Charlottesville native manages Ft. Myers
Former local William “Billy” Mitchell has been hired as the first full-time city manager for Ft. Myers, Florida. Mitchell, who graduated from Burley High School in 1966, worked as assistant city manager in Charlottesville before taking municipal positions in Chesapeake and Newport News. He has a B.S. from Tennessee State, and a master’s in public administration from UVA. His wife, Camilla, is also a native who graduated from Lane High in 1968, according Mitchell’s classmate, Bonnie Johnson. (1)

Snap o' the day: Western State goes condo
Phase one of the Villages of Staunton, formerly Western State Hospital and later Staunton Correctional Institute, has been completed. Condominiums are for sale in the 1839 building known as the Bindery, and renovation at the 45,000-square-foot Wheary Office Building, pictured, is underway. (9)

Sparky's Flaw makes Rose Bowl telecast
In 2007, the Hook predicted Sparky’s Flaw would be the next big thing to come out of the Charlottesville music scene, and now 2008 has begun with an auspicious sign for the quartet. As ABC cut to commercial at the end of the third quarter of the Rose Bowl, highlights of the game between Southern Cal and Illinois played over Sparky’s Flaw’s “The New Year,” a track from the band’s recently released EP. The band signed with Mercury Records in the fall, and frontman Will Anderson expects his group’s major label debut to come out this year. Jan. 2 update: It appears Sparky’s Flaw has added a member since the fall. Lead guitarist and UVA fourth year Nate McFarland now rounds out the new five-man lineup according to the band’s website. (0)

Last-minute kick drops Cavs in Gator Bowl
The University of Virginia Cavaliers, whose fans didn’t chomp tickets as fast as hoped, lost to Texas Tech 31-28 today after a last-minute field goal defeated the Wahoos in Jacksonville, according to the AP. (5)

Pitt: Help me, Bill McDonough
Famous actor Brad Pitt has invited famous Charlottesville architect William McDonough to help him “make it right.” That’s the name of Pitt’s effort to repopulate New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward, the impoverished below-sea-level neighborhood devastated two years ago by Hurricane Katrina. Pitt has enlisted McDonough, along with other leading “green” architects, to prove his premise that hurricane-proof housing can be built with Crescent City flavor for under $150,000. The New York Times has this story. # (3)