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Crozet's community blog
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Update 19 December. Yep. We got snow. Lots of it.
Where are the best sledding hills in Crozet?
It seems we may see some snow in Crozet this weekend …
So let’s have some fun. Click on your guess below.
You might not have kids in schools, but Crozet schools affect all of us.
From the Henley Matters newsletter:
EARLY DISMISSAL – WEDNESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY
For the past three years, high schools in Albemarle County have held first semester exams prior to Winter Break on a modified half-day schedule which included two exams per day. Last year, the program was expanded to middle schools. Many middle school students take high school level classes, and all students begin taking semester exams in their eighth grade year, so the change will align these students with their high school counterparts.
Having both middle and high school students follow the same schedule will save about $10,000 in operational efficiency for the county. The regular middle and high school bus routes will run at 1:00 p.m., and drivers will then return for elementary school routes at 2:20 p.m. Since most middle and high school students ride the same buses, not combining their schedules would have required a third bus run each day to bring middle school students home at 4:00 p.m.
BUDGET SYNOPSIS UPDATE FROM PARENTS COUNCIL
This will likely be the most challenging budget cycle experienced by Albemarle County Schools in its history. State revenues may decline by as much as 15% for 2010-11 due to changes in Albemarle County’s composite index and overall state budget reductions. We will have a better idea how much when the Governor presents his budget on 12/18. Local revenues continue to slide as housing values slump and sales tax revenue falls. The projected revenue shortfall for the 2010-11 school year is between $8 and $11 million, depending on the tax rate agreed to by the newly elected Board of Supervisors.
Even an equalized tax rate of 77.2 cents will not eliminate the need for major reductions. The anticipated revenue shortfall with the higher rate is $8 million, due to declining state and local revenues. It is not possible to make reductions of this magnitude (4-5 times as many as were made this current fiscal year) in department or operational budgets/staffing. All positions and programs will be affected.
The board is pursuing a budget amendment at the state level to recalculate the county’s ability to pay for education based on the actual revenues on hand after the $18 million in revenue sharing is given to the city of Charlottesville. The current ratio overstates the county’s ability to pay and understates the city’s ability to pay. There is no guarantee that this budget amendment will pass in the General Assembly; in fact, it will face stiff opposition. The change would result in approximately $2 to $2.5 million in additional state funding to Albemarle County. Dr. Moran will present her funding request to the School Board on Wednesday, January 20.
Daily Progress: link to December 11th article on the School Board vote, Albemarle wants funds from city for schools:
Governor Kaine’s budget is expected to be released this Friday, December 18th. “Thanks to a slumping economy, Kaine has to find $3.5 billion in cuts in the state budget. He is scheduled to propose his fiscal plan next Friday at a joint meeting of the legislature’s money committees. Kaine has said that in balancing the budget, “everything’s on the table.””
Finally, the updated budget calendar for Albemarle County Public Schools is (after the jump); the date of the School Board public hearing has been changed to Tuesday, February 2nd.
The ACPS School Board has revised its budget development calendar. The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors public hearing dates have not changed.
Please mark these dates on your calendar and plan to attend and speak in support of our schools.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010, 6:30 pm, Location TBD
ACPS School Board Public Hearing: Proposed budget, FY 2010/11
Wednesday, March 3, 2010, time TBA, Lane Auditorium, ACOB
Board of Supervisors Public Hearing: The County Executive’s recommended budget, Fiscal Year 2010/11
Wednesday, March 31, 2010, time TBA, Lane Auditorium, ACOB
Board of Supervisors Public Hearing: The BOS’s proposed budget, FY 2010/11 2010 calendar year tax rate
Wednesday, April 7, 2010, time TBA, Lane Auditorium, ACOB
Board of Supervisors Public Hearing: The BOS sets the 2010 calendar year tax rate. The BOS adopts its FY 2010/2011budget (during ACPS Spring Break)
Continue reading “News From Henley Middle School – 15 December 2009”
At Trailside Coffee at 0830.
Crozet week in review via RealCrozetVA’s Twitter feed …
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I love questions.
I subscribe to your blog and had a question about Christmas trees in the Crozet area and thought you might be the best person to ask since you seem to be so well informed (love the blog, by the way – thanks!). Are there any Christmas tree stands in the area? We live in Free Union but love coming to Crozet and thought we’d make a night of it. Thanks for any info!
I thought of the Boy Scouts’ stand in the Great Valu shopping center …
… and AM Fog in Afton.
