Crozet's community blog
Join us for a Holiday Open House this Saturday, November 28th, from 12 – 5 PM! In addition to our regular tours and tastings, we will have local artisan vendors, live music and fun for the whole family. Start your holiday shopping early in our Tasting Room store or let us help you plan for your holiday parties. The Tasting Room will also be open on Sunday, November 29th, for tours and tastings.
Editor’s note on two of the items below:
1 – Regarding participation and publicizing the Crozet Community Association – if anyone ever wants to write a story (or three or five) about the Crozet Community Association, please feel free to submit it to RealCrozetVA.
2 – Having Homeowner’s Association Presentations each meeting is a great idea.
Staying involved in the Crozet Community is a great thing. If you can, make time to attend the next Crozet Community Association meeting!
These are the minutes as I received them via email:
New Business
It was discussed, motioned, and approved to provide a Good Neighbor Award to Linda and Danny Patterson. They have recently sold their flower shop. Quietly, with little/no recognition they have made numerous contributions to the Crozet community. Mike Marshall will provide the wording to go on the plaque. Judi Burbes will order the plaque for presentation at the January meeting.
Mike Marshall spoke on several items. To summarize the previous meeting of the CCAC (regarding the Master Plan re-visit), Mike indicated that the result was “residential areas should be residential, not mixed use. Discussion arose about developing trails through-out Crozet, but most immediately along roadsides (e.g. Jarmans Gap Road, Railroad Ave.) where there actually is allocated footage. This would allow for walking from Old Trail (for example) to downtown. Mike indicated the CCAC will take the lead so this item is not dropped.
On Nov 19, the CCAC was sponsoring the next topic of the Master Plan revisit: Downtown.
There was considerable discussion on the Streetscape project, and a new proposal for parking at the dry cleaners (yet to be approved by the alley off the current Square. The concern was also expressed that as various discussions are held with the property owners involved with the Streetscape that the funding might be pulled to be used elsewhere in the county.
Discussion arose about participation in CCA. It was suggested that an article should be written for the “Crozet Gazette”, highlighting the contributions, goals, and purpose of the Crozet community Association. Mike will pursue this.
Ray McCauley announced that he has petitions that citizens can sign to keep the Landfill open.
Homeowners’ Association Presentation
(NOTE: This is a new presentation that is planned to become a standing item of business at each meeting. The goal is for the community in general to learn about activities and issues occurring within the various neighborhoods and to share in solutions.)
David Foreman, President of Grayrock and Grayrock North, spoke to the group. He indicated that all the buildout for Grayrock appears to be complete (3 lots remaining do not seem to be planned for development). The major issue that the homeowners had been facing over the summer was vandalism. Homeowners increased their nighttime lighting, had fences built, and improved lighting in general. However, the problem drastically decreased when the school session began in the fall.
David also mentioned the ongoing concern of maintenance of the trails around the 2 ponds, the corresponding dam and liability associated with all of these for the Grayrock Association.
He had very positive feedback for the blending of their students into Brownsville. Many kudos to the teachers and staff at Brownsville!!!
Discussion had occurred earlier in the meeting regarding ways to increase attendance at the CCA meetings. David indicated that their association had the same issues of poor attendance and difficulty in finding individuals with the time to lead and participate in the association Hopefully, as common issues and solutions are developed there will be increased involvement in all such associations.
As a result of David’s presentation, it was agreed that the May 2010 meeting of the CCA should include a topic to address summertime vandalism, and include specific invitations to all homeowners’ associations as well as Albemarle County Police/Sheriffs representatives.
The meeting was adjourned at 9 p.m.
A RealCrozetVA reader asked last night, “where are the yoga classes in Crozet”? I knew of the Old Crozet School, ACAC and I’d heard about some classes at the Greenwood Community Center. So, I asked my Twitter friends:
Visitor to RealCrozetVA wants to know where the yoga classes are in Crozet. Advice anyone?
ancym says – @realcrozetva Greenwood CC, http://bit.ly/1rAKP4 , OCSA, http://bit.ly/2e27Hb Guerrilla Yoga Project http://bit.ly/5uvG2n ACAC #yoga #crozet
crozette says – @realcrozetva Yoga is at OCSA and ACAC in Crozet, Polarity Barn in Batesville, Greenwood Comm thru parks & rec, and Ashtanga Yoga in Ivy.
sgoadhouse says – @realcrozetva My wife, Ursula, teaches at OCS Arts. Tu 8:30a, Tu 9:45a & Th 7p http://tr.im/FD4n
Thanks, Twitter friends.
