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VSP Investigating Augusta County Pursuit And Crash

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Route 262
Augusta County, Virginia

Information via Virginia State Police:

“Virginia State Police are investigating a crash in Augusta County involving a motorcycle and a Virginia State Police vehicle. The crash occurred Saturday, Sept. 16, 2017, at approximately 2:30 a.m.

The Augusta County Sheriff’s Office was pursuing a 2005 Suzuki motorcycle on Route 262. The motorcycle was traveling east on Route 262 as the trooper was responding to assist with the pursuit. The trooper was traveling west on Route 262 when his patrol vehicle and the motorcycle collided. The impact of the crash caused the motorcycle to run off the road and strike the guardrail.

The motorcyclist, Jeffrey M. Knight, 39, of Edinburgh, Va., was flown to UVA Hospital for treatment of life-threatening injuries. He was wearing a helmet.

The trooper was not injured in the crash.

The crash remains under investigation.

Corinne N. Geller
Public Relations Director
Virginia State Police”

VSP Investigating Death in Buckingham County

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Gravel Hill Road
Buckingham County, Virginia

Press Release via Virginia State Police:

“At 5:54 p.m., Thursday (Sept. 14), the Virginia State Police Appomattox Division dispatch received a call about a traffic crash in Buckingham County. When Trooper G.T. Lee responded to the 2300 block of Gravel Hill Road, there was no crashed vehicle. Instead, he discovered a female lying in the roadway and a male subject standing over her.

The adult female was deceased. Her remains were transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Richmond for examination, autopsy and positive identification.

The male subject, Neal E. Fore, 29, of Cumberland, Va., was arrested for DUI and charged with driving without a valid operator’s license and for improper use of a “farm tag” license plate. Fore was transported to Piedmont Regional Jail, where he was being held without bond.

Fore was driving a late 1990s/2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee that is light-brown in color, has “farm use” tags and is missing its front bumper. Fore did stop at the scene. Fore and the female had been traveling in the Jeep together prior to her death. The circumstances surrounding her death are still under investigation.

Anyone with information about the woman’s death and/or recall seeing the Cherokee in the vicinity of Gravel Hill Road, is asked to please call the Virginia State Police at 434-352-7128 or #77 on a cell phone or send an email to questions@vsp.virginia.gov.

Corinne N. Geller
Public Relations Director
Virginia State Police”

Nellysford : Sign Goes Up On Dollar General : Most Exterior Work Complete

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©2017 Blue Ridge Life : Photo By Tommy Stafford : Both the road sign and the store sign at the recently constructed Dollar General in Nellysford, Virginia went up on Wednesday – September 13, 2017

Nellysford
Nelson County, Virginia
By Tommy Stafford

We’ve been telling you about the Dollar General in Nellysford since our first story back in June of 2016. Over a year later the store is nearing completetion. The sign on the roadway near Route 151 as well as the sign on the store itself went up this week.

Most of the exterior work has been completed, including paving, putting down grass sod, and other landscaping. There is also a sign out front that says “Hiring Now.”

“Based on the construction timeline, I anticipate the Nellysford location is still on track to host a grand opening in late fall, but feel free to check back periodically as we get closer since construction progress can alter the exact timeline,” Laura Somerville with DG Media Relations in Tennessee tells us.

More history on this DG and others proposed in Nelson County, Virginia by clicking here.

Piney River : CVEC : Planned Power Outages Thursday Night (September 14) & Saturday Night (September 16)

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Piney River
Nelson County, Virginia

Information via CVEC:

CVEC has received notification from AEP, our transmission service provider, of a required 12 hour outage on the transmission line that serves the Piney River Substation. This work is essential to maintain safe and reliable power to our consumers. To limit the outage time for our members, CVEC crews will temporarily switch the load from the Piney River substation to the Colleen substation.

You will experience a 1.5 hour outage, beginning at 11:00 pm TONIGHT, September 14, while CVEC crews make the switch. When the AEP work is complete, you will experience an additional 1.5 hour outage beginning at 11:00 pm on Saturday, September 16, so that CVEC crews can switch the feed back to the Piney River substation.

