Charlottesville Breaking News
The week in review
Latest in the Western 29 Bypass resurrection: City Council votes 4-0 June 20 to oppose the controversial roadway. After a more than 10-year hiatus, the bypass revived June 8 at the end of a late-night Albemarle Board of Supervisors meeting.
Biggest foreclosure: "Preservation development" Bundoran Farm in North Garden goes on the block June 29, the Daily Progress reports.
Biggest paychecks: A power failure results in around 800 Charlottesville employees who have direct deposit getting paid twice– and many of those get an email warning not to spend the extra money, according to the Progress.
Biggest bathroom break: Ethyle Cole Giuseppe, 92, donates $100,000 to build a permanent bathroom at Greene County Community Park, the Greene County Record reports.
Most rabid: An infected raccoon sinks its teeth into the leg of hiker Kalie Sealander, 22, while in Shenandoah National Park, according to NBC29. Sealander has finished her rabies shots....
Charges against renowned UVA hand surgeon dismissed
Back in April, Dr. Abhinav "Bobby" Chhabra, 42, an orthopaedic surgeon and co-director of the new University of Virginia Hand Center, was arrested at his Glenmore home on assault charges stemming from a March 22 incident involving Nancy Heister of Troy, Virginia, a nurse and patient care coordinator at the Center. But at a 1pm hearing June 22 in Albemarle County General District Court, those charges were dropped in less than half a minute.
Chhabra and his wife, who was smiling at her husband throughout the brief afternoon hearing, defense attorney Rhonda Quagliana, and Will Hendricks, Albemarle County assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney, were present in the empty courtroom, but Heister, who had Chhabra arrested for allegedly assaulting her in the hallway at the Center, was not present. Calls to Heister have gone unanswered.
"The decision not to proceed was made with the victim," says Hendricks. Asked why that decision was made, Hendricks declined to comment.
According to a UVA Medical Center spokesperson Peter Jump, Heister no longer works at the Hand Center, but is still employed at the Medical Center. Asked if Chhabra or the Medical Center would be releasing a statement regarding the alleged incident, Heister's relocation, or the court decision, Jump said the Medical Center would have nothing to add.
Riding the rails: It's the only way to fly
Nobody brings rail closer to the airplanes than
Reagan National and Metro. PHOTO BY HAWES
SPENCERIt's late afternoon, and I'm standing inside New York's JFK airport with over a dozen of my favorite relatives, when we suddenly learn that the flight back to Reagan National has been canceled due to a severe weather system in the nation's capital. Even worse, the storm has knocked out the rest of the day's flights as well.
As frequent travelers know, when weather grounds planes, there's no free ride and no free hotel–- just the prospect of lining up a set of hotel rooms (each of which can easily run $500/night in Gotham City) or scrambling to find a squad of large, luggage-ready rental cars and enough drivers willing to launch a five-hour (traffic-willing) trek to the DC area.
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Full-timer: Kluge working while filing bankruptcy
Bill Moses and Patricia Kluge filed for bankruptcy June 15.FILE PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCEPatricia Kluge may have literally put everything she owned into trying to save the winery she created. After months of foreclosures on her businesses and homes, the now Trump-employed vintner and husband Bill Moses have sought bankruptcy protection.
On June 15, the couple filed a Chapter 7 petition seeking relief from creditors including Farm Credit, Bank of America, and Sonabank, which had collectively lent them around $66 million, most of which was poured into expanding and then keeping afloat the Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyard.
Also last week, a foreclosure notice appeared for yet another Kluge asset, Fuel Co., the downtown gourmet gas station that's been shuttered since 2007.
On June 9, Kluge and Moses withdrew a lawsuit against Farm Credit in which they claim the bank violated federal law at multiple turns. The decision to drop the suit gives more flexibility to their bankruptcy trustee, according to their Middleburg-based lawyer Ed McMahon.
"The real story," says Moses, "is that in February 2009, to save the winery, Patricia gave [Farm Credit] a lien with all her assets. We didn't think the recession would be as deep."
In April, Farm Credit, which had...
No exit: Has Hunter Craig created more unsellable land?
The 1.23-acre parcel lies directly across the street from the current Martha Jefferson campus.photo by Hawes Spencer; file photo by Courteney StuartLast week's news about the overhaul of the old Martha Jefferson campus shines a spotlight on another piece of the hospital's portfolio, a property on a prominent downtown corner that recalls some of the big names in local history including Forrest Marshall and Hunter Craig.
How the land came into the arms of Martha Jefferson and why it may stay there– and potentially drain its parent company's coffers– is a tale of charity, timing, and quashed expectations.
The Hospital announced in February that it was selling its leftovers, 26 parcels surrounding the old campus. Among them: "High and Tenth," a 1.23-acre tract with more than 50 parking spaces and three buildings holding more than 10,000 square feet under roof. Asking price: $1.4 million.
The listing agent confirms that it didn't sell during the offering period, but she declines to confirm what a reliable source asserts, that one of the two offers came in $1,399,999 lower, at a single dollar.
So why?
The answer is simple. The place is encumbered by a lease that won't end until the 22nd Century and which requires any buyer to assume monthly lease payments of about $10,000 a month and climbing.
How that lease came into the hands of a non-profit medical cent...
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