Light Industrial Park Proposed for Yancey Mills

INSIDE
the
Land Use Taxes
editorial
page 2
Xela 2008
page 3
Ashley Walker
Fundraiser
page 4
Disappearing Farmers
page 5
JAUNT
page 7
We all scream
for Ice cream
page 9
Live fire
page 10
“Little Blessings”
page 11
crozetgazette.com
AUGUST 2008 VOL. 3, NO. 3
Family, Friends
and Fellowship
Day at Mt. Salem
Gospel Church
Mt. Salem Baptist Church was built
in 1893 by local black families at what
is now the corner of Old Three Notch’d
Road and Route 240, just east of
Crozet’s water treatment plant. In its
115 years it has prospered and it has
struggled. Beginning in the 1980s it
Tribute to Dr. Laub
page 14
Wynter and Carter Morris of Crozet have some thrills at the Albemarle County Fair.
Dealing with
Draught
page 15
Light Industrial Park
Proposed for Yancey Mills
High-Speed internet
page 16
Smac Swimming
page 17
Sorry Still Open
page 18
Scouting news
page 20
Gators At JSL
Championships
pages 20
Henley Students at
National young
scholars program
page 21
crossword
page 25
CROZET BOOKWORMS
page 26
july 4TH celebration
page 28
Mt. Salem Baptist Gospel Church
had trouble finding a pastor and by
2003 it was virtually abandoned. The
old frame structure, simple except for
its pointed arch windows, faced a prospect of neglect.
Long-time member Ruth Dowell
was in possession of the key and one
day she called pastor Paul E. Colemon,
in Waynesboro, who had been looking
for a church building. Would he take
the key? The question was an answer
to prayer. He couldn’t wait. So, on that
day, Mt. Salem’s revival began.
Pastor Colemon had a vision. He
wanted to upgrade the building and
make it comfortable to be in the pews.
Helped by his son Jon, he built a porch
over the front steps and added a wheelchair ramp to it. They installed new
front doors. They built a porch over
the back door, too, and installed modern wiring. That meant they could add
window air-conditioning units and
continued on page 12
At the Albemarle County Planning Commission’s July 29 meeting about how
to increase the amount of available land zoned for light industrial uses, Will
Yancey, representing the Yancey family, owners of R.A. Yancey Lumber Company
in Yancey Mills, unveiled a proposal to rezone 148 acres south and east of their
lumberyard as PD-IPC (planned development-industrial park).
The proposed parcels are near the southeast corner of the Route 250/Interstate
64 interchange but do not include the immediately adjacent properties or the
lumberyard itself. Access to the proposed area would be achieved by extending
Yancey Mills Lane through the lumberyard.
continued on page 8
Coming Soon
When Harris Teeter says
their new Crozet supermarket
on Rt. 250 will be “Opening
2009” they mean, more specifically, that they are expecting to open their doors by
April, according to HT
spokeswoman
Catherine
Reuhl. The 43,000-squarefoot store will be Harris
Teeter’s first LEED-certified
store [LEED is a standard for environmentally-sustainable building], and will also
offer home shopping services.
page 2 s AUGUST 2008
from the Editor
Land Use Taxes
The Albemarle County Supervisors wisely stepped back from an action
that would have fractured community solidarity in western Albemarle July 9
when they decided against changing the current land use taxation program.
They did vote to investigate a revalidation program that would require farmers to affirm that they are farming, perhaps by submitting information from
their Schedule F federal income tax form. Fluvanna and Orange Counties
have such recertification requirements.
White Hall District Supervisor Ann Mallek had voted to open discussion
on possibly shifting the program’s terms to what County planners had
dubbed “Option 2,” a proposal that only land that met the state’s definition
of open space, generally speaking that in conservation easements or forestal
districts, be eligible for the program.
That got her in big trouble with rural residents who assembled at the
White Hall Community Center July 7, at a meeting they organized, to find
out what she was thinking and make sure she knew what they were thinking. More than 100 alarmed and reasonably well-informed citizens were
jammed into the room. They could not believe she had actually cooperated
with the notion of changing the program. Mallek’s own farm in Earlysville
has been in land use since 1982, she acknowledged, and Samuel Miller
District Supervisor Sally Thomas also participates in the program.
Mallek bravely wore her typically sweet smile throughout the night. “I
feel a kindred spirit with the rural people,” she assured them. But they were
skeptical about that and their message was blunt. “Everything you said you
were gonna do [during the campaign] you’ve gone off sides of,” said one
speaker. “Represent us, Ann!” came a repeated demand from the back of the
room that nearly became a chant.
“[Rio District Supervisor David] Slutsky tells us we own too much,” said
another speaker. “We work from dawn until 10 p.m. to hold our land. What
we own we should be able to keep. Slutsky said he hopes landowners will
give up their rights. You seem to follow his lead.”
“I need to stick with my original instinct on this,” said Mallek, which was
to go for a recertification requirement. She said it will require from six to
eight new county employees to administer it. An undetermined fee would
be charged to revalidate as well.
“Are you aware how many farmers depend on the land use tax?” asked
Kathy Rash. “Their livelihood and their heritage are at stake. Farmers are
canceling feed and fertilizer orders out of fear of the Board vote. We’ve put
millions of dollars in our operations and we feel we are being reneged on
and the county is turning its back on us.”
“The county wants us to put our land on the table and tell us how we can
develop,” said another speaker. “If they want to put their stocks and bonds
and 401Ks on the table I’d like to look at them!”
“We’re not picking this fight,” said Hank Martin.
Richard Cogan, a Planning Commission member from 1980 to 1988
who now sits on the county’s three-member Board of Zoning Appeals, said
“It’s another erosion of property rights. Three supervisors are saying what’s
yours is ours. It belongs to the County of Albemarle. We’re not going to
stand for it.”
Dirk Haynes reported that 84 percent of local farmers said in a survey
done by the Albemarle Farm Bureau that they would sell out if land use was
ended. If even only part of that possibility were to be realized, four decades
of county growth management policies would implode.
In the end, two hours later, Mallek promised that she would not cast the
fourth vote needed to change the program. “Let’s not let it turn into growth
area versus rural area,” she said. “We’re all in this together.”
A sluice of growth has been turned on to growth areas like Crozet and it’s
understandable that growth area residents are frustrated that the infrastructure and services that growth demands are not being met, except in the
county’s languorous and desultory manner. They mistakenly look at the land
use program as a subsidy of rural life that is depriving them of tax money
they need to cope with growth.
But this is not a tax equity problem. For rural landholders, and farmers
especially, the matter is existential. Without land use they are gone. They
point out that they are taxed the same as suburbanites on their house and
buildings on two acres, which is typically larger than most suburban lots. It’s
Crozet gazette
only their crop and pasture lands, which really don’t produce much income
any more, that are taxed at a reduced rate.
It’s been proven many times that the tax dollar paid by a suburban resident gets him more than one dollar of service and that the dollar paid by a
rural resident gets him less than a dollar’s worth of services. If anybody is
being subsidized, it’s the growth area resident.
This is not a new problem—it can be traced to colonial times—and in
fact the structure of local government in Virginia is designed to recognize it.
Counties are presumed to have agrarian economies and cities are presumed
to have mercantile economies. Because those economies have different
natures, the Virginia constitution gives cities and counties different taxation
powers.
But they are also inextricably linked. Farms feed towns, towns are markets
for farms. As the increase in gas price brings home, what we need is to cultivate and nurture local agriculture. It is appalling that food that could be
available fresh locally is being produced a continent or an ocean away and
shipped here at great cost and loss in nutritional value. Of all the blessings
western Albemarle has, fertile soils and sufficient rainfall are the greatest.
Next is us. We are in this together and we have to appreciate, and respect,
what we have.
The Gazette believes growth area residents should look to the lavish
county budget for money—schools, the sacred cow, in particular—and push
for new spending priorities. The Gazette repeats its view, too, that the
revenue-sharing agreement between Albemarle County and the City of
Charlottesville has outlived its usefulness. It should be voided. The City
should annex the “suburban ring” and take responsibility for all the urban
area. Let the county boundary retreat to the actual rural area. That would
re-establish the balance designed into our governmental structure and reduce
the political problem of suburban voters dominating the agenda of rural residents. Crozet, and Scottsville, will navigate their needs as market towns
quite satisfactorily in that arrangement. The fundamental issue in Albemarle,
the seemingly eternal one, is fair taxes.
Crozet gazette
AUGUST 2008 s page 3
to the Editor
CCC BOYS exonerateD
A correction is needed in the July
2008 issue, pg. 8—“CCC’s White
Hall Camp Remembered.”
In the fourth column, second
paragraph, the line reads: “James
speculated that some [fires] were
started by the CCC men because
they got paid for putting them
out.”
No. The CCC boys never started
fires. They were paid the same dollar-a-day wage regardless, and
fought the fires without extra compensation, even during their “free”
time.
I’m sorry that you [the editor]
misunderstood. I was reading a
direct quote from a letter written to
me by the camp engineer. He was
explaining the different ways that
the fires started, i.e. berry gatherers
clearing undergrowth; moonshiners
burning out their competition; etc.
Without pointing a finger directly
at any place or person, he stated that
there were “some” who could make
extra money for fighting fires, insinuating—as you correctly interpreted—that someone might have
incentive to start a fire in order to
benefit financially.
Please print a correction/retraction on this point to exonerate the
CCC boys. They had no incentive
for such conduct. Such an unfortunate event was extra duty to the
max, with no extra compensation.
