Trash talk: One local wants litter removed from the Rivanna

It’s been nearly three months since Albemarle County resident Scott Fox first noticed a number of plastic bags littered across the bank of the Rivanna River behind his house, caught on rocks and tree limbs in the water and trapped below the water’s surface. Fox, who lives in a small, A-frame house right on the […]

Live Arts’ loss: Show must go on without Pape

Howard Pape spent his next-to-last day alive installing a real tree—upside down, so that its roots would be the branches—for the set he’d helped design for Live Arts’ upcoming production of To Kill a Mockingbird, according to director Fran Smith. Performing such formidable tasks for the community theater was his creative outlet, say his family […]

How to spend $162 million: The city’s budget increases 3.5 percent

Charlottesville City Manager Maurice Jones presented his proposed budget for fiscal year 2017 to City Council on March 7. The $161,871,784 budget is a 3.5 percent increase over 2016’s fiscal year budget, which was approved at $156,391,435. The latest budget is Jones’ sixth version. “The biggest chunk is going to the schools,” he says, and […]

Nightmare on Water Street

Utilities relocation for Market Plaza had already closed the eastbound lane on Water Street and detoured traffic to South Street and Second Street SE, and when Second Street was also closed last week, many who park in the Water Street Garage were trapped in an extraordinarily long exit line March 3. “Staff met with [contractors] […]

Just in time for March Madness

Virginia became the first state to legalize fantasy sports websites when Governor Terry McAuliffe signed the Fantasy Contests Act into law March 7, according to CNET. While other states are outlawing websites such as DraftKings and FanDuel, saying they violate state gambling regulations, Virginia embraces what advocates call a game of skill. “Today, Virginia became […]

Reeves announces run for lieutenant governor

State Senator Bryce Reeves, R-17th, becomes Albemarle’s second legislator to announce a run for statewide office in 2017. Delegate Rob Bell, R-58th, said in December he’d make a second run for attorney general. At a March 7 kickoff, Reeves said, “Public service is in my blood.” The owner of an insurance company in Spotsylvania, Reeves […]

Controversy resurfaces: Should the statue stand?

The Lewis and Clark statue at the intersection of West Main Street has been the center of controversy for some time—last month, police removed a mysterious, red-stained, human-shaped figure made of masking tape from the base of the statue that was aiming a makeshift bow and arrow up at the explorers. One local says it’s […]

Historical hangout: UVA renovates Rotunda to fit student study needs

Driving down University Avenue, you might notice the Rotunda’s usual cluster of scaffolding has decreased considerably. Although the UNESCO World Heritage Site is still under construction, UVA’s design team has completed the majority of its renovations, and the project is on schedule to be finished by the end of July. The first phase included installing […]

Jesse Matthew pleads guilty, receives four additional life sentences

  Convicted murderer Jesse Matthew pleaded guilty to the first degree murders and abductions of both Hannah Graham and Morgan Harrington in Albemarle County Circuit Court on March 2. He was given four life sentences—the maximum sentence for each count. Matthew will avoid the death penalty because Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Tracci nolle prossed his capital murder charge […]

Crunch time: Things just got real

Well, here we are again: facing a blank page, days away from hugely important elections, fully realizing that you, dear reader, know exactly what happened. But we do not! And yet file we must, and so we jump once more into the abyss, gleefully predicting things that will be proven or disproven in real time. […]