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Update on the Hum

Nextdoor has been abuzz. (Get it?)

Update – community meeting 30 October. Go to the bottom.

Ann Mallek sent this this morning:

Valerie Long had seen these postings about the noise as well, and had shared them with Sarah Yancey May (one of the three sibling owners) and the other family members who run the Mill.  She had also spoken to someone who had called her about it.  At that point, and again today, Sarah confirmed that there is nothing different that they are doing there that would be generating a noise like has been described.

The mill is shut down at night other than the dry kilns drying the wood and the boilers, and they have been in operation for decades.  They do run on a motor, but it does not generate anywhere near the level of noise that has been described in the neighborhood group postings.

Since there are some who have heard the noise near the Mill and are concerned that it may be from the Mill, the owners have asked an acoustic consultant to look into it for them.  They have engaged Bill Yoder with a firm called Accentech to assist them.  He is a scientist and acoustical consultant. He would like to speak with some of the residents who have been hearing the noise, so Valerie will connect him with Allen Billyk from the Old Trail Community Association who can then connect him to Marie Westbrook and Alice Faintich.  He will also be conducting an on-site investigation.

A bit more from Ann

Below, Please see links to videos and also dates of community meeting to learn more.

Here are some videos that might help better explain and describe the noises.

 

This first one is a guy changing the spacer which keeps the lines spaced and prevents them from hitting each other. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE__F9dTU8k Spacers can be different depending on how many lines there are per phase. If you go to google images and search for “transmission line spacers” you will see that there are spacers for two-, three-, and four-line phases.

 

This second one is a guy riding in a buggy, so you can hear the humming that they are referencing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeMFnyMXDNw

 

Good morning,

 

Phase 2 of the project is about half complete, and we are in the process of removing old conductor wire, which means they will soon be pulling new conductor wire.

 

Phase 3 of the project (the last segment) is in the pre-construction phase and will move into active construction soon. Our goal is to complete construction by April 2019. Rehab activities may still happen after the end date, however.

 

There will be a construction informational meeting held on Tuesday, October 30, 2018 from 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. at the Crozet Elementary, 1407 Crozet Avenue, in the cafeteria.  All of our customers are welcome to attend and ask any questions about the construction process.

 

We will be mailing postcards sometime this week, so they should be received sometime next week.

 

 

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Public Hearings About Roads and Such. Fun. Important

via email from VDOT: (bolding mine for stuff that is Crozet-related, and interests me the most).

VDOT has combined six projects in Albemarle County into one $35.9 million design-build package. One contractor will be selected to both complete the final design and construct all six projects. The projects were approved for SMART SCALE and/or Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) funding by the Commonwealth Transportation Board in July 2017. VDOT proposes to:

Continue reading “Public Hearings About Roads and Such. Fun. Important”

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Re-Store ‘N Station Trying Again for Longer Hours

Alison Wrabel at the Daily Progress reports (read the whole thing)

The owner of the Re-Store ‘N Station in Crozet has appealed the latest Albemarle County Board of Supervisors decision regarding the hours of the gas station.

In July, the Board of Supervisors approved part of an amendment to the station’s special-use permit amendment that would allow for two additional fuel pump stations at the site on U.S. 250, but did not approve requests to extend the hours of operation of the convenience store and to allow fuel pumps to be operational around the clock.

Jeffries II LLC, which owns the property, filed an appeal in Albemarle Circuit Court in August, arguing the board “improperly considered whether the underlying by-right use of the property as a convenience store/service station was consistent with the Comprehensive Plan, instead of limiting its analysis to the impacts arising from water consumption.”

Background, if you’re interested, going back to at least 2010.

I should have made Restore N Station its own category for easier reference.

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Upcoming Albemarle County School Board Meetings

Last week’s CCAC meeting yielded some interesting and, candidly, troubling, thoughts about the future of Crozet schools. If you haven’t read the linked story and tweets, please do so.

If you don’t have kids in the schools, you’re still impacted as property values are directly tied to (perceived) quality of schools. 

Economically, we would say that above average school quality as a flow of service is capitalized into value, just like an income stream. There is a broad consensus in the academic literature that school quality matters (Black, 1999, Brasington, 1999), and it seems that elementary school may matter even more than high school in driving locational preferences of home buyers with children. Empirical research has found that a one standard deviation increase in school quality (measured by test scores or school rankings) increases the value of a single family property by 1 to 3 percent. (source; bolding above is mine)

Get educated, and get involved

The next meetings (with the exception of joint Board meetings and meetings with Legislators) are September 27; October 11 & 25; November 8; and December 6 & 13.