Phil James
White Hall
Ed’s Note: Mea culpa
OLD SCHOOL REUSE
In the July issue of the Crozet
Gazette was a very informative article on page 1 that explained the
three-day schedule of meetings that
allowed the citizens of Crozet and
Western Albemarle County to
express their opinions and thoughts
on how the Old Crozet Elementary
School and grounds could best be
used to benefit the area.
One part of the three days that
did not receive coverage was very
important in collecting ideas. From
9 a.m. until 5:15 p.m. on Friday,
June 20, a table was manned by
members of the Old School Reuse
Committee and Albemarle County
staff. This was done in front of the
Crozet Great Valu to ensure that as
many citizens as possible had a
chance to express concerns, opinions and concepts on how to use the
old school building and grounds.
197 citizens took the time to express
63 unique ideas that would not have
been captured otherwise. As can be
seen from the number of people
that stopped at the table, the reuse
of the old school is very important
to the community and the reuse
committee will certainly make sure
their ideas are studied and discussed
before any final decision is made. If
any citizen would like to review the
ideas collected that day or during
the entire process they can do so at
www.albemarle.org/oldschool.
We also want to thank Jean
Wagner and the employees at Great
Valu for continuing to offer a site in
front of the store for groups to
engage the public.
Bill Schrader
Member of the Old School Reuse
Committee Mountain Plain
Baptist Church
A small, friendly, moderate church invites
you to share your Sunday with us.
Sunday School r 10 am
Traditional Worship Service r 11 am
Rev. Sam Kellum, Pastor
4297 Old Three Notch’d Road
Travel 2 miles east of the Crozet Library on Three
Notch’d Rd. (Rt. 240), turn left onto Old Three Notch’d
Rd., go 0.5 mile to Mountain Plain Baptist Church
More information at
www.mountainplain.org or 823.4160
Xela 2008: Western Albemarle Students
Go to Language School in Guatemala
By Margie Shepherd
On June 15, a group of 34 students, including 28 from Western
Albemarle High School, along with
seven
adults,
headed
to
Quetzeltenango, Guatemala, for a
three-week Spanish immersion program.
They lived with families in
Quetzeltenango (also called by its
Mayan name, Xela) and took five
hours of classes each afternoon at
Casa Xelaju. Mornings were filled
with cultural activities and volunteer projects. They toured the city,
learned about back-strap weaving,
visited schools, took Salsa lessons,
and helped with chocolate production. They hiked into the dormant
volcano of Chicobal to the edge of
the lake inside. They worked with
children in an afterschool program,
with a temporary shelter, and on
rural houses with Habitat for
Humanity.
When they visited Escuela Las
Trigales to play basketball and soccer with the students, they also came
loaded with soccer equipment. Two
boys in the group, Ben and Adam
Schiller, collected balls, shin guards,
shoes, and shirts from Albemarle
students in the SOCA league this
spring. SOCA donated over a hundred new soccer shirts. There were
enough to outfit many local teams
connected to this school.
One weekend the group headed
to Lake Atitlan, to the beautiful
towns of Panajachel and Santiago,
and then to Chichicastenango, an
enormous market that pre-dates
Columbus’s arrival. The next they
flew to the state of Petan to see the
Mayan ruins at Tikal and a tour of
that ancient city with their guide
Pavlo. And before heading back,
they spent some time in Antigua,
near Guatemala City. Students took the Albemarle
County Spanish exam upon returning home, and those who pass will
receive a full year of Spanish credit.
Spanish immersion not only
included the classwork, but mealtimes, buying things in the stores
and markets, cafes and ice cream
stands, where they had to practice
with the language to get what they
needed.
They took away with them an
appreciation for Guatemalan and
Mayan culture. About sixty percent
of the people of the Western
Highlands, where the students were,
are Mayan, speaking Mum or
Qui’che, or one of the other many
dialects as a first language. The students came back loaded with
Guatemalan textiles, bags, coffee,
glassware from Copavic, and
wooden masks—and loaded with
stories, new friendships, new experiences, and many wonderful memories.
Pictures and accounts of the
adventure are at the blog www.
xela2008.blogspot.com.
Participants at Xela 2008 included: Laura Weiss
(mother), Landon Weiss, Max Weiner, Chris Bergin,
Jacob Ball, Colin Williams, Alex Mosolgo-Clark,
Matthew Kochard, Hunter Weiss (Henley), Gabby
DeJanasz, Phoebe Fooks, Katie Van dePol (AHS)
Veronica O’Brien, Diana Stan, Ben Schiller, Adam
Schiller, Alec Shobe (Richmond) Sam Isaacs, Liz
Noonan, Rosemary Shepherd (WAHS‘04), Henry Giles,
Ethan Baruch, Jake Parks, Becca Stoner, KellyAbrams,
Paul Charron (NC) Cole Weiss (Meriwether Lewis),
Maggie Borowitz, Sadie Garner, James Webster,
Grant Forsythe (MN), Kristy Mangold (AHS), Suzanne
deJanasz (mother), Margaret Shepherd (Murray
HS ‘06) Anna Brown, Jay LaRue, Margie Shepherd
(Henley teacher), Jennifer Bisguier, Michael Hartman,
Chris Abrams, Diana Garner (mother), and Sandy
Williams mother).
Crozet gazette
page 4 s AUGUST 2008
Bands Announced
for Rockfish
Bluegrass Festival
The Bluegrass Festival has
announced its full lineup of bands
for the September 6 event. Allens
Mill has been added to the list of
bands scheduled to play from 2 to 7
p.m. on Saturday, September 6, at
the Rockfish Valley Volunteer Fire
Department.
Along with Allens Mill, the James
River Cut-Ups, Little Mountain
Boys and In the Tradition will participate in the festival, which will
raise funds toward the new $300,000
fire truck recently purchased by the
all-volunteer fire department.
In addition to the bands, food
will be available and a 50/50 drawing will be held. Tickets for the
event are $10 for adults and $5 for
children ages 6 to12. Children 5
and under are free. This is a family
event with no alcohol allowed.
For more information, call Gary
Nickell at home at (434) 361-1059
or on his cell phone at (434)
962-9558.
Located on Route 151, the
department provides fire and rescue
service for Nelson County, Route
250 to the top of Afton Mountain
and parts of western Albemarle
County.
“Chicago,” and more. Nancy
Fleischman will accompany on the
piano.
The concert is free and open to
the public. Crozet Baptist Church is
at 5804 St. George Avenue in
Crozet. For more information, call
Ms. Samuel at 540-456-6433.
Bonnie and
Fresh Peach
Friends Concert Ice Cream at
Set for August 10 Chiles Orchard
The 15th annual Bonnie and
Friends Concert will be held August
10 at 3 p.m. at Gillum Hall in
Crozet Baptist Church. Joining
Bonnie Samuel will be soprano
Mary Spols Martin, tenors David
Collyer and Rob Cordero and lyric
tenor Ken Ellis.
Featured music will include
pieces by Offenbach, Tchaikovsky
and Mozart, as well as contemporary composers, songs from
“Kismet,” “Porgy and Bess,”
Ashley Walton Fundraiser
The largest public turnout at the Crozet firehouse that Crozet Volunteer
Fire Department President Preston Gentry can remember occurred July 11
for the Ashley Walton fundraiser. Walton, age 24, was hit by a drunk driver
on Memorial Day and is now in a rehabilitation center in Atlanta, Georgia,
in a minimal responsive state.
The fundraiser to assist her family was organized by Mt. Moriah United
Methodist Church in White Hall, and more specifically by Wayne Knight.
The church prepared a dinner of baked spaghetti, salad, cakes and drinks for
500 and all the fire equipment was pulled out of the bays to set up tables
and chairs on the breezy summer evening.
“It does our hearts good,” said Knight. “The community and the individual response has been phenomenal. This has touched the entire community.”
Raffle tickets were sold for prizes donated by local businesses and donation baskets were generously filled.
Walton’s grandmother Faye Gibson said, “I’d like to thank the church,
the fire department and the whole community. Everyone has shown their
love. It’s been overwhelming.”
The Albemarle – Charlottesville
Pilot Club, a community service
club, will hold its annual homemade peach ice cream sale at Chiles
Peach Orchard. The sale, the club’s
traditional fundraiser, will be on
August 2 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and
August 3 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.,
or until sold out. Chiles Orchard is
at 1351 Greenwood Road between
Crozet and Greenwood. For more
information, call 295-1783.
Apples for
Appalachia
Fundraising
Apples for Appalachia, a foodsharing campaign that buys surplus
apples from the Crozet-area harvest
for distribution to the needy in
southwest Virginia, is collecting
money donations for its fall apple
delivery, according to organizer
Wayne Clark.
Clark is customarily at the sales
shed at Henley’s orchard, but since
his wife’s recent heart attack he cannot be there. Meanwhile, donations
may be sent to Apples for
Appalachia, P.O. Box 88, Crozet,
VA 22932.
Mail the
Gazette to your
college student.
[email protected]
(434) 466-8939
Crozet gazette
AUGUST 2008 s page 5
by Phil James
Farm auctions such as this one held near Mount Fair, too often denote the final passing of another honorable life spent
working the land.
The Disappearing Faces
of Farming
D
id you ever want to be a farmer?
There’s nary a town nor village in
Albemarle County that was not built to
serve a surrounding community of farmers. The
scores of discontinued post offices attest to former communities where farming families once
gathered to check the mail, share news, and purchase or trade for provisions.
