4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Loudest screams from Scott Stadium: Big donors get the best seats and parking starting in 2008, Jerry Ratcliffe reports in the Daily Progress. UVA gives the $500-a-year contributors one last season to say good-bye to their sweet seats before turning them over to the high rollers.
Worst erosion of the Charlottesville School Board: Besides only two declared candidates for four empty seats– incumbent Alvin Edwards and professional business cartoonist Grant Brownrigg– at press time, current member Louis Bograd cuts short his term and resigns effective July 11 because his wife has a new job and they're moving to Kentucky.
Biggest reward: The parents of 27-year-old Justine Abshire, a Barboursville kindergarten teacher who died in an apparent hit-and-run November 3, have upped a reward for information leading to their daughter's killer from $10,000 to $50,000.
Biggest potential NIMBY project: Albemarle police want their own $2.3 million shooting range, and say they've been put on probation at the Rivanna Rifle and Pistol Club, Rob Seal reports in the Progress. Rivanna president David Durrer couldn't recall police ever being on probation, but Chief John Miller says the threat of probation and usage restrictions warrant the taxpayer expenditure.
Worst hit to local veterans: The VFW Hall on River Road is robbed May 15 as burglars do $1,000 worth of damage and abscond with a power washer and $300 in other goods.
Most endorsements: Presidential hopeful John Edwards garners support from Mayor David Brown, former Dem chair Lloyd Snook, and Albemarle Democratic chair Fred Hudson.
Most fireworks: UVA athletics department sponsors pyrotechnics after the May 12 baseball game and moves the game start time up to avoid keeping cranky neighbors up, promising to cancel the display if the game goes into extra innings and isn't over by 9:50pm.
Best way to be remembered: Outgoing Curry dean David Breneman will have a courtyard named for him, courtesy of large-donor Daniel Meyer, who will match up to $1 million for the space connecting Bavaro Hall, the education school's new facility, with existing Ruffner Hall.
Latest med school dean: Pediatric doc Sharon L. Hostler is named interim dean of UVA's School of Medicine, succeeding Tim Garson, who takes on the provost job July 1.
Priciest chest: Auction house Harlowe-Powell sells a 17-inch-high chest for $134,000 from the estate of Eudora Bolling, who lived in the oldest house in Albemarle, according to the Maine Antique Digest. Harlowe-Powell had expected the early 19th-century piece to fetch between $4,000 and $8,000 at the March 31 auction.
Best get: Thomas Jefferson is the commencement speaker for PVCC's May 11 graduation ceremony– or rather, his great grandson, Rob Coles, delivers the speech.
Most conflicted: Kyle Long, one of the most sought-after high school football prospects in the country, and son of Howie and brother of Chris, is torn between baseball and football, and according to the Daily Progress, the St. Anne's-Belfield junior has signed on to play baseball at Florida State– which also wanted him to play football.
Most in need of a new slogan: Now that Frommer's has downgraded Charlottesville from number 1 to 17, the city's website, which used to boast "The best place to live in America," now says, "A great place to live for all of our citizens."
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