyah Walker objecting out of concerns related to the potential for parks and recreation employees to be placed in harm’s way. Charlottesville City Council received several reports yesterday afternoon, beginning with an update on the city’s financial forecast. Senior Budget Analyst Ryan Davidson said nothing much has changed since the last one in January. (forecast)“We’re still looking at projecting our revenues to come in approximately $9.9 million lower than the FY21 adopted budget amount,” Davidson said. For a sense of scale, that’s about five percent lower than expected. That’s largely due to a dramatic reduction in meals tax and transient lodging tax. A possible solution to close the gap is to use the $6.7 million reserve Council agreed to set aside in the FY21 budget. In a normal year, that money would have gone to pay for certain items in the capital improvement program. “It’s going to be and going to require an ongoing effort by everyone involved to manage the shortfall and we just need to continue to keep these figures in front of us as we’re continuing to make the decisions as we go through the fiscal year.” Budgets in future fiscal years are influenced by decisions made now, such as capital projects. I’ll have more on that in a moment, but for now, there was also a bit of news about filling a vacancy on the Charlottesville Police Civilian Review Board. Here’s Councilor Michael Payne. “Unfortunately we have not been able to schedule interviews by tonight’s meeting but the Council has decided we will schedule those interviews for this week and hold a special meeting this week in order to make that final appointment,” Payne said. There was also a long conversation about the credit card policy which I’ve clipped out for a future story that I hope to be able to get to later this week. There’s a chance I may just knit long soundbites into a podcast so people can hear the discussion in Councilor’s own words. This is issue is perhaps not as simple as you think, as at the heart of this conversation is one about community engagement. More on that later. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

