Less than three years after McGuffey Park received a controversial $700,000 make-over, work has commenced on a $75,000 repair job to correct several design flaws with what was promised to be a “world class” park.

For decades, sleepy little McGuffey Park sat at the top of Beck’s Hill relatively undisturbed, its trees lush, its shade plentiful, its play equipment vintage but serviceable; but ever since the extensive 2007 renovation, the park, which gave up 13 mature trees in the process, appears to have rejected the change.

According to city parks and rec director Brian Daly, play equipment has deteriorated, a faulty drainage system has turned the entrance stairways into waterfalls during rain storms; and new trees, grass, and shrubs have simply refused to grow.

“We have had a very hard time keeping things alive without irrigation,” says Daly.

Supporters of the park’s renovation, namely a group called Friends of McGuffey Park, a trio of Downtown moms who sold the idea to city planners and raised over over $279,000 in (more)

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Fairfax Deputy Police Chief Steve Sellers will be the next Albemarle County Police chief, county exec Bob Tucker announced Monday..

Sellers, a 28-year-veteran of the Fairfax County, has led the investigations division for Fairfax including heading a task force that successfully investigated snipers John Mohammed and Lee Malvo, who terrorized Northern Virginia in 2002.

Sellers succeeds John Miller, who retired September 30 after 21 years as chief.

“We are very happy to bring someone of Steve Sellers’ caliber,” says Tucker in a release.

Sellers, 49, says he’s wanted to be in law enforcement since he was five years old. He got both his B.A. in business administration and master’s in public administration at Virginia Tech. He’s also a graduate of the FBI National Academy.

Although the population of Fairfax recently topped the one million mark (to Albemarle’s less than 100,000), Sellers says Albemarle and Fairfax share similar demographics as far as an educated population. The two jurisdictions also face similar crime trends, economic uncertainty, and traffic issues.

“There’s a lot,” he says, “I can transfer from Fairfax.”

In November, two of Albemarle’s six supervisors said that personal integrity would be an important quality they’d seek in a new chief. Earlier this year, in March, four officers were disciplined for unspecified “inappropriate” behavior “while on the clock.”

“I don’t support or condone any behavior that erodes the public trust,” says Sellers. “I have 28 years with a highly regarded, ethically sound police department. Truthfulness is an absolute must. Truthfulness, integrity, and public trust are very high on the list.”

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After a four-month job search that drew over 80 applicants from all over the country, City Council went with the tried and true and picked Maurice Jones, the acting city manager, to become Charlottesville’s CEO.

Former NBC29 sports reporter Jones has spent much of his career at City Hall, starting as director of communications in the late ’90s, a position he held for six years. After a stint at the Miller Center, where he served as director of development, Jones came back to Charlottesville as assistant city manager under Gary O’Connell, who left the city manager slot open earlier this year when he took a job with the Albemarle County Service Authority.

Although speculation swirled that Jones was the top pick earlier this week, it wasn’t until Friday that the city officially announced that Jones will take the $170K-a-year position.

How big a role did being ensconced (more)

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Earlier this month, Walmart announced it was donating $755,000 to 12 Virginia non-profits through the super-store’s  State Giving Program. Well, $45,000 of it landed in the lap of Meals on Wheels of Charlottesville/Albemarle, which delivers 180 to 200 hot, prepared lunch-time meals to the homebound every day Monday through Friday, courtesy of a local volunteer force of nearly 200.

“We are so grateful to the Walmart Foundation for this generous grant,” says Meals on Wheels public relations director Dawn Grzegorczyk. “With this generous gift, Meals on Wheels can continue our work to fulfill our mission of providing hot meals and friendly hellos to all those in our community who need them, regardless of ability to pay.”

Grzegorczyk says the money has already been earmarked to purchase meals for Charlottesville residents in public housing who are both unable to prepare their own meals and unable to pay even a nominal fee for the meals they do receive.

“This grant will cover the cost of one full year of hot, home-delivered meals for 32 Charlottesville city residents who depend daily on Meals on Wheels for both food and social interaction,” says Grzegorczyk.

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Charlottesville writer Kathryn Erskine now possesses one of the most prestigious literary awards in the country: the 2010 National Book Award in young people’s literature for her book, Mockingbird.

