March 21, 2024: Albemarle's deputy fire chief provides update on brush fires, urges public to sign up for community alerts
Plus: Governor Youngkin signs 36 more bills, vetoes another 22, and sends two back to the General Assembly with recommendations
On any given day, there are all sorts of items that might go into a newsletter called Charlottesville Community Engagement. These are the stories that are going into the March 21, 2024 print-only edition. A podcast version will be out tomorrow as Town Crier Productions experiments with something new to get information out faster. I’m Sean Tubbs, and I’m just as confused as whoever might be confuddled.
In today’s installment:
Albemarle’s Deputy Fire Chief provides details on efforts to contain over a dozen brush fires on Wednesday
The City of Charlottesville’s participation in a health and social metrics program has garnered national recognition
Governor Glenn Youngkin takes action on 60 more bills including 22 vetoes on bills related to law enforcement and the courts
The Virginia Public Access Project takes a look at political party behavior in the legislature
First shout-out: Plant Virginia Natives
We’re now in spring with more minutes of daylight in the day than darkness. The world is coming alive around all of us and there’s still time to plan for what you might grow to take advantage of whatever space you may have to extend a little habitat. That’s where Plant Virginia Natives comes in!
The initiative is part of a partnership with ten regional campaigns for ten different ecosystems across Virginia, from the Northern Piedmont to the Eastern Shore. Take a look at the full map below for the campaign for native species where you are in the Commonwealth. For the Charlottesville area, download a free copy of the handbook: Piedmont Native Plants: A Guide for Landscapes and Gardens. As I plan for spring, I’m going to take a look because after almost four years of one Patreon supporter selecting this as his shout-out, I’m excited to get to work myself!
Albemarle Deputy Fire Chief details efforts to fight yesterday’s brush fires
Albemarle fire and rescue crews responded yesterday to 19 brush fires across the county, with assistance from squads from elsewhere in Virginia.
“Most of those were small in nature but there were three that were very significant brush fires,” said John Oprandy, Albemarle’s Deputy Chief of Emergency Management, at a press conference held Thursday at 12:30 p.m.
Oprandy said the first call came in after 1 p.m. yesterday and crews were sent to one of those significant fires at Taylor’s Gap Road.
“The fire impacted about approximately 250 acres and as of this information release it’s about 50 percent contained,” Oprandy said. “Two outbuildings are being considered as total losses in that fire. No residential structures have been impacted and in fact, 15 to 20 residences were directly saved by the efforts of the Fire Department.”
The exact cause of the fire was still under investigation but Oprandy said it took time to contain the fire because the practice is to build a fireline around the entire blaze and the topography and steep terrain adds time.
Oprandy said another significant fire was at Blackberry Hill in far northwest Albemarle with a call to service coming in at 1:40 p.m. with the first unit on site 35 minutes later. It took five and a half hours to contain the 20 acre blaze.
“The cause of this fire was determined to be an open air burning violation and subsequently a summons was issued,” Oprandy said.
The call for a third fire came in at 3 p.m. for a fire at Piney Mountain and it took 12 minutes for the first fire truck to arrive.
“This fire impacted approximately 180 acres,” Oprandy said. “No residential structures were impacted but one shed is being considered a total loss. Crews contained the fire by 2 a.m. this morning, Thursday, and they are still working on the cause of that fire as well.”
Work was still underway Thursday to fully extinguish the Piney Mountain and Taylor Gap fires was underway this afternoon. Oprandy pleaded with people to not burn anything and to protect themselves from the smoke.
There were evacuation orders associated with the Piney Mountain and Taylors Gap fires, and Oprandy said Albemarle wants people to sign up for Community Alerts.
Text “Albemarle” to 226787
The fires all happened on what the National Weather Service describes as a “Red Flag Day” which is determined by several conditions such as high winds, a low dew point, and humidity.
“These fires spread very rapidly once they got started,” Oprandy said.
There are no reported injuries related to the fires.
The fires also come at a time when vegetation is still beginning to come to life and conditions are unique.
“We could have had several days of rain, but a little bit of rain dries out that top layer of leaves and sticks and twigs left over from the winter, and that dries immediately, and we haven’t greened up in the springtime so that creates a level of dryness that you don’t see at other times of the year,” Oprandy said.
That’s why the Virginia Department of Forestry has an open air ban on burning before 4 p.m. from February 15 to April 30 each year. Visit their website for more information.
Albemarle County crews were augmented by mutual aid responses from other Virginia localities, some of whom were hundreds of miles away.
