In today’s first Patreon-fueled shout-out:
If you're curious and want to dig deeper, there's another podcast you might want to try. Especially if you ask why, and not just what. And if you belive that politics should be about making communities better.
If so, check out Bold Dominion, a biweekly podcast from WTJU 91.1 FM. Bold Dominion is a state politics explainer for a changing Virginia. Their latest episode asks: Where does Virginia’s trash come from and who does it get dumped on? Check it out at BoldDominion.org.
In today’s program:
Charlottesville wants offers from groups that want the Lewis, Clark and Sacagawea statue
A brief update on recycling efforts from the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority
Friends of Esmont secure an important resource for the revitalization of the village
Charlottesville-Albemarle MPO advances next round of transportation projects
Charlottesville has opened the process for organizations and other interested parties who are willing to purchase the relocated statue of Lewis, Clark, and Sacagawea that stood for over a hundred years on West Main Street. The bronze sculpture by Charles Keck carries the official name “Their First View of the Pacific” and is currently located at the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center in Darden-Towe Park.
“Offers are due August 27 with a plan to have recommendations to Council to begin considering which of the offers you may be interested in during the month of September,” said City Manager Chip Boyles.
There is a four-page solicitation of offers for the statue that requires applicants to demonstrate recontextualization.
“The Recontextualization Plan must include an accurate historical narrative of the positive role Sacajawea provided in the exploration efforts of the Lewis & Clark Expedition and include the concerns that the statue may be interpreted to depict a lesser more subservient role provided by Sacajawea,” reads section 2.5 of the solicitation.
The executive director of the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center said she would be responding. The Daily Progress caught up with her recently, and I spoke with her two days after the statue was brought to the center on July 10.
Boyles made his comments at last night’s City Council meeting. He also encouraged people to spread the word that the city is looking for bus drivers.
“Starting pay begins now at $16.97 an hour and up according to qualifications, and includes a city full-time employee health care benefits and most importantly with your approval at the last meeting provides a $2,400 sign-on bonus for both transit drivers and school bus drivers,” Boyles said.
I’ll have more from the City Council meeting in an upcoming version of the newsletter.
“Their First View of the Pacific” is currently being stored at the Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center. This photo is from December 2014 as the hotel at the intersection was still under construction.
A nonprofit group that seeks to revisit and restore the history of a small village in southern Albemarle County has purchased a commercial building for a future grocery store, museum, and visitor center. Friends of Esmont bought the Purvis Country Store property and have plans to convert it into the Purvis Store Market. An adjacent shed will become a shelter to serve as a trailhead for a future Esmont Trail. Friends of Esmont was founded in 2018 to revitalize Esmont through several projects including the trail, restoration of historic structures, and memorializing the Esmont Depot.
According to a history provided by Friends of Esmont, the store dates back to 1900 and was owned by the Purvis family from 1937 to 1989. The structure is a contributing resource in the Southern Albemarle Rural Historic District.
Work is set to begin today on replacement of a waterline on Keith Valley Road in the Greenbrier neighborhood. The project will replace a two inch pipe that is over 40 years old. The work will be conducted by Linco, will take about ten weeks, and may result in road closures at times. According to city Communications Director Brian Wheeler, the work will move the line from private property to public right of way at a cost of $74,430.
You’re reading and listening to Charlottesville Community Engagement and time for another subscriber-supported public service announcement. THe Charlottesville Jazz Society at cvillejazz.org is dedicated to the promotion, preservation, and preservation of jazz, and there’s no time like now to find a time to get out and watch people love to play. The Charlottesville Jazz Society keeps a running list of what’s coming up at cvillejazz.org. This week, find out that the Charles Owen Trio plays at Potter’s Craft Cider on Thursday, Angelica X and friends play at the Front Porch on Friday, and so much more. Take a look at cvillejazz.org.
Reviewing more meetings from late July, both Rivanna authorities met on July 27 for regular meetings. We learned that the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority is receiving more materials at the Ivy Materials Utilization Center (MUC) than in previous years. In June, there were 154.96 tons of construction and domestic waste received at the facility, compared to 101.17 tons in June 2020 and 94.12 tons in June 2019. Executive Director Bill Mawyer said county investment in the MUC and longer hours of operation has made operations more efficient. (RSWA agenda packet)
“The net operating cost from the transfer station has declined from in 2018 for about $33 per ton to currently just under $9 per ton,” Mawyer said.
The RSWA is seeking permission from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to increase the amount of waste it can process in a day from 300 tons to 450 tons a day.
“That would deal with a few of the spike days where we have an extra heavy load,” Mawyer said.
