The introductory paragraph of every edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement is intended to be a script for a podcast but recently there was a disturbance in the workflow. Efforts are being made to build a new framework and the arrival of steel beams this week to the construction site for Buford Middle School has prompted me to take the next step. I’m Sean Tubbs, and I miss the podcast, too:
On today’s podcast edition:
Charlottesville City Council adopts a budget that reflects a move toward unionization of the city’s workforce, higher salaries for city employees, and lower education funding from the state due to increasing property values (read the story)
There’s a problem with excessive dog waste being left at the city’s newest park (read the story)
Charlottesville’s parks and recreation officials want your input on the next master plan to guide the future of public spaces in the city (read the story)
The city has a plan to fix drainage issues in Oakwood Cemetery and will further discuss the issue on April 24 (read the story)
Albemarle and Charlottesville both need more lifeguards for the summer season (read the story)
Charlottesville’s Planning Commission gets an update on the new Development Code (read the story)
Albemarle Supervisors have comments on recent deployment of the HART team and a bomb threat at Planet Fitness (read the story )
The Albemarle Department of Social Services helps a lot of people each year and Supervisors get a briefing (read the story)
Albemarle Supervisors weigh in on expanded uses in the rural area as part of the Comprehensive Plan process (read the story)
First shout-out: Charlottesville Area Alliance holding webinar on Community Support
In today’s first subscriber-supported shout-out, the Charlottesville Area Alliance is an organization created in 2015 that is made up of several groups that seek to make the community the most age-friendly community in the country. Toward that goal, they’ve begun a series of free webinars on resources on local support and services available to seniors, caregivers of those with long-term illness, and those needing care.
On April 25, the Jefferson Area Board for Aging, most commonly called JABA, will give a presentation on what they have to offer to the community. Register for the event on Zoom here.
An explanation:
You may have noticed no new podcasts for the last couple of weeks. There are many reasons for this.
Doing a radio version that gets vetted by a professional audio engineer revealed flaws in the process that needed to be addressed. I had been using a lot of filters and was not producing the best version.
The microphone I’ve been using for nearly four years broke during travel, and I struggled to find the time to come up with a new set-up, a struggle that took until time on a Saturday morning to address
The studio computer I’ve been using for nearly four years developed a glitch that was garbling narration, a glitch I’ve still not resolved forcing me to adopt a temporary back-up plan.
It took about six hours today to produce this, but that time also involves making sure each story is also posted to Information Charlottesville. There are about two dozen stories this week, as dropping the podcast for each newsletter has freed up time to get the print version out quicker.
There are paid subscribers who expect podcasts. So they will continue to happen but they will change as I continue learning how to do all of this.
Now, listen to the show.
Second shout-out: Traffic Violence and Restorative Justice
In today’s second Patreon fueled shout-out: Livable Cville and Central Virginia Community Justice are holding a webinar on April 23, 2024 that offers a glimpse into alternate ways to deal with collisions between motorists and other users of the roads.
The event will feature Erin Campbell, Co-Director of Central VA Community Justice and Shannon Neal, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney for Albemarle County as they talk about one recent case. Also on the panel are the survivor and the driver of a local hit and run case who the option of restorative justice option. There will also be question and answer period.
Register at: https://events.humanitix.com/traffic-violence-and-restorative-justice
Epilogue:
It does take more time to produce the podcast version, but now that I’ve got a finished product, I feel like I’ve completed this week’s workload and tomorrow another set of stories will be written. This is my dream job, creating something from scratch by using all of the skills I’ve learned to date.
The audio production is certainly part of that, and I’m not entirely certain how I manage to pull this off. One way I can do that is because of Substack and Patreon subscribers, I don’t need to do any other work that isn’t writing. People pay to keep me in digital ink and I’m very glad to keep an eye out on as much as I can.
Thanks to Wraki and the Fundamental Grang for the audio used in this program. Opening music is from P.J. Sykes.
For now, the podcast will likely be back next Friday or Saturday as I continue figuring out a new way forward. Thank you for patience, and thank you for listening! If you did, please drop me a note. At one point I’ll get around to a survey of some sort but for now, all I can think of is Steve Vai.
April 20, 2024: Nine audio versions of stories from this week’s newsletter