Attendees of the Community Forum on Emergency Preparedness on March 21 were unprepared for the onslaught of information and material offered to them. Out in the lobby of Burley Middle School, city staff stood by tables covered in handouts that said things like “What is the Pandemic Flu? When will it happen here?” There was […]
A little less than a year ago, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors gathered in Room 235 of the County Office Building to ratify a last-minute Resolution of Intent. "Whereas, the Albemarle County Comprehensive Plan's Land Use Plan designates certain areas of the
The National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC) is a fortress at once impregnable and approachable. Looming over Route 29N, it invites inspection but at the same time is mysterious. What is that up there? What it is: One of the Army’s main intelligence branches, NGIC’s specific purpose is to gather information on America’s opposing armies. “We […]
Wendell Wood is a shrewd businessman. When I said this to him he blanched. Shrewd has negative connotations, as in the Merchant of Venice pound-of-flesh sense, but I didn’t mean it that way. Wood was 12 years old when his dad died. He says his father owned country stores all around the area, in Earlysville […]
Earlier this month, the United States Senate tacked on an amendment to the 9/11 Commission Homeland Security Legislation that would create a “Rural Policing Institute” (RPI) within the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, which already offers limited training to local law enforcement, particularly in the drug field. Even so, only 32 officers across Virginia enrolled […]
A little over a year ago, photographer Michael Higgins opened the front door of his house to see local farmer George Cason standing there. “He said I want to be a good neighbor,” remembers Higgins. “He brought over pumpkins and gave apples to my kids.” A month later, Higgins says Cason was hurling inflammatory threats […]
“Put on your white hat,” developer Wendell Wood told business partner J.P. Williamson moments before a March 5 work session on Hollymead Town Center, a proposed development that will sit behind the Harris Teeter and Target stores on Route 29N, looming high on a hill above it all. Convened to address a request to rezone […]
First there was “Pimp My Ride,” now there’s “pimp my hotel.” Purchased last week by Denver’s Richfield Hospitality, Inc. from Hotel Fund Ltd., the Doubletree Hotel (off Route 29N) will
Early on in a March 6 work session, Albemarle Planning Commissioner Eric Strucko was stuck on an issue put forward by a planning staff report on a proposed 476,335-square-foot shopping center sandwiched in between Fifth Street and Avon Street: Should a critical slopes waiver be processed as part of this rezoning? The big-box retail project […]
Attorney Cheryl Higgins is a 45-year-old mother of three, the wife of a Charlottesville police sergeant, and a partner in the firm of St. John, Bowling and Lawrence. When she’s not running her kids to practices or cleaning her house,