The RSWA Board got an annual update on the state of recycling from the solid waste director, Phil McKalips.
“There haven’t been a lot of changes with our material pricing,” McKalips said. “It’s been pretty stable surprisingly. Cardboard went up with COVID probably related to a lot of shipping.”
Many of the recyclable materials collected either at the McIntire Road drop-off point or the Ivy Convenience Center are sent to a paper sort facility on Meade Avenue.
“The cardboard, mixed-paper, and at least currently newsprint is all going to a Sonoco Mill south of Richmond,” McKalips said. “Our plastic films are going to Trex, plastic containers go to Sonoco, office paper goes to Sonoco. Glass is being picked up by Strategic Materials down in Wilson, North Carolina, and our metals go to Gerdau.”
McKalips said revenues from glass recycling have dropped from $25 a ton to zero, a situation he continues to monitor.
“We continuously get requests to look into doing additional types of recycling, recycling new materials,” McKalips said. “One that’s come in recently is styrofoam and I’m kind of exploring that. We try and generate and flesh out whether that seems plausible we’ll bring that to the board.”
The RSWA is currently working to build a third place to bring recycling at the Keene Convenience Center.
Another regional body that met last week was the Charlottesville-Albemarle Metropolitan Policy Organization’s Policy Board, which consists of two city Councilors, two Albemarle Supervisors, and the administrator of the Virginia Department of Transportation’s Culpeper District. One of the items on their agenda was update of their public participation plan, a document required by federal law. Lucinda Shannon is a planner with the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission. (read the plan)
“We changed the name to the Charlottesville Albemarle MPO Engagement Plan,” Shannon said. “I think with the last plan from the public comments that we received there was some confusion about what this plan was for and the engagement plan outlines the process and activities that the MPO uses to create opportunities for effective participation, communication, and consultation with all parties interested in the development, adoption, and amendment of its transportation plans and projects.”
No one spoke at the public hearing and the plan was adopted.
The main event at the MPO meeting on July 28 was approval of several projects that the MPO will continue to take through the next round of the Smart Scale funding process. Applications are not due until next year but concern over a project in the last cycle led to a reform of the public engagement process. (view the presentation)
District Avenue Roundabout
Hillsdale Avenue Extension
Rivanna River Bike & Pedestrian Crossing
Avon Street Corridor
5th Street Corridor
The MPO can submit four applications, as can the City of Charlottesville, Albemarle County, and the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission itself. To review this presentation and learn more about the projects, click this link and you’ll go right to that point in the YouTube video. (read the staff report)
A member of the Citizens Transportation Advisory Committee had been lobbying for a flyover road to be constructed to relieve traffic congestion in the area around Hydraulic Road, U.S. 29 and the U.S. 250 bypass. The idea will not proceed at this time out of concerns the Smart Scale process would not fund such a project.
Chuck Proctor, an engineer in VDOT’s Culpeper District, said people interested in the overall transportation system will have the chance in the near future to influence its future as the MPO begins review of the Long Range Transportation Plan next spring.
“The long range planning process is what we’re going to be basically be kicking off in the spring at the MPO and in that process we’re going to be identifying and looking at the needs in the region and identifying solutions to those needs and that’s going to be the place where we need to look at this as possibly an option to address a concern of traffic flowing through the area,” Proctor said.
The current long range transportation plan was adopted in May 2019. (plan’s website)
At the end of the MPO meeting, the public got an update on the Afton Express, a commuter bus route that will begin service between Staunton and Charlottesville in September. Sara Pennington is the program manager for RideShare, a service of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission.
“The service is going to be administered by the Central Shenandoah Planning District Commission, our counterparts across the mountain,” Pennington said. “They are on a demonstration grant from the [Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation] to offer this service starting September 1.”
On the eastern side of the Blue Ridge, the service will stop twice at the University of Virginia, the Amtrak station, the Downtown Transit Station, and twice at Fifth Street Station. Fares are $3 each way, though the first month will be free. Visit britebus.org for the schedule.
“This program is really designed for the commuter,” Pennington said. “They specifically scheduled most of this to revolve around working hours.”
Albemarle County recently received funding through Smart Scale for a park and ride lot at Exit 107 on Interstate-64. The idea is for Afton Express to stop there once it’s been built.
What about you? If you live in the Shenandoah Valley and work in Charlottesville, would you ride it? What about transit in general? I’m interested in the topic, which is why I cover the topic so much. I’ll have more about efforts in Albemarle County to expand service in a future edition of the newsletter.
August 3, 2021: Charlottesville seeks offers for statue; Friends of Esmont make a major purchase