Crozet's community blog
Thanks to the Crozet Volunteer Fire Department for their quick response to the fire this evening. I’ll try to post a picture later tonight of the small brushfire in the field adjacent to Parkside Village. If anyone has any information into how the fire started (spontaneous combustion is a dubious explanation), please call the Fire Department – 434-823-4758.
Photo courtesy Heather
You’ve heard of (and probably had) Starr Hill – Crozet
Hopefully you’ve been to Blue Mountain Brewery – 12-13 minutes west of Crozet in Afton.
Introducing Devils’ Backbone Brewery – Google says they’re 52 minutes away … I might make the trip this weekend – for journalistic purposes, of course.
Read more at C-Ville and cVillain.
Could this dream come to fruition? (from the C-Ville article)
Devil’s’ General Manager Chris Trotter tells us that Crandall and friends granted a portion of the site back to Nelson County for the possible purpose of building a skate park. “The plan is to make this area the Virginia Jackson Hole,†says Trotter, who is referring, of course, to über cool resort town Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which is beloved almost as much for its dining, entertaining and non-skiing recreations as it is for its amazing slopes and powder.
Find out more at Charlottesville Tomorrow –
The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors has overturned a decision by the Planning Commission to end consideration of a proposal to create a new industrial park in Crozet on largely rural land just outside the designated growth area. The 184-acre Yancey Mills Business Park will now be considered as part of the mandated review of the Crozet Master Plan scheduled to take place next year.
And December 9 at the Crozet Firehouse, talk to the Yanceys about their plans. Please attend; this has the potential to greatly impact our community – whether you’re for or against it, participate in the conversation.
Our dog, Jenny, a small female black and white Jack Russell terrier is missing. She has on 2 red invisible fence collars. She probably wandered off near Caitlin Drive or Old Trail, possibly near Brownsville or Henley.
Please call John and Tiffany Clarke 823-1434 if you see her! THANKS!
At Anytime Fitness, near Crozet, owner Melody Swartz said her clients are looking for a gym that’s closer than the facilities in Charlottesville or Waynesboro.
“We’ve had a lot of people who are members at Gold’s [Gym] and ACAC and have joined here because it’s more convenient,†Swartz said.
The hallmark of these 24-hour gym franchises is their security.
Both gyms give their members access cards to get into the gym, have security cameras rolling and put emergency buttons in the facility in case something goes wrong. Swartz’s location also has a security device that gym-goers can wear while they exercise in case they need to summon help while they’re on the treadmill.
I’ll be going later today.
Oh, and a website, too. Blog is here.
D’oh. My apologies to Greenwood Country Store. Correction: Greenwood Gourmet Grocery gets a website and blog.
Referencing this post from last week about the Good Samaritan –
I’ve lived in suburb’s of Atlanta since moving from Crozet during 1967. I lived in the ole’ Crozet, following graduation from UVa in 1959, until 1967. The Crozet you loved and describe in your recently published, rather nostalgic article, of ‘Longing for Old Crozet.’ I remember well the Crozet Drug store and setting at the marble countered soda fountain and I too miss those days and some very close friends that are still living there. Many now have passed including Conway Stanley the local druggist who owned the store and beloved soda fountain.
Your e-mail, regarding your automobile accident, jogged my memory of another long ago accident that occurred at night on Highway 250, near intersection with the road leading into downtown Crozet. It occurred in front of a then rather popular restaurant that today I believe a small strip mall sits. That eventful night on 250 several young people were drag racing and one killed upon their car turning over, driver being thrown out, hit, and dragged beneath the small MG that supposedly hit him…or so those involved testified. Actually, the MG turned out to be stolen as police awoke and eventually cleared student who owned the MG. The really strange part of their story was the body of the dead boy, attached by his belt beneath the MG, was in rather good shape. The MG, with body beneath, was found on the UVa campus parked in it’s usual parking space across from the owners dormitory that sits adjacent to the old campus cemetery.
As I recall the police questioned how the body could have been dragged, under the small MG, that many miles and be in such good condition? To my knowledge it was a puzzle that to this day is still unanswered. I recalled they questioned the restaurant owner, who police suspected may have had involvement in the car racing, and he retained a Greenwood attorney by the name of Hank Tiffany. Hank was a regular at the Old Crozet Drug store. Hank, I believe was killed in a mid-air plane collision with a military F-15 that was scrambled to intersect him upon his aircraft entering an ADZ zone off outer banks of North Carolina. There was always something of excitement going on in the ole’ Crozet.