Erskine was one of 20 finalists at the awards dinner at Cipriani Wall Street last night in New York. Also in the winners’ circle was singer Patti Smith in nonfiction for her memoir, Just Kids, about her youth in New York in the ’60s with her buddy, photographer Robert Mapplethorpe; Jaimy Gordon in fiction for Lord of Misrule, and Terrance Hayes in poetry for Lighthead.

Richmond native Tom Wolfe (more)

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“My uncles, my grandfather, me sat out here on the Downtown Mall,” says lifelong wreath-maker Sandy Cason, as he points out the boxwood, the tezzle, and the deer berry he collects to make his holiday creations at the farmer’s market founded by his father and brothers. But he won’t be there this year. He’s been banned.

“They have a personal vendetta against me,” declares Sandy Cason. “They don’t like me because I’m boisterous.”

Cason admits he told the assistant market manager to “go to hell” November 13 when discussing the fact that an anonymous jury had passed him over this season.

How did it happen that a scion of the Cason brothers— George, Jack, Billy, and Sandy’s father, Ezra, who founded the popular Charlottesville institution, the City Market— came to be black-balled?

According to Cason, he first drew the wrath of City Market management in late October when he lambasted a woman driving the wrong way down one-way South Street.

“Do you always do stupid things like that?” he concedes he said when she pulled into the market’s lot, and that remark led her to “cuss” him. Market manager Stephanie Anderegg-Maloy and her assistant, Lucy Lamm, asked (more)

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It looks like Amtrak parking lot owners Gabe Silverman and Alan Cadgene have finally begun taking steps to pave the pot-holed dirt and gravel Amtrak station parking lot they own, which some West Main business owners say has become a health hazard to customers because of the dust.

Silverman has been publicly promising to pave the Amtrak parking lot at least since 2004, when he proclaimed it “was going to happen.” In January this year, Neighborhood development chief Jim Tolbert told the Hook that Silverman and Cadgene had told him they were going to pave the lot “as soon as the weather is appropriate.”

Eight months later, some West Main business owners have decided that it’s been bad behavior, not bad weather, that’s left the parking lot unpaved. For instance, Maya restaurant owner and Midtown Association member Peter Castiglione called the lot a “blight” on the neighborhood. Indeed, as an early morning photograph taken by the Hook shows, the dust from the lot can nearly block out the view of West Main. Along with several other business owners, Castiglione finally decided to talk about a lawsuit against Cadgene and Silverman to get them to finally do something about their dust. Not to mention the sizable potholes that have plagued the lot.

Apparently, Castiglione got the duo’s attention. He says that Cadgene suddenly promised to treat the parking lot with a product called Durasoil, a synthetic-organic fluid that controls road dust. Preparation for the Durasoil began on the morning of Tuesday, November 2.

“They have been very responsive since our lawyer (more)

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The last time Barack Obama came to the Pavilion on the Downtown Mall he set an attendance record for the facility. And he was just a candidate for President.  This time, as President, his visit could turn the Downtown Mall upside down.

(The County has also issued traffic advisory concerning the President’s route from the airport to the Downtown Mall.  The information is at the bottom of this post)

Indeed, as the following list of street closures and restrictions indicate, it’s going to be a challenge to get to see the President (Arrive early!).

Several streets will be closed during the visit, and pedestrian and vehicle access may be restricted to accommodate the security needs of the Secret Service. The majority of closures will occur between 6:30pm and 9pm. Most notably, the area typically used for Pavilion events by pedestrians will be closed at 2pm. (more)

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For decades, “Protect the rural areas” has been the veritable mantra of the Albemarle Board of Supervisors. That spirit has helped anyone driving on U.S. 250 west of Charlottesville view grazing cows instead of the clustered subdivisions that been popping up around Crozet, a designated growth area. But sometimes the ideals of the Comprehensive Plan collide with reality.

Take, for instance, the strip of U.S. 250 between Western Albemarle High and Interstate 64. Long dotted with commerce, it includes gas stations, an auto body shop, a chain-fenced equipment storage yard, the Moose Lodge, and a lumber mill. And yet it’s zoned rural.

