Newsletter

March 12, 2006

Dear Friends:

Ooops, We Didn't Do It Again.

For the third time in six years, at 6:15 last night the General Assembly adjourned its regular 2006 Session "sine die" - forever - without completing the main item of business before it: agreeing on a budget for the next two fiscal years. In amongst the approval of a flurry of last-minute conference reports, on Saturday the House and Senate played a ping pong game of resolutions on when and how to come back to town and get back to work on the budget and transportation. Finally the Governor decided to end the bickering by sending down a message calling us into special session at noon on Monday, March 27.

Program Note:

We're goin' into bloggin'.

Delegate Kris Amundson and I have decided to plunge headlong into the 21st Century and set up a blog devoted to the events and issues surrounding the upcoming Special Session of the General Assembly. With the assistance of the computer/political whiz kid Waldo Jaquith, we're up and running. It's called "Extra Innings," and you can view it at www.vaextrainnings.com. Please - take a look at it, bookmark it, comment on it. I've been meaning to transition this e-mail newsletter into a blog for a long time, and I think the interactive format will be interesting.

But before we leave Richmond at the end of Winter Camp, loyal legislative aide Jean Barton turned in a report on her final field trip:

HARDHAT -

A few days before we packed up, Jean took a hardhat-safety-goggles tour of the interior renovation of the Capitol. After two hours, she emerged covered in white dust, and exhilarated by what she had seen. You can get a good glimpse of what is going on inside at www.VirginiaCapitol.gov , but what intrigued her the most were the stories shared by the construction guide and the details of the restoration. She recounts:

"According to the guide, the demolition of the interior was a painstaking, drawn-out process. Historians and architects decided to base their restoration on the 1904-06 date, when the House and Senate wings were added and major decorating took place. Then came the hard part: carefully taking the interior apart and looking for clues to guide the reconstruction. Like archeologists at a dig, the demolition crews carefully analyzed each piece of marble tile flooring and discovered only 38 original tiles, complete with embedded fossils, which they carefully removed before ripping up the rest. Twenty-one layers of paint were stripped back to determine the colors schemes of 1906. An outstanding black and white photo of the then-new House chamber showed interesting paneled paintings surrounding that chamber, but it gave no clue as to the colors. When the crews were about to make a wild guess based on threads of canvas discovered in their paint analyses, a large brass plaque bearing all former Speakers' names was removed to reveal a 2 by 5 foot panel, preserved in a mauve overlaid with silver large fan-like leaves and ready for reproduction. Mystery solved!

"Special carpet has been designed for the House, Senate, and Old House Chamber by a restoration carpet company, and the rights to it given to the Restoration Foundation, so if a hotel orders House Chamber Carpet, the Foundation will receive a donation from that sale.

"The Guide voiced severe disapproval at the flooring that must be used in the House and Senate conference rooms. The former conference rooms were on a base just twelve inches above a dirt floor. Construction crews dug down three feet, poured a concrete floor, ran dozens of conduits for all new wiring and plumbing, and three feet above placed a grid with removable floor panels to make additions or repairs. To provide access, they had to cover the floors with -- horrors -- removable carpet tiles.

"The exception to this is in the Speaker's Office Suite, which will be located on the first floor. He will have real carpeting under his feet because the crew created an accessible wall through which his utilities will run.

"The Houdon statue of George Washington, made from life measurements in 1785 and placed in the Rotunda in 1796, was a problem: to move or not to move during the construction? It was insured for $78 million, but it is priceless: all parties agreed that to move it was fraught with more danger than to carefully protect it. They wrapped the statue in a variety of products with electrodes sensitive to humidity, movement, etc. well imbedded. They then built a strong locked box around it, and another larger box around it, with a steel scaffolding roof above the whole contraption.

"The most exciting part, however, was to climb up to the scaffolding in the ceiling of the Senate chamber, where an old sky light, covered in the 30's, has been reinstalled, and to touch the refurbished carvings beautifully painted and highlighted with Dutch metal (like gold leaf, but more durable), then to get up close to the patterned scrolls stenciled on canvas, highlighted by hand, and installed on ceilings, beams, and around the gallery.

"Every step of this is being filmed by the History Channel and will be shown on June 17th on ‘Save Our History,' focusing on Thomas Jefferson as an architect.

"We'll be back where we belong in the refurbished Capitol in December."

TH-TH-TH-TH-THAT'S ALL, FOLKS!

Given our accomplishments (or lack thereof) over the past eight weeks and three days, I guess it's fitting that the last newsletter of the 2006 Regular Session should begin and end with quotations from two eminent political scholars, Britney Spears and Porky Pig. Don't forget to check in at our Special Session blog and participate at www.vaextrainnings.com.

Sincerely,

Bob Brink signature

Bob Brink