It’s easy today to ignore the reality that the
sprawling estates of old Albemarle, crowned with
their palatial homes, were established as working
farms. During the better years, the farms’ increases
empowered the owners while supplying jobs, sustenance and housing to the laborers essential to
farm operations.
Colonial-era plantations that once supported a
tobacco-based economy were sub-divided as the
land yielded less of the prized product. Subsequent
generations of land entrepreneurs positioned
themselves for an ever-increasing population, paring down the grand old plantations into numerous smaller parcels. Land values were prudently
based on the attributes of the soil, and houses
were often relegated to a spot thought less convenient or profitable for tillage.
One of the most obvious absences from the
local real estate scene today is affordable farm
acreage. The Southern Planter magazine in 1893
carried this print ad for Albemarle farm land:
“Albemarle County. The great fruit, grain and
stock section of Virginia. Climate healthful and
fine. Scenery beautiful. Near the great markets,
with good transportation facilities… Good soil at
low prices. Sheep protected in this county by a
good dog law.” Improved farmlands were
offered at $9–$10/acre.
An opportunity occasionally available
to the farmer unable to buy land of his
own was to sharecrop the lands of
another. A 1918 Albemarle County
sharecropper’s one-year lease agreement
revealed the following conditions of one
such enterprise: The farm owner received
“one third (1/3rd) of all grain, and crops,
and apples”; retained rights to harvest
firewood and pasture his stock; and had
no responsibility for damage his own
stock might do to any crops on the farm.
The leasing sharecropper furnished all
seed and kept the farm in cultivation “as
good husbandry requires”; furnished all
barrels (owner to pay for 1/3rd of the
barrels used) and spraying materials;
pruned, tended, and sprayed the
orchard in a proper manner; had the
privilege of cutting and selling chestnut
wood, paying 1/4th of those proceeds
to the owner; had the privilege of using
the horse called “Dan”, plus the use of
a 2-horse wagon, harness and farming
implements—and agreed to feed the horse.
Mount Fair was one of the several estates established by members of the historic Brown family
in the Brown’s Cove section of western Albemarle
County in the 18th-century. James W. Early
became the owner of this farm estate before the
turn of the 20th-century. He employed many
local hands in the operations of his farm, grain
The gentle spirit of young Katie Maupin (1900–1998) was
evident as she milked her family’s cow near Doylesville,
Virginia. [Photo courtesy of Thelma Via Wyant.]
A significant shift in labor from agriculture to industry
occurred during the 1950s. Crozet’s business community,
however, was still being counted on to serve the farms and
orchards of western Albemarle County.
mill, and general store. One of those laborers
was Laurie Sandridge (1890–1951), whose son,
Homer, recalled some of his father’s experiences
continued on page 6
Crozet gazette
page 6 s AUGUST 2008
Farming—continued from page 5
The smile on this young girl’s face reflected the general
mood around Crozet during the apple and peach picking
seasons. The bounty of a successful harvest—apples in
this instance—was always a cause to celebrate. [Photo
courtesy of Jimmy Belew.]
working for Early.
“This land here all used to be Mount Fair,”
Homer said as he motioned with his hand.
“When I was real small my Daddy worked here.
See where those woods are over yonder? I was
born in a log house on the bank of the [Doyle’s]
river right over there. Between here and
Doylesville is less than a mile. The road just followed the river. I remember you crossed the
river—you forded the river—three times. That
was a real old house that we lived in. He built a
house down here in the bottom and we moved
Cecil McAllister (1913–1999), youngest child of Jim and Mollie (Via) McAllister, lived his entire life on his family’s farm
adjacent to the first bridge over Moormans River in Sugar Hollow. [Photo courtesy of Cecil McAllister.]
across into that along about nineteen-and-eighteen. Had a hog lot right over there. And they
would let ‘em out and let ‘em run over the woods.
Most of them were raised for the owner’s consumption and consumption of the people who
worked on the place. Back then when you worked
for somebody they furnished you so much. I
remember hearing my Daddy say that during
World War One—he had four children then—
his pay was sixteen dollars a month. Flour was
sold for eighteen dollars a barrel during the war.
But he didn’t have to buy any flour. He was furnished with flour, meal, a couple hogs, a cow to
milk. That’s what came along with all of his compensation. Then about nineteen-and-twenty-one
we moved to the store. The fellow that owned it,
James Early, died while we were here. He was also
running the store up there at Mount Fair. That
was a part of his estate. Mrs. Early sold that store
up there and about an acre, acre-and-a-half of
land to my father. We moved up there and he
started running the store. That was a big move.”
Whether laboring for a subsistence wage,
sharecropping for an absentee owner, orcharding
on the mountainsides, or managing great estates
in the fertile bottomlands, Albemarle’s farmers
Each of the businesses adjacent to Crozet’s C&O Depot catered to the farmer and orchardist. The background in this 1950s view clearly illustrates the close relationship between farm and
village.
Crozet gazette
contributed significantly to the wealth and welfare of their county and state. Post-World War II
industrialization and improved transportation
enticed many to depart from the agricultural
labors of their ancestors and take on clock-punching jobs in town. They exchanged the familiar
rhythms of the seasons for the relentless hustle of
industrialized society. Some thrived. Some just
survived. But the social fabric of another agriculturally-based county was forever altered.
Heaven help us in this day when land assessments and taxes have precluded the opportunities
of the up-and-coming generation of would-be
farmers. Existing and potential land use restrictions are squeezing out the remaining full-time
agriculturists. Farmers continually strive to maintain their land in a productive state. To the recreational passer-by, the bucolic vistas they enjoy
demand to be “preserved,” forcing the overworked
land stewards of today to carve out even more
time to attend public hearings in order to point
out emphatically that these lands are farms, not
parks!
Did you ever want to be a farmer? Or do you
at least hold on to the hope that productive farmlands, with their aesthetic diversity and beneficial
assets, will continue to grace our local region?
Well, you’d better study-up on the potential
impacts of local zoning and conservation restrictions affecting the farmers and their farmlands. If
we don’t take better care of the farmers around us
right now, we’d better start learning the best way
to prepare and serve houses. They could be the
last crop harvested on these once highly-prized
and fertile, but rapidly disappearing, farmlands.
Phil James invites contact from those who
would share recollections and old photographs of life along the Blue Ridge
Mountains of Albemarle County, Virginia.
You may respond to him at: P.O. Box 88,
White Hall, VA 22987 or philjames@firstva.
com. Secrets of the Blue Ridge © 2008 Phil
James
AUGUST 2008 s page 7
Jaunt Tests
Demand for
Expanded Service
to Crozet
With punishing gas prices dramatically raising
the cost of the commute to Charlottesville,
Crozet residents have been wondering if public
transportation options could be expanded.
“We just need the money,” said JAUNT director Donna Shaunesey, when asked if expansion
of their current morning and evening route to
Charlottesville was possible. “Show me the
money and we’ll be there. It’s really expensive.”
JAUNT is a publicly-funded regional transportation service that operates 64 vans on routes
through Albemarle, Amherst, Buckingham,
Greene, Louisa, Nelson, Orange and Fluvanna
Counties, and it is mainly centered on providing
access to Charlottesville. Its vans hold from 14 to
18 passengers. It has a $5.3 million dollar budget
provided largely by the local governments. Only
$500,000 of its costs is recovered in fare revenues,
Shaunesey said. “We’d be nowhere without government money. The fare revenue doesn’t amount
to a lot.”
JAUNT ran a three-times-a-day weekday service between its pick-up spot in the Mountainside
Senior Living parking lot off Carter Street and
U.Va. and the downtown bus center for two
years, abandoning it in 2005. “It was a pretty
good service,” Shaunesey said. “We even made it
free. But we averaged only two riders a day.” She
said it would cost JAUNT about $25,000 a year
to provide twice-a-day runs from Crozet to
Charlottesville with a $1 fare charged each way.
It currently picks up riders in Crozet and delivers them to locations in Charlottesville, returning
them in the evening for $3 each way in what
amounts to a virtual taxi service that means an
unpredictable travel schedule and potentially
long rides for some passengers. The service would
not work for commuters wanting to get to work
and back home at specific times and with reasonably direct ride times.
“Our ridership has not gone up with the gas
prices,” Shaunesey noted. “Ride Share is getting
more requests but it hasn’t played out with us
yet.
“A more efficient way [to address the commuting issue] would be van pools, especially for people going to U.Va.” State Farm runs a successful
van pool to its offices on Pantops, she said.
Because the Albemarle Supervisors would
have to subsidize expanded service, White Hall
District Supervisor Ann Mallek has been soliciting interest in the idea and so far has had four
responses, said Shaunesey, who has received forwarded messages. Each of the four has different
time-of-day needs, she noted. Mallek is collecting data through August.
“Even if the response is high we would have
concerns,” Shaunesey said. JAUNT responded to
a similar need expressed by residents of Esmont,
she explained, and even though many people said
they would use the vans, after the service was
instituted, few actually did.
“The Esmont experience was that people don’t
follow through,” she said.“Our goal is to make
sure everybody is getting where they need to go.
Personally, I would like to see people drive their
cars less. What we need to know [from Crozetians]
is specific information about hours of the day
they need to travel,” Shaunesey said.
www.ridejaunt.org
Rural Demand-Response
For transportation outside the scheduled routes,
JAUNT provides service with fares ranging from
$2.60 to $12.50, depending on the distance and
whether the passenger has a disability or is a senior.