That’s why when Will Yancey tried to a build a light industrial park behind the heavy industrial R.A. Yancey Lumber site two years ago, he (more)

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You’ve seen photos of giant check presentations, but that shot wasn’t available at a recent Jefferson School event because the $850,000 heralded for the African-American Heritage Cultural Center hasn’t exactly landed in anyone’s happy hands. The appropriation has passed a House of Representatives subcommittee, and while it’s expected to pass the full House, it’s still got to get through the U.S. Senate.

Despite that uncertainty, several dozen Jefferson School alumni and supporters showed up October 19 to celebrate with Congressman Tom Perriello, who has been pushing the appropriation.

Martin Burks, president of the private citizen-owned entity that’s going to rehabilitate the school into a multi-purpose civic center, announced that some demolition will start in November and that a $3 million private donation has been made to the Heritage Center foundation. Anticipated occupancy date: spring 2012.

“Soon it will be a destination for people coming to Charlottesville,” said Vice Mayor Holly Edwards.

Already, the City has committed nearly $6 million in economic development funding, and last month, City Council approved an option that will let the Jefferson School Community Partnership buy the historic school for $100,000, an amount the city is funding through another economic development pot.

The city will rent back the bulk of the space as a renovated Carver Recreation Center. According to an October 18 letter of intent, the City’s rent will start at $32,442 a month for 33,133 square feet, a price of $11.75 per square foot.

PVCC president Frank Friedman and the YMCA’s Dennis Blank, whose non-profit organizations plan to become future tenants of the so-called Jefferson School City Center, were among the several dozen attendees. Still needed, however, is an $11.5 million construction loan.

“We hope to have it wrapped up this week or next,” says Partnership member Frank Stoner.

The celebratory event came just four days after Perriello wrecked his 2005 Ford Ranger (and was charged with an improper lane change). So how did the barnstorming incumbent get there? The old-fashioned way: he borrowed his brother’s Mercury Mountaineer.

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In a county where over 60 percent of the high school students receive advanced studies diplomas, anything that gets in the way of relentless achievement can send angry villagers, er, parents, to confront the creators of the Frankenstein creature known as block scheduling.

The Albemarle School Board got a more than hour-long earful during an October 14 meeting, as 16 parents and students denounced block scheduling— also known as 4×4— and demanded that the board renounce classes compressed into one intense semester.

“I don’t want the kids to be guinea pigs,” protested pediatrician Lori Balaban.

“My daughter cannot keep up,” said Dawn McCoy of her ninth grader.

“I see no clear justification for this program, which has been abandoned by many other school systems,” said parent Mark Echelberger. Invoking Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, he added, “I fear teachers and students have been left standing on the shore.”

At press time, 369 people had signed an electronic petition on the website of the organization formed to fight squeezing a formerly year-long class like algebra 2 into just one semester.

The plan gives students four 90-minute classes every day for a semester instead of spreading out shorter classes every other day throughout the school year, and it has created something of an uproar— at least among a group known as CASE: Citizens of Albemarle Supporting Education.

“We knew it would be difficult,” says Superintendent Pam Moran. In the face (more)

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Women’s Health Virginia is holding its annual Take Thyme for Women’s Health dinner and silent auction this Thursday, October 21, at Keswick Hall. The fundraising event features a four-course feast, with each course created by a different area chef and paired with wine from a local vintner. The silent auction will include artwork by local artists and merchandise and gift certificates from local businesses and personal service providers.

This year, it looks like they have an impressive line-up of chefs, inlcuding Amalia Scatena of Keswick Hall (a venue just named the #1 small resort in America by Condé Nast Traveler), Alex Montiel of Brasserie Montiel, Angelo Vangelopolous of The Ivy Inn, and Jenny Peterson of Paradox Pastry. Featured wines will be from Bradford Reed Wines, Gabriele Rausse Winery, Montfair Vineyard, and Thibaut-Janisson Winery, with folks from each winery on hand to discuss their selections.

“We value the great support we receive from this community and are happy to have new and old friends enjoy wonderful food and wine while they contribute to our efforts,” said Mimi Bender, CEO of Women’s Health Virginia. “We appreciate the generous participation of the chefs, restaurants, wineries, and silent auction donors that will make Take Thyme for Women’s Health memorable.”