On today’s show:A COVID update from the Blue Ridge Health DistrictCouncil denies special use permit for 11 units in BelmontLocal real estate group releases report for 4th quarter of 2021The Virginia Festival of the Book goes virtual for 2021With the COVID pandemic still raging, today’s Patreon-fueled shout-out from an anonymous contributor is once again to state clearly: "We keep each other safe. Wear a mask, wash your hands, and keep your distance."A second mass vaccination site at Seminole Square Shopping Center is now in place to be used by the University of Virginia and the Blue Ridge Health District to administer doses, though the supply is still limited. Ryan McKay is the policy director for the health district. “Right now we are receiving 2,850 doses each week,” McKay said. “That’s for the entire district. That’s for everyone.”  McKay said more than half of Virginia’s population is eligible for Phase1B and health districts are still working to ensure everyone in Phase 1A is vaccinated. “You can imagine  the number of people it’s going to take to get through 1B and the amount of time it’s going to take given our current allotment,” McKay said. “It’s going to be a matter of months before we can provide that widespread access to all of those individuals in that particular group.”Over 40,000 have filled out the survey that the Blue Ridge Health District has used to begin to tackle the logistics. That also means creating a third space for municipal employees.“We’ve partnered with the city and Albemarle County to have them open and operate a site at Charlottesville High School where they are providing access to Phase 1A city employees, so this would be people in health and human services, social services, and then Phase 1B educators,” McKay said.The Biden administration has stated they are working to increase supply, and more information will come out over the next few weeks. “There are other vaccines on the horizon but we don’t know how readily available they will be,” McKay said. “Some of those vaccines, such as the Johnson & Johnson, is actually a one-dose vaccine but the efficacy on that vaccine is less. I think it’s at about 65 percent. So as more vaccines become available we’ll obviously have to educate our communities about those vaccines and the benefits and comparisons to the ones that are currently out there.” There are now more people vaccinated in Virginia than the total number of cases since last March. McKay said there was a surge following the holidays, but that has begun to wane. “Over the last couple of weeks we have seen a downward trend both in the percent positive from test results, and we’ve also seen a downward trend in the total number of cases and case incidence per 100,000,” McKay said. “So we believe at this point after three weeks or so of a downward trend, that we’ve worked our way beyond the surge but also recognize that there is always that potential for increased cases and transmission in the community.” Charlottesville City Council has denied a special use permit for additional density at a site in Belmont that would have added 11 units at 1000 Monticello Road. Brian Haluska is a city planner. “1000 Monticello Road already has a development on it, so that project as its currently developed has more units than what the zoning would allow,” Haluska said. “The project was built in the 70’s and was rezoned in 2003.”That rezoning was part of a comprehensive rezoning across the city. This portion of Belmont was put in the Neighborhood Commercial Corridor category, which is why there are so many restaurants clustered nearby. Several members of the Charlottesville Low-Income Housing Coalition asked Council to deny the permit. Laura Goldblatt is a member of the Board of Commissioners for the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority and a Belmont resident. “It doesn’t meet the affordability that we need,” Goldblatt said. “One of the things that we need to demand of developers is affordable housing. The only way we’re going to start to see a lack of displacement and that we’re going to see Charlottesville be more inclusive and welcoming is if developers really have their feet held to the fire and have to do it.”  Many expressed anger that the owner, Piedmont Realty Holdings III LLC, raised rents in the current building after purchasing the property in February 2019 for $2.75 million. Haluska said staff could not take that into consideration.“Past actions of an applicant are not something we take into account and you can kind of get into trouble with that when you do that,” Haluska said.He also said the number of units proposed in the new structure do not trigger provisions in the city code that require a portion of them to be sold or rented to people whose incomes are less than 80 percent of the area median (AMI). (link to code) “Altogether this project does not have enough square footage within all of its buildings including the new building to make it over that line,” Haluska said. The applicant had volunteered to make five units comply with the city’s affordable dwelling unit policy anyway, at roughly 65 percent of the AMI. However, Council did not trust the guarantee. Here’s Councilor Lloyd Snook.“To me the issue is, are we as a city better off if we have 11 units, five of which are affordable at this roughly 65 percent of AMI,” Snook said. Councilor Michael Payne was among the three Councilors who voted to deny. “Just because an SUP is in front of us doesn’t mean we have to approve it,” Payne said. “It’s our policy decision and we can evaluate all SUPs on the merits and make a policy decision there. Given the adverse neighborhood impacts, the fact that it doesn’t conform with our Comprehensive Plan, the existing zoning there, and under our current ordinance for the criteria for standards for issuance I think there is a strong case to be made that there are adverse neighborhood impacts on the surrounding neighborhood.”Payne made a motion to recommend denial and it carried 3-2. Mayor Nikuyah Walker and Vice Mayor Sena Magill voted to deny and Snook and Councilor Heather Hill voted to approve. A rewrite of the city’s affordable housing policy is underway. The public comment period for the draft has closed, but the document is available for review. The Planning Commission will discuss the draft at their meeting on February 9. (draft affordable housing plan)The Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors has released its home sales report for the final quarter of calendar year 2020. In summary, mortgage rates are at a historic low which may be fueling recent activity in the market. (download the report)“Sales are surging in the CAAR area housing market,” reads the executive summary of the report. “There were 1,278 sales in the 4th quarter, a 23 percent jump from last year.”There has also been an increase in the median sales price, which was $348,050 in the region during the period, or a 13 percent rise over the previous year. There are also fewer homes on the market, which is likely contributing to the increase in sales prices. The report covers the same jurisdictions in the Thomas Jefferson Area Planning District. They are Charlottesville, Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, and Nelson. Download the reportFor the second year in a row, the Virginia Festival of the Book will not be held in person this March. However, the festival will proceed virtually from March 13 through March 26 on both Zoom and Facebook Live. More than forty events will be held with authors and all of it is free to the viewing audience. But if you can’t wait until then, there are many recorded events available on-demand at vabook.org. There are also several events coming up this month as part of their Shelf Life program. The festival has been running since 1995 and is a service of Virginia Humanities. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s show doubles as an episode of the Charlottesville Quarantine Report. With the COVID pandemic still raging, today’s Patreon-fueled shout-out from an anonymous contributor is once again to state clearly: "We keep each other safe. Wear a mask, wash your hands, and keep your distance." At a briefing on January 22, 2021, the executive director of the Blue Ridge Health District had a clear message for people in the greater Charlottesville area.“There is a vaccination shortage and I just need everyone to understand that,” said Dr. Denise Bonds. Bonds appeared at one of three press briefings held Friday to explain the current situation. In this edition of the newsletter, we’ll also hear from Dr. Costi Sifri from the University of Virginia Health System and Dr. Danny Avula, Richmond’s health director who is also serving as the state’s vaccine coordinator. “Right now in Virginia we’re getting about 105,000 new doses per week and clearly there is much more demand than that,” Avula said. “Why is that and how do we address it?”The post holiday surge appears to be receding slightly, with several indicators trending downward over the past several days. Today’s count of 3,792 new cases reported by the Virginia Department of Health is the second lowest-one day count of the year, and the seven-day average for new cases has been trending downwards and is now at 4,735. Virginia has now surpassed five million PCR tests administered and the seven-day average for positive test results is now at 12.7 percent. That number has been declining since January 10 when it hit a high of 16.8 percent. There have now been a total of 10,132 cases in the Blue Ridge Health District with a 7-day average of 82 new cases a day. The holiday surge has been felt more dramatically in surrounding counties. Nearly two-thirds of the 573 cases in Nelson County have been reported since January 1 and more than half of Louisa’s cases have been in 2021. In comparison, the city of Charlottesville has only had twenty-percent of its 2,639 cases reported this year. Throughout the pandemic, a lot of planning has been based on an epidemiological model created by the University of Virginia’s Biocomplexity Institute. Their model depicts several scenarios which could unfold under various conditions. The latest one considers new forms of COVID that are believed to be circulating across the world. The “new variants” scenario assumes a 40 percent increase in transmission rate and a potentially dramatic increase in new cases.“In this scenario, new weekly cases peak at almost 75,000,” reads the report. “However, peaks are sustained, with 65,000 or more cases expected for 10 weeks, from late February to late April. By comparison, Virginia had about 50,000 new cases during the entire month of November.”For comparison, there’s been 33,142 cases this week, compared to 40,449 the week before. Take a look at the report if you want to look further, but do know the last two sentences under “model-results” remind everyone this scenario is not inevitable. “Do your part to stop the spread,” reads the ‘model results section.’ ”Continue to practice good prevention and get vaccinated when eligible.”Source: UVA Biocomplexity Institute*However, there is an issue with supply. It has been two weeks since the Blue Ridge Health District announced the opening of Phase1B, and some in the community have expressed frustration with the roll-out. Cynthia Neff is an Albemarle resident who spoke to the Board of Supervisors on January 20. “As this vaccine roll-out has began having one problem after another, I’ve started to talking to a lot of people to try to better understand,” Neff said. “Certainly we can do this better, quicker, faster, more effectively. And I’m not sure that I’m seeing that in spite of a lot of people working really hard.” To clear up some of the confusion, the Blue Ridge Health District held a press briefing on Friday. Here’s Dr. Denise Bonds, the agency’s director. “We recently opened up vaccination to Phase 1B,” Bonds said. “This was a request by the federal government and an encouragement by our state government to really begin to offer vaccines to those who were at highest risk at having of having an adverse outcome if they were impacted, and that would be people over the age of 75, and to a large degree those over the age of 65 or younger with comorbidities.”Based on an email sent out on January 7, the Health District had originally anticipated opening up that phase in early spring, but they complied with the request and announced on January 15 they would proceed on January 18 at the mass vaccination site built at the former K-Mart building on U.S. 29 and Hydraulic Road. An arrangement was worked out with the University of Virginia to supply people who could administer doses. However, Dr. Bonds said she learned of a major problem on January 20. “There is a vaccination shortage and I just need everybody to understand that,” Bonds said. “There are five million Virginians that are currently eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Virginia gets each week 105,000 doses for the whole state. As you can see, there is considerable demand and not much supply.” For the Blue Ridge Health District, that means a weekly distribution of 2,950 first doses for the next four weeks. Dr. Bonds said she learned on Wednesday that would be the new supply from the Virginia Department of Health as they contend with a shortage.“Prior to that we ordered what we needed for the next week but the state quickly realized they were getting twice to three times as many as orders as we actually got vaccines, so they switched to a per capita distribution system,” Dr. Bonds said. For the next four weeks at least, the  Blue Ridge Health District will need to figure out how to prioritize the limited amount of doses. Ryan McKay is the director of policy for the health district.“The 2,950 dose fall significantly short of what we know we can dispense in any given week,” McKay said. “What that means is that we have to plan a little bit more accordingly in terms of how we distribute vaccines to localities but also how we apply that distribution to the guidelines that are provided by VDH and how we use an equitable lens to make sure that we’re reaching all of the hardest hit individuals in the district.”As of Friday afternoon, the Blue Ridge Health District had administered 1,500 first doses, and were scheduling appointments for 4,200 people using resources shared by the UVA Health System. Dr. Bonds repeated again that there are limited doses. “Please be patient,” Dr. Bonds said. “We are trying to make sure that we offer to anyone over the age of 75 a vaccine, but it’s going to take us some time to get through the entire list.” Dr. Bonds said anyone who currently has an existing appointment with the Blue Ridge Health District for a first shot will get their initial dose.“Individuals who need a second dose will also get a vaccine,” Bonds said. “That 2,950 represents first doses only. Second doses are distributed in a second separate distribution system and we will contact individuals on a week by week basis to make sure those people who need a second dose are given an appointment so they don’t have to compete in the general IT system.” As new supply comes in, the health district will be able to make more appointments. Dr. Bonds recommended people who qualify under Phase 1B to fill out the survey but continued to urge patience.“I want to set very clear expectations,” Dr. Bonds said. “At our current rate of receiving vaccines it will take months to vaccinate all of the individuals that qualify under Phase1B.” Dr. Bonds said capacity would be expanded by the authorization of new vaccines. They’re also switching to a new computer system to make the scheduling process more efficient, as there have been reported difficulties. In the meantime, Dr. Bonds repeated the most effective tools to stop or slow the spread of COVID.“We need everyone to continue those great mitigation strategies that we have all become so good at,” Dr. Bonds said. “Please continue to wear your mask. Please continue to maintain physical distancing. Wash your hands frequently and properly. And please limit your social gatherings, particularly with other households. We know this has been a huge source of infection, particularly recently.” UVA Health System’s roleSince Monday, the University of Virginia Health System has been helping to bolster capacity in the Blue Ridge Health District’s efforts. They’ll begin their second week tomorrow. “We have plenty of capacity in terms of our ability to provide shots,” said Dr. Costi Sifri, the health system’s director of hospital epidemiology. “We’re willing to do whatever Blue Ridge Health District wants us to do to meet the needs of our community.”The University of Virginia Health System has been vaccinating its personnel. As of Friday, the University of Virginia had received 25,075 first doses of vaccine.“Of those, we have provided a total of 17,321 total doses and we have scheduled 22,693 first doses, or have provided those vaccines,” Dr. Sifri said. However, those numbers may be much lower over the next few week as supply chains struggle to keep up with demand. Dr. Sifri said the work has been done to set up the system for when more doses are available. “I think this is becoming a clear realization around the country that vaccine supplies are going to be limited,” Dr. Sifri said. “I think that we understood that from the launch of this vaccine program. Some of the initial efforts for the first couple of weeks as we got vaccines were to figure out that last mile. How to figure out how to get a vaccine into a person’s arm and make it a vaccination. That work is now done within our health system and I think that’s true around the rest of our health district, around the state and the country. Now that we have capacity to distribute vaccine and get it into people’s arms, we’re starting to see that the supply is limited.”Dr. Sifri said he did not know how much vaccine would be distributed to the UVA Health System. He said they have the capacity to deliver 1,000 doses a day but the limiting factor will be vaccine supply. “Our hope is and our anticipation is that vaccine production efforts are ramped up in the next month and perhaps the prospect of having new vaccines come to approval within the next month or so, we’ll be able to ramp up further delivery to everybody,” Dr. Sifri said. Dr. Sifri encouraged people in Phase1B to sign up through the Blue Ridge Health District through its online portal to register. He also said people should be prepared for changes as more information is known. “Keep attentive to how the situation may change,” Dr. Sifri said. “Maybe there’s going to be other avenues to receive vaccine, perhaps through pharmacies, perhaps through your primary care physician. Those structures aren’t in place yet because of the limitations of the vaccine and because of some of the challenges of the current vaccine that we have available.”Dr. Sifri stressed it is crucial that people who have been vaccinated continue to wear a mask, continue to follow social distancing protocols. The vaccines are all approved under an emergency declaration.“We don’t have a lot of information yet as to whether being vaccinated reduces the ability to carry the virus,” Dr. Sifri said. “There is some information from the clinical trials that suggests it does reduce the amount of virus that people carry and that some people may no longer carry the vaccine in addition to being protected from the vaccine but I think it’s still to early to tell.” The word from Virginia’s vaccine coordinatorVirginia has 35 health districts, and Dr. Danny Avula runs both the Richmond and Henrico County departments. Now he is also playing the role of vaccine coordinator for the entire Commonwealth. He began his press briefing Friday with a statement and a question.“Right now in Virginia we’re getting about 105,000 new doses per week and clearly there is much more demand than that,” Avula said. “Why is that and how do we address it?”Health districts across the Commonwealth have moved quickly to create vaccination sites and to train people to administer the dose. However, there isn’t enough vaccine yet to go around. “Clearly to get to our goals of herd immunity and get up to 70 to 80 percent of the population vaccinated, we are going to need that kind of infrastructure,” Avula said. “But right now when we’re only getting about 105,000 new doses a week, that infrastructure will sit idly until our supply increases.” Source: Virginia Department of HealthOn Sunday, January 24, the Virginia Department of Health reported that the seven-day average for vaccinations is now at 21,007 a day. The dashboard reported 474,979 doses administered, which is less than half of the 1,055,975 doses Virginia has received. Dr. Avula said the reason for some of that gap is that CVS and Walgreens are slowly rolling out their distribution of the vaccine into long-term care facilities. “There is a large number of doses, probably around 100,000 at this point, that have been distributed into Virginia but have not been administered yet,” Avula said. “The CVS and Walgreens are working those various nursing homes and assisted living facilities as quickly as they can. We have been on the phone with their state leadership multiple times this week and they are accelerating their pace.”But back to the allocations for health districts across the Commonwealth which are much smaller than had been anticipated. Dr. Avula said Phase1B covers a very large portion of the population. “The challenge of this is when you’re only getting a couple of thousand new doses a week to be distributing between hospitals, health systems, health departments, providers, and pharmacies, how do you do that in a way that comes even close to meeting demand?” Avuld asked. “The answer is, you don’t, you can’t. And understandably that has led to a great deal of confusion and frustration on the part of our public.” We can expect to hear more questions in the weeks and months to come, and these health briefings are expected to continue. Defense Production ActBefore we go today, one piece of federal information. One of President Joe Biden’s first actions in office was to sign an executive order that invokes the Defense Production Act which could help speed up vaccines. “The Federal Government must act urgently and effectively to combat the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.  To that end, this order directs immediate actions to secure supplies necessary for responding to the pandemic, so that those supplies are available, and remain available, to the Federal Government and State, local, Tribal, and territorial authorities, as well as to America’s health care workers, health systems, and patients.  These supplies are vital to the Nation’s ability to reopen its schools and economy as soon and safely as possible.” This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