Rural Services within the County
Anyone can ride JAUNT services within Albemarle
County. Service is offered Wednesday to Crozet and
Tuesday and Thursday to Scottsville and Esmont.
The fare is $2.00 each way and $1.00 for passengers
with disabilities and those 60 years and older.
We’ve moved
the Crozet office!
Please visit us in our beautiful new
facility located in Shoppes at Clover
Lawn (above UVA Credit Union)
Conveniently located on Route 250
across from Blue Ridge Builders
Supply.
Same friendly, personal service.
Same gentle, friendly dental care.
Your comfort is our #1 concern.
Jim Rice DDS • Jennifer Rice DDS
Sherman Smock DDS (Specialist in Periodontics)
434.823.2290
crozet
325 Four Leaf Lane, Suite 10
Sedation Denistry • Complete, Modern Denistry for Adults, Teens and Children
Dental Cleanings, all types • White Fillings • Caps (Crowns), Bridges, Veneers
Root Canals • Implants • 1 Hour Bleaching
Nellysford
2905 Rockfish Valley Hwy
434.361.2442
Crozet gazette
page 8 s AUGUST 2008
Light Industial—continued from page 1
The 148 acres include 4 parcels
whose southern boundaries follow
Interstate 64 extensively and also
contact the south side of Western
Albemarle High School. They do
not have any other direct access to
Route 250. Roughly 30 acres of the
land is unbuildable because it is
floodplain covered by water protection ordinance buffers or has critical
slopes. Yancey showed the commissioners photos of the site, which has
attractive views, and it is presently
cattle pasture watered by Stockton
Creek. Yancey said he will submit a
formal request for the rezoning to
the county by September 2.
Yancey argued that his proposal,
which he called a “preliminary conceptual” plan, met county criteria
for having interstate highway access
and having a 50-acre minimum.
The land would have to have public
water and sewer extended to it,
which he said was possible by connecting to lines at WAHS. He
acknowledged that it did not conform with County policies on preserving rural areas.
“We understand rezoning is at
odds with the Comprehensive Plan,”
he said. “Approval of our proposal
will take some outside-of-the-box
thinking.”
Commissioners had been discussing a report prepared by county
planning staff that said that only
111 acres of vacant, buildable land
zoned for light industrial use is
available in the county. According
to their demand study, the county
needs at least 121 more acres, and if
office use, which is currently allowed
in the zoning, were factored in, the
shortage could be as much as 339
acres. The study took the growth in
county employment from 2000 to
2006, which turns out to be 3.2
percent, and applied standard planning formulas to it to arrive at their
figures.
A fair percentage of the presently
available light industrial land is in
Crozet, including the Barnes
Lumber Company property downtown, the former ConAgra complex
that now houses MusicToday and
Starr Hill Brewery, and the former
Acme Visible property just east that
is presently being remediated for
environmental damage left by solvents used to remove grease during
manufacturing processes. It is not
expected to be usable again for three
years.
Some commissioners remained
unconvinced of the need to preemp-
tively rezone land without a specific
applicant and probed the assumptions made in preparing the report.
White Hall District Commissioner
Tom Loach asked for a breakdown
of the employment data to find out
if the growth had been in light
industrial jobs, or if the numbers
perhaps reflected office jobs. Samuel
Miller District Commissioner Eric
Strucko asked if there had been a
spike in jobs in any one year reflecting a single employer that might
have especially affected the total.
County planner Susan Stimart, who
presented the report, did not have
that information.
Nora Gillespie, director of the
Central Virginia Small Business
Development Center, which assists
about 200 young companies every
year, said the Center has about “six
to 10 cases a year” in which growing
companies have trouble finding
affordable light industrial land in
Albemarle and adjoining counties
where they can expand operations.
Those companies have usually
headed to the Valley or toward
Richmond for space, she said.
“It may be a regional problem
since they can’t find land in nearby
[email protected]
counties either,” observed Strucko.
“I’m not convinced we have to go
outside the growth areas,” he said.
“We could rezone, but not proactively.” Later in the discussion he
insisted that County policy about
increasing light industrial acreage be
strictly limited to land inside growth
areas. He also noted that highway
commercial zoning also allowed
many of the uses available through
LI zoning. “Are we addressing a
problem that’s out there?” he asked.
“If so, we’ll devise a policy to deal
with it.”
“It’s really a subsidy problem,”
said Rio District Commissioner Jon
Cannon, comparing it to the affordable housing issue. “You’re stacking
the deck competitively [by rezoning
more land to LI].”
“I would like to state up front
that we should not change growth
area boundaries but look at other
mechanisms,” said Strucko.
“I agree that we have to totally
exhaust the growth areas first,” said
Jack Jouett District Commissioner
Bill Edgerton. “But we need some
strength in the Comp Plan to
continued on page 11
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Guitar duo David Bailey & David Ferrall
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Crozet gazette
AUGUST 2008 s page 9
Condon’s Corner: Cooking Made Easy
© Marlene A. Condon
Easy and Better Ice Cream
If you do not own an ice cream machine, you might want to think about
buying one. I got an Oster “Quick-Freeze Ice Cream Maker” several years
ago and I have not ever wanted to buy ice cream at the grocery store again.
Many folks do not realize how good homemade ice cream can be because
people are under the mistaken impression that it should be eaten as soon as
it is made. Indeed, many country fairs and some fruit stands make ice cream
and immediately sell it while it still retains a somewhat liquid or “soft” consistency.
But ice cream is best when it is hardened, just as when you buy it at the
grocer’s. Therefore the trick to making great ice cream is to use a great recipe
and to allow the ice cream time to harden in the freezer instead of eating it
right away.
I once offered a neighbor a quart of homemade ice cream and he initially
declined, saying he didn’t like homemade ice cream. I convinced him to take
it for his kids to try. The next time I saw him, he told me the whole family
thought I should be working for the Breyer’s ice cream company! They
thought it was the best vanilla ice cream they had ever had.
Many recipes for vanilla ice cream contain eggs which give the ice cream a
creamier (and fattier) consistency. Known as “French” vanilla, these recipes
usually require cooking and cooling of the egg mixture (known as custard)
before you can even begin to think about making the ice cream.
But my Oster machine came with an egg-less recipe for the best vanillaflavored ice cream that I have ever had. Because I do not have to cook a
custard first and cool it down to go into the ice cream machine, I can easily
whip up a quart and a half of ice cream within an hour of deciding to make
it—assuming I have all of the ingredients at hand, of course!
So I thought I would share with you this wonderful recipe because vanilla
is the basic flavor that goes so well with just about everything. I am also providing four variations of this recipe that are absolutely yummy after being
allowed time to harden completely. Homemade ice cream will keep very well
for a few months inside a “real” freezer if kept tightly sealed. If you have only
a refrigerator freezer, try to use it up within a month.
Easy Vanilla Ice Cream
Variations:
NOTE: Before starting to make
the ice cream, get out two clean
plastic freezer containers in a onequart and a one-pint size. Each container should have a tight-fitting
snap-on lid. Also make two dated
labels. Place these items on the
counter with a spoonula (a plastic
or rubber spatula with curved edges
that is used like a mixing spoon) or
some other large spoon. It will be
needed to guide the soft ice cream
out of the ice cream machine canister into the storage freezer containers as quickly as possible. You may
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spill some of the semi-solid mixture
so you should also have a damp
paper towel available for wiping the
plastic containers after filling them.
Be sure to stick dated labels onto
the containers before placing them
into the freezer.
Put the following ingredients into
your ice cream canister:
2 cups whipping cream
2 cups half and half
(NOT LOW FAT)
1 cup granulated white sugar
1 Tbsp. REAL vanilla extract
(NOT IMITATION)
Stir with a mixing spoon until
the sugar is completely dissolved
(the graininess will disappear).
After thoroughly mixing the
ingredients, I place the canister into
the freezer for about 5 minutes to
make sure the ingredients and the
canister are quite cold.
Freeze according to your manufacturer’s directions. When done,
transfer the soft ice cream into the
freezer containers as quickly as possible. Be sure to wipe the top edges
(and sides, if necessary) of the containers with the damp paper towel
and snap the lids on. Place the dated
containers into a freezer for several
hours (preferably at least eight) to
completely harden.
To make chocolate chip ice
cream, add two-thirds cup of
MINIATURE chocolate chips just
before the ice cream has reached the
desired consistency (follow your
manufacturer’s directions for how to
mix in ingredients).
To make cinnamon ice cream,
which is great for use with warm
apple desserts (not for eating by
itself ), use the same amount of
whipping cream, half and half, and
sugar as for the vanilla ice cream.
However, mix in only 1½ tsp.
vanilla extract and add 1 Tbsp.
ground cinnamon.
For really delectable chocolate ice
cream, you need to first combine
the following ingredients in a
blender set to a LOW speed until it
is smooth: 2 cups whipping cream,
2 cups half and half, 1 tsp. vanilla
extract, 1½ cups sugar, and ½ cup
unsweetened cocoa powder. Freeze
as directed by the manufacturer.
For superb strawberry ice cream,
place 2 cups fresh or frozen strawberries into a blender or food processor fitted with a blade. Cover and
process at a LOW speed until
chopped. Pour into the canister in
which you have thoroughly mixed
(until the sugar is dissolved) 2 cups
whipping cream, 1 cup half and
half, 1 cup sugar, and 2 tsp. vanilla
extract. Freeze as directed by the
manufacturer of your ice cream
machine. IMPORTANT NOTE:
Strawberries from your own garden,
a nearby farm, or a farmer’s market
are preferable to those available at
most grocers. However, if you must
purchase them at the grocery store,
buy a package from the freezer section. These fruits tend to be of better quality in terms of ripeness—
and thus tastiness—than the practically unripe fresh strawberries
shipped in from who-knows-where.
