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On today’s show:
Charlottesville City Council votes to remove Confederate statues in city parks, and this time it’s a vote that doesn’t have to be cleared by the Virginia Supreme Court
A joint PTO group releases a final report on a special fund created to help improve virtual learning
One Albemarle County highway gets is shut down for a few hours, while another one remains closed indefinitely.
In a minute, we’ll get to a wrap-up of last night’s City Council meeting. But first, a couple other items.
Albemarle County Police shut down the U.S. 29 and Interstate 64 interchange yesterday for four hours as a response to “a call for a person in crisis at Teel Lane and Monacan Trail.” According to a news release, no additional information about the incident will be released. Teel Lane is several hundred feet southwest of the interchange.
Not related, but U.S. 250 remains closed at Afton Mountain due to a rockslide. According to to Virginia Department of Transportation spokesman Lou Hatter, work continues six days a week by two contractors.
“One is removing the unstable material, the other is coming behind to stabilize the areas,” Hatter said. “We still anticipate it will be mid-July to complete the work.”
Stay tuned.
Last year, all of the Parent-Teacher Organizations in Charlottesville came together to raise money to help students in households that did not have the resources to fully participate in virtual learning. Now the final report of the Ready to Teach, Ready to Learn CCS Reopening Fund is out, and the effort raised $165,097 from 201 donors. In addition to providing funds for teaching materials, funds were also spent to help the return to in-person learning including covering the cost of van transportation at a time when school buses were limited.
“Funding was divided and allocated quickly to PTOs at all seven elementary schools, Buford Middle, Charlottesville High, and Lugo McGinness Academy using distribution percentages based on each school’s population of students receiving free and reduced lunch,” reads the report. “The use of the funds was then determined by individual school level committees comprised of a PTO representative, teacher, administrator, and an equity committee representative.”
The Charlottesville Area Community Foundation partnered to administer the fund. The report lists several conclusions, including a sense that there is an untapped potential for public schools to raise money from private sources. (read the report)
Charlottesville City Council held a public hearing last night on whether to remove two Confederate statues in two city parks. I’ll have details on that in a moment, but first, some other highlights from the meeting.
It has now been about ten days since COVID restrictions in Virginia were fully lifted, but public health officials are still monitoring the situation. Dr. Denise Bonds of the Blue Ridge Health District gave a briefing. Daily case counts in the district have been dwindling since mid-April.
“We are frequently in single digits, often only one or two cases reported,” Dr. Bonds said.
Today that number is 3 new cases. There’s been a total of 15,937 cases and 224 fatalities since last March. Community engagement efforts are ongoing.
“Our hotline is still going strong,” Dr. Bonds said. “Since January we’ve had over 25,000 calls to our hotline.”
That’s 434-972-6261 if you need it for some reason.
Dr. Bonds said the district is continuing to get people vaccinated in order to meet the goal of having 70 percent of Americans vaccinated by July 4. As of today, 48.8 percent of the health district is fully vaccinated. Statewide, that number is at 46 percent. Children under the age of 12 are not yet eligible to be vaccinated but Dr. Bonds said approval of at least one vaccine may be approved by this fall.
The vaccination clinic at J.C. Penney will close this month, but will reopen in a smaller store inside Fashion Square Mall. The district is also working to vaccinate people who cannot travel at their homes. Vaccination events will also continue be held at other community events. Here’s City Manager Chip Boyles.
“It was a very good weekend with Sunday at Tonsler Park, we had the splash pad open, a basketball tournament, and vaccinations occurring taking advantage of the crowds that were there,” Boyles said.
City Hall remains closed to the public, but planning is underway to transition back to reopening.
Boyles also said Charlottesville has received its first payment from the American Recovery Plan. The amount is $9.8 million and another payment of the same amount is expected in the next calendar year.
“The first funding will go towards revenue replacement for the city, and then additional COVID improvements and then we will very shortly be rolling out for our nonprofit stakeholders in the community a program where they can apply,” Boyles said.
You're reading Charlottesville Community Engagement. Time now for another subscriber supported public service announcement. This June, the Jefferson Madison Regional Library is hosting two virtual programs to commemorate Juneteenth.
On June 17th, JMRL is hosting a panel discussion on the lives of the enslaved populations on the Monticello, Montpelier, and Highland plantations. (info)
On June 22, JMRL will hold a program about the recently discovered unmarked graves outside the enclosures of the cemetery at Pen Park. (info)
Now, on to the statues.
