Postcards from the Hedge

"It's back," says Roger Voisinet, noting that solar energy systems, which had a Carter-era heyday, have recently enjoyed a rebirth due to a new wave of federal tax credits, grants, and utility buy-backs. Here, Voisinet checks out the Free Union house where he installed the pair of center panels for a thermal– i.e. hot water– solar system back in 1981. He returned in July of this year to install the 22-panel photovoltaic system near the roof peak. "It's really cool," says Voisinet, "when you see the electric meter spinning backwards."

Waterless plumbing

PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

Modern low-volume toilets with their 1.6 gallons per flush have been flushed aside by dual-flush toilets which use as little as a gallon, but in the ongoing war on water waste, a new player has arrived. "When I first got here," says Jim Principi, the new GM of the Charlottesville Radio Group, "I said what the heck is that?" The man who oversees 3WV, the Corner, WVAX, and WINA just found himself brushing up against a stakes-raising device manufactured by Sloan: the waterless urinal. It has a sealed cartridge at the base to let liquid through and keep odor out. If each man makes four visits per day, that's 1,000 flushes– or at least 1,000 gallons of water per year saved for each male employee. And you don't have to be a math whiz to appreciate that.

Stilling the waters

PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

Stream health experts say that velocity of water is the key culprit in degrading the aquatic life of streams. By scouring dirt off the sides, it erodes banks and swirls up life-killing sediments. UVA has helped lead the way in recent years toward fixing the problem by daylighting formerly culvertized creeks. And now that UVA is building a 50-bed long term acute care hospital, or LTACH, on Ivy Road alongside Volvo of Charlottesville, it has created this nascent stormwater and bio-retention pond– which will eventually be filled with native plants– photographed back in May. "You're not getting a bunch of mud going all over the place," says project manager Gary Lowe. "It will give time for everything to settle out properly."

Controversies in green-ville

PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

In May 2008, the City of Charlottesville planted its "green roof," a living and breathing replacement for a 15-year-old roof it claims needed replacement anyway, so City officials like to downplay the $472,000 total project cost and focus only on the premium for adding the green systems: $59,000. Likewise, the County of Albemarle did a green roof that won a $37,000 grant from the Department of Conservation and Recreation.  The County then matched an additional $38,056 for a total of $75,056– again not counting the six-figure sum to rip off and replace the old weather barriers. If they're right, then the heating and cooling savings from having such a barrier might quickly pay dividends. However, a new controversy blooms: the City and County just won a private $500,000 grant in August plus a federal stimulus grant of $255,000 to create an energy audit business of sorts. Supervisor Ken Boyd has publicly scoffed at the claim that LEAP, the Local Energy Alliance Program, which will include a revolving loan fund, can possibly create the 1,500 jobs that backers claim.

The bike commute

PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

Rob Schilling hadn't owned a bike in 30 years. But last year the iconoclastic conservative radio talk-show host got fed up with high prices and decided to reach back to his peddling roots. Now, he bikes the approximately two-mile journey from his north Charlottesville home to the AM 1070 WINA studios on Rose Hill Drive. And unlike many bikers who fight a daily battle with motor vehicles, Schilling has found a route that keeps him almost exclusively inside McIntire Park and on quiet neighborhood streets. So now he's a veritable bike-commuter. "As often as the weather allows," enthuses Schilling, photographed September 16 at ride's end. "It pumps me up for the show, and it's my main source of exercise."

The veg dude

PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

"It's delicious," says Brett Wilson, owner/operator of the area's biggest subscription food plan. "We get the best produce within 100 miles of Charlottesville from the best local farmers and get it to good local folks." The gregarious, overall-sporting vegetable purveyor got his start in 2006 after pressing scads of apples from a doomed orchard the previous fall. Today, his Horse & Buggy Produce counts 800 subscribers gathering goods from nine drop points–- including new ones in Richmond and Lynchburg. Instead of building stores, he keeps his carbon footprint small by setting up tables in parking lots with excess capacity. But because Wilson buys his produce (from myriad organic and nearly-organic suppliers, he declines to term his service a "CSA." In the local food movement, CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture, is the big buzzword, but it also typically comes with a big buzz-kill: a work requirement for subscribers, something that's not part of Horse & Buggy. Whatever the category, customer enthusiasm can run high. "It has saved me money," says Richmond subscriber Cecelia Horner. "You get stuff that goes together. And it's absolutely super-delicious."

293-3832 horseandbuggyproduce.com (Two others in the area: bestofwhatsaround.org 286-7255 and appalachiastar.com 277-9304 )

Toilet rebates etc.

PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

City Hall is giving out free water-thrifty toilets, and the County is lower water rates to thrifty users! It's all part of a concerted effort to help trim consumption of the precious beverage. In fact, both the City and County will reimburse homes and businesses up to $100 each (which is all some toilets cost) for installing a low-flow toilet, such as the dual-flush model shown here at the Hook office (Al Hamraa restaurant has one too, and surely there are others around town.) As for the new rates the County enacted, they charge the wholesale water rate for a single-family dwellng's first 3,000 monthly gallons. That's below the County's actual cost, but from there the price begins spiking: to 2x wholesale for the next 3,000 gallons, 3x wholesale for the next 3,000, and a top rate of 4x wholesale for all use over 9,000 gallons. The City of Charlottesville hasn't yet followed suit, but even before the County took this bold action July 1, water consumption across both jurisdictions had already fallen 22 percent over the past decade.

Dry cleaning greenies

PHOTO BY DAVE MCNAIR

Ty Cooper and Quinton Harrell opened EcoDry Cleaners on West Main Street last May. Harrell has the business in his genes, as he says his late grandmother was in dry-cleaning for 30 years. But as Cooper points out, they didn't want to work around the harsh chemicals that are used at most traditional dry-cleaners. Instead, their special machines use CO2 to clean your clothes, what they call the "green way to dry clean."  

Out to pasture

FILE PHOTO BY DAVE MCNAIR

Since 2005, when the 2,300-acre Bundoran Farm on 29 South was purchased (for a whopping $33 million) by Qroe Farm Preservation Development, the developers have sought to make it a model of rural land stewardship. For example, rather than cutting it up into 21-acre lots as County ordinances allow, over 90 percent of the land will remain untouched. This includes 1,000 acres of pasture for livestock, 200 acres of apple orchards, 1,000 acres of managed forest, fifteen miles of walking and riding trails, and two ponds. The plan is to send the money paid by land-leasing farmers to the homeowners' association, which will in turn safeguard the land for farming. Bundoran's development director Joe Barnes says the vision is three-fold: to preserve agricultural land, enable on-going environmental stewardship, and allow folks to live on a farm without the headache of having to manage one.  

Reuse for Moon-Henderson

FILE PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

In June, ex-scrap yard owner and Board of Architectural Review member Preston Coiner purchased the Moon-Henderson House, a circa-1883 structure at 10 1/2 Street NW, and one of the few remnants of a once thriving African-American neighborhood along West Main. Former owner Bill Chapman had wanted to demolish the building last year, but the BAR denied the request. Unlike Chapman, the former BAR member thought he could restore the property. But, as Chapman pointed out, won't it be expensive? "It might be," Coiner laughs. "I'm very happy that the property was sold to someone who is protecting and rehabilitating the building," said City Preservation Planner Mary Joy Scala. "Preston is a real hero."

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