We were lucky enough to interview Ryan McKay and Sofia Torres-McKay of Cramoisi Vineyard in the Dundee Hills. - The origin of Cramoisi, building a new tasting room and exciting things yet to come - Sofia talks about the purpose of AHIVOY and the details of the program - The best wineries for vineyard experiences! - Sports minute: local water polo, Trailblazers don't suffer fools and no James Harden - Westco Wine update - paperwork sucks - Some wineries and restaurants are pushing the limits, Chehalem Ridge industry deal, vaccine update from Cole --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/hosbrutality/support

Today is the 120th episode of a program I’ve been producing since July 13, and builds on the dozens of episodes of the Charlottesville Quarantine Report. It’s all brought to you by the many people who have made a financial contribution this year to support the daily information I put together for the general public. I sincerely appreciate it, and every new Substack subscriber or Patreon supporter helps me feel like I’ve made the right choice this year. I will continue into 2021 and beyond, and you all have my sincere thanks for making that an option. And to those who haven’t paid? That’s okay! Just make sure you send the work along to others so we can grow the audience together. On today’s show:Virginia posts another one-day record for COVID casesThe Blue Ridge Health District builds a big tent for vaccinationsThe Virginia Department of Health gives a briefing on vaccinesAlbemarle County government provides its own year in reviewIn the podcast, a quick sound collage of bloopers and weird sounds*The final day of the year brings the highest case one-day count yet in Virginia with 5,239 new cases reported by the Commonwealth’s Department of Health. There have been another 48 deaths bringing the total now to 5,032 in Virginia since March. The seven-day average for positive PCR tests is now 13.2 percent, the highest that figure has been. In the Blue Ridge Health District, there are another 125 new cases today, the second-highest one-day total. That figure includes 52 from Albemarle, 21 from Charlottesville, 19 from Louisa, 15 from Fluvanna, 13 from Greene, and five from Nelson. *In a moment, we’ll hear from Ryan McKay from the Blue Ridge Health District on plans to expand the number of vaccinations administered locally. But first, members of the press had the opportunity yesterday to ask detailed questions of the person heading up Virginia’s COVID vaccination efforts. Christie Gray is the director of the immunization division at the Virginia Department of Health. “As of this morning, December 30, Virginia had received approximately 285,000 vaccine doses from two manufacturers and has administered 54,295 doses to people in the Commonwealth,” Gray said. However, Gray said Virginia had expected to have 370,000 doses by the end of the year, today, but failed to meet that goal. Still, doses were distributed.“Eighteen Virginia hospitals received the initial shipment of the Pfizer vaccine the week of December 18 and is dispersing those shipments of 72,125 doses to our frontline health care workers,” Gray said. “Virginia also received approximately 140,000 doses of Moderna vaccine the week of December 23 and both the previously approved Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are being distributed to 96 sites geographically dispersed throughout the Commonwealth.” Gray said Operation Warp Speed has estimated Virginia will get about 100,000 doses total from of both vaccines each week for the month of January. So far, the federal public-private partnership has failed to meet expectations.“The actual amount of the vaccine received in Virginia is a moving target and is dependent on when and how quickly vaccination doses are manufactured,” Gray said. Currently we are in Phase 1A, where vaccines are to be reserved by front-line health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities. This week, some employees of the Blue Ridge Health District received the shot. Across Virginia, the first long-term care residents are to have received the vaccine on-site through the partnership with CVS and Walgreens. Gray pointed people in the direction of the new VDH vaccination dashboard, but said the numbers posted would lag behind the actual numbers. The next decision point is to determine who exactly in Phase 1B and 1C will be in line to receive the vaccine. “Virginia is awaiting recommendations by the Virginia Unified Command and the Virginia Disaster Medical Advisory Committee to make final recommendations on priority groups 1B and 1C,” Gray said. That could happen by the end of this week.During the question and answer period, reporters wanted to know why there were delays in getting the vaccine distributed. Gray acknowledged the process has been slow.“Dealing with new systems and operations at this scale it is expected to be slower at the beginning  but we are expecting to increase our efficiency over time and I would like to say that 47,000 doses in two weeks is not a small number and we are proud of our Virginia providers for accomplishing that,” Gray said. Dr. Denise Bonds received a Moderna dose this week. Credit: Blue Ridge Health *Locally, vaccinations will be administered in the parking lot of the former KMart at the intersection of U.S. 29 and Hydraulic Road. Ryan McKay is the director of policy for the Blue Ridge Health District. “On Monday, we begin providing access to Phase1A so it’s really non-hospital affiliated health care providers and we’re really working on that access for EMS providers, for individuals who work in dialysis centers and through Region 10 where their staff are working in residential facilities”, McKay said.   This will begin the mass vaccination campaign that the Blue Ridge Health District will run. They’re doing so with assistance from Red Light Management and the Bama Works Fund of the Dave Matthews Band. Skyline Tent will build a temporary structure under which the vaccines will be administered for several months in a large, roomy space that will allow for physical distancing. “We established this relationship really quickly,” McKay said. “I think we met with them on site a week ago yesterday and we talked out a few different options and based on what they were able to provide this modular structure that we put up over the course of the next few days. And then we’ll open it up next week and that really allows us to maximize our staff capacity and really get people in and out as efficiently, safely, and effectively as possible. One of the rate-limiting factors in all of this is that people have to wait 15 to 20 minutes after they get vaccinated to assure they’re not going to have a severe adverse reaction like anaphylactic shock.”Such incidents have so far been rare. McKay said there will be neighborhood level clinics as well as more and more vaccines doses are provided. *It’s the last day of 2020, and Albemarle County has released a 15 minute video that reflects on what local government has been up to this year. (watch the video)“Hi, I’m Jeff Richardson and I’m the county executive for Albemarle County government,” Richardson said. The video was to have been shown to the Board of Supervisors at their final meeting of the year, but an ice storm that day ended the meeting early.“A lot of the work that has taken place over this very challenging year specifically related to COVID, the pandemic, and the response responsibilities that our government has faced over the past year.” The video also mentions what many consider one of the most important actions taken by the Board of Supervisors this year. Here’s Siri Russell, the county’s director of Equity and Inclusion. “Following a months-long community engagement process, the Board of Supervisors voted to remove the Confederate monument known as At Ready from Court Square,” Russell said. “So many departments came together to pull this off. So many individuals went above and beyond to really create a community moment that was safe, engaging, inclusive, and ultimately effective.” Siri Russell, Albemarle’s Director of Equity and Inclusion, at the location where a Confederate monument stood until this year. There’s also an update from the Office of Housing. Here’s Philip Holbrook, housing program manager.“This year we’ve been busy, we’ve been able to accomplish a lot even in the midst of COVID,” Holbrook said. “The “[Housing Choice Voucher] 90 is probably one of our biggest program pushes that we’ve been doing which is an ongoing program that we’ve had for years, however, we’ve been expanding the number of local families that we’ve been able to provide subdisides to through our housing choice voucher program. Ninety new families are going to receive vouchers by the end of 2020.” Take a look at the full video to learn more about what various departments in Albemarle have been up to. Let’s close it out with Jeff Richardson“In closing it’s been an unbelievable year,” Richardson said. “We have a phenomenal community that is very resilient and we have an organization that continues to be prepared to serve our citizens and residents of this county. I could not be more proud of our organization. I wish you the best and we are all excited about 2021.” This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