Enjoy!
Crozet gazette
page 10 s AUGUST 2008
A New York Yankee in Chief Bubba and Hubba’s
Firehouse
By Tom Loach
Live Fire Training
I
thought I’d share with you some
interesting data about the challenges faced by the fire service in
the U. S. The data is from 2006 and
shows that nationwide there were
1,642,500 fires, an increase of 2.5%
from 2005. There were 278,000
fires in vehicles and every 19 seconds a fire department responded to
a fire emergency. A fire occurred in
a structure every 60 seconds and a
residential fire occurred every 78
seconds, with a vehicle fire starting
every 113 seconds.
The really dreary figure is the fact
that someone dies in a fire every 62
minutes and someone is injured by
fire every 32 minutes. The fires that
firefighters face today are becoming
increasingly dangerous.
Part of the problem is the materials we now have in our homes,
including increasing amounts of
plastic and composite materials.
When these burn, they produce not
only more smoke, but more toxins.
In an article about the dangers of
burning plastics, the author wrote
the following: “While the flammability of a plastic product depends
on its form, plastics generally create
hotter fires and are therefore more
dangerous to firefighters than burning wood, paper or cloth. One
pound of polystyrene plastic can
give off 18,000 Btu, whereas wood
or paper will only give off 7,000 to
8,000 Btu. Furthermore, the smoke
given off by plastics is dense and
black, creating a greater obscuration
hazard than wood or paper smoke.”
Odd as it may seem, one way the
Crozet Volunteer Fire Department
prepares to fight fires is to start
them. It’s called live fire training and
it provides invaluable experience for
preparing for the next structure fire.
The opportunity usually starts when
we get a call from someone in the
community who has a building they
want to demolish and offers it to the
fire department to burn down.
Here in Crozet, the expert in setting up these live fire training sessions is Battalion Chief Mike
Walton, who has organized and
burned at least 10 buildings. The
planning for a live burn has to be
meticulous because the reality is
that there’s always an element of
danger when you deal with a burning building. Because these live
burns are such a valuable learning
tool, we usually invite members
from other departments to take
part. Chief Walton and his “burn
team” will review the building to see
how many different types of fire sce-
narios they can come up with to
give firefighters a chance to use as
many fire suppression techniques as
possible.
Once they have their plan set out,
they make sure all of the firefighters
know what’s expected of them and
how each fire evolution is expected
to play out. To ensure safety, each
team that goes into the building will
have a back up team ready and waiting.
Perhaps the hardest working team
at any live burn are the firefighters
assigned as “fire starters.” It’s the fire
starters who actually put the torch
to the building, then sit there until
they feel the fire is of sufficient size
before calling in the team to put the
fire out. Being a fire starter is a
tough job because they take a beating with each fire they start.
There is nothing that I know of
that prepares you to go into a burning building. Even under training
conditions, facing a live fire can be a
very scary experience, crawling
through the smoke toward an ever
increasing glow, feeling the heat of
the fire start to penetrate your fire
gear while the fire roars overhead.
This type of training is especially
important for new members who
have to learn to work as a team and
trust themselves and their equipment if they’re ever to become effective firefighters. Live burns allow the
more experienced members to
sharpen their skills and give our officers the chance to practice their
leadership skills.
Because we invite other departments, we get to work as a combined unit and get exposure to other
departments’ techniques and equipment while improving cross department communications. At our last
live burn, Chief Walton was able to
give the other department that took
part an opportunity to work with
the foam system on our trucks.
Even the final act of letting the
building burn to the ground is used
to observe and teach fire behavior,
because it’s just as important to
know when not to go into a burning building as when to go into one.
When the day is done the exercise is
reviewed to see what went well and
what needs improvement.
Executing a good live burn takes
considerable time and effort, but
giving firefighters this type of real
life experience is the best way for
the
Crozet
Volunteer
Fire
Department to prepare for a call
that’s the real thing.
Crozet gazette
AUGUST 2008 s page 11
Gently Used Clothes for
Kids Help the Budget
by Kathy Johnson
Did you know that …
IT’S NOT JUST OUR COOKING
THAT’S COOKIN’
Saturday, August 2, 1 - 5 p.m.
Wine tasting featuring mid-priced
selections from South America, Australia
and New Zealand. Music by Mary Gordon
Hall and Billy Hunter. No cover.
Saturday, August 16, 1 - 5 p.m.
Gabriele Rausse, the father of Virginia
viticulture, will pour and discuss four
selections from his own winery. Free
samples from the store’s bakery and
gourmet deli. No cover.
Friday, August 29, 5 - 8 p.m.
Reception for the noted landscape
photographer Ben Greenberg
(bengreenberg.com), whose art will
hang in the store through mid-October.
Includes a wine tasting, live music, and
hors d’oeuvres. No cover.
Every Sunday, 1:30 - 4 p.m.
Acoustic jam featuring musicians from
around these parts. Bring your favorite
instrument and join in!
Denise Harvey had an idea. As the mother of
three young children (two girls and a boy) she
knew how difficult it could be for a parent to find
good, affordable clothing. What if there was a
way for parents to save on children’s clothing and
equipment? What if she sold good quality, gently
used items for parents on a budget? That’s how
Little Blessings came to be.
Located in the parking area next to the Afton
Service Center on Route 151, Little Blessings
could be a parent’s best friend. Not a consignment shop, Harvey said, “I buy them, then resell
them. But they have to be good quality.”
The clean and neat little store carries a nice
assortment of neatly hanging infant and toddler
clothing. Everything is well displayed and the
shop is bright and well arranged, making it easier
for a parent (or grandparent) to find what they
are seeking.
The shop is open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on
Friday and Saturday and from 3 to 6 p.m. on
Thursdays. “I know it’s hard for parents to get
away sometimes,” Harvey said, so she added the
late time on Thursdays to offer times a working
mother or dad could use. The baby beds, playpens and toys all carry the well-known names of
high-quality merchandise (Fisher Price, Little
Tykes, Graco for example) with a much smaller
price tag than when new.
The store officially opened January 1, but as
the economic times tighten Harvey has noticed
growth in this small, woman-owned, business.
“I see more and more new faces every week,”
she says. And why not; children rarely wear out
clothes. Sometimes they are passed along to family or friends, but with Little Blessings a family
may be able to gain some income from the resale
of good, usable children’s clothing and use that
money to purchase the next sizes up.
Those with good quality items they’d like to
sell, can call Harvey for an appointment at (434)
981-0320.
Light Industial—continued from page 1
encourage this.”
Scottsville District Commissioner Linda
Porterfield urged the commission to think about
rezoning land near the southeast corner of the
Route 250/Interstate 64 interchange at Pantops/
Shadwell, which has a jumble of “old zonings,”
she said, that might be better used now for light
industry. Other commissioners were cool to the
idea.
“I’m looking for employment in the growth
areas and I’m reluctant to commit to rezoning
land and foreclosing it to other uses that might
bring in jobs,” said Loach.
During public comment, Morgan Butler from
the Southern Environmental Law Center urged
commissioners to “approach proposals like Mr.
Yancey’s cautiously,” and instead to investigate
possible changes in zoning ordinances.
Crozet resident Mike Marshall suggested that
planners consider rail access as strongly as interstate access and said that available LI land in
Crozet, all of which has existing rail access, is still
substantially unused. He also asked planners to
define what is meant by “affordable” land.
“To me, ‘adjacent’ means sprawl,” said Strucko,
trying to defend the growth area boundaries. “Mr.
Yancey’s proposal goes against my principles. It
would extend the Crozet growth area south of Rt.
250. Obviously, I don’t agree with that.”
Cannon agreed. “The underlying concept of
the Comprehensive Plan is to prevent opening up
more rural land for development.”
“There is not a problem in the county that does
not have a growth area solution,” asserted Loach.
“The Yancey proposal should be taken up in the
context of master planning. The community
should have a say. We need more coming up from
the growth areas [residents] and less coming down
from above.”
“I’m not convinced there is a need to expand
the growth areas,” concurred Edgerton. “I think
light industrial can be integrated in the growth
areas in a sympathetic way.”
Is there something you would
like to share with us?
Enjoy a Taste of
Country Only
Ten Minutes from
the Big City
Just past the intersection of
Plank Road and Miller School Road
(434) 823-4752
Tell us about your
weddings, special birthdays,
birth announcements,
engagements, or other
special occasions
for information & rates contact
Allie Pesch at the Gazette
[email protected]
Crozet gazette
page 12 s AUGUST 2008
Mt. Salem—continued from page 1
outdoor lighting. They put up a
church bell and a flag by the front
steps. They planted flowers and
cleaned up the yard and the cemetery where more than 50 graves bear
the names of member families:
Payne, Mills, Johnson, Waller,
Morton, Frye, Sims, Massie, Walker,
Adams, Wood. They saw to it that
graves had flowers on them and that
veterans’ had flags on theirs. They
put picnic tables out for summer
occasions and put a sign, embellished with an angel, at the intersection. The restrooms got fixed up.
They added a clock, new curtains,
ceiling fans and wall-to-wall carpeting to the church.
Soon Pastor Colemon presided
over the first wedding ever recorded
at Mt. Salem when Bianca Jackson
married James Horne Jr. The church
was packed. An anniversary celebration was held marking 111 years,
including a congratulatory proclamation from the Albemarle Board
of Supervisors.
