The week in review
Least neighborly: Crozet residents pack the September 14 meeting of the Albemarle Board of Supervisors to beseech the board to reject Old Trail Village, a mixed use development packed with 2,000 residences and retail. The supes, however, approve the project, the poster child for the "neighborhood model," 5-0.
Most neighborly (in a way): Former Tyco finance chief Mark Swartz (along with CEO Dennis Kozlowski) is sentenced to 8.33 to 25 years for stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the company. Swartz once held the record for paying the most for a piece of Albemarle, but his $17 million purchase of Enniscorthy was eclipsed this year by the $24 million paid for Castle Hill.
Latest growth watchdogs: A new group, Charlottesville Tomorrow, launches on September 15. Headed by Albemarle School Board member Brian Wheeler, its board includes Renee Grisham, real estate company owner Steve McLean, and Southern Environmental Law director Rick Middleton.
Least susceptible to Charlottesville Tomorrow's "sensible growth" agenda: Republican Board of Supervisor's candidate Christian Schoenewald, who declines to provide a biography for the group's website, saying he will provide one only for traditional media outlets and groups that either have endorsed him or that he endorses.
Best contribution to the fight against McMansionvilles: An anonymous donor gives $10,000 to Albemarle's Acquisition of Conservation Easements (ACE) fund, a program that buys rural parcels to save them from development.
Least amusing mailing: Albemarle General District Court is evacuated September 14 when a clerk opens a letter containing a powdery white substance. Six employees have to go through quarantine and decontamination showers in front of the courthouse, Kate Andrews reports in the Daily Progress.
Latest alleged Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail sex crime: An officer, John Wayne Carter, 35, of Nellysford, is charged with carnal knowledge of an inmate, a class 6 felony, in an alleged August 20 incident.
Most troubling disappearance: VCU freshman Taylor Behl, 17, has been missing since she left her dorm room at 10:30pm Labor Day.
Biggest disappointment for snowbirds: Delta tables its plans for direct flights from Charlottesville to Orlando the day the carrier– and Northwest– file for bankruptcy protection, according to David Hendrick in the Progress.
Best chance to catch Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day 's author: Judith Viorst is scheduled to speak at the typically sold-out Virginia Festival of the Book luncheon March 23.
Faster than Rolling Stones tickets: Book Fest luncheon tickets, which went on sale September 21, usually sell out in an instant.
Best "How do you like them apples?": Covesville, now on the National Register of Historic Places, gets approval for a historic marker commemorating its contribution to the late 19th-century apple industry. And Hook art editor Laura Parsons pens a story in the new issue of Virginia Living on the Albemarle Pippin.
Best news for local animal rights activists: Convicted dogfighter Davey Mundie is sentenced to 18-months in jail and forced to pay $7,500 in restitution to the Charlottesville Albemarle SPCA, Liesel Nowak reports in the Progress.
Worst dump: Up to 47 million gallons of liquid may have filled below-ground pockets at the Ivy Landfill and could cost millions to remediate, according to the DP's John Yellig.
Worst day for tragic accidents: Monday, September 19, when 28-year-old Ginger Lynn McCain is killed at the intersection of Route 29 and Austin Road. That same afternoon, 60-year-old James Ronald Christian of Buckingham County dies when his car is struck by a tractor-trailer at the intersection of Routes 15 and 672, according to police reports.