Agents Predict  Robust Spring Market This Year

By Celeste M. Smucker – Spring is an optimistic time of year when people look forward to a new start.  It is also a time when many sellers choose to list their homes and when buyers, ready to shake off the cabin fever of winter, come out to take a look at what’s on the […]

These Four Walls

By Marilyn Pribus – Just as clothing designers develop “hot” colors and accessories each season, designers for wall coverings plan ahead. Interestingly, they often check fashion statements and, as a result, the manufacturers of paint, wallpaper, and other wall coverings generally lag a year or two behind the runways when it comes to colors and […]

In brief: Medicaid expanded, Building Bridges crashed and more

Medicaid expansion clears House For Terry McAuliffe’s entire term as governor, Medicaid expansion for 400,000 uninsured Virginians remained out of grasp. Last week, after Republican Delegate Terry Kilgore broke rank in favor of expansion, the House voted 68 to 32 in favor, with local delegates Rob Bell, Steve Landes and Matt Fariss in the no […]

Tar Heel transplant: Jeff Richardson jumps into county exec role

When Jeff Richardson got a call and an invitation to apply for the open county executive position in Albemarle County, the Tar Heel state transplant says his only tie to the area was a three-week leadership program at the University of Virginia about 15 years ago. “Those training opportunities had a profound impact on my […]

DOA: Gun safety bills die in subcommittee

Andy Goddard has been going to the General Assembly since 2008, the year after his son was shot four times in the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre. In his 11th year monitoring the legislature and how it deals with mass murders and guns, not much has changed. “It’s the same old thing,” says Goddard, who’s the […]

County budget basics: How to spend $430 million

Albemarle County Executive Jeff Richardson, who took the job November 6, went before the Board of Supervisors on February 16 to propose his first budget, which is nearly 8 percent higher than the one for the current year. He’s recommending $428,500,374 for fiscal year 2019, a $13.5 million increase. Per usual, the biggest slice of […]

Steven Meeks has left the building

The controversial president of the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society abruptly resigned February 11 after cleaning out his office in the city-owned McIntire Building. In a “hastily written note,” says Will Lyster, a historical society director, Steven G. Meeks resigned from the organization he’s headed for about a decade. The board asked Lyster to step in […]

Clean slate: Mason Pickett cleared of two assault charges

  “Wes is a jackass” became a familiar slogan to those living in Charlottesville last summer, as it was scrawled on a giant cardboard sign carried by local retiree Mason Pickett, and its derivative, “Bellamy is a jackass,” was often chalked on the Downtown Mall’s Freedom of Speech Wall as well as several sidewalks. It’s […]

Commercial Real Estate Continues Its Impressive Expansion

By Celeste M. Smucker – The commercial real estate market continues its remarkable growth, and local agents expect another profitable year in 2018. This assessment is consistent with findings in a recent report from the National Association of REALTORS®, Situs RERC and Deloitte predicting trends in the national market. The Report cites factors such as […]