“Although we have seen weather like this happen before, this is not a normal situation in that eight other counties, mostly surrounding this area, also had declarations of emergency for brush fires,” Oprandy said. “Under ordinary circumstances, we might be able to reach out to Nelson County, Fluvanna County, Buckingham County, Louisa County, and get brush trucks and apparatus and personnel, but they were all fighting the fires in their county.”
Albemarle was assisted by crews from Amelia County, Cumberland County, Pulaski County, and Carrollton Fire Department from Isle of Wight County.
Social and health metrics program garners Charlottesville a National League of Cities Award
The City of Charlottesville’s participation in a project to connect health outcomes and with housing segregation has led to an honor from one of the country’s municipal organizations.
“Charlottesville’s Office of Social Equity applied to participate in the 2023 National League of Cities’ Capstone Challenge that paired us in a competitive process with an organization called CityHealth Dashboard,” said Deputy City Manager for Social Equity Ashley Marshall.
CityHealth Dashboard is a program of the Grossman School of Medicine's Department of Population Health at New York University. The online interface allows anyone to find and compare statistics on dozens of health outcomes ranging from breast cancer deaths to premature deaths, as well as social and economic factors.
For instance, data from 2022 shows that 16.9 percent of Charlottesville public school students were chronically absent compared to an average of 30 among other cities in the program.
Marshall said Charlottesville was one of the first small cities to be added to the map in 2022.
“CityHealth Dashboard’s team actually won the challenge using work that they did not only for the City of Charlottesville but for Houston, Texas, and Rochester, New York, and their work focused on looking at potential connections that historic segregation may have on modern health and economic disparities.”
Some metrics to note:
Income inequality in 2021 was measured at a score of -7.4, worse than an average of -2 among dashboard cities.
An estimated 25.7 percent of children lived in poverty in 2021, worse than an average of 16.9 percent among dashboard cities.
An estimated 55.5 percent of households experience high rent burden, compared to an average of 50.5 percent among dashboard cities.
Take a look at the dashboard here and see what you can find.
The final report has more details about how Charlottesville used their participation.
“In response to rising rental costs, the City of Charlottesville, VA City Council recently approved a large investment to improve housing affordability,” reads the report. “The interdisciplinary Capstone team, led by the Deputy City Manager for Racial, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, wanted CHDB support to make the connection between housing and health more tangible to the City Council, in order to guide them as they seek to allocate this funding across the community in a holistic, but data-driven, manner.”
Houston used their participation to determine if a youth workforce development effort was effective. Rochester used theirs to improve a healthy foods program.
Second shout-out: Charlottesville Jazz Society
In today’s second subscriber supported public service announcement, the Charlottesville Jazz Society wants you to know that once a month they hold the Local Jazz Spotlight Series at Miller’s on the Downtown Mall.
Coming up this Sunday, March 24, master trombonist Doug Bethel will assemble a stellar quartet with pianist Sam Coffey, bassist Bob Bowen and drummer Karl Tietze. This takes place from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and the event is free. Maybe I’ll see you there as I’ve been wanting to go see one of these for months!
And don’t forget to check out the event calendar at cvillejazz.com to learn what’s coming up this week!
Governor Youngkin vetoes 22 bills related to law enforcement
The executive phase of the 2024 General Assembly continues with Governor Glenn Youngkin taking action on 60 more bills with a further 22 vetoes. Youngkin signed 36 pieces of legislation and amended another two.
“We have a duty to protect the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia from harm,” Youngkin said in a press release Wednesday night. “I vetoed 22 bills which protect illegal immigrants, or impede law enforcement officers, prosecutors, and judges from holding criminals accountable and bringing them to justice.”
Let’s start with some of what got signed:
Road whips involved with fox hunts can flash amber lights on their vehicles during the events as long as they display a sign that says “Horse Crossing With Rider.” (HB24)
The deadline has been extended by one year for communities with combined sewer flow outfalls to become compliant with efforts and mandates to reduce pollution that makes its way to the Chesapeake Bay. (HB71)
It will be illegal to use a law enforcement dog in a correctional facility, adult or juvenile (HB159)
There can now be official license plates commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence (HB840)
Those seeking to recertification as a real estate broker would need to take three more hours of continuing education on topics such as ethics, fair housing and other topics. However, SB330 also decreases the number of general elective hours from eight to five.
The Town of Craigsville in Augusta County will be allowed to obtain some land from the Department of Corrections when the Augusta Correctional Center is closed later this year. (SB691)
The Drug Treatment Court Act is now to be known as the Act of Recovery Court Act. (SB725)
Appointed bodies can have a few more electronic meetings, but not too many more. (SB734)
The two bills Youngkin amended are related. The House of Delegates and Senate passed different versions of legislation related to first-time drug offenders. Youngkin sent back the Senate version with a note that he supports the language that passed the House of Delegates.