Pastor Colemon always kept his
guitar at hand, ready to play. He
had a spiritual serenity about him.
He was wise about God, impressing
people with it. (When the movie
Evan Almighty was being made in
Crozet, Colemon, handsome and
distinguished-looking, was picked
to play a congressman and he met
actor Morgan Freeman, who played
God in the movie.) Other churches
from across central Virginia came
visiting at Mt. Salem. The church
was roaring back to life.
Then, last year, with the tangible
features of his vision nearly realized
(he lacked only the upholstered
cushions in the pews), he died of
skin cancer. A first spot had been
cut away, but the significance of a
second spot was not understood
until it had insidiously invaded him.
He fought until the treatments
seemed worse than the disease. He
always trusted God and he went on
that way.
Mt. Salem held a Family, Friends
and Fellowship Day July 27 and
they extended an invitation to all
the souls in western Albemarle.
They had held a similar celebration
(and invited the community, too) in
June, to mark the arrival of the
refurbished, padded pews and both
the legacy and the beginning, Pastor
Colemon had left them.
Raymond Moton, guitar in hand,
and his family filled the small (8 by
10 feet) choir loft. They led off with
“We’re Going to Sit Down by the
River.” They had come over from
Gordonsville.
“We’re having a good time
already!” said Joyce Colemon, Paul’s
widow, who carries the title missionary and who has taken up leadership, at least for the time being, of
Mt. Salem Gospel Church (Pastor
Colemon changed the name to
mark the church’s more pentacostal
style).
Mary Colemon (Paul’s sister)
answered the call for a testimony.
She hadn’t always paid attention to
God, she admitted. “I found there is
not only a God—there’s Jesus. And
we can’t reach God except through
his son.” She thanked God for
everything she has, her family, her
church. “Glory to God!”
“God wants us to acknowledge
him,” Colemon added. “It’s not up
to us to question him.”
Her text for the day was I
Corinthians, chapter 12, verses 1-3,
on the body of Christ and the need
for unity in the church.
The congregation was mainly
women, all dressed in Sunday finery.
Some were young. Some had
belonged for 60 or 70 years. Sunday
attendance can range from a dozen
souls to 30.
The Moton Family came back
with “We Cry Holy, Holy, Holy Is
the Lamb.”
Above them on the sanctuary
wall, the church’s theme from Psalm
147 is announced in stick-on lettering: “When the praises go up, the
blessings come down.”
On the back of the sanctuary wall
is a mural of Jesus’ baptism by St.
John the Baptist in the Jordan River.
A small Christian flag is on the left
wall and a small American flag is on
the right. A painting on silk of the
Last Supper is next to it. Two vases
of silk lilies and fern fronds flank
the lectern directly behind the altar.
On the altar, whose front rail is
carved with the words “In
Remembrance of Me,” a large Bible
is held upright and open in a stand.
Candles stand on either side of it. A
brass chandelier is suspended above.
continued on page 22
Crozet gazette
AUGUST 2008 s page 13
Our Dancers Perform
TM
Albemarle Ballet Theatre
Robert
Robert Garland
Garland Photographers
Photographers
w
o
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e
t
s
i
g
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Copyright 2006 -2008 Nicole Hart & Albemarle Ballet Theatre, Inc. All rights reserved
Ballet, Jazz, & Modern Dance
Come Take a Free Class
Albemarle Ballet Theatre • 5798 Three Notched Road • Crozet VA 22932
434.823.8888 • www.aBallet.org • [email protected]
Free class is limited 1 per person, is not transferable or redeemable for cash, and ABT students are ineligible.
page 14 s AUGUST 2008
Crozet gazette
By Dr. Robert C. Reiser
A Tribute to Harvey Laub MD
Harvey Laub, MD, passed away on July 11, 2008, at the age of 53. He
was beloved not only by his family and friends but also by his patients.
Crozet Family Medicine will not be the same without him. Harvey shared
much of himself with his community, including this piece written for the
Crozet Gazette not quite a year ago. Harvey’s humor and positive attitude
were remarked on by all and are obvious in his writing. RCR
Just a little cough … by Harvey Laub, MD

Mt.
Salem—continued from page 1
Alexander Salomon, MD
Board Certified in
Internal Medicine

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My little cough started some time in early spring, not long after the jonquils bloomed and soon after our lovely Crozet was blanketed with its annual
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shower of pine pollen. As a busy family physician I was familiar with the
faint wheeze I periodically experienced. As I did for all my patients, I created
a mental list of all the possible causes. Chronic coughs, that is those lasting
more than three weeks, can be caused by an array of maladies, some serious
… and many not so serious. The more common causes include smoking,
reflux (heartburn), asthma and allergies. Sometimes after a viral bronchitis, a
bothersome cough may last for weeks. It isn’t at all unusual to diagnose a
cough due to environmental exposures (dry wall dust, house dust, kerosene
fumes, new carpets, and insulation). If a small, otherwise well child came to
my office with a persistent cough and a nasty odor hovering about the head
A Tradition of Excellence
I was sure to find a foreign body (peas and peanuts are popular) lodged in a
nostril or ear. My favorite kiddy cough is the so-called ‘social cough’ performed by older infants and young toddlers who quickly learn they can get
the immediate attention of their mother (or father) with a spunky little
cough.
Chronic coughs can also indicate a more serious condition like chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease (chronic bronchitis and emphysema), pneumonia, pulmonary fibrosis (scarred lung tissue), sarcoidosis (an inflammatory condition affecting the lungs and other organs) and cancer.
How does a person tell if he or she has a serious or not so serious chronic
cough? First, be very careful about diagnosing yourself. In medical school I
learned that ‘a physician who diagnoses himself has a fool as a doctor.’ Here
are a few questions you can ask yourself to help decide whether you should PDF Created with deskPDF PDF Writer - Trial :: http://www.docudesk.com
HAMER ORTHODONTICS was founded in 1960 by Dr. Frederick C. Hamer.
see your doctor:
His son Dr. David Hamer joined him 20 years ago, and together they built a profes1. Has your cough lasted more than 2-3 weeks?
sional team with a tremendous sense of reliability. The Hamer Orthodontic team is
2. Does your cough produce excessive phlegm or blood?
dedicated to maintaining the legacy of integrity, quality care, and patient satisfaction.
3. Are you wheezing or short winded?
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Our patient families are our friends. We share their concerns and values, and we are
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to get checked.
David
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So why did it take me six weeks to see a doctor? The astute women readers
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already know the reasons. But for the benefit of my caveman colleagues (yep,
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their symptoms. In one survey, 24 percent of men said they would wait as
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continued on page 19
www.crozetmed.com
Creating a Winning Smile
O RT H O D O N T I C S
David B. Hamer,
O RT H O D O N T I C S
Crozet gazette
AUGUST 2008 s page 15
By Charles Kidder
Dealing with Drought
The drought of 2007 is still fresh
in our memories, not to mention
several other dry years in the recent
past. Although precipitation for
2008 has been running close to normal, you never know when some
one is going to turn off the tap. So,
it’s not a bad idea to look at some
ways for us gardeners to deal with
erratic rainfall.
One of the most basic ways to
address water in your garden is by
improving the thing that retains it,
that is, soil. To me, and I would
guess to most gardeners, soil is the
least sexy aspect of our craft. The
mere mention of soil science and
amendments is enough to put me to
sleep. Nevertheless, bear with me for
a few minutes as we take a very brief
look into the dirt.
If you are either putting in a new
bed or a whole new garden, that’s
your golden opportunity to improve
your soil. Bringing in loads of topsoil is the quick and dirty—pun
intended—method of starting a new
bed; however, it may not be the best
course of action. You’ll achieve better results by incorporating organic
matter and fertilizer into your existing soil. Granted, this is a major
undertaking, requiring tilling in four
inches of organic material into the
top eight inches of soil. If you are
seriously contemplating such a project, I suggest you take a look at Tracy
DiSabato-Aust’s excellent book, The
Well-Tended Perennial Garden.
More realistically, most of us are
just trying to improve the soil structure in our existing beds. Depending
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on the present organic content of
your soil—which can be revealed by
a test—you should add one or two
inches of compost to the surface
every three years or so. Ideally, this
should be scratched down into the
soil, but this is tricky around existing plants, not to mention laborintensive.
Mulch helps to retain soil moisture, and is best applied after the soil
has warmed up a bit and is thoroughly moist. Too much mulch is
not good, so avoid the tendency to
add more just to freshen up its
appearance. Three inches should be
the maximum depth around woody
plants, two inches around perennials. And in either case, the depth of
mulch around the crown or trunk of
the plant should be zero. Piling
mulch there can lead to rot and
death.
So, how about that precious commodity, water? You’ve probably run
across plant descriptions that say,
“Once established, Plant XYZ is
very drought-tolerant.” Take the first
two words of that sentence to heart.
You must be prepared to provide a
reliable supply of water for the first
season of a perennial’s growth, and
ideally, two to three years for trees
and shrubs. This means about one
inch of water, either from the sky or
from a hose, every week from spring
through fall. And don’t trust your
eyes to judge how much falls during
a brief downpour. Put out a rain
gauge, even if it’s just an old tunafish can. Just empty it once a week
to prevent mosquito breeding.
The one-inch-per-week rule is just
a rough average for most plants, and
is not meant to indicate the frequency of watering, only the
amount. For the first month after
plants are in the ground, keep a
watchful eye on soil moisture.
