Part of a presentation to Albemarle planners.
FOREST LODGE LLC

With at least part of its $34 million loan already declared in “early stage delinquency” by the lead lender, Biscuit Run’s conversion to a state park may leave several banks with millions in losses.

In a November 6 federal filing, Bluefield-based First Community Bank notified its shareholders of the potentially massive problem but assured them that the loan was “adequately secured” by a “large tract of undeveloped land in Virginia.”

What First Community may not have counted on was Governor Tim Kaine’s eagerness to add new parkland or on the generosity of Biscuit Run owner Forest Lodge LLC, a consortium publicly headed by Hunter Craig.

Craig spent several years before County staff winning the right to eventually develop 3,100 homes on the 1,200-acre tract in southern Albemarle. On December 30, however, Craig’s group sold the land to (more)

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Carmike moviegoers got a chilly surprise at a Christmas Day screening of Avatar.
PUBLICITY PHOTO

Avatar may be known for its cutting edge special effects, but some moviegoers catching James Cameron’s latest blockbuster at Carmike 6 on Christmas Day– less than a week after the so-called Snowpocalypse– experienced a not-so-special effect: a partially collapsed ceiling that dumped cold water on at least one unsuspecting patron.

“We heard a weird sound,” says Jason Coleman, who’d taken his two kids to see the 4:30pm show after the 3:30 screening was cancelled due to problems with a sound system. At first, Coleman says, they attributed the noise to poor theater etiquette.

“We thought it was some guy being loud eating a few rows behind us,” he says. “Then we noticed water coming in.”

It wasn’t long before the leak turned into a bigger problem.

“That roof,” says Coleman, “opened up and poured like a giant bucket on people.”

Just 40 minutes into the nearly three-hour movie, Coleman says, he and his 10-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter, accompanied by a friend and his son, immediately left– as did everyone else in the theater. (more)

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Thomas Jefferson measured 36 inches of snow in 1772.
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

It’s official: The snowfall that began wreaking havoc on Charlottesville and Albemarle County December 18-19 measures 20.5 inches and ranks as the area’s fourth deepest since McCormick Observatory began keeping records in 1894.

“This is the biggest single snowfall event that has occurred before the end of December,” says Jerry Stenger, director of UVA’s climatology office. “It should guarantee a white Christmas.” Just a few weeks ago Stenger put the odds of a white Christmas at one in three.

The recent storm comes in first on the list for this millennium and would have been number three overall were it not barely edged out by the 21-incher that launched the brutal winter of ‘96 and brought 14 more inches of snow a month later. (more)

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The Buckingham Branch (CSX) tracks near an Ivy-area crossing Saturday morning.
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

Same spot, but looking in the opposite direction on Tuesday morning.
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

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Christmas Eve update: This morning, the Northeast Regional departed 7 minutes late but arrived on time in Washington; the Crescent departed 2 minutes late but arrived 28 minutes early.

Since the Hook provided a slideshow of the popular 8:49am Northeast Regional train’s nearly on-time departure on Monday, it seems only fair to follow up with few less sunny details.

First, not only was the 7:20am Crescent booked up on Monday, it was running 5 hours and 37 minutes late into Washington.

On Tuesday, the Crescent was canceled; the Northeast Regional was 58 minutes late into Washington.

Today, Wednesday, the Crescent was 2 hours and 45 minutes late to D.C. By that standard, the NE Regional’s 1 hour, 20-minute late arrival was looking good.

How about the Cardinal, the train that runs east and west? The Chicago-originating train never made it to (more)

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Unwilling to battle the snow left unshoveled by artists, a pedestrian braves Market Street at 1:21pm Tuesday.
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

“Wouldn’t it be great,” says pedestrian advocate Kevin Cox, “if people could say, ‘I got to work because the sidewalks are clear and the buses are running.”

Alas, what’s bad for Cox is good news for those who got a pass from the Charlottesville ordinance that normally punishes those who haven’t cleared the sidewalks along their property.

The list of apparent no-shovelers included such notables as film director and homeless center creator Tom Shadyac, Albemarle Administrator Bob Tucker, whose County Office Building sidewalks were strewn with snow, City Public Works Director Judy Mueller, who oversees the snow-blocked city streets and medians, and even the artists of McGuffey Art Center— originally lauded online but who left their Market Street sidewalk untouched.

And that’s just what was obvious Tuesday, December 22 on a jaunt from the Downtown Mall to Bodo’s Bagel Bakery, which also seems to belong on the list.

City code requires all property owners to shovel adjoining sidewalks by noon after a snowfall, and Cox— well-known for (more)

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Over 200 climbed aboard Monday. Click for a SLIDESHOW
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

Dozens of folks were wheeling luggage along snowy Main Street Monday morning and then falling or climbing down the large staircase to the Amtrak station, so a reporter went by to see what was up. The train inaugurated on October 1, the Northeast Regional, had been canceled the previous day due to some sort of problem confronting its origination, Lynchburg, said a person familiar with the situation, so there were travelers particularly eager to get moving.