Now, the vetoed bills.
HB972 would have prohibited asking defendants in criminal cases their immigration status.
“Such limitations on the information available to courts risk impeding their ability to adjudicate cases fairly and accurately, potentially resulting in severe consequences for those outside the courtroom,” Youngkin wrote in his veto statement.
SB69 would have allowed people who arrived in the United States as children but are now awaiting a legal status through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to be eligible to serve as law enforcement officers and police chiefs.
“This bill would run counter to this appropriate working practice by allowing non-citizens who are not permanent residents and are not eligible to become citizens to be certified as law enforcement officers, Youngkin wrote.
HB455 would have reduced the penalty for having less than a gram of a controlled substance to a Class 1 misdemeanor. Right now any amount is a Class 5 felony even if there are only trace amounts of residue. The Virginia Criminal Justice Conference recommended this bill but Youngkin vetoed it.
“The proposal will lead to the public’s perception that possession of residue of a scheduled drug such as cocaine or heroin is not a serious offense, akin to underage alcohol possession,” Youngkin wrote. “Such perception would hinder our efforts to combat drug crises, such as the opioid epidemic.”
HB520 would have required guidelines be put on interrogation practices used by law-enforcement officers such as developing policies for when officers can use false promises of leniency, fake documents, or misinterpretations of what others have said.
Youngkin said existing protections are enough.
“Imposing additional statutory requirements when current practices are sufficient and adaptable is not prudent,” Youngkin said in a statement. “This proposal would create unnecessary bureaucratic burdens without significant added benefit.”
HB45 would have allowed that any time a person is spent incarcerated prior to conviction be used as time toward release. That could include time in a state psychiatric facility. Youngkin said this would violate Virginia’s truth-in-sentencing policy.
“The ramifications of such a policy shift are alarming,” Youngkin said. “Not only would it necessitate recalculating virtually every inmate's sentence, but it would also undermine public safety by releasing individuals at a heightened risk of re-offending.”
For the full list of vetoed bills, visit the Governor’s website.
VPAP visualization: Party Unity on Close Votes
Town Crier Productions is a proud supporter of the Virginia Public Access Project, a nonprofit organization that seeks to make it easier for people to know what’s happening in the General Assembly and with campaign finance across the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Today VPAP posted a data visualization that takes a look at legislators behavior depending on how close the margins of control are in the House of Delegates or the Virginia Senate.
“The larger the majority, the more votes the party can afford to lose while still having enough to pass their agenda,” reads today’s entry. “But when a party holds a narrow majority, the tendency to vote as a bloc increases to ensure their priorities succeed.”
In the current year, the 51 Democrats in the House of Delegates voted with their party 94.2 percent of the time during close votes whereas the 49 Republicans voted 32.3 percent in similar scenarios. In the Senate, the 21 Democrats voted with their party 89.7 percent during close votes compared whereas the 19 Republicans voted 60.5 percent.
Take a look at VPAP’s page to view through the date and if you’ve not signed up for their daily VANews compendium of stories, you’re missing out.
Reading material will be back next time.
Endnotes for #651
A dilemma I have is that by splitting up the newsletters from the podcast, I’m going to introduce some challenges to how I provide my own metrics. But I’m quite pleased that I can hit send about an hour and a half earlier than I would by deferring the podcast to another post. What matters is to get information out as quickly as I can.
This phase of my career all begin with a podcast four years ago, but I personally find it much easier to read than to listen to podcast. This is perhaps where I also confess that the vast majority of the podcasts I listen to are improvisational comedy. This may explain a lot.
In any case, there will be a podcast version and there will be a radio version on WTJU that airs Saturday morning at 6 p.m.
All of this work is part of Town Crier Productions, a company I created in the summer of 2020 as a leap of faith to pursue my practice of journalism. Now this is my full-time job, paid for by Substack subscribers and a core of Patreon supporters. If you’d like to support but are on the fence and want to know more, drop me a line! In addition to the producer and writer, I’m also the business person, the human resources officer, the chief strategist, primary pencil pusher, and custodial staff.
Do know that Ting will match your initial subscription should you go the Substack route. The partnership with Ting is an incredibly generous sponsorship, and you if you sign up for service and enter the promo code COMMUNITY you’re going to get:
Free installation
A second month for free
A $75 gift card to the Downtown Mall
