January 29, 2025: UVA awarded federal grant to study new treatment for life-threatening epileptic seizures
Plus: Albemarle County wants to know what community members think about economic development
Since 2012, the Virginia General Assembly has recognized “Asian Lunar New Year Day” on whatever 24-hour period that may fall. For 2025, that is January 29 and we learn from the legislation that “the new year on the Asian lunar calendar begins at the second lunar month after the winter solstice.”
We also learn that “the lunar new year is a time of commemoration, celebration, and deep meaning for over a billion people throughout the world, including countless people in the United States and the Commonwealth of Virginia.” This is the sort of thing you might find in the opening paragraph of Charlottesville Community Engagement. I’m Sean Tubbs, and that’s why I created this newsletter
In today’s installment:
UVA is moving forward with a federal grant from the National Institutes for Health to study the use of ketamine to stop serious epileptic seizures
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality is investigating a small sewage spill in Charlottesville over the weekend
Albemarle County is seeking input on the shape of its next economic development strategic plan
The Virginia Department of Forestry has awarded $2.5 million to localities who lose revenue from land use taxation related to growing timber
Charlottesville City Council learns more about what the Department of Neighborhood Development Services expects to do in the next year
First-shout: Charlottesville Jazz Society to present Mingus Awareness Project on February 2
On February 2 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., The Charlottesville Jazz Society and WTJU will present the Mingus Awareness Project at the Front Porch at 221 E Water St, Charlottesville, VA.
Organized by drummer Brian Jones, Mingus Awareness Project concerts have been presented in Richmond, Chicago and Charlottesville since 2007. Bands performing will include The Adam Larrabee Trio and The John D’earth Quintet, performing from 5 to 7 pm at The Front Porch. This is a benefit concert for research into Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), the disease that bassist and composer Charles Mingus died from.
Guitarist Adam Larrabee and his trio will play their arrangements of compositions from Money Jungle, the classic album from 1962. That recording featured Mingus on bass, Max Roach on drums, and Duke Ellington on piano, here replaced by Larrabee’s guitar. Trumpeter John D’earth and his all-star band will play their arrangements of well-known Mingus compositions such as Goodbye Porkpie Hat, along with some lesser known Mingus tunes.
All proceeds from ticket sales will go to ALS research. Tickets are available online. Due to the charitable nature of this special show, all tickets will be $22 in advance, and $25 at the door if any are still available.
UVA announces federal grant to study potential treatment for serious seizures
At a time when a new president has called for a temporary pause in federal grant funding, the University of Virginia has announced the Brain Institute and School of Medicine have been awarded $9.3 million from the National Institutes of Health to test the use of ketamine to treat a certain kind of epileptic seizures.
“We wish to determine whether adding ketamine to existing treatment would terminate status epilepticus in more patients than the current treatment,” neurologist Jaideep Kapur is quoted in a press release. He’s the co-director of UVA’s Brain Institute and an epileptologist at UVA Health.
“Our hope is that this trial can improve treatment guidelines for patients suffering from these dangerous seizures,” Kapur said.
A “status epilepticus” is a seizure that lasts more that five minutes and is considered to be a medical emergency. The new trial that goes by the acronym KESETT will study whether ketamine can work to stop the grand mal seizures that currently cannot be stopped with other treatments.
“Each year, as many as 160,000 Americans suffer from status epilepticus, and this trial promises to bring new and improved treatment for them,” Kapur contined. “The University of Virginia team is grateful for the opportunity to partner with our colleagues at other leading institutions to perform this groundbreaking work.”
The funding comes from the NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, grant No. UG3NS131532. You can track that on the website Higher Gov.
When asked if the pause in funding would affect the grant, UVA provided a statement:
“As we do whenever there is a change in administration, the University is monitoring new executive orders and any effects they might have on higher education and the UVA community. At the moment it’s too early to know the impacts of those orders, but as more details come to light, we will adapt to new federal policy and work with members of our community who may be affected.”
The trade publication Freight Waves reported that U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan on Tuesday blocked the order from going into effect. The article also went into detail about what programs might be vulnerable if Trump is successful in overturning grants that have already been awarded. A 52-page spreadsheet outlines specific programs that are being targeted for elimination, including several programs that fund passenger rail.
Yesterday, the White House issued a follow-up memorandum clarifying that the pause would only apply to grants that run afoul of the following executive orders.
Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements
Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing
Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government
“The pause does not apply across-the-board,” reads the memo. “It is expressly limited to programs, projects, and activities implicated by the President’s Executive Orders, such as ending DEI, the green new deal, and funding nongovernmental organizations that undermine the national interest.”