“I’m a regular,” said Russ Perry, who strolled up to the counter just 10 minutes before the 8:49am departure time to buy a ticket. He prefers Train #20, the Crescent, which heads north an hour and a half earlier, to commute to his job running a 200-person architecture and engineering firm in Washington; but the Crescent was all booked up.

Across the crowded waiting room, Christy Strick was glad the train was on time, as she’d just spent two nights in a hotel when she couldn’t get back home to Crozet, and she didn’t want to do that again. She was eagerly (more)

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7:49am Tuesday near Emmet on Ivy Road, where the path is still snow and ice.
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

The following is an 8am update of some of the major roads in the area using the “Blackometer,” the Hook’s estimate of the percentage of black asphalt available on key local roads:

• Route 29, South of City - 70%
• Route 29, North of the City: 95%
• Route 250W, Ivy to 29/250 - 80%
• Route 250W, 29/250 to Emmet - 20% and bumpy (c’mon, city crews)
• Emmet Street - 80%
• Main Street - 80%
• Rugby Road - 50%
• Grady Avenue - 60% (but 1.5-lanes in spots)
• Preston Avenue - 80%
• Market Street - 80%
• Barracks Road - 90%
• Old Lynchburg Road - sorry, but we’re not going back there again

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Route 53– the main connection b/w Charlottesville and Fluvanna’s Lake Monticello remains closed.
VDOT WEBSITE

5:30am Tuesday update: the Newsplex reported yesterday afternoon that car-strewn Route 53 has finally reopened, yet eastbound Hydraulic Road near K-Mart has been closed due to icy conditions. (The Hookmobile drove several miles down Rt. 53 at 3pm yesterday to Simeon, but turned around in utter frustration because the lead vehicle in a four-car snake— a dark green Ford truck— refused to go over 15mph despite a “blackometer” level of about 70%.)

Orig. story: Crews are slowly extracting the dozens of abandoned cars along Route 53, southeast of Charlottesville as the Christmas Snowpocalypse enters day four of non-stop, non-stick mayhem.

The Hookmobile went out Monday morning for another tour of Charlottesville and environs. This slideshow shows what we found.

Also, this is the noontime Hook “Blackometer,” the percentage of black asphalt available on a few given streets:
• Route 250W/Ivy Road - 5%
• Emmet Street - 60%
• Main Street - 20%
• Rugby Road - 30%
• Market Street - 40%
• Barracks Road - 50%
• Route 29 South - 60%
• Old Lynchburg Road - 0.00%

Please note that these estimates may change as the day’s sunshine heats up the pavement. And authorities caution nighttime drivers that daytime’s snowmelt can create nighttime’s hazardous black ice.

Archive:
• Saturday’s slideshow
• Sunday’s slideshow

—original headline: “Still closed: Route 53 a mess; so’s everything else”
—second headline misstated closing party’s name: “53’s opened: But now VDOT’s slammed Hydraulic shut”

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A stuck truck, Saturday morning on 29 southbound.
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

2:59pm update: new slideshow from Western Albemarle. (previous slideshow).

According to a new release from Albemarle County spokesperson Lee Catlin sent a few minutes before noon, officials allege that Route 29 South— utterly closed since early moments of the snow storm Friday— is now open for its entire length into Nelson County, but Catlin’s release warns that conditions are still very challenging and residents are discouraged from driving “except when absolutely necessary.”

At some point, people will start asking why Central Virginia’s major north-south thoroughfare— a road so important that millions of dollars have been spent studying ways to make its traffic move faster— could have closed when just three inches had fallen and then stayed closed for more than a day and a half.

“We’ll look at this incident as well as everything else that happened during the storm once we get through it,” says VDOT spokesperson Lou Hatter. “Right now we’re trying to get the roads open.”

Hatter says he knows of no other Charlottesville area primary road that remains closed, though he notes that Interstate 81 has had some blockages southwest of here.

As previously reported, the Route 29 stoppage created a multi-mile queue that induced snow-capable cars to turn around but left other cars and practically all  truckers trapped.

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Ivy Road Saturday near Ednam at 9:37am.
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

The two Charlottesville-area shelters have nearly 100 people holed up inside, according to a morning release from Albemarle County spokesperson Lee Catlin, who estimates approximately 45 people at UVA’s Aquatics and Fitness Center and another 50 at the North Garden Fire Department.

Meanwhile, Route 29 South remains a disaster with cars still getting stuck and rescue workers extricating drivers, according to Catlin.

Although the sun is shining, temperatures are still below freezing, and although most primary roads are “passable” according to Catlin, secondary roads remain “treacherous.”

With thousands without power and many trapped at home, the National Guard has removed several people with medical emergencies from their homes, while officials have renewed their plea for four wheel drive vehicles to help move stranded motorists and emergency and healthcare workers. Volunteers should call 434-979-INFO.

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