Henley Student Moves on to National Spelling Bee
Re-Store ‘N Station in 3D
Or … Charlottesville Tomorrow rocks.
Please, please, please go check out their story on this. I’m not doing justice to the awesomeness that they’ve done.
As a note, I appreciate the optimism about the gas prices. And the Re-Store ‘N Station logo is nifty.
Crozet Community Association Meeting – 10 March 2011
via email:
As usual, there’s a lot going on around our community.
Here’s a few reminders of important upcoming meetings.
Our next Crozet Community Association (CCA) meeting is this week, Thursday, March 10 at 7:30 PM at the Field School. Please plan to attend. We’ll have updates about Barnes Lumber Property Redevelopment and the Restore ‘N Station application, as well as a presentation from Ms. Joyce Stratton of PeoplePlaces, a local foster care and adoption organization. If you have agenda items, please email me or bring them up at the meeting.
Ann Mallek our Supervisor for the White Hall district is holding three town hall meetings in March. Steve Sellers, Albemarle County’s new Police Chief, will be Ann’s guest and looks forward to hearing citizens’ concerns. The three meeting times and locations are:
Continue reading “Crozet Community Association Meeting – 10 March 2011”
See? Kids Can Traverse on Foot the Distance between Old Trail and WAHS
I hesitated posting this photo for one reason:
I don’t want these kids to not be allowed to walk/jog from WAHS to the field in Old Trail.
But … after last week’s discussion (47 comments as of this writing) about walking to school and the absurd policy that prevents kids from walking to and from school, I thought that this phots was an important part of the conversation – kids can walk/jog from school to practice. Good for them.
Now, adults, please don’t screw this up and take it upon yourselves to prevent kids from walking the one mile from school to practice. It’s good for them, it’s good for the environment and it’s good for Crozet to have fewer cars and buses on the roads.
Crozet Update – Safe Routes to School, Library, Streetscape, Jarman’s Gap
Ann Mallek forwarded the following email to me the other day; it contains a lot of good information. What questions do you have for Mrs. Mallek? Will you be asking her these questions on Monday?
Safe routes to school:
The official “kick-off” meeting, required with VDOT, was conducted February 7th ; we have a copy of the fully executed “grant” agreement and notice to proceed. The physical survey has been completed. I was informed that if we want to design in-house (as I had planned) I must submit a “finding of public interest” justification for VDOT approval. We recently completed interviews for our “term” (on-call) contracts for civil engineering and environmental services and will be finalizing our selections this week. I have submitted our procurement process to VDOT to see if it would be acceptable to use one of these “term” contract engineers to prepare the plans. If VDOT says “no” and we decide to use a consultant, then we’ll need to do a separate advertisement for requests for proposals and consultant interviews. It’s unfortunate but it’s all part of the strings (or web) attached to grant funding.
Continue reading “Crozet Update – Safe Routes to School, Library, Streetscape, Jarman’s Gap”
Basket Weaving at Old Crozet School Arts
A unique opportunity at Old Crozet School Arts!
Spring Basket Weaving Workshops with Laura Mellusi, March 12 (for middle-school age through adult) and March 26 (for children ages 7 – 10 with adult and ages 11 – 14 with or without adult). These are one-day workshops (10:00 am to 3:00 pm) for making either a market basket or berry basket. Participants will learn basic basket weaving and finishing techniques as well as tips for dying your own supplies.
Laura’s workshops in the Charlottesville area include Monticello, Tandem Friends School,Junior League of Charlottesville, Fluvanna Middle School, James River Arts Council, Discovery School of Virginia, Sweet Briar College and various home school groups. In addition to studio art and basket weaving, she has an education in Art History and Museum Studies and has been crafting and teaching basket weaving for over 16 years.
This is What the Renovated Barnes Lumber Property May Look Like
See for yourself.
Read the whole story at the Crozet Gazette.
Barnes Lumber Redevelopment Plan in Crozet
The plan submitted by PDG includes an 600-foot-long pedestrian mall in the center of the project, anchored at the west end by a large building. Roell said a national firm that builds boutique hotels is interested in the site. Other features include the extension of Library Avenue (still an unofficial name for the road partially constructed in downtown) to connect to Parkside Village and a walking path junction in the southeast corner of the property nearest to Claudius Crozet Park that will connect downtown to the extensive system of trails laid out in the Crozet Master Plan.
What do you think about this?
Update: High-res version of the plan.
Tell Ann Mallek What’s on Your Mind
There’s lots going on in Crozet:
– Redevelopment of Barnes’ property
– Sidewalks on Jarman’s Gap
– Walking to School bureaucracy
– Property taxes
– Overcrowding in Schools
If you don’t tell our elected representatives what’s on your mind, rest assured that others, with whom you may not agree, are.
Albemarle County Police Chief Steve Sellers also plans to be a guest speaker at each of the meetings. Residents will be able to direct questions to both Mallek and Sellers about any topic.
“White Hall district residents are encouraged to join in discussions about our community issues and how to fund our future needs,” Mallek said in a prepared statement.
The meetings are scheduled as follows: 7 p.m. Monday at the White Hall Community Center; 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Brownsville Elementary School cafeteria; and 7 p.m. March 16 at the Broadus Wood Elementary School cafeteria. The meetings require no advance registration.
Those Were Some Mighty Winds in Crozet Today
Note the lift on the left that’s being used to shore up the other building.
Update from @OldTrail (thank you!):
@realcrozetva Happy to report that everyone is safe from the town home construction and wind damage.
I assumed everyone was fine, but you know what happens when you assume … : )
Photos courtesy of @JonathanK
Update 2/26/11:
@OldTrail posted this awesome update this morning (which I would have posted earlier, but I was meeting with clients and builders all day in Old Trail):
What was even better about this unfortunate event was that the collapse of the single unit without any damage to the adjoining homes proved the soundness of the design.
“It’s ironic, but that is exactly what’s supposed to happen,” said Will Craig, project manager for Craig Builders. He continued, “These units are built to withstand such an event; if there were ever a fire in a middle unit and it had to be removed, homeowners on either side can see proof right here that their units can stand alone.” He further commented that the unit was scheduled to have a roof installed on Monday; had that been in place, the unit would have withstood the high winds on Friday.
I specifically didn’t mention the builder in the initial post as I didn’t want to invite snarky comments; I will attest to the fact that Craig are some of the best, and best to work with, builders in the area.