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As far as I know, this is only for Crozet Elementary, but why not expand it to all schools in Charlottesville and Albemarle?
If you’re in Old Trail, stop by Trailside Coffee on the way to Brownsville, Henley or Western Albemarle. If you’re in Downtown Crozet, stop by the Crozet Mudhouse. Make a good time of it!
From a reader:
Please stop by the Crozet Mudhouse between 2:00 and 4:00 on Saturday, November 21, to meet the artists of Old Crozet School Arts, a nonprofit school for arts instruction located in the old Crozet Elementary School.
We have faculty in dance, drama, art, and music as well as instructors for juggling, beadmaking, knitting, wellness, quilting, pilates, yoga, and French.
Enjoy chatting with the artists over a cup of Mudhouse coffee and watching an ongoing slideshow presentation featuring the school and the work of the artists.
The United States Air Force Heritage of America Band’s Langley Winds woodwind quintet will span more than 250 years of musical tradition when they appear at the Field School for a FREE performance co-sponsored by Old Crozet School Arts and Field School on Monday, November 16th at 7:30 pm. The quintet’s repertoire includes a wide variety of chamber works as well as popular and patriotic pieces.
The quintet’s versatility stems from their diverse educational backgrounds and professional experiences. They hold degrees from music schools all over the country including Indiana University, University of Michigan, West Virginia University, and the North Carolina School of the Arts. Members have performed with the Waco Symphony, West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Central Ohio Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Wind Symphony, and the Aspen Music Festival Orchestra.
Admission is FREE!!No tickets needed!! Co-sponsored by Field School and Old Crozet School ArtsFor more info: www.old
Gingergermani says on Twitter:
Seriously, the light at WAHS is the worst timed light ever.
From a reader:
Have you noticed how screwed up the lights have gotten at WAHS and Henley? Seems they have been reprogrammed to “rest” where it is green for WAHS. Do you have any contacts at the County that we could point this out to? I thought originally that this had to do with Old Trail, but that is not the case as Old Trail’s direction still “rests” red.
This photo is from last Wednesday morning sitting at Old Trail trying to get to Western Albemarle High School –
The traffic in the mornings in front of Western Albemarle High School, Henley Middle and Brownsville Elementary School varies from abominable to irresponsible.
Someone, please, Fix It.
This is an amazing story, and I find it mighty cool that we have these nuns in our presence.
Read the whole story by Lindsey Nair with the Roanoke Times.
By the time Sister Smickel arrives at the barn that morning, Sister DeFeo and Sister Jan McCoy are already bustling about, pasteurizing the 6,200 pounds of fresh, Grade A milk that arrived from a nearby Mennonite farm the day before.
If all goes as planned, this cheese-making day should yield about 310 2-pound rounds of Gouda.
“You start with an ocean of milk and at the end of the day you have all of these little cheeses,” Sister Smickel said. “It is very satisfying.”
For pasteurization, the milk is brought to 145 degrees for a half-hour in a stainless steel tank. It is then chilled to 88 degrees before being moved to the cheese vat, which looks like a huge bathtub.
Sister Kay Kettenhofen adds cultures to the milk, then starts the big mechanized paddles, which slowly stir from one end of the vat to the other, sending the milk rocking dangerously close to the edge.
Thirty minutes later, the paddles are stopped and removed and Sister Kettenhofen adds rennet, a coagulating agent that will make the milk set up and become cheese. This is the moment of truth, Sister Smickel said, when they all hold their breath and pray the cheese will behave.
Because they do not make cheese every week of the year (holidays, feast days and other obligations permit breaks), this is just the 545th batch of Gouda made at the Crozet monastery.
“We have never had a bad batch,” Sister Smickel said. “We are very careful. That is a lot of milk to throw away.”
…
As she works, she muses, “I never met a cheese I didn’t like.”
The Crozet community is invited to attend public forums on the five year revision of the Crozet Master Plan.
The next forum will be held:
Thursday, November 19, 2009
7:00-9:00 p.m.
Old Crozet School/Field School
The public forum is being held by County staff and the Crozet Community Advisory Council.
This month’s topic is Downtown Crozet, focusing on:
– Promotion of the vitality of small businesses in the central Crozet business district (Downtown)
– Addressing public infrastructure needs (such as sidewalks that connect neighborhoods to downtown and parking)
– Boundaries of Downtown, potential historic district
Participants will have an opportunity to hear a presentation and provide comments and suggestions.