4/25/02

4 Better or Worse

The week in review

Best emotion-packed meeting of the Board of Architectural Review: Swayed by the impassioned pleas from First Baptist Church members who want to partially demolish the Rufus Holsinger warehouse on West Main, the BAR the board that stood firm against developers' requests to tear down historic houses at the Marriott site on West Main and four buildings on the Downtown Mall owned by former partners Lee Danielson and Colin Rolph ignores staff recommendations and board guidelines and votes to allow the demolition and throws in approval to tear down two other West Main buildings as well, according to a Jake Mooney report in the Daily Progress.

Best timing for quitting the Board of Architectural Review: Architect and UVA professor Kenneth Schwartz, who said the BAR's First Baptist-influenced decision "may come back to haunt us," resigns from the Board within hours of Tuesday's marathon meeting, reports Mooney in the Progress.

Worst family relations: White Jefferson descendants in the Monticello Association still refuse to welcome their Hemings cousins into the association and family graveyard at the home place.

Best quote on the stricter burden of proof the Monticello Association demands for membership by black relatives: Member Lucian K. Truscott IV says, "I could call my cat Lucian V, and my cat could be a member, and they would have no way of knowing that," according to Peter Savodnik in the Progress.

Worst loss for the Charlottesville Police Department: Lt. Robert E. Frazier Jr. dies of a heart attack while attending the FBI Academy in Quantico.

Worst court decision for Fluvanna NIMBYs: Tenaska can build its power plant the state Supreme Court refuses to hear appeals by 30 Fluvanna landowners.

Best photo of a wreck: Andrew Shurtleff captures the aftermath of an 18-wheeler that collided with a Dodge Intrepid and shut down U.S. 250 eastbound at I-64 in Crozet for nearly five hours in the April 18 Daily Progress.

Worst counter­intuitive aspect of the drought: You'd think with no rain, there'd be fewer mosquitoes, but the stagnant puddles left when water flow slows to a trickle are ideal for breeding West Nile virus-carrying mosquitoes.

Best news for Republicans: Fifth District Rep. Virgil Goode officially joins them, another stop in a career that includes stints as a Democrat and an independent.

Worst news for Republicans: The eavesdropping scandal spreads, snaring House Speaker Vance Wilkins Jr.'s chief of staff, Claudia Tucker, and House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith's press secretary, Jeff Ryer.

Worst news for garden gawkers: Historic Garden Week's hot ticket, Patricia Kluge's Albemarle House, sells out by April 8. Demand is not so impressive for her ex's abode, Morven.

Best sign that breaking up really is hard to do: Lee Danielson sues former partner Colin Rolph for $4.6 million.

Worst news for students looking for a place to park: City Council votes to allow permit parking on Venable, Rugby, Grady, and parts of Jefferson Park Avenue, but would leave 7pm to midnight open for anyone to park so residents can have parking for their parties, too.

Worst development for a mental health facility already cited for numerous violations: A 15-year-old girl runs away from Millmont Center April 16 and doesn't reappear until the next day, reports Claudia Pinto in the Progress.

Worst NIMBYs of the week: Louisa County residents file a lawsuit to block a land sale anticipating that developer Charles Kincannon's plans will sap the property's groundwater, according to the Progress' Austin Graham.

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