We appreciate your support as we continuously work to maintain a safe and reliable distribution system for our members.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. Thank you for being a CVEC member.

800-367-2832 | ms@mycvec.com | www.mycvec.com

Nelson : Commonwealth Attorney Rutherford : ‘Charges Certified in May 2017 Murder Case’

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Photo courtesy of our media partners CBS19 News – Charlottesville : Charges on Jacob Paul Lincoln have now been certified by a General District Judge. The 2nd degree murder charge will go to a grand jury.


Lovingston
Nelson County, Virginia

Nelson County Commonwealth Attorney Daniel Rutherford says felony charges against Jacob Lincoln have been certified by a general district judge. The second degree murder charge and another charge for use of a firearm to commit murder will now go to a grand jury for possible indictment. The charges stem from this shooting in SE Nelson County on May 27, 2017.

Photo Courtesy Tyler Owen CBS19 News : Lawmen investigate the scene of a murder that happened Saturday morning – May 27, 2017 in far Southeast Nelson County near the Amherst County line. James Lee spencer was killed at the scene.

“Essentially this means a judge heard the evidence presented in charges and determined there’s enough probable cause to send it to a grand jury to hear for indictment. If the grand jury agrees and does indict, a trial date will then be selected,” VA Rutherford told us.

More updates as the case progresses.

LYNCHBURG DISTRICT TRAFFIC ALERT : September 18-22, 2017

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Via VDOT
LYNCHBURG, Va. – Highway work requiring road/lane/structure closures is scheduled, weather permitting. Items in italics contain new/updated information. For up-to-date information, call 511 or visit www.511Virginia.org.

Amherst County:
Route 29 Bus S over NS RR- Bridge deck overlay project with one 16’ lane. Est.comp. 12/15/17.
Route 130 over Pedlar River- New bridge is open to traffic; relocation of Route 635 connector continues. Lane closures possible. Est. completion of project: 11/27/17.
Route 624 over 29 Bypass (661-604) – Road closed Sept. 25-Oct. 6 for repairs. Detour via 604, 60, 29 Bypass and 29 Business.
Route 677 (Rt 130 – Rt 622) – Milling and paving will begin 8/21. Traffic control devices and flaggers will direct motorists.

Appomattox County:
Route 24 – Crew will perform sign maintenance.

Buckingham County:
Route 60 – Crew will perform sign maintenance.
Surface treatment schedule – Traffic control devices and flaggers will direct traffic thru September.
Various – Crews will work surfaces and respond to customer concerns.

Campbell County:
Route 29 S (city limits to Rt 738) –Milling and paving will begin 8/24. Traffic control devices and flaggers will direct motorists.
Route 29 Business, Altavista – Crew working on signals.
Route 460 Bridge over Beaver Creek – One lane of traffic with 14.5 ft width restriction will be in place using temporary traffic control barrier for bridge deck overlay project. Estimated completion – October 7, 2017.
Route 406 & F906 – AEP will move utility lines in early Oct. Message boards will alert motorists to lane closures.
Route 460 W over Buffalo Creek – Bridge deck overlay. One 12’ width lane. Estimated completion 12/15/17.
Route 501 – Crews will retrace line markings.
Route 501 N&S over 29/460 – Bridge deck overlay. One lane closed at a time. 15’ width northbound. Estimated completion 12/15/17.
Route 633 (705-703) – Bridge work. One lane traffic with temporary signal.
Route 650 over Molly’s Creek – Traffic restricted to single 10’ lane using concrete barrier, temporary signal and traffic control devices. Completion – 10/27/17.
Route 696 over Troublesome Creek (709-693) – Road closed through late-October for bridge replacement. Detour via 709, 692 and 693 back to 709.
Route 1623 near Rt 622 – Road closed for waterline work. Alternate route is available. Messages boards will alert motorists.