The reception begins at 6:30pm with dinner seating  at 7pm. Individual tickets are $95, patron tickets are $150, and sponsor tickets are $250. (Payment per ticket in excess of $50 is tax-deductible). Reservations can be made by mail, with payment by credit card or check payable to Women’s Health Virginia, at 1924 Arlington Boulevard, Suite 203, Charlottesville 22903, online at womenshealthvirginia.org, or by phone at 434-220-4500.

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When Tim Kindrick went into his bank on September 23, he thought it would be business as usual to deposit a $2,100 insurance check he and his wife received for water damage. Kindrich ultimately got the check deposited, but when he complained about how it was handled, First Citizens froze his debit card and said it didn’t want his business.

“It kind of floored me and my wife, the way we were treated,” says Kindrick, 45, who’s retired from the Army.

He’d been banking with the Forest Lakes branch of First Citizens— motto: “We value relationships”— for about three years, had over $20,000 in his account and had deposited three or four similar checks already (more)

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For 17 years, Jackson P. Burley High School was the black high school, and even 53 years after it closed, once a Bear, always a Bear. Around 100 of them showed up October 8 for the unveiling of three markers that commemorate the hope and camaraderie, even during the dark days of segregation. Click to see slideshow.

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Will commodity prices rebound enough to create another hunger crisis? How will farmers adapt to the possible effects of climate change? Why not come listen to Alan Bjerga, the president of the National Press Club and journalist for Bloomberg News covering agricultural policy, as he considers the implications of food policy during a visit to the Miller Center on Monday, October 25 at 11am.

In 2009, Bjerga won numerous awards for his work in Ethiopia on famine and U.S. food aid. Previously, he worked in the Knight-Ridder Washington bureau, where he won the North America Agricultural Journalists’ top writing award in 2005.

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The shock from the year-ago death of third-grader Carson Raymond moved many in the community, particularly with his parents’ ability— just days after their son’s death from swine flu complications atop a pre-existing heart condition— to comfort others by urging calm and assuring that other children were not at risk.

Today, that combination of outreach and generosity remain evident as the parents keep their son’s memory alive through the Carson Raymond Foundation, which has introduced dozens of students to t-ball through clinics and equipment scholarships and built a t-ball field at Woodbrook Elementary, which the 9-year-old attended at the time of his October 10, 2009 death.

“The Foundation is accomplishing what I was hoping it would do— getting kids out to play,” says John Raymond, citing a four-week t-ball clinic the Foundation sponsored last school year for Woodbrook kindergartners.

“The interaction with the kids, their big smiles, bright eyes when they got their certificate of accomplishment. They were jumping on us,” he recalls. “That was nice.”

Less enjoyable was the pre-construction dispute with some residents of the Woodbrook neighborhood, who expressed (more)

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Martha Jefferson Hospital announced today it will merge with Sentara, a regional health care system based out of the Hampton Roads area.

Like Martha Jefferson, Sentara is a not-for-profit. Unlike Martha Jefferson, Sentara already has nine hospitals, including the recently purchased Potomac Hospital in Woodbridge and the July-announced merger with Rockingham Memorial Hospital in Harrisonburg.

“They certainly have been on a tear acquiring hospitals,” says Tom Brown, an attorney with McGuireWoods specializing in healthcare mergers.

Especially attractive to Martha Jefferson, which has revenues of $230 million, is that Sentara, with earnings of $3 billion, has the assets to capitalize the Charlottesville hospital.

Martha Jefferson President Jim Haden says the final numbers for a cash infusion from Sentara will be worked out over the next few months, but he stresses that it was the cultural fit, not the size of Sentara’s bank account, that was most appealing in their union.

“Our goal has always to become a better hospital,” he says, especially in maintaining quality and safety. And to get there, Martha Jefferson needs additional help, he adds.

For instance, Sentera is ranked number one in the country for its integrated systems, says Haden. And the move to electronic medical records is looming.

“It’s not a matter of more hardware,” says nephrologist and board member Kevin McConnell. “but where you use the data.” That could mean pinpointing a cluster of flu outbreaks, or cameras in patients’ homes, a high-tech revival of the near-obsolete house call.