The pause will also not apply to direct aid benefits such as Social Security, Medicare, SNAP, and other programs.
“Funds for small businesses, farmers, Pell grants, Head Start, rental assistance, and other similar programs will not be paused,” the memo continues. “If agencies are concerned that these programs may implicate the President’s Executive Orders, they should consult OMB to begin to unwind these objectionable policies without a pause in the payments.”
The BBC is reporting that the memo issued on Monday has been rescinded.
Additional stories on the federal transition:
White House Office of Management and Budget Temporarily Pauses All Federal Funding, American Public Transportation Association, January 28, 2025
Trump pauses renewable projects leasing on federal lands, waters, Lamar Johnson, ESG Dive, January 29, 2025
Private prison operations contracts could resume under Trump executive order, Benton Graham, Facilities Dive, January 29, 2025
DEQ investigating small sewage overflow in Fifeville
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality is reviewing a recent incident where sewage flowed into a local waterway.
An employee of the Charlottesville Department of Public Works reported the spill which occurred the morning of January 26 in the 1600 block of Center Avenue in the Fifeville neighborhood.
“Reporting party did confirm that some of the material did reach a tributary to Moores Creek but did not go far and no aquatic life impacts were found,” reads the initial investigation on the DEQ website.
The site lists that between one gallon and fifty gallons of sewage entered the watershed. Moores Creek is considered a threatened waterway.
The City of Charlottesville has not yet responded to a request for additional information.
Albemarle seeking input on new economic development strategy
Albemarle County has dramatically increased efforts to boost business in the area over the past 15 years with the creation of an economic development office and adoption of a strategic plan called Project Enable.
Now the county is seeking feedback from the public on an update on that plan. A questionnaire is open through February 11.
“The project team needs your input to better understand the perception of Albemarle County's past economic development efforts and to identify future opportunities that should be considered in the strategic planning process,” reads the splash page on the county’s Engage Albemarle website.
The survey asks four questions before providing examples of economic development activity. These include the $58 million purchase of 462 acres around Rivanna Station for a future military intelligence campus, a public-private partnership with Home Depot, and the Albemarle Economic Development Authority’s assistance in the expansion of Afton Scientific.
Survey respondents are then asked to read a summary of Project ENABLE to date before asking additional questions. Project ENABLE had seven goals and there’s a summary of what’s been done for each since.
Then two more questions before a prioritization exercise and then an identification question.
There will be at least two stories from the most recent meeting of the Albemarle County Economic Development Authority coming up later this week in Charlottesville Community Engagement.
Second shout-out: Supporting the Keswick Heritage Fund’s Love Better Project
The Keswick Heritage Fund is a partnership of several churches in Albemarle County that provides education support and opportunities for professional development. One of their outreach programs is the Love Better Project, which provides scholarships to Black students in the Keswick area. The fund was created soon after the inaugural scholarship was awarded in 2020.
Grace Episcopal Church, Union Grove Baptist, Union Run Baptist, Zion Hill Baptist and St. John Church are united for growth through community partnership and education. To learn more about the fund, the scholarships, and the churches themselves, visit their website at keswickheritagefund.com.
Local governments get state funding for partial reimbursement for land use taxation
Five of the six localities in the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission have been awarded funds from the Virginia Department of Forestry to help support the practice of land use taxation.
“Forest land use taxation allows for taxation to be based upon the productive value of the land, rather than the current market value, which results in lower taxes,” reads a press release sent out January 28.
The Virginia General Assembly created the fund in 2022 and this year $2.5 million is being distributed to 70 of the 76 localities that have enacted land use taxation.
Albemarle County will receive $100,000
Fluvanna County will receive $51,704.07
Greene County will receive $24,996.16
Louisa County will receive $86,592.29
Nelson County will receive $95,321.32
The funding is used to make up revenue lost to the county and the money can be used for public education, forest conservation projects, or outdoor recreation. The average amount of foregone revenue for each locality is $1.1 million.
“The private landowners and communities of Virginia bear the cost of providing the many benefits of keeping our forests as forest, but that results in less tax revenue for localities,” said State Forester Rob Farrell in a press release. “The Forest Sustainability Fund offsets a portion of that forgone revenue. This benefits landowners, localities and all citizens of Virginia to preserve these forest benefits that we all enjoy.” ‘
To qualify for land use taxation for forest uses in Albemarle County, a property must be a minimum of 20 acres. The land owner must have either a written commitment that the property is used as a working forest or a forest management plan prepared by a professional forester. Learn more on the Albemarle County website.
You can also read CBS19’s version of the story.