Here is a link to the meeting calendar, that might be helpful, as it takes the scheduled meetings out further.

Related posts

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CCAC Recap – 19 September 2018

Some big and heady discussions at tonight’s CCAC meeting.  I encourage, and darn near implore you, to read the tweets. And get aware and involved.

Continue reading “CCAC Recap – 19 September 2018”

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Crowdsourcing Community Survey

via Nextdoor: (posting in part because no login is required here, so hopefully more people will see and respond)

 

Hey neighbors,

My name is Devin Harris and I am a Professor at UVA. My background is Civil Engineering and we are researching concepts related to quality of life within communities. I have been part of the Crozet community for the past six years and thought this might be a great place to get some informal feedback on our work. I was reaching out to assess potential interest in our study that focuses on opportunities to understand and improve quality of live in neighborhoods and communities. In brief, this study aims to use a crowd-sensing approach by encouraging community members to take and share data (specifically pictures and descriptions) of issues of concern in their neighborhood/community such as congested streets, sidewalks in disrepair, flooded streets, fallen traffic signs, potholes, etc. These data (primarily images) would then to be used to create models that will automatically detect the issue and report them to decision makers. Such models are expected to help decision makers and members of the community with necessary information for solving the issues. The schematically demonstrates this idea (Note: This is only illustrative of the concept and not real data).

Survey Link

 

At this point we are not soliciting any participation, but I would like to assess potential interest. If you would so kind as to fill out the attached survey about your potential interest in such an idea, I would really appreciate your input.  We are not collecting any information about those participating in the survey, only gathering some basic numbers on who might be interested and how they might be willing participate. The survey is four simple questions and will probably not take more than 30 seconds to complete.

Thank you in advance for participating in this effort.

Devin K. Harris, Ph.D.
Associate Professor – Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Director – Center for Transportation Studies
Faculty Director of Clark Scholars Program

 

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Being Prepared is Good (In General, but this time it’s Florence)

 

 

Oh, Yay. Wind.

There’s a great discussion on Twitter about this storm.

 

Might as well get prepared, folks.

 

A few thoughts about RealCrozetVA twitter during storms

Continue reading “Being Prepared is Good (In General, but this time it’s Florence)”

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9th Annual Crozet Trails Crew 5K – 6 October 2018

via email:

The 9th annual Crozet Trails Crew 5K Trail Race and Kids 400-meter Fun Run is only one month away! Come out on Saturday, October 6 to run, walk, or jog through woods, grassy fields, along streams, and over bridges (more info below).

Many are already working behind the scenes planning the race route, painting bridges, collecting prizes, etc.

Please support our primary fundraiser of the year by joining our

  • Workday on Saturday, Sept. 29 to prepare the trail for the race. Meet at 9 am at the trail entrance off Park Ridge Drive. Drive down Park Ridge through Western Ridge into Foothill Crossing, and look for the trail entrance on the left.
  • Help at the race on 10/6 by setting up, staffing registration, giving out prizes, and cleaning up after the race. Sign up to volunteer here, and thank you!
  • Register to run/jog/walk the race here.
    • The Kids Fun Run is at 8 am, with the adult race beginning at 8:30 and award ceremony at 9:30 with lots of prizes, including bridge naming rights to the male and female first place finishers! Registration and packet pick up will be Friday evening 10/5 from 6 to 8 pm in front of Crozet Library, as well as Saturday morning 7-8 am at Crozet Park. Fee is $20 online in advance or $25 in person. Registration includes a race tee shirt plus admission to the Crozet Arts and Crafts Festival immediately following.
  • The Crozet Trails Crew helps our parent non-profit, the Crozet Park, by staffing the wine and beer tent at the Arts for and Crafts Festival. Sign up for a shift as bartender here.

Help get the word out by posting the attached flyer at your workplace, church, or school.

And that’s not all! A team from Albemarle County Parks & Recreation has begun to make major improvements to the muddy and rutted trail just outside the dog park at Crozet Park. We are looking forward to a smoother, drier trail in that section. Thanks to all who helped them!

Our monthly meeting has a NEW date (third Thursday) and location this month! It will be Thursday, Sept. 20 from 6:30 – 8 pm at Crozet Pizza. Hope to see you there for final race planning!