Charlotte County:
Route 15 N/S over 15 Bus. – Max. load width of 12’ allowed through bridge repair project. Oversized loads may use Rt. 15 Business. Temporary traffic control in place. Est. comp. 12/15/17.
Route 15 – Crews will perform sign maintenance.
Route 40, Phenix AHQ – Crew will work culverts.
Route 746 over stream (40 – 649) – Road closed 10/10-11/17 for abutment repairs. Detours via 649, 40 & 746.
Phenix AHQ – Crew will mow.
Various – Crews will boom axe, work surfaces and respond to customer concerns.

Cumberland County:
Various – Crew will work surfaces, add shoulder stone, mow and respond to customer concerns.

Halifax County:
Route 58 over Winn’s Creek (bet. 696 & 779) – Lane closed due to bridge railing damage. 11’ width restriction. Est. completion – Sept. 15.
Route 501 and 96 – Crews will retrace line markings.
Route 626 over NS RR (785-620) – Bridge painting. Flaggers and traffic control devices will assist motorists during work. Expect delays.
Bethel and Cluster Springs AHQs – Crews will boom axe and work surfaces.
Cluster Springs AHQ – Crew will cut limbs around signs.
Volens AHQ – Crews will mow.
Various–Crews will respond to customer requests.

Lynchburg:
Route 501 N&S over 29/460 – Bridge deck overlay. One lane closed at a time. 15’ width northbound. Estimated completion 12/15/17.
Greenview Drive- Changes in traffic pattern during project. Completion- Fall 2017.
Route 29/460 (Odd Fellows Rd Int. & Odd Fellows Rd.)– Equipment entering/exiting roadway. Temporary lane closures possible on 460 & Odd Fellows. Est. comp. 8/3/18. Speed – 45 mph.
Route 460, area of LU campus – LU/English Construction bridge project.

Nelson County:
Route 151/6 & 638 int. – Intersections improvements. Traffic control devices and flaggers will direct traffic. Work zone in operation from 7 am to 7 pm, weather permitting. Expect delays. Estimated completion October 16, 2017.
Route 151, Routes 634, 665 & 840 near 29 – Crews will maintain and repair pavement messages.
Route 611 over Perry Creek (636-635) – Road closed to through traffic for bridge replacement. Detour via 626, 638, 6/151 and 635 back to 611. Estimated completion – Oct. 6, 2017.
Route 633 over Branch Taylor Creek (635 – 692) – Road closed 9/18-10/13 for culvert replacement. Detour will use Route 635, 692, and 29 back to 633.
Route 680 (near 699) – One lane traffic during construction. Wintergreen traffic encouraged to use 151 & 664. Completion – Sept. 22.
Route 1001 –Construction of sidewalk with curb and gutter. Continuous right shoulder closure eastbound with possible right lane closures. Hours: 7 am to 5 pm.

Pittsylvania County:
Route 40 and other routes (Gretna AHQ) and various Mt. Airy AHQ routes – Crews will mow.
Route 62– Crews will retrace line markings.
Route 605 over Marrowbone Creek – Advance warning signs & portable signals in use. Traffic reduced to one alternating thru lane during joint repairs.
Route 631 (640-668) – Closed approx. 2 wks starting Sept. 5 for pipe replacement. Detour via 640, 632 and back to 631.
Route 637(Gretna AHQ) and Route 800 (Rondo AHQ)– Crews will work Rural Rustic project.
Route 695 over Fall Creek – Road closed 7/24-10/27 for bridge replacement. Detour in use.
Route 761 (600-639) – Closed for bridge replacement. Detour via 600, 602 and 601. Est. completion 12/4/17.
Brosville AHQ – Crew will work ditches.
Brosville, Gretna and Kentuck AHQs – Crews will boom axe.
Brosville, Gretna and Mt. Airy AHQs – Crews will mow.
Gretna, Kentuck, Mt. Airy and Rondo AHQs – Crews will work surfaces.
Gretna and Rondo AHQs – Crews will clean roadsides.
Various –Crews will respond to customers.