For today’s show, I want to take an owner’s draw and tell you to take a listen to the latest edition of the Charlottesville Quarantine Report, a podcast I began back in March to help document Virginia’s response to the pandemic. Just before I finished this program, I published the 50th episode which expands on many of the soundbites you’ll hear in this one. Thank you to all who are financially supporting this work. *There are another 1,954 new cases of COVID-19 reported today by the Virginia Department of Health, bringing the seven-day average for new daily cases to 1,823. The seven-day average for positive tests remains at 7.1 percent for a second straight day. In the Blue Ridge Health District there are another 30 new cases reported today, and the seven-day average for new daily cases is at 26 per day.  Virginia Governor Ralph Northam explained yesterday that new data showing a national surge in COVID-19 cases led him to impose new restrictions late last week.“What really affected me is seeing mobile morgues outside of hospitals because there’s no place to put the dead,” Northam said. “We don’t need that to happen in Virginia and so I follow the data every day and I made that decision Friday morning.” Northam said he will continue to look at the data and will make further announcements if needed. At a press conference yesterday, Virginia Health Commissioner Norm Oliver described the situation.“Cases have been increasing steadily over the past period,” Oliver said. “Our case incidence rate was about a month ago around 9 cases per 100,000 populations and now we’re doubling that and approaching 20 cases per 100,000.”As of yesterday, the Virginia Department of Health reported that there have been three million PCR tests over the course of the pandemic. In the last week, there have been 130,000 tests processed.“We have been doing a lot of testing,” Northam said. “Our average testing is about 20,000 tests per day.” Last night, Ryan McKay of the Blue Ridge Health District addressed the Albemarle Board of Supervisors. He said that Virginia continues to do better than most states in handling the pandemic.“While we’re seeing an increase, it’s not quite as sharp as some of our surrounding states and certainly not to the extent that we are seeing in the upper midwest,” McKay said. McKay showed the Board of Supervisors data that showed how tougher restrictions in some parts of Virginia helped bring down caseloads at different points of the pandemic. Right now, the numbers continue to mount. “We have been increasing in our cases per 100,000 per day for the last 27 days and again all of this contributes to decision-making that is happening that informs making those amendments to  executive order 63 and 64 that implements the stronger mitigation strategy,” McKay said. That refers to the limitation of social gatherings to 25 people or less, the lowering of the age for mask requirements to 5, and ending alcohol sales in restaurants at ten p.m.  "While the virus can certainly spread at restaurants before ten, we know that the later the event gets the more likely people are to drink and forget about social distancing,” Northam said.It’s been eight months since Congress passed the last federal relief package for states across America. Northam wants them to take action again soon. “We are encouraging Congress to pass another stimulus package,” Northam said. “I’ve been in touch with members of our Congressional delegation just this week about this. Now that the election is behind us, Congress needs to come together to get this done and they need to get it done now.” Today’s positive percentage in the Blue Ridge Health District is 1.8 percent. McKay said this metric is not necessarily a good indicator of community spread. “What we have found is that percent positive, while it is an indicator of what may be happening here, it has really been a great reflection of what could be happening locally,” McKay said.  “The University of Virginia to their credit has drastically increased access to testing for students and faculty.  Testing across our district particularly in Albemarle and Charlottesville has increased significantly over time so that number may not be a great reflection of what’s truly occurring in our community.”*The nation’s leading expert on pandemics addressed doctors, health care workers, and the general public yesterday. "We are in the process of another resurgence as we enter into the much colder months of the late fall and early winter as people go indoors much more than outdoors and they're gathering with friends and with family,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a position he has held since 1984.Fauci said this is the third outbreak of a novel coronavirus, but this one has not been contained like SARS or MERS had been earlier in the century. He talked about two vaccines that have been developed and said they show promise. But people have to continue to follow rules in place to fight further spread."We cannot abandon public health measures, even in the presence of a vaccine that's highly efficacious. A, because it's going to take a while to get the community completely protected as you would say. By completely, a veil of protection that truly is herd immunity for this particular infection. So we don't want there to be a signal to the community that 'ah, we have a vaccine so let down our guard!' No! It should actually be an incentive to double down until we get everybody vaccinated."Fauci was the last guest speaker in the fall semester of the University of Virginia Medical Hour. The full video is expected to be posted shortly. For more on this topic, take a listen to the latest edition of the Charlottesville Quarantine Report. Today in meetings, Albemarle Supervisor Ann Mallek will hold a virtual town hall meeting for the White Hall Magisterial District. Albemarle has six supervisors, each of whom represent a different magisterial district. That is different from Charlottesville, which elects five people at-large. But because of COVID, Albemarle’s in-person town halls have not been possible this year. The virtual town hall beginning at 7 p.m. is the first of this era. You can ask questions in advance by sending an email to amallek@albemarle.org or asking in the session. (meeting info)Other meetings:The Fifth and Avon Community Advisory Committee meets at 7 p.m. (meeting info)The Charlottesville Human Rights Commission meets at 6:30 p.m. (meeting info)The Fluvanna Board of Supervisors meets at 7 p.m. (meeting info) This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Tonight and tomorrow, Decades Arcade will have a costume contest and scavenger hunt for Halloween this Friday and Saturday. Details are in this instagram post. Visit decadesarcade.com for more information on how you can book and their COVID-19 rules and precautions. You’ll also learn that for $200, you can rent the place for two hours for a private party. There are another 1,456 cases of COVID-19 in Virginia today, bringing the seven-day average for new daily cases to 1,194. The seven-day average for positive tests has increased to 5.4 percent, up from 5.3 percent yesterday. An additional case of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children has been reported, bringing the number of cases to eleven. Another metric to watch is the total number of cases per 100,000 people within the last 14 days. That number is 182.2 today, trending upwards from 171.8 a week ago. In the Blue Ridge Health District, there are another 31 cases, bringing the seven-day average to 29. That’s 13 new cases from Albemarle, eight from Charlottesville, three from Fluvanna, one from Greene, and six from Louisa. In October to date, the district as a whole added 896 cases, or about a fifth of the total cases since March. Albemarle has added 285 cases and Charlottesville has added 341 cases. Their October are also around a fifth of the total to date. Fluvanna did not experience as steep an increase this month, with 52 new cases to add to its total of 433. Much of that number is related to an outbreak at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women. Louisa added 114 cases in October, or just over a quarter of their total of 410 to date. Greene added 71 caes for a total of 294. Nelson added 33 cases this month to date, bringing their total to 140. The seven-day average for positive PCR testing in the district is 2.6 percent. That figure is 2.9 percent when all tests are included. In all there have been 100,972 testing encounters in the district since the beginning of the pandemic. No serious changes on the University of Virginia COVID-tracker. There are 56 active cases listed as of yesterday afternoon, with 43 of them students. Five percent of quarantine rooms are in use, as are three percent of isolation rooms. *Earlier this week, officials with the Blue Ridge Health District briefed UVa, Charlottesville and Albemarle County officials on the health district’s pandemic response. Ryan McKay is the director of policy and planning at the district. “In September and October we saw some pretty big increases in the daily cases. We’ve dropped off a little bit in early October but now we’re picking up again,” McKay said. “I think this is sort of the nature of how COVID is going to work. We’ll see increases, we’ll work quickly to mitigate and hopefully contain spread and then at some point we see another increase.” Cases roses as UVA began classes on September 8. But McKay said they were largely contained to the UVA community. “I will say that even though we say larger numbers of cases coming from the University setting, we did not see transmission from students or faculty into the community,” McKay said. However, the University has been conducting a lot of tests, and they all count toward the percent positivity rating. On September 6, the positive percentage for PCR tests was 7.5 percent. That number was at 2.6 percent today.“It’s important to understand that positivity rate may be being skewed by all of those tests that are being done,” McKay said. “We really need to look at what we’re seeing in terms of the raw data, the number of cases we’re seeing, and where that transmission is occurring.” McKay pointed to a key demographic when it comes to the impact of COVID-19. “We also see a pretty significant change when it comes to age,” McKay said. “Even though the majority of our cases are among those who are 10-19 and 20-29, those who are dying of COVID are of older populations, 50 and above.” For the rest of this discussion, take a listen to the latest episode of the Charlottesville Quarantine Report. Download McKay’s presentation here. *The election is a few days away, and tensions are running high across the Commonwealth and the nation. The Center for Politics at the University Virginia will take one more look into Sabato’s Crystal Ball on Monday to give their final thoughts. On Thursday’s episode, Larry Sabato said the national polls are showing Joe Biden ahead, but that may not mean anything. “The polling average as of Thursday is between eight and nine percent lead for Joe Biden, and that’s national, and that’s a healthy lead assuming that the data machine isn’t broken,” Sabato said. “In the swing states, though, it is closer.”Sabato said Biden is leading in California, a state where the high number of votes there won’t gain any electoral votes in the electoral college.“All of those other votes are wasted and they tend to inflate his polling average, his national average in the polls. We certainly think you’d rather be Joe Biden than Donald Trump right now, but I think it’s important to point out that we can see a clear path for Donald Trump to get to 270. Not that it’s easy. A clear path isn’t easy.” You can watch this installment on the Center for Politics’ YouTube page. *In-person voting in Albemarle County was briefly disrupted this morning when emergency crews showed up to investigate a potential gas leak. According to a release, the building was evacuated for about half an hour, and in-person voting resumed soon after. Today and tomorrow are the last days to make a contribution through Patreon for this month. This weekend I’m going to revamp how I use Patreon to emphasize the “behind-the-scenes” content you can get there. You’ll also begin to see the Patreon-fueled shout-outs at the end of these newsletters rather than the top. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Support today comes from Soul House Love, Charlottesville's Guide to Alternative Wellness. This Friday, Soul House Love is taking reservations for a New Moon Ceremony in a gorgeous outdoor location, with powerful guided meditations to cleanse your energy. Visit soulhouselove.com for more information and to reserve your spot.*There are more positive cases reported from the Fluvanna Women’s Correctional Facility today and the first cluster of cases has been reported at the University of Virginia. Of the 84 new cases reported in the Thomas Jefferson Health District today, 48 of those in Fluvanna County. Yesterday there were 41 new cases in Fluvanna. Testing has been conducted at the women’s prison this week, including all inmates and staff.  “The facility will conduct internal contact tracing for the women in the facility,” said Kathryn Goodman, spokeswoman for the TJHD. “Once the contact tracing on the inmates are completed, they share the information with TJHD. It would be a challenge for us to speak with the inmates so this is the best practice for these types of facilities. TJHD will conduct the contact tracing on staff as we do with any other cases.”There has been another COVID-19 death in Albemarle, for a total of 20 in the county and 63 in the district. There were 26 cases reported in Charlottesville.The Cavalier Daily reports there is an outbreak at a University of Virginia residence hall with testing revealing that five students tested positive. The 188 students in the Balz-Dobie dormitory have been told to quarantine while waiting for the results of tests that were conducted last night. It is unclear whether these cases are captured in the COVID-19 tracker, which was updated yesterday to add another five cases for a total of 378 total positive cases since August 17. The outbreak was also detected through monitoring of wastewater.  The Virginia Department of Health is reporting another 1,101 cases of COVID-19 today, and another 36 deaths. The higher-than-usual death rate stems from a data backlog according to officials. The statewide seven-day average for positive tests is at 6.7 percent today, down from 6.9 percent yesterday.   Before the news was announced, the Albemarle Supervisors were briefed by officials from the TJHD, including Ryan McKay. (download the presentation) “We’re certainly seeing increased number of cases among students,” McKay said. “We’re beginning to see some cases that are occurring on Grounds. Working with UVA, we meet with them on a daily basis to make sure we are communicating regularly, with transparency between what we’re seeing in terms of numbers, what they’re seeing, and then how we’re trying to support students.” McKay told Albemarle Supervisors that the area is moving towards more community transmission in urban areas. “And I think this is largely attributable to case counts that have been seen and positivity rates certainly in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County,” McKay said. “We are seeing increased numbers here in Charlottesville.”*The Virginia Senate has passed legislation requiring most utilities to develop debt repayment plans for those who have not been able to pay for electric, gas, or water service. The legislation sponsored by Senator Jennifer McClellan (D-9) was approved 24 to 12 with one abstention. (bill)*The Virginia Department of Historic Resources today will meet to consider nominations for two area properties to be listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places. One is Jackson P. Burley High School on Rose Hill Drive.“Opened in 1951 as a joint high school for African-American students in both Charlottesville and Albemarle County, Burley graduated its last high school class in 1967,” reads the Burley nomination. “Burley is great, and that it continues to function as a school is I think fantastic and I can say as a coach in the city schools and at Charlottesville High School, I wish the student athletes would go over there and walk the halls at Burley and see the accomplishments of back in the fifties and early sixties,” said Jeff Werner, the city’s historic preservation planner. “It’s just an extraordinary place.”The other is River View Farm, which is now known as the Carr-Greer House at the Ivy Creek Natural Area. “River View Farm was established by Hugh Carr, born enslaved, with an initial down payment on land in 1870 near the confluence of Ivy Creek and the Rivanna River,” reads that nomination. “By the time of his death in 1914, Carr had amassed a farm totaling 108 acres, and was among the largest African American landowners in Albemarle County.” The State Review Board meets at 1 p.m. (agenda)*The Jefferson Madison Regional Library has announced it will reopen some library branches for limited hours by appointment, and that curbside service hours will be extended at the others. The in-person hours wil bel offered at rural branches in outlying counties. “JMRL has worked hard to be able to re-open some doors, and is looking forward to the opportunity to serve the people of Greene, Louisa, and Nelson inside library buildings again,” said JMRL director David Plunkett in a statement. “The Library knows that the people in these communities need access to the resources in their local libraries, and are glad to be able to offer these again on a limited and safe basis.” Beginning Monday, the limited in-person appointment services can be used for up to 45 minutes by five individuals at a time. This is a move to tier 3 service, down from tier 4. Additional curbside service will come to Northside and Crozet libraries beginning on September 28. Call for more information. Louisa County Library: 540.894.5853Greene County Library: 434.985.5227Nelson Memorial Library: 434.263.5904In local meetings today, The Albemarle Natural Heritage Committee meets at 5 p.m. Among the items on the agenda is a discussion of using volunteers to clear out invasive species in county parks. (meeting info) (agenda)The Places 29 North Community Advisory Committee meeting that had been scheduled for tonight has been canceled. The 5th and Avon Community Advisory Committee meets at 7 p.m. The group will get an update on the High School Center II that is planned for county-owned property off of Mill Creek Drive near Monticello High School.  (meeting info)The Charlottesville Human Rights Committee meets at 6:30 p.m. (meeting info)At 2 p.m., the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia will take a look at Sabato’s Crystal Ball in a virtual event. (watch) This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