I’m glad to learn that you survived your automobile accident due to a good Samaritan and hope you find him to thank. Should you ever come across the mystery details of the young man found beneath the MG, on that fateful night of drag racing on Highway 250, I would like to learn if the police ever solved the puzzle?
Regards,
Dick Pharr
Editor’s note – thank you for the recent flurry of emails and stories! I sincerely appreciate the readers and the correspondence!
That’s all I want to know … My questions for the Harris Teeter media folks:
– Will it be open 24 hours?- How is the progress going with regards to the LEED certification? – Will there be a coffee shop in the Harris Teeter? – When will it be opening?
And their response:
The store is scheduled to in late spring 2009. Please check back with us closer to the opening date (perhaps in March) and we would be happy to share with you more details about the store.
I’m posting this for at least two reasons –
1) Help the dog find its owner
2) Highlight how Crozet really is and can be a small, helping community.
I found a black and white (cocker?) spaniel on Three Notched Road today across from Highland Drive. (forget the subdivision name) I drove around and knocked on doors for 2 hours looking for the owners….no luck. Is there anyway you could help find the owners? I would appreciate it. My cell number is 804.868.0464; email is redkurlzz at gmail DOT com.
Albemarle and Charlottesville are not alone in struggling with tax cuts/service cuts – all levels of government – and the citizens – are struggling. From the New York Times regarding states’ budgets –
The astonishing decline in revenues is without modern precedent here, but California is hardly alone. A majority of states — many with budgets already full of deep cuts and dependent on raiding rainy-day funds or tax increases — are scrambling to find ways to get through the rest of the year without hacking apart vital services or raising taxes.
…
Others are demanding hiring freezes and across-the-board cuts. A few states are finding their unemployment insurance funds running dry, just as the ranks of out-of-work residents spike.
The plunging revenues — the result of an unusual assemblage of personal, sales, capital gains and corporate taxes falling significantly — have poked holes in budgets that are just weeks and months old and that came about only after difficult legislative sessions.
Here’s what I do – I ignore the advocacy and focus on the information. Raising taxes should not be the default response. We’re all facing “unprecedented declines” and we need to work together to find the solution. Blaming government without getting involved is counterproductive.
From the Albemarle Truth in Taxation Alliance –
Crozet Town Hall Meeting “2008 Firehouse Tour” Continues
ATTA is hosting a series of local Town Hall meetings throughout the county this fall.
To find out more about ATTA and what to expect during the 2009 county budget process, please attend our Crozet ATTA Town Hall Meeting:
Crozet Town Hall Meeting
Crozet Firehouse
5652 Three Notched RD, Crozet
Thursday, November 20, 2008
7:00 p.m.
Free and open to the publicIf you read the Nov. 13 Daily Progress article “County’s decision: Cuts or tax hike” you saw the following statement regarding Supervisor David Slutzky’s approach toward our current financial situation:
David L. Slutzky, a Democrat, said the county should start with a tax rate closer to 90 cents – which would allow the county to avoid service cuts, and then systematically decide which of those services should be cut or scaled back.
Slutzky’s attitude is profound for several reasons:
A 90-cent real estate tax rate represents a 26.8% increase over our current rate. During the current economic climate — when so many of us struggle to provide for basic needs — suggesting such a draconian tax increase is absurd.
The premise is flawed. Raising taxes or cutting services are not the only options. More effective and efficient use of available revenues should be the first option. This is why the county is currently performing a Resource Utilization Study–to identify how we can do more with less!
Slutzky’s suggestion to raise taxes now and then fix government spending later is truly laughable.
The Program Service Review (Form 4) initiated by Albemarle County well over a years ago has gone nowhere (its goal was to identify 10% cost savings in every department).It took the Albemarle BoS seven months to begin its current Resource Utilization Study after being challenged to do so by ATTA.
There remains a profound lack of sense of urgency by county gov. to make substantial improvements to how our tax money is spent.Slutzky is basically ask us to trust him: raise tax now and he’ll lead the charge later to cut them in the future.
We all know what will happen: if we raise taxes now, there won’t be a later. There will only be new rationale to keep the tax rate at 90 cents — or raise it even higher.