This hole in the ground near the corner of Verona Drive and Olympia Drive in Fontana is all that’s left of Tuesday’s blast.
PHOTO BY LINDSAY BARNES

It was an otherwise sleepy Tuesday afternoon in the Fontana subdivision, which overlooks Darden Towe Park, as Carrie Hanley sat on her back porch to enjoy the the mild weather of June 16. Around 12:30pm, the only thing out of the ordinary was that just down the hill, as some workers were getting ready to blast their way through some rock in order to install a new sewage line.

So it came as little surprise when Hanley heard the low rumble from the detonation. What came as a surprise is what happened next.

“It was just like the movies,” says Hanley. “We just saw this big, black cloud coming toward us.”

Hanley says (more)

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Artist Gerry Mitchell, one year after the crosswalk incident.
FILE PHOTO BY WILL WALKER

First came the accident. Then the bad publicity. Now, 18 months after Gerry Mitchell was struck in his wheelchair by an Albemarle County police cruiser and then ticketed by Charlottesville police in the ER, comes the lawsuit.

Filed Tuesday morning, June 16, in Charlottesville Circuit Court, Mitchell’s $850,000 suit alleges negligence, malicious prosecution, and intentional infliction of emotional distress and names the City of Charlottesville, Charlottesville Police Officer Steve Grissom, who wrote the ticket, and Albemarle County Police Officer Gregory C. Davis, who was driving the cruiser that struck him in a West Main Street crosswalk on November 5, 2007.

“When you think about the cover up, what they did was so unnecessary and horrible,” says Mitchell, reached hours after the suit was filed. “They basically are not being (more)

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New columns adorn the Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court on High Street. The brick columns shown here have since been covered with white stucco.
PHOTO BY DAVE MCNAIR

In 2004, the City and County approved the renovation of the old Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court on High Street. The projected $12 million project also included a new 3-level, 91-space parking deck.

Today, the project is finally nearing completion, but at a cost that has rocketed to $19.9 million. That’s nearly three Downtown Mall renovation projects.

Built in 1902, the Colonial Revival building that housed the jail was originally Elks Lodge No. 389 and featured a library, a card room, a billiard parlor, and even a bowling alley. Early photographs of the lodge show the building with a big four-column portico on the front with a giant elk or deer head attached to its pediment.

A major fire in the late 1940s destroyed much of the building, and when it was later renovated, local architect Floyd Johnson chose not to rebuild the portico. Other distinguishing features include double fan arches over the front door and the window above, two pilasters corresponding with Doric columns, and a rusticated façade on which every fifth brick is indented.

What the Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court building looked like in 2002 .
PHOTO FROM CITY WEBSITE

Part of the reason the renovation has taken so long, and cost so much, is the fact that a section of the building collapsed during construction in March 2006. Construction was delayed not only by the costly mishap, but also by the costly litigation that followed.

“It’s the City’s position that it was the fault of the contractor and/or subcontractors,” said City attorney Craig Brown in May 2007. “But we’re hoping to have this whole thing resolved this week.”

Try two more years.

The City would eventually file a lawsuit accusing Kenbridge Construction and excavation company J.A. Walder of “cutting corners” to maximize profits on the City’s dollar, and claiming that the city had to hire a structural engineer to fix the building while Kenbridge refused to go back to work. Of course, Kenbridge fired back with its own lawsuit, accusing the city of supplying  “inaccurate or inadequate” plans, and then for good measure went after subcontractor Walder, accusing it of negligence. (more)

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Charlottesville police now say the pedestrian struck and killed on Avon Street was not in a crosswalk and had alcohol in his possession.
FILE PHOTO

Nearly 24 hours after a pedestrian was killed trying to cross Avon Street Thursday night, there are no charges against the driver, and police say they believe the pedestrian— 63-year-old Horace Clay Atkins— was outside a crosswalk when he was struck.

Atkins, who lived on Avon Street, was struck in the 400 block of Avon Street at around 9:20pm March 26, according to a release. He died before EMTs arrived.

The 22-year-old male driver of the car that struck Atkins remained at the scene and called for help, according to the release, and police do not believe that alcohol was involved on the driver’s part.

Atkins, however, was in possession of alcohol at the time of his death and an autopsy and toxicology screen are currently being conducted at the University of Virginia Medical Examiner’s Office to help determine if alcohol played a role in the accident.

The accident occurred just two weeks after the city began implementing $700,000 worth of pedestrian safety improvements.

–originally posted 12:35am, March 27 and headlined, “Ped killed on Avon Street”

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The more-than-a-mile-long train stopped about 20 feet after striking a woman.
PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

An empty CSX freight train ground to a halt at 5:35am this morning in Crozet when a woman was hit and dragged approximately 20 feet. Amazingly, the woman had “very minor injuries,” Buckingham Branch VP of operations Gale Wilson says he was told by the state police.

The 7,000-foot-long empty coal train was headed west and going less than 10 mph, says Wilson. Buckingham Branch leases the track and the train is owned by CSX, which is investigating the incident.

When Albemarle police arrived, the pedestrian, a Crozet resident, was conscious but had sustained a head injury and was taken to the hospital.

“The cops said she wasn’t in her right frame of mind” before she got on the tracks, an observer at the scene who declined to be identified told the Hook.

The train was stopped along Railroad Avenue for four hours after the woman came into its path on a stretch before Lanetown Road and behind Orchard Acres subdivision. CSX was investigating the incident and it sent a new crew.

At 10:25am, CSX Clifton Forge terminal manager Robert Brown said, “They’re fixing to move it now.”

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