Absent significant rainfall, you may
have to water every two or three
days, especially for small plants.
Apply water both near the plant’s
crown and away from it in order to
encourage the roots to spread outward. And deep watering will let the
roots penetrate further into the soil.
Everything I’ve said above applies
to plants in the ground. As anybody
who has grown plants in containers
knows, they often require water once
continued on page 25
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Crozet gazette
page 16 s AUGUST 2008
IT Help Desk
Information
Upgrade
By Mike Elliott
High-speed
Internet options,
continued...
Remember the last time you were
left off the invitation list to a party
that you really wanted to attend?
What if that party was rocking every
day of the year and you could hear
it and see it but you were still left
out? For most of us, it would be like
rubbing salt in an open wound.
I imagine that’s close to how most
folks feel who are still unable to get
adequate high-speed Internet access
at their homes. It seems that every
week I hear about a new website, a
really funny video, or a not-to-bemissed web-based application that
for all intents and purposes is offlimits to dial-up users. The modem
connection they use simply can’t
handle the bandwidth demands of
the ever-growing library of rich
media and advanced applications
available to high-speed Internet
users.
In the last issue, I asked to hear
from anyone who feels left out of
the high-speed Internet access
party—and I heard from you! The
good news is that some of you have
started using the cell phone carrier
option I covered in that column
with great success, albeit accompanied by a bit of sticker shock. And
unfortunately, there are still a number of folks among our readership
living in areas that appear to be outside the existing reach of regional
carriers, leaving them with no reasonable options.
Among those living through the
dial-up nightmare are a number of
our neighbors in Greenwood. I
remember reading a Letter to the
Editor about four issues back from
resident David Booth who’s been in
the throes of battle with service providers trying to persuade them to
extend coverage to his area. They’ve
seen states like West Virginia go the
extra mile with state funding to provide statewide broadband coverage
options through government-supported telephone company infra-
structure upgrades. He’s working
with a group of like-minded neighbors to enlist the support of anyone
and everyone who will listen to their
plight of inadequate rural-area
Internet service options.
I contacted Mr. Booth about the
predicament they’re in, and he graciously shared his story. At this time,
it appears that he and his concerned
neighbors can only hold out hope
that our state government will raise
the bar with initiatives like they’ve
seen in West Virginia to provide
better coverage to all. While they
wait on our legislators to take action,
they’re crossing their fingers that the
proliferation of cell tower installations will at some point provide
adequate coverage.
At the same time, I hope there’s
some level of comfort he and others
with “zero options” can take in
knowing they’re not alone. Here in
Virginia, the problem has garnered
at least a cursory level of attention
by our legislators, which has led to
initiatives to assess the extent of the
gap areas and at some point to begin
filling them.
The Commonwealth’s Broadband
Roundtable is in the process of collecting data to document the “state
of Broadband in Virginia.” They’re
using a speed test program available
at www.speedmatters.org/ to test
and collect data speeds across rural
and urban markets. Clearly, they’ll
also identify gaps in coverage using
this tool as well. Encourage as many
people as you can to visit this site
and take the test. You can find loads
of information covering on-going
state efforts at www.otpba.vi.virginia.gov/broadband.shtml and a
related site www.cit.org/broadband/.
So what are the remaining
options? A discussion with wireless
expert and Crozet neighbor David
Simpson indicates there are still
more alternatives using outdoor elevated antennas and small-scale wireless amplifiers to boost cellular signal strength, among others. If I hear
of any success stories using any of
these technologies, I’ll happily
report on them in a future column.
And of course you can wait for LTE
and WiMax deployment, but those
long-range wireless technologies are
likely a ways out for the rural areas
that would benefit from them most
and roll-out may be slow and possibly expensive.
One other thought is if you have
a portable computer, you could sit
outside of Panera Bread at Barracks
Rd. shopping center like I’m doing
right now and “borrow” their wireless signal. They prefer you also eat
there, and I’m often happy to oblige
them when I need a solid Internet
connection. Until you come up with
a better alternative for your home,
this might be the only way you get
to see that super funny video on
YouTube that your dial-up access
chokes on. Using the SpeedMatters
test, I’m clocked in at 383 kbps
downstream and 372 kbps
upstream—a very adequate connection speed satisfactory for most
things I do. This is radically faster
than the 26.4 kbps dial-up speed
that Mr. Booth is struggling with at
home.
Although we must move on to
new topics, I’ll try to give you
updates on any evidence of progress
I hear about on the broadband availability front. Next month, we’ll shift
gears a bit and start talking about
how to pick out a new computer
and what factors should go into the
decision-making process. If you
have thoughts on this, I’d love to
hear them. Send an email to mike@
informationupgrade.com and I’ll do
my very best to get back to you or
include your topic in an upcoming
article. It’s been great hearing from
you. And as always, thanks for reading!
On a side note, the hard drive in
my main computer died shortly
after the last issue went to press and
although I had a good backup that
got me going again, I lost a week or
two of email in the process. If you
sent me something and didn’t get a
response, please send it again. I’ll
cover the topic of computer backup
and recovery before too long—especially since I have recent first-hand
experience of the horror that fills the
pit of your soul as you realize your
computer won’t wake up again …
ever—unless you have a good
backup.
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Crozet gazette
AUGUST 2008 s page 17
Tempkin, Rule, and SMAC Dazzle at State Long Course Meet
By Rob Rule
Crozet’s Max Tempkin excelled for the
Waynesboro YMCA Swim Team (SMAC)
when it competed in the 2008 Long
Course State Championships in Newport
News July 24–27. Representing the
Waynesboro YMCA Swim Team were
Ethan Cohen, Norah Hunt, Jordan Miller,
Brazil Rule, and Max Tempkin in the
10-and-under division and Jessica Arnold,
Anna Corley, Olivia Heeb, and Remedy
Rule in the 11-12 year old division. Max Tempkin had first place finishes in
the 50meter backstroke, 200m freestyle,
and 50m freestyle. The young SMAC star
placed second in the 200m Individual
Medley, and fifth in the 100m butterfly.
Tempkin set two Virginia meet records with
a time of 34.45 in the 50m backstroke and
30.18 in the 50m freestyle. Tempkin bested
the meet record for the 50m freestyle held
by David Walters since 1998. Walters is
now part of the U.S. Olympic Team in
Beijing. Tempkin’s backstroke time broke
the SMAC team record by over three seconds—a record formerly held by current
U.Va. swimmer and team captain Lee
Robertson. His 200m freestyle time of
2:27.52 broke a 25-year-old SMAC record
by almost six seconds.
Remedy Rule cleaned up in the 11-12
year old girls division, breaking five SMAC
records. Rule finished second in the 200m,
100m and 50m freestyle, as well as in the
100 and 50m backstroke. She came in third
in the 400m free and 100m fly. Rule’s 200m
free broke Waynesboro legend Melanie
Mathews’ previous SMAC record by almost
two seconds with an AAAA time of
2:16.77. Rule and Jessica Arnold finished
fourth and fifth in the 200m backstroke,
both beating the previous SMAC record,
which is now held by Rule at 2:38.94.
Coach Ryan Sprang congratulating Max Tempkin on his first place medal
for the 100 backstroke.
Jessica Arnold, Anna Corley, and Remedy Rule relax between races at the
Long Course State Championships in Newport News, VA.
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In other highlights, Ethan Cohen placed
eighth in both the 200m free and 100m fly.
Norah Hunt finished third in the 200m
freestyle with a time of 2:32.82, earning an
AAAA time and missing the SMAC record
by less than half a second. In the 400m free,
she finished second and earned another
AAAA time standard. Jordan Miller finished 15th in the 400m freestyle and placed
17th in the 100 fly, earning an AA time.
Brazil Rule dropped almost a second off her
best time coming in 23rd in the 50m backstroke with a time of 42.12. Jessica Arnold and Anna Corley stayed
close throughout the four-day meet, finishing sixth and seventh in the 200m freestyle,
fifth and sixth in the 100m backstroke, and
third and fifth in the 50m backstroke,
respectively. Corley took sixth and Arnold
ninth in the 200m IM, both recording
AAA times. Olivia Heeb dropped an
impressive two seconds in her 200m breaststroke to finish 11th and set a new SMAC
record with her time of 3:12.46.
Overall the SMAC Team dominated the
small team division, almost doubling the
score of its closest competitor. The team
placed 11th in the state overall. Max
Tempkin was the second highest scorer for
all of the boys at the meet, while Remedy
Rule was the fifth highest scorer for all of
the girls at the meet and the only person in
the top ten at the lower end of her age
bracket. The team did so well that five
members have earned the honor of representing Virginia at the Northeast Zone
Swim Meet to be held in Rockville,
Maryland August 6–9. The five include
Max Tempkin and Norah Hunt in the
10-and-under division, and Remedy Rule,
Jessica Arnold, and Anna Corley in the
11-12 year old division.
Want to shape the future of affordable housing in Crozet?
Take part in a unique opportunity to help
design green, mixed income housing
adjacent to downtown Crozet
Community Design Workshop II
Saturday, August 23, 10 am - 4 pm
Crozet United Methodist Church fellowship hall
10 am site tour
12 pm lunch
12:30-4 pm interactive design session
(Please join us for any part of the day)
A joint partnership of Piedmont Housing Alliance and Charlottesville Community Design Center.
For more information, call 434.984.2232 or email [email protected].