“How do we work out the system so that we can take care of patients in their homes?” asks McConnell, who acknowledges that the desire to provide preventative care and keep people out of the hospital offers a “cognitive dissonance” coming from a hospital.

Martha Jefferson’s Board of Directors began looking for a merger in 2008 and considered five different healthcare systems before settling on Sentara— without a request for proposal.

“Three years ago I thought it was a crazy idea,” says Dr. John Ligush, head of the Martha Jefferson medical staff. “Now I wish we’d done it three years ago.”

According to the release, Sentara has never had a layoff and has no plans for layoffs here. Martha Jefferson Hospital will retain its name and a board of directors to handle local issues. And donations to Martha Jefferson will stay in the community, assures Haden.

Approval of the deal will take about six months.

With healthcare reform, more hospital mergers are likely. “What’s happening is very common,” says attorney Brown. “Hospitals account for one of the least consolidated industries in the country.”

For Martha Jefferson, the deal represents the end of an era. Founded in 1903 as the Martha Jefferson Sanatorium and taking a site near Locust Avenue the following year, it has recently been constructing a new home on Pantops Mountain.

In 2007, several years after announcing that it would leave the city for an 88-acre site at Peter Jefferson Place office park, Martha Jefferson began inviting proposals from developers and revealed just a week ago that it was selling its 8-acre Locust Avenue site for $6.5 million.

The seemingly low price for prime downtown real estate has raised some eyebrows. “That was the best bid we received,” says Haden. And time was a factor with the impending move to Peter Jefferson Place next year. “We didn’t want to leave an empty building,” he says.

The not-as-high-as-expected sale of the property and the merger with Sentara have prompted some speculation that Martha Jefferson is facing financial difficulties.

Not true, says Peter Brooks, a Martha Jefferson board member who serves on its finance committee. “Martha Jefferson is in a very strong position financially,” he says.

Even with building a new $275 million hospital, he says costs have been below projections. Brooks, too, has heard talk that Martha Jefferson is hurting. “It just plain upsets me because it’s just not true,” he declares.

Sentara was founded in 1888 as the Retreat for the Sick in Norfolk. It now provides care at more than 100 sites in Virginia and North Carolina, and its health plan, Optima Health, has 420,000 members.

And according to Martha Jefferson’s McConnell, Sentera’s girth will serve the local hospital well. “Sentara’s size allows them to be heard,” he says. “The government is interested in hearing from health systems about what is working and what isn’t. The larger you are, the better chance to be heard.”

Updated 11:45am.
Updated 4pm.

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Quite often, Charlottesville launches national searches for candidates to fill the top executive jobs. Think Scottie Griffin as Charlottesville’s short-lived school superintendent, and even now there’s a national search for someone to follow Gary O’Connell as city manager.

Albemarle tends to promote from within, and that’s what happened when longtime chief exec Bob Tucker said he’ll retire December 31. After allowing a few weeks for accolades for a well-regarded CEO, the Board of Supervisors announced September 8 that assistant county executive Tom Foley will step into the job January 1.

Board members have long had their eyes on Foley, 48, who’s held the number-two job for 11 years. They “have complete confidence in his skills and abilities” to serve as county executive, according to a release.

What Foley won’t be doing on January 1: Taking over Tucker’s parking spot— because there isn’t a reserved space at the County Office Building. “He set the example of parking down there with everyone else and walking up,” says Foley. “I’ll continue that.”

And working at the side of Tucker, Foley says he’s learned a few things. “Bob is so good with staff on a personal level, and in building camaraderie,” he says. And in building a family atmosphere in county government, “You get a lot more from people,” says Foley.

The new county CEO is keenly aware more budget constraints lie ahead for next year, but says he’s put together budgets before, including eight when he served as county administrator in Caroline County.

And he was encouraged to stick around by both Tucker and the BOS as part of its succession planning. “I had opportunities to do other things,” he says.

He gets the job and the board’s ringing endorsement: “In the Board’s opinion, the best test of what a person can do is what they have done, and Mr. Foley’s long tenure with the County has provided an opportunity to assess his actual performance that is not possible with other potential candidates.”

Next up: Candidates vie for the city manager seat, including acting city manager Maurice Jones.

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