Prince Edward County:
Route 651 over Harris Creek (Rt 690 – 608) – Road closed 10/1017-11/10/17 for bridge replacement. Detour via 626, 460 and 608 back to 651.
Route 691, 705 & 784 – Crew will begin preparation for Rural Rustic projects.
Route 695 over Route 460 – Bridge painting may result in delays.
Surface treatment schedule – Traffic control devices and flaggers will direct traffic. Thru early September.
Various – Crew will mow, work surfaces, cut brush, remove debris and respond to customer concerns.

District-wide activities:
Bridge maintenance – Crews will wash and perform maintenance on bridges.
Guardrail maintenance – Crews will do guardrail maintenance.
Pipe rehabilitation – Crews will rehab/replace pipe at various locations.

Schuyler : Sheriff Investigates Home Invasion Where Victim Was Tied Up : Items Including Guns Stolen

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Schuyler
Nelson County, Virginia

Press release via Nelson County Sheriff’s Office :
“During the early morning hours of September 10th, 2017, the Nelson County Sheriff’s Office responded to a possible home invasion in the area of Cosby Hollow Lane, Schuyler Virginia.  Sometime around 3:00AM EST unidentified suspect(s) entered the home. The homeowner confronted the intruders and a struggle ensued. The homeowner, who sustained non-life-threatening injuries was tied up and several items to include firearms were taken from the home. The homeowner was able to free himself after the intruders left and called 911. Nelson County Investigators processed the scene and evidence was collected.  The Nelson County Sheriff’s Office is following up on leads.
 
If you have any information about this crime you are asked to contact the Nelson County Sheriff’s Office : 434.263.7050

Roseland : Three Painting Pictures : A Poem By David Peyton

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Our feature of Three Beeches begins on page 11 of the September 2017 issue of Blue Ridge Life.

Roseland
Nelson County, Virginia

We were tickled to receive this submission penned by BRL reader David Peyton of Wintergreen. We love getting feedback on our stories and this time, David’s feedback came in the form of a poem, inspired by our cover story of en plein air artists gathering at Three Beeches, a recently renovated farmhouse in Roseland.

THREE PAINTING PICTURES

 

The red roof is an obbligato

as three different painters render

this decaying barn; others portray

the well-restored farmhouse,

a more worthy subject, yes?,

yet the neglected seems to entice

as much as the renewed.

 

The woman wears a light blue shirt

untucked, long sleeves rolled up, light pants,

and a broad-brimmed straw hat

with a great big lavender bow,

palette in her left, brush in her right,

seeking to capture the multigreen

tuftedness of the wooded hillside.

 

The man is poised and dressed the same

but for the lack of a bow –

a thick double band will do.

He is just starting out, with bold dark

authoritative outlines to give form –

the ridges here in the Blue Ridge,

the outlines of the barn.

 

Finally there is the girl,

from whose angle the sloping lawn

makes one side appear to sink down.

With no adult care to detail or form,

she renders the weathered wood siding

with vertical abandon and trees with swirls,

as if she had just seen the play about Rothko

 

where the artist, after an hour of talk

about history and theory,

makes a frenzied assault on a huge canvas.

She makes the building look tall and narrow,

as if an old church. The roof gets redder,

befitting her short-sleeved white dress

with big multicolored polka dots.

 

The adults paint in the present, their work

headed perhaps for a gallery.

The girl’s work may wind up on a ‘frig,

yet she paints for the future.

Had there been a boy,

how might he have looked,

how might he have painted?

 

David Peyton

Labor Day, September 4, 2017, Wintergreen, Virginia

John Logan, Red (2010 Tony Award, Best Play)

 

Foster Fuels Hosting Drive : Water Bottles For Houston

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All Foster Fuels Locations (including Lovingston and Charlottesville) are drop off points, click here for complete list.

Join Foster Fuels in supporting Gleaning For The World as they provide Houston with drinking water! Drop off water bottles at any of their locations, and they will deliver them this Saturday at Touch-A-Truck Lynchburg.