In the Season One finale of 'Beyond the Pale Ale' we come full circle and back to Nashville where Matt chats with Ryan McKay from Living Waters Brewing. Coming up on their One Year Anniversary Matt and Ryan chat about how plans changes, almost on a minute to minute basis, in 2020, and the state of beer, locally. Living Waters is also a part of the 'Black is Beautiful' beer project, which now has over 1,000 breweries involved. Honestly, it has been an honor to be able to work with some many great people on this project. While the subject matter isn't the happiest, hopefully 'Beyond the Pale Ale' has been able to translate how hard people are working in these unprecedented times and how they are adapting and evolving in ways that they never saw coming. Between racial and social injustice, a pandemic that has brought our economy to it's knees and polarized politics, its been rough, but together, and we get through this. Hopefully, when Season Two goes into production we have moved on and into better and more 'normal' times. Remember to keep supporting your local bars, restaurants, breweries and distilleries in these tough and emotional times. If you want to yell at Matt about his interviewing skills, or lack thereof, e-mail him at matt@simplisticreviews.net or if you want to leave a general comment or maybe even want to throw your two-cents onto the show, e-mail contact@simplisticreviews.net Show Notes Living Waters Brewing Black is Beautiful Beer Project

For this episode BJ is joined by Ryan McKay, the guitar player for the Louis Prima Jr. and the Witnesses and Kings of Dust, for a discussion about the history of the electric guitar and different styles and techniques.

Quotes"We certainly appreciate all of the physical distancing, the face coverings, and the acts that the community has done to slow the spread of COVID." - Ryan McKay, Thomas Jefferson Health District, May 8, 2020ResourcesCharlottesville Streaming Portal to watch May 8, 2020 TJHD Town Hall Donation page for CHS St. Baldrick's Foundation event for May 11, 2020

Fred Greenwood facebook live set // Quarantine week 2 1- # Je_me_lave_les_mains * artiste NA. Education Nationale 2ème génération YouTube 2- Fred Greenwood Maaximum experience remix intro edit ( exclusive ) 3- Julian Jeweils - Django 4- M. Rodriguez - Within The Shadows VS Armand Van Helden - you Dont Know Me matriça Rmx ( Fred Greenwood Mashup) 5- Julian Jeweils - Don’t Think 6 - Fred Greenwood mashup // Calculus - Color Block ( Julian Jeweil rmx vs Green Velvet La la land ) 7- Antoine Clamaran-Keep On (Dub Mix) 8- Aitor Ronda, Andres Campo - Mama Was A Drummer (Original Mix) 9- Fred Greenwood Mashup // Raumakustik - Raider vs Antoine Clamaran - Follow Me(Original Mix) 10- Rudosa - Descendants 11- Fred Greenwood Mashup // Roberto Capuano - The Walker vs I'm So Crazy (Armonica Remix) 12- Rebûke - Metal 13- Julian Jeweil Schema 14-Fred Greenwood mashup // Man whiteout hat vs id track 15- Fred Greenwood Mashup // Tori Amos &. Arman Van Helden - Professional Widow VS Rudosa -Activated 16- Fred Greenwood Mashup // DJ Rush, Eric Sneo - Take Me Back (Original Mix) (Original Mix) vs BAD GUY - Billie Eilish 17- HORATIO - KILLERCUT 18- Sinisa Tamamovic - Split Minds 19- Rebuke - Rattle 20- Fred Greenwood Mashup // Klaudia Gawlas - Time loop Julian Jeweil Rmx vs Green Velvet Flash eat everything rmx 21- Fred Greenwood Mashup PPK REssurection PLanet Perfecto. VS Andres Campos Stomper 22- Fred Greenwood Mashup Mozzy Rekorder, Luca Morris - Spellbound (Original Mix) vs Bleu Jeans Bleu - Vulnérable comme un bébé chat 23- Weska - EQ64 24- CamelPhat - DMT (Original Mix) 25- Ramon Tapia Sonic Therapy A-Sides 26- Wehbba - New Culture 27-Thomas Schumacher - Crimson 28- Fred Greenwood Mashup // Reform (IT) - Quartet vs Te Quiero Stromae 29- Pleasurekraft - Main Sequence 30- fred Greenwood Mashup // UMEK - Managing the Moments (Original Mix) vs Charles Aznavour La Boème 31- RADIO GA GA - Queen (Deborah De Luca Remix)(Original Mix) 32 -Fred Greenwood mashup // Joy Kitonki Energizer vs Ryan Mckay illusion 33- Ramiro Lopez feat. Juliet Fox - On Your Face 34- Fred Greenwood mashup 4 non blondes what’s going on vs Perc Gazelle Twin - Look What Your Love Has Done To Me (Original Mix) &. T78 - Megator (Original Mix) 35- Kwartz - Show Me That Light (Cleric Remix) 36-Fred Greenwood Mashup // T78, Superstrobe - Rattlor (2nd Mix) vs Yves Deruyter - Back To Earth (Rave Mix) 36- Fred Greenwood mashup // Frank Biazzi Siren. vs. Push Universal Nation. 37- Fred Greenwood mashup // Energie 52 - Café Del Mar vs Hierro - Assistance 38- Superstrobe feat. Paula P'Cay - Our Love (Feat. Paula P'Cay) 39- Underworld, Ø [Phase] - Border Country (Adam Beyer & Bart Skils Remix) (Adam Beyer & Bart Skils Remix) 40- T78, ROBPM - Acid Lick