Council waived its usual procedure of having people wait until the designated public hearing to allow people to use the Community Matters to speak out on the matter. One of these was Zyahna Bryant, who began a petition in 2016 to remove the statues when she was a student at Charlottesville High School. She pointed out Council’s original vote to remove the statues in 2017 was 3-2.
“The choice here is clear,” Bryant said. “What needs to happen is clear. It’s up to you make the right decision and there’s no opportunity left to straddle the fence. What side of history do you want to be on?”
Scott Warner grew up in Charlottesville but now lives in Albemarle County. He said the report from the Council-appointed Blue Ribbon Commission on Race, Memorials and Public Spaces offered up two alternatives for the Robert E. Lee statue.
“Move the sculpture to McIntire Park and confront its history there and number two, confront the sculpture in place and redesign and transfer Lee Park,” Warner said.
Bruce Williamson, an attorney who works downtown, said Council ultimately voted to reject the Blue Ribbon Commission’s recommendations.
“The preservation of history is not even an issue here,” Williamson said. “These statues preserve other things and many other people will speak eloquently about what those statues were meant for, what they preserve, and why they need to go.”
After these comments, City Manager Boyles gave an overview of the last five years and explained what the steps are ahead for the statues as laid out by the Virginia State Supreme Court and the General Assembly.
“Council now has before you tonight for consideration a resolution to remove, contextualize, relocate, or cover these statues after a 30 day period has expired that allows consideration of relocation to a museum, a historical society, government, of military battlefield,” Boyles said.
Then the official public hearing began. In the second session, several speakers asked that the city remove the statues but not let anyone else take them on.
“These statues must come down and not be put up anywhere else after this,” said Cali Gaston. “They are symbols of hate, of white supremacy, and as such must be removed and repurposed.”
In all, 55 people addressed Council during the public hearing, with all but a handful requesting removal. City Councilor Heather Hill spoke first.
“Really appreciate the engagement tonight and I think it was definitely a clear message to this Council,” Hill said.
Vice Mayor Sena Magill thanked those who spoke.
“And also to thank the people who started this work in all sorts of forms over a very long time,” Magill said.
City Councilor Michael Payne said he didn’t have much to add to what the speakers had said.
“Thoughts I have that come to mind as someone who was there on August 12 and turning on to 4th Street and as a survivor of August 12 like others is that I will be very proud to take a vote to remove these statues and to reimagine our public spaces in these areas and I hope it can be a small part of collective transformation here locally,” Payne said.
City Councilor Lloyd Snook also referenced August 2017 and the Unite the Right Rally that was held here because of Council’s original vote to remove the Robert E. Lee statue.
“Whatever anybody might have thought before August 12, since August 12 I think the answer has become crystal clear,” Snook said. “It’s crystal clear to me that the statues need to come down in some fashion. I have not yet solidified in my own mind what ought to happen thereafter.”
The statue requires the city to put out an offer for groups to take the statue and to give 30 days for a response. Snook said if the city were to deviate from that process, there could be further legal complications.
“So we’re going to do it carefully, we’re going to do it thoroughly, we’re going to do it absolutely by the law,” Snook said.
Mayor Nikuyah Walker said she was thinking about how Black children in the future will no longer have to see the statues.
“I immediately start thinking about how many 10-year-olds have had to live and be subjected to symbols throughout history that uphold whiteness over everything else,” Walker said.
Walker also said that people who are opposed to the proposed changes to the Future Land Use Map should also consider their views, and that supporters of removing the statues should enter that conversation.
“And I’m hoping that those individuals are having the same conversation with the same intensity with their neighbors who are forgetting redlining and racial covenants and wanting to maintain status quo but not able to associate that with the same power structure that put those statues up,” Walker said.
Councilor Payne made a motion, seconded by Snook. Council Clerk Kyna Thomas called the vote.
Within minutes, the city issued a Request for Statements of Interest (RFI) for entities who might want to take ownership of the statues. (read the RFI)
“On or after July 8, 2021, if the statutes, or either of them, has not been transferred to such an entity for relocation and placement, City Council may make other disposition(s),” reads the RFI’s description.
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Before we go today, I wanted to follow up on the brief blurb in the June 5 newsletter about pollution reduction targets for the Chesapeake Bay. Sarah Vogelsong has a great story in the Virginia Mercury about the challenges to getting reductions in the agricultural sector, with a focus on efforts to fence cattle out of streams. It’s worth a read if you want to pay more attention to what’s known as the TMDL. That stands for Total Maximum Daily Load, and this is a story to follow in the next four years with a 2025 deadline looming.
June 8, 2021: Council votes to remove Confederate statues, beginning 30-day process for groups to signal interest in taking ownership