Lucy to step down
Dry witted city planning commissioner, and current chair, Bill Lucy, will be stepping down March 13, Charlottesville Tommorrow reports. Lucy, a UVA architecture professor of urban and environmental planning who joined the commission in 2004, will be leaving as part of a planned sabbatical. Never one to mince words, if only to make a sly joke, Lucy has been an outspoken critic of local and national sacred cows, such as the Lawn at UVA and America’s suburbs.  “Baloney,” Lucy told the Hook when asked if the Lawn were a sacred place. “The Downtown Mall is a sacred place. A sacred place is where people commune, share ideas, eat together. There’s a helluva lot more intellectual exchange on the Downtown Mall than at UVA, and that’s because UVA has destroyed it– not by destroying buildings, but by changing their uses.” (0)

Death of a sheriff
The funeral of former Albemarle Sheriff George Bailey will be held tomorrow at 2:30pm at St. Paul’s Episcopal in Ivy. Bailey, who served as county sheriff for 17 years, died January 4 at age 80. More about Bailey’s long and colorful life will appear in the January 10 issue of the Hook. For an advance copy of the story, check out this link. (0)

Camelot fire called arson, reward offered
The December 27 house fire in a northern Albemarle subdivision called Camelot has been ruled arson by the fire marshal, according to a County release. The property owners, Donald and Barbara Smith, were not home at 528 Jester Lane at the time of the fire, and, according to the release, lost everything. Investigators ask that anyone with information (and wishing a reward) contact Crime Stoppers at 434-977-4000. (0)

Snap o' the day: H'burg sun
Central Virginia’s warm weather played out yesterday in Harrisonburg as a pair of Frisbee fans tossed a disc in Court Square as the sun began dipping toward the horizon. Harrisonburg demolished its old record high yesterday of 63 with 72 degrees of mercury. Meanwhile, Charlottesville with the same high, also shattering its old record of 68, according to the AccuWeather.com. (0)

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)