This week on Melodics - we dive deep into the dark, melodic, beautiful, and powerful tracks across house & techno with your host Raskal. This week our 2nd Hour Guest Mix comes from Nhexis (ATL)First Hour Tracks from:Mario Ochoa, Ari El, Martin Books, Maxie Devine, Gary Beck, Jokasti Nek, Ryan McKay, Michael Klein, Jay Lumen, Matrixxman, Ignacio Arfeli, Martin K4rma, Salvatore Mediana, Murat Ugurlu, Abe Van Dam 2nd Hour Guest Mix Tracks from: Juan Batista, Dino Maggiorana, Julien Earle, Unknown Context, Dreian, Victor Ruiz, A*S*Y*S, Frank Arvonio, Domink Schewarz, Emanuele Millozzi, T78, Danny Fontana, Abyssvm, Teenage Mutants, Daniel Portman, Alberto Ruiz, Mittens, Hammerschmidt Follow Nhexis Here: https://soundcloud.com/nhexisofficialhttps://www.facebook.com/nhexisofficial As Always you can follow me everywhereRaskal - https://biglink.to/raskalsound

Six-Pack of Scorpions, Volume One On this Six-Pack episode, Ryan McKay from The Shabby Road Record Show and BJ Kramp of the Rock And/Or Roll podcast join Eric Miller of Pods & Sods to rock you like a... **here we are** ... rock you like a.... are you ready BAAA-BBEEEE?!?? We're culling together a dynamite Six-Pack of songs from all eras of the iconic German group - from the Uli days, thru the late 70s, thru both the early and late 80s, thru the 90s and beyond, we hit it all.  Additionally, Ryan gives us a nice comparison of Uli John Roth, Matthias Jabs, and Rudolf Schenker from a guitarist perspective and we each whip out some of our best Klaus impressions! So meet your girl, she's dressed to thrill, walk around to catch the thrill, and join us as we have some fun with a Six-Pack of The Scorps!

Everybody knows that podcasts ain't allowed in school. BJ is joined by Ryan McKay and A.D. Adams from The Shabby Road Record Show for a frank discussion about the debacle that is Theatre of Pain.

 “Well All right!” Part 2 of THE ELDER Round table! Join Ken Mills, Gary Shaller & Brian J Kramp are joined by Ryan McKay of the Shabby Road Podcast , Craig Smith of Pods & Sods along with Author Julian Gill. Special Thanks to Joseph Garris for keeping the Podcaster 2000 running! If you want […]

  Part 1 of THE ELDER Round table! Join Ken Mills, Gary Shaller & Brian J Kramp are joined by Ryan McKay of the Shabby Road Podcast , Craig Smith of Pods & Sods along with Author Julian Gill. Special Thanks to Joseph Garris for keeping the Podcaster 2000 running! Find Julian at www.kissfaq.com/podcast Get […]

SAMEPAGECAST with Megan and CraigDesert Island Party: The Seventies (with Ryan McKay) Thirty songs.  Ten years.  One desert island.  Ryan McKay (Shabby Road Record Show) ponders upon the possibility of getting stuck on that desert island with Megan and Craig and together they discuss the thirty songs they'll be stuck with - one from every year between 1970 and 1979.

I’m joined by Ryan McKay on this show to discuss Bruce’s 1978 record DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN. Ryan tells us about his Springsteen fandom and then we dig in deep on the backstory, give our thoughts, a song-by-song analysis, and reflections on… The post ep24 DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN album review appeared first on TRAMPS LIKE US.

Let him who hath understanding reckon the number of this episode, for it is a human number, its number is three, for this is the third episode in our series on Iron Maiden and this time around BJ is joined by Ryan McKay and A.D. Adams from The Shabby Road Record Show for an entertaining discussion about the band's third album The Number of the Beast.

Join us for a very special (and maybe even controversial) episode as Craig meets up with Sean Zloch in Illinois/Pods & Sods Studio West for a look at the catalog of Electric Light Orchestra.  Joining them remotely is Ryan McKay from Shabby Road Record Show, and as usual with these album by album episodes they will rate and review all of the albums included in the time range (with a bit of discussion about the albums falling outside of this timeline).

BJ is joined by special guests Ryan McKay & A.D. Adams, co-hosts of called The Shabby Road Record Show. The guys discuss how they became fans of the band & then the trio take a closer look at the Jekyl & Hyde aspects of the first 2 CT albums “Like” us on Face Book.http://www.facebook.com/groups/Cheaptalk/If you cannot see the audio controls, listen/download the audio file hereDownload (right click, save as)

BJ is joined by Ryan McKay and A.D. Adams from The Shabby Road Record Show for an unfiltered discussion about the elephant in the room of rock and roll: rock stars and their unabashed fondness for underage girls. 

Ryan McKay-Fleming is the co-founder and CTO of Chalk.com, a SaaS product that helps teachers with lesson planning, grading, assessment, and attendance. Links, Resources & People Mentioned Chalk.com React William Zhou Pete Koomen Optimizely Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to the podcast Leave a rating and review Follow Omer on Twitter Need help with your SaaS? Join SaaS Club Plus: our membership and community for new and early-stage SaaS founders. Join and get training & support. Join SaaS Club Launch: a 12-week group coaching program to help you get your SaaS from zero to your first $10K revenue. Apply for SaaS Club Accelerate: If you'd like to work directly with Omer 1:1, then request a free strategy session.

Ryan McKay-Fleming is the co-founder and CTO of Chalk.com, a SaaS product that helps teachers with lesson planning, grading, assessment, and attendance.Links, Resources & People MentionedChalk.comReactWilliam ZhouPete KoomenOptimizelyEnjoyed this episode?Subscribe to the podcastLeave a rating and reviewFollow Omer on TwitterNeed help with your SaaS?Join SaaS Club Plus: our membership and community for new and early-stage SaaS founders. Join and get training & support.Join SaaS Club Launch: a 12-week group coaching program to help you get your SaaS from zero to your first $10K revenue.Apply for SaaS Club Accelerate: If you'd like to work directly with Omer 1:1, then request a free strategy session.

Ryan McKay (from the illustrious Shabby Road Record Show podcast) joins Pods & Sods to share his stories of KISScovery! A fan since 1978, we talk about his reactions to seeing and hearing KISS for the first time, missing out on seeing the Creatures tour, seeing KISS unmasked on Radio 1990, finally seeing KISS with Uncle Ted in 1988, why Revenge wasn't really that good, why Carnival Of Souls was even worse, being an extra in the KISS Pepsi commercial, his favorite Ace moment as a guitarist, the worst album in the KISS catalog and much much more.

Someday (with Leslie Spencer and Ryan McKay)

Battle of the Podcast Allstars is a tournament that pits rock podcasters against each other to determine who is rock trivia king, hosted by Ken Pardo and moderated by Eric Miller of Pods and Sods. The final battle of round one features the three winners from round one: BJ from Rock and/or Roll, Ryan McKay from The Shabby Road Record Show and Randy W. Hall from That Dandy Classic Music Hour.

Battle of the Podcast Allstars is a rock trivia tournament between rock podcasters hosted by Ken Pardo and moderated by Eric Miller. On this episode Ryan McKay from The Shabby Road Record Show will battle Craig Cohen from Slycast and Zilch! The Monkees Podcast and Ken Mills from the PodKISSt and Cheap Talk. 

Like poor Rodney, KISS gets no respect. AD Adams & Ryan McKay from the Shabby Road Record Show Join Ken Mills & BJ Kramp to discuss songs from the KISS catalog that get no respect even among fans Check out  AD Adams & Ryan McKay at the Shabby Road Record Show http://www.shabbyroadrecordshow.com/ https://www.facebook.com/shabbyroadrecordshow?fref=ts Rate us on iTunes, […]

It's Shabby and/or Road! BJ is joined by Ryan McKay and A.D. Adams from a great podcast called The Shabby Road Record Show and together they turn the idea of the "Sophomore Slump" on its head by discussing bands' second albums which they think were better than the debut.