Charlottesville City Council briefed on Neighborhood Development Services work plan
Kellie Brown has been Charlottesville’s Director of Neighborhood Development Services for four months and had the opportunity on January 21 to brief City Council on her department. She gave a similar presentation to the Planning Commission in December.
“We are an organization of 27 staff people and so we are not a huge department by any means, but we do provide resources and staff program areas across a wide spectrum of services,” Brown said. “That includes our building code, property maintenance, code enforcement, zoning.”
A new long-range planning manager will soon be arriving from a similar position in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Brown mentioned another new position.
“We are recruiting for a UVA Property Maintenance inspector to support property maintenance enforcement in the student housing surrounding the university,” Brown said.
Brown noted that the city’s new Development Code is about a year old having been adopted in December 2023 and implemented in February 2024. She said improvements will continue to be made to the way the developers and builders share their plans with the city.
“We will be continuing to focus on making improvements to our electronic plan review system,” Brown said. “So we have cityworks, it's a great tool for supporting digital intake of applications. There's where we're still working to improve the way that system works for us and for our, for our customers as well.”
Upcoming initiatives include continuing work on the Downtown Mall as well as work to better understand how many places are offering short-term rentals throughout the city. The city is purchasing software to keep track.
“That's also just a really valuable data point in our decision making about how we want to treat this use in our community,” Brown said.
NDS will also be conducting a thorough review of the city’s environmental regulations to see if there are any obstacles to the construction of housing that might be tweaked such as rules on critical slopes, stormwater regulations, and tree requirements.
Other items from the report:
There will be a small area plan conducted for the 10th and Page Neighborhood
The city will further study the possibility of allowing commercial uses in residential areas
There will be efforts to educate people on how the Development Code works, as well as other potential changes to the rules for zoning
The city will also begin work on what Brown called a “comprehensive transportation plan” to consolidate existing documents such as the Streets That Work plan and the Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan
Another area of study will relate to building heights on the Downtown Mall. The Board of Architectural Review has had three preliminary reviews for 200 West Main Street to answer developer Jeffrey Levien’s question of whether he can build a 184 foot tall building on the site of the Violet Crown. Brown did not mention this project specifically.
“Does the development code really provide guidance for building height, building form on the mall in a way that kind of provides clear expectations for everybody?” Brown asked. “Or is there maybe some additional work we could be doing to kind of clarifying what is the shared vision for building height and form on the Mall?”
Brown presented three options to Council which you can see in detail in the image below.
So far, no one has written about that third review of 200 West Main but you can expect a story here on Charlottesville Community Engagement before too long.
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Reading material for #802
SleepOut Cville gives people chance to further understand homelessness, Sarah Allen, CBS19, January 27, 2025
Albemarle County Schools respond to changes in immigration enforcement, Mark Gad, CBS19, January 28, 2025
Staunton, Fluvanna historic properties secure thousands for preservation, Charlottesville Daily Progress (paywall), January 29, 2025
Roses closure prompts discussion about what’s next, Sean Tubbs, C-Ville Weekly, January 29, 2025,
School districts across Virginia try to reassure families over immigration worries, Brandon Jarvis, Virginia Political Newsletter, January 29, 2025
#802 is the area code for Vermont
Three years ago this week I drove up to Vermont to meet someone and remembered everything I loved about the place. I lived in New Hampshire for a couple of years but did not end up staying. My parents were in Virginia and I wanted to be close to them.
Yesterday I took a Northeast Regional back to Virginia, where I live and plan to continue living for at least the next several years. I’ve taken that journey about ten times now in the past year and a half and I’ll be up there again before February ends.
Working on the train inspires me because there is so much about this country I still want to know. As a first generation American with no connections here but family, I love seeing the landscape transform on northbound journeys from rural rolling hills to the urban sprawl that exists for much of the way north of Manassas.
This newsletter is intended to inspire curiosity, hope, independent thinking, and a sense of collaboration. Funding comes from paid subscribers who foot the bill for everyone else as well as a growing list of sponsors. Today for the first time there is advertising on Information Charlottesville, a direct outcome of the money I invested to attend the LION conference in Chicago last September.
I don’t yet have a media kit, but the initial ads will be build-outs of the various shout-outs you’ve come to expect in this newsletter. Another future investment may be migration to a different platform, but my first goal each day is to get this newsletter out. A key component of this work will always be duplicating the long-gone experience of an afternoon newspaper.
We’re in a time of transition, and I’m not sure when it began. The exact point of delineation may not matter, but this newsletter intends to continue documenting as much as possible. I truly appreciate your support and your readership.
And tRump has just ordered that all federal grants be stopped!!!