Every bottle makes a difference!

Landowners Sue FERC To Stop Abuse of Eminent Domain On Mountain Valley & Atlantic Coast Pipelines

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Washington, D.C.

Press release via boldalliance.org/appalachia
A group of over 50 landowners from the region whose farms and homes are in the path of the proposed Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast fracked gas pipelines will hold a press conference on Wednesday outside the D.C. offices of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), to announce their filing of a lawsuit against FERC to end the abuse of eminent domain for private gain for pipelines.

The lawsuit, filed this week in Washington D.C. federal district court, challenges the constitutionality of the eminent domain provisions of the Natural Gas Act, and seek to end the unconstitutional and unconscionable process of taking citizens’ private property via eminent domain for a corporation’s profits — and not for “the public good” as is intended.

“We find it very difficult to understand how a multibillion dollar private company can forcibly take our land through a perverted concept of eminent domain, especially when the project is not needed, and would bring such tremendous negative impacts to so many people,” said Bill Limpert, whose family farm is in the path of the proposed Atlantic Coast fracked gas pipeline. “The fact that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, fully funded by the energy industry, is the agency that would grant that power makes it even harder to take. Our government has ceded its authority to the rich and powerful. We The People deserve better.”

“The provision for eminent domain is not being met by FERC in the case of the proposed Mountain Valley fracked gas pipeline project — there is no proven need, and it is not for public consumption,” said Jerolyn Deplazes, a landowner on the proposed Mountain Valley pipeline route. “This is a private company asking the government for other people’s land for profit. This must not stand.”

The lawsuit targets FERC’s encouragement of pipeline companies to negotiate easement agreements with landowners in advance of the agency’s issuance of a “certificate of need,” which results in “irretrievable commitment of resources” to a particular route prior to a formal decision, and absolves the Commission of its responsibility to actually determine whether a proposed project is needed.

“FERC’s policy of encouraging pre-certificate easement negotiations between impacted landowners and the pipeline impermissibly biases the outcome of the certificate approval process, because FERC views pipeline proposals more favorably when the company has acquired most of the easements by negotiation,” the lawsuit states. “In so doing, FERC emboldens private companies to abuse eminent domain rights by duping landowners into signing an easement agreement by threatening them with eminent domain powers that the company does not have, or by until by refusing to agree to any protective measures in advance of construction until the landowner agrees to sign an easement, often for constitutionally inadequate compensation.”

The lawsuit also specifically challenge FERC’s issuance of “conditioned certificates” — which authorize a taking of property rights that are not, and may never be, necessary to construct the proposed project; and “blanket certificates” — which inappropriately grant a private company eminent domain power coextensive with that of the state, and strip future aggrieved landowners of their rights to formal administrative procedures.

Under the current regulatory regime, landowners are left without a forum to challenge eminent domain abuses. Meanwhile, virtually anything goes — with certificates conferring eminent domain issued by FERC to pipelines that do not serve a public use, but instead, facilitate gas for export or create opportunities for pipelines to monopolize the market for input to gas and electricity to be distributed in markets controlled by the pipeline’s affiliates.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include Bold Education Fund, and individual landowners on the proposed Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast pipeline routes in West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina. Defendants include FERC and its individual commissioners, and Atlantic Coast Pipeline, LLC and Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC.

More background on the Bold Appalachia Landowner Alliance:
http://boldalliance.org/appalachia

View the full text of landowners’ lawsuit online: http://boldalliance.org/ferc

Here’s details of the planned annoucement in Washington on Wednesday:

WHAT: Press Conference With Landowners Suing FERC Over Eminent Domain
WHO: Landowners attorney Carolyn Elefant; Bold Alliance’s Carolyn Reilly (also a landowner on the proposed MVP route); and landowners on the proposed ACP and MVP routes.
WHEN: Wednesday, September 6, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
WHERE: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), 888 1st St NE, Washington D.C.
DETAILS: Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/313814515754770/

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