This week we bring you volume 17 of our Radio Sucks Radio Show series. If you're new to the show, it's basically us spinning some tracks, old and new, that we think you'll enjoy. Don't expect to hear the same singles that have been run into the ground by classic rock radio. Expect to hear deep cuts from great veteran bands as well as awesome new tracks that the radio guys in suits and ties continue to ignore.     This volume's selection includes classics from UFO, Sea Hags, D.A.D. and Legs Diamond along with brand new tracks from Rubicon Cross, California Breed and Rival Sons. Also featured are killer cuts from Kyng, Mutha's Day Out and Rearview Ghost.   Buy Music!  (click artist name to purchase via Amazon!)   Legs Diamond D.A.D. Sea Hags California Breed Rubicon Cross Rival Sons Kyng Rearview Ghost UFO Mutha's Day Out   Contact Us!   Rate, Review, and Subscribe in iTunes Join the Facebook Fan Page Follow on Twitter Follow on Instagram E-mail Us Call us on the Hotline! (540) DBGeek - 1 or (540) 324-3351 Support Us! Shop on Amazon!---------->>>>>>>>> (a percentage of sales from that link to the right goes back to supporting Decibel Geek!)   Stream Us!   Stitcher Radio Spreaker TuneIn     Comment Below   Geeks of the Week:  Facebook: Robert De Pasqua, Matt Syverson, Vic Baric, Spencer Wetmore, Wally Norton, Rodney Dickson, Brent Walter, Andrew Jacobs, Kal Hinz, Brad Kalmanson, Lee Maslin (Audio Junkies podcast), Derik Novak, Jason Thomas Broadrick, Darrell Millar, Billy Hardaway, Rob Strabley, Sit and Spin with Joe, Rich Dillon, Dori Evans, Kate Campbell, Hair Metal Mansion, Jodie Block, Metal Newz, Pitriff, Killer Dwarfs  Twitter: paddymackcomedy, HMMOfficial, Mitch Lafon, djnovak, JeffLudban, SupaDupaPoopaScoopa, musicmagsandwax, billyhalehardaway, tom, DonNitschke, Killer Dwarfs, Ryan McKay, Andrew Jacobs, Rainbow in the Dark, Russ Dwarf, Darrel Dwarf Millar, Pat McGuire, Mr. Gee, Sandy Willis, Nashville Metal Bands, Claire D. Direct Download

Frijoles Negros (Black Beans) - The classic side (along with rice) to many an enchilada, taco and quesadilla, is standard fair on most Mexican/Latin plates. In this rendition, we build a black bean recipe to stand up to the bold flavors of our beloved Mexican cuisine or all on its own. In this episode we discuss starch and sugars, carry over heat and the HULK! For more, including the recipe, please visit www.thefirehousechef.com.

Peach Cobbler - Georgia's crowning jewel, the Peach, is universal loved for it's tart skin and sweet, juicy flesh. Thinking of a way to capture that and deliver it in a compact, inexpensive way to the local firehouses brought me to the cobbler. In this episode we discuss crumbs, flying debris and gummy bears. For more, including the recipe, please visit www.thefirehousechef.com.

Chicken Enchiladas with Green Sauce - Let me take you to the rich, luscious world of the Enchilada. Topped with many a sauce, filled with many an ingredient, this Mexican tradition has found a home in many a firehouse and now your's. In this episode we discuss the color verde, freezing block cheese and that female firefighters are hungry too. For more, including the recipe, please visit www.thefirehousechef.com.

Vietnamese Noodles - This is a recreation of Asian Street food in a bowl with heavy Vietnamese influences. This cuisine reminds me of coming back from a morning of surfing in CA and eating at my friends house where authentic Vietnamese food was served from his mother. It is a light, fresh and inexpensive meal perfect for the firehouse and home. In this episode we discuss fermented anchovies, "lingering" crews in the kitchen and bodyboarding. For more, including the recipe, please visit www.thefirehousechef.com.

Grilled Naan Pizza - Naan bread is one of my favorite yeast concoctions to reach for when I want to have a vehicle to highlight all the summertime tomatoes. Pickling the tomatoes and adding hummus, basil, and balsamic vinegar only elevates this non-traditional "pizza". In this episode we discuss how to season a baking sheet, you can pickle more than a pickle and that every Firefighter has their favorite tool. For more information including the recipe, please visit www.thefirehousechef.com. Stay Hungry, My Friends!

Chicken Pesto Panini - A great hot, cheesy sandwich just in time for Father's day, the classic Panini, firehouse style! In this episode we discuss Bolillos, cast iron pans and chicken (it's what's for dinner). Happy Father's Day Dad! For more, visit www.thefirehousechef.com.

Panzanella - Bread getting stale? Throw it into a Italian salad and call it a Panzanella. In this episode I share with you my new house, that cheese needs to be in every salad and that you need to visit CA when you can. For more, please visit www.thefirehousechef.com

Apple Crisp - In this episode, I throw together a simple, quick and inexpensive Firehouse dessert, the Apple Crisp. We also discuss that sometimes the forbidden fruit is the best, that Dulce de Leche can be compared to liquid, hot magma and that recipes are never set in stone. For more, please visit www.thefirehousechef.com

Chicken Stock - You have nothing but the remains of a roasted chicken after the Super Bowl and don't know what to do with it... Let's save some money and make our own homemade Chicken Stock. In this episode we discuss what binds a Bouquet Garni, that not all spiders are evil and that broth and stock are not the same thing. For more, visit www.thefirehousechef.com

Christmas French Toast - December 25th, the big day where presents are opened while sitting around the Christmas tree, sipping on hot chocolate with Nat King Cole playing in the background... All that is missing is a great Firehouse breakfast, French Toast. In this episode, I show you that an inexpensive breakfast can still be luxurious, that which loaf you buy can be key, and that there are four major food groups (hint: we use one). For more, including the recipe, visit www.thefriehousechef.com.

College Food (Asian Noodle Soup) - Had some collegate followers throw down a challenge of making firehouse worthy dorm food so here's the response. In this episode, we discuss fermented anchovies, what Coriander is, and that once you graduate the only thing left to do is to pay for it. Visit www.thefirehousechef.com for the recipe and more.

Pumpkin Soup - Happy Halloween everyone! Let's make some Pumpkin Soup. I show that canned foods aren't always bad, soups are the best one pot meal and that Mint and Pumpkin really are a great combo. For more, visit www.thefirehousechef.com

Roast Chicken - Fall is in full swing in the South so what better way to usher in the new season then by roasting. In this episode, I show you how important brining is, how to flatten a chicken, and that you can cook the whole meal in one pot. For more, visit www.thefirehousechef.com.

Backyard Burgers - In this episode, we enjoy the waning days of summer and make some backyard burgers. We discuss what they are made of, how to make and cook them, and then top them with some of the homemade condiments from our previous episodes. For more, visit www.thefirehousechef.com.

Mustard - This is the second installment of my Condiment series. In this episode, I break down Mustard, demystify how to make it (and show how ridiculously easy it is to make it), and then throw together the classic Honey Mustard Vinaigrette. For more, visit www.thefirehousechef.com

Mayonnaise. In this episode we discuss what Mayo is, how to make it (with a whisk no less), and how to spice it up (Aioli). This is part one of the Condiment Series. For more visit thefirehousechef.com

Chips and Tortillas. We continue with Part 2 of Butter of the Gods (AKA- Avocado) with the exploration into the world of Masa Harina. Join me as I make fresh corn tortillas, fresh corn chips, and spiced up store brand chips. For more, visit www.thefirehousechef.com

Avocados (AKA: Butter of the Gods). In this episode, we learn about the most wonderful Mexican fruit, the avocado. I present it's most classic presentation, Guacamole, and offer a chance to learn alternative recipes. This is part 1 of 2. For more, visit www.thefirehousechef.com.

Memorial Day Salad, er, Salsa, or Pico de Gallo? I tackle the Black Bean and Roasted Corn salad you saw from the last episode per your requests. For more, visit www.thefirehousechef.com for more.

Garlic (Part 2) - What is garlic, how to shop for, use, and consume the most important vegetable in the culinary world. Visit www.firehousechef.com for more.

Garlic (Part 1) - What is garlic, how to shop for, use, and consume the most important vegetable in the culinary world. Visit www.firehousechef.com for more.