The reader responded later yesterday evening:
We actually ended up going to check out AM Fog but their selection was small (they’re getting more trees in tomorrow evening) so we decided to go into Nellysford to see if there was a stand in the parking lot where the IGA is. Unfortunately there wasn’t so we headed back towards Crozet/Free Union and noticed a little place on the right of 151, before we got back to AM Fog, called “Kelly’s”. They had great trees for about the same price as AM Fog (we paid $55 for 6’ tree) and they have great candles and wreaths. Oh, and you could still stop at Blue Mountain Brewery and have dinner and a beer!
So there you have it – three places to get Christmas trees in Crozet. Surely there are others …
I’m (clearly) no videographer, but I attended the Crozet Parade on Sunday and happened to have my little video camera with me …
The Crozet Christmas parade is a neat little part of living in Crozet; and we saw some friends while we watched … it’s nice to be part of this community.
The Crozet Library has been delayed. Again.
This comment on cvillenews last week spurred me to ask a question about the Crozet Library’s traffic and circulation numbers. I remembered some data about circulation being high in Crozet, but could not remember (nor find) the exact numbers … I have bolded what I was looking for … John Halliday was kind enough to respond in detail.
That’s all we need is a new library in crozet. Can you imagine what a new library will do to the population of crozet. Lets move to crozet, they just got a new library. Population explosion in crozet all over again. BOS are finally getting it right, at least on this one.
I suspect no one has or will move to Crozet because of the library, but having a good library, as we do now, is a component of a community with a high quality of life. One that values knowledge, literature, community and the sharing of all three. Having a new, more adequately-sized library is a promise that the County of Albemarle made to its citizens and is a promise that they should keep.
Tim Tolson asked me to respond to your questions about the need for additional space at Crozet Library. Here (below) is some information you may find helpful. If you need any more information, please do not hesitate to contact me.
The current Crozet Library is 1,728 square feet. That is smaller than most private homes in Albemarle County. For many years the minimum square footage standard for public libraries, set by the State Library Board of Virginia, has been 4,500 square feet. Last January, the State Library Board adopted a new standard of “.6 SF with .8 desired” for public libraries serving populations up to 25,000. Many years ago, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors, through the CIP process, adopted .7 SF as Albemarle’s goal. Based on those standards, if Crozet’s service area population (that is, the population within 6 miles of the library) reaches 25,000, the public library should be in the square foot range of 15,000 SF – 20,000 SF.
A rule of thumb in public library development is that when a building’s circulation of library materials (checkouts) reaches 25 per square foot per year, the library should plan for expansion. Here’s how JMRL’s annual circulation per square footage compared as of July 2009: Central Library, 11; Gordon Avenue Library, 25; Scottsville Library, 17; Greene County Library, 13; Louisa County Library 7; Nelson County Library, 17. The two Albemarle libraries that have been discussed for possible expansion are as follows: Northside Library (Albemarle Square), 34; Crozet Library, 76.
Crozet Library makes very efficient use of its limited space, but it is clearly overcrowded compared to other JMRL libraries and it is, in fact, substandard based on Virginia’s state standards. By the way, the SF standard in many other states is 1.0 SF per capita. So, Virginia’s standards are modest.
Crozet Library is the 4th most heavily used library in JMRL’s 8-library system. It is less than half the size of our 8th busiest branch. To give you an idea of how busy the library is, in the past year an average of over 5,500 residents visited the library each month. About 500 people each month visit Crozet Library to use its Internet computers. During a typical summer month over 1,000 children attend library programs.
Hopefully, that gives you a snapshot of Crozet Library’s current situation. Again, please let me know if you need more information.
John Halliday, Library Director
Jefferson-Madison Regional Library
201 East Market Street, Charlottesville Virginia 22902
Mike Marshall at the Crozet Gazette noted last month:
County leaders have notified the Crozet Library Steering Committee that they will recommend to supervisors that the project be pushed back yet again (it was originally slated to open in 2011) and not be considered for funding before 2015. This is ridiculous. Anyone who has been into Crozet Library, especially for one of their popular events, knows the old depot building cannot serve western Albemarle’s burgeoning population for another five or more years. The County should take advantage of currently depressed construction costs by either borrowing money, getting a slice of the $787 billion the federals are looking to spend on “shovel ready” projects, or by suspending the County’s annual tribute payment to Charlottesville—the so-called “revenue sharing agreement” in which only the County does the sharing—a sum which next year will run about $18 million. The library’s architects say that if the project is put out to bid by the end of this year it will cost about $6.37 million. If it goes to bid in the spring of 2010 they predict the cost will be at least $7.19 million. If it goes to bid in 2015, who can imagine. It will never be cheaper than now.
Cross-posted at RealCentralVA.
Some things don’t warrant a full post on RealCrozetVA. That’s why I post on Twitter throughout the week and provide the summary here … there’s actually quite a bit of pertinent information! (for a much broader and less-Crozet-centric Twitter view, you can see my main Twitter account.
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