Crozet gazette
page 18 s AUGUST 2008
Still Open and Really Not Sorry About It One Bit
Company, the firm that started Acme Visible
Records on Rt. 240. It opened under the name
the E&S Motel (for Emily Stormer, Herman’s
wife). It was next briefly owned by family named
Jessup, then the Drosulhagens, and ever after it’s
been providing a living for the Langs and now
Pauly.
There was a pony in the front yard for years,
tethered to a stake, until it died in 1998 at age
34. Now Pauly’s main companion is a gray and
white cat named Sugar Plum.
The motel has eight rooms for rent, all concealed from the road by a screen of shrubbery,
and private quarters over the office. The rooms
are spacious (16’ by 16’), clean and neat, with
two double beds, wall-to-wall carpeting, and they
have large tiled bathrooms. They were designed
from the first for wheelchair access. The furnishings, vintage 1960s, are comfortable. Pauly
replaced all the windows in the motel not too
many years ago. They have TVs, but no cable programming and no Internet service. (“I got off the
Internet,” explained Pauly. “I got tired of it.”)
Rooms go for $50 a night. He had a charming
A new addition to the sign along Route 250
for the Greenwood Motel, the last motel still
open in Crozet, says it’s sorry to be surviving.
Huh? What’s that about?
The man who made the sign acknowledged
making it, but refused to give his name. He
refused to be photographed.
Then he relented some and said he could be
referred to as “Pauly.” He later added that his
mother, Helen H. Lang, owned and operated the
Greenwood Motel, which dates to 1954, from
1961 until her death a few years ago and that he
has worked there all that time.
What’s the message behind the sign?
“They [county officials] never worry about the
real estate tax,” said Pauly, on the verge of a snarl.
“But that what’s hurting us. They’re taxing us off
our land.
“I want to make it as difficult as I can for them.
They are going to take over your land and put
houses all over it. They’re hoping I’ll give up.
They’re lighting their candles.”
The motel was built by one Herman Stormer,
who was connected with the Knickerbocker
Thinking About Moving?
Let a Crozet Resident be Your Guide
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thank-you letter to show off from a young couple
who stayed over the Fourth of July weekend.
As for his neighbors across the road in Foxchase:
“I hate that. It’s a mess. They don’t even look at
us.
“They’ve ruined a beautiful area and it’s all
greed, greed, greed. They just want houses here.
“It’s a bad situation here with taxes but it will
get worse. Growth doesn’t help you because of the
services you have to provide. If I ran the county
nothing would go to waste. Nothing goes to waste
around here.”
The lettering on the new sign was salvaged
from an old one knocked down by a storm. “I’ve
had several reactions [to the new one]. That ‘sorry’
got to them.”
Pauly, who is virtually retired, is making every
economy he can and his expenses aren’t large. His
tax bill is the expense defying his efforts at thrift
and security on his property.
“They talk a lot about affordable housing, but
what we need is affordable taxes,” he said with
exasperation.
Crozet gazette
AUGUST 2008 s page 19
Dr. Harvey Laub—continued from page 14
long as possible before consulting a
doctor despite having well-known
warning signs; 17 percent said they
would wait a week. This has proven
fatal for many well-meaning guys,
such as Darryl Kile, the St. Louis
Cardinals pitcher, who complained
of shoulder pain and weakness one
week before he died of a heart attack
at age 33. Half of all male migraine
sufferers never consult a doctor
about their pain, compared with less
than a quarter of women sufferers.
Psychologists have long been aware
of male stereotypes emphasizing
strength, control and stoicism. To
many men, acknowledging pain or
other symptoms is considered more
a sign of weakness than an opportunity to promote health by diagnosing a treatable condition. Many men
just feel they are too busy to see a
doctor.
In my 23-year career as a family
doc, I can assure you that more than
once a week a well-meaning male
patient confided that the reason he
came to see me is because his wife/
mother/girlfriend made him! In my
case, my astute nurse (Michele
Snead LPN) and caring transcriptionist (Valerie Seal) put the pressure on. Unfortunately, my doctor
had recently left town so I decided
to get checked after returning from
a three-day trip to Wallops Island
where I helped chaperone Henley
Middle School’s 7th grade science
class at their annual field trip
(encourage your kid to go—it’s an
incredible experience).
This is when my symptoms worsened. Now, in addition to the nagging cough, I experienced intense
fatigue. Those of you who have had
mononucleos’s know what I’m talking about.
I returned home on Saturday and
my life changed on Sunday. A chest
X-ray showed I had pneumonia and
a mass. One week later I had received
my first in a series of chemotherapy
treatments for Stage 4 lung cancer.
Since that time I have been quite
fortunate. My cancer is responding
to treatment and my energy level
has improved enough to resume
enjoying and appreciating the miracle of life.
Workers with Webb Incorporated, a horizontal drilling and tunneling firm from Richmond, installed a 24-inch steel pipe wide enough
for a man to crawl through deep under the CSX railroad tracks and
under Railroad Avenue in July. The 150-foot pipe, roughly connecting
St. George Road to Blue Ridge Avenue, will improve service reliability,
according to Dominion Virginia Power engineer Jeff Carter. “It’s to
help keep the lights on. The area from Crozet to Afton is a high-outage
area,” he said. This will allow us to restore power quickly. We can isolate an area and feed power from two different directions.”
Fardowners—where local ingredients
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page 20 s AUGUST 2008
Crozet
Scouting News
Cub Scout Fall Sign-Up
Meetings Set for August 28
Boy Scouts of America is holding Cub Scout fall recruitment meetings for
first- through fifth-graders and their parents at local schools and churches
August 28 at 7 p.m. BSA’s Cub Scout program allows boys to grow through
a wide variety of activities like camping, fishing, hiking, archery, skits, songs,
crafts, and more. Activities are used to achieve the aims of scouting: citizenship training, character development, and personal fitness.
BSA also offers the year-round Boy Scout program for boys in grades 6
through 12, as well as the Venturing program, a co-ed, high-adventure youth
development program for young men and women aged 14-20.
For more information on the programs, contact Richard Bogan at (434)
882-0611 or email him at [email protected].
Your Local
Grocery Store
Goodwin Creek
Farm Market
Delivering fresh
bread, baguettes,
dinner rolls—wild
flower honey wheat
and other varieties
The Farm at Red Hill
Tomatoes on the vine and other organicallygrown vegetables as available
Halloway Sweet Corn as available
Gators Take Third at the
JSL Championship Meet
Crozet Gators Elsa Strickland,
Lexi Campbell, Carly Witt and
Maggie Rossberg (above, left to
right) set a new Jefferson Swim
League record in the 11-12 Girls
200 meter freestyle relay at the JSL’s
championship meet at U.Va.’s
Athletic and Fitness Center July 24
and 25. They swam it in 1:51:30.
The former record was 1:52. The
girls were recognized at the Gator’s
team banquet July 26 along with
the team’s other JSL award winners,
parent volunteers and coaches. The
Gators finished third among the
league’s 16 teams, trailing the pow-
erhouse Fairview Swim Team, the
JSL’s traditional winner (1958
points), and Boar’s Head Swim
Team (1700.25 points) with
1679.75 points.
First-year head coach Mike
Brown was given a CGST T-shirt
with the title “Slurpy King” on it
and keystone parent Cynthia
Simpson was recognized as “the
backbone of the Gators.”
The all-volunteer-run JSL had
more than 2,400 swimmers this year
and the Gators, with 220 members,
was the second largest team behind
Fry’s Spring Beach Club.
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VING
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ide
VING
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de
NG
Crozet gazette
Henley Students
Attend National
Young Scholars
ountainside
Program
ing in an intellectually stimulating
environment outside of the regular
classroom, according to Donna
Snyder, a former teacher, elementary school principal and university
professor who designed the program’s curriculum.
“In Leadership we learned how to
ountainside
give
a proper presentation,”
SENIOR LIVING
SENIOR LIVING
explained Maupin. “We talked
13aSamantha Maupin and Adeline
13b
about making eye contact with the
Sandridge,
both
rising
6th
graders
A JABA
A JABAaudience, keeping a good pace in
at Henley
School, attended Assistedour
AssistedMiddle
Living Community
Living Community
speech, speaking loudly
the National Young Scholars
enough but not too loud, and using
Program July 19-24 at the National
proper visual aids for what we were
4-H Youth Conference Center in doing. We also talked about our
Chevy Chase, Maryland, where personality types and which group
ountainside
Sandridge ountainside
studied medicine and we
fit into. We learned about nonSENIOR LIVING
SENIOR LIVING
Maupin studied crime scene investi- verbal communication, such as sign
gation.
language and writing.
14
14
The girls each raised money
to
“In CSI-2 I learned how to anaJABA
A JABA
pay forAAssisted
their
trip,
includng
a
bake
lyze handwriting, measure blood
Living Community
Assisted Living Community
sale in early July in front of the drops (with fake blood), how to
Crozet Great Valu. measure the density of glass and
The National Young Scholars
how to figure out what kind of tool
Program is designed to give students
was used to pry something open,”
an opportunity
for
interactive
learnshe said. “We were also able to use a
ountainside
ountainside
M
M
SENIOR LIVING
SENIOR LIVING
15
15
A JABA
Assisted Living Community
nity
side
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SENIOR LIVING
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unity
AUGUST 2008 s page 21
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Samantha Maupin and Adeline Sandridge
microscope. We learned what DNA
fingerprints are and how to present
our case in court. We worked on a
case that was solved a few years ago. “I would like to do the program
for middle school, if given the
chance,” she added. “We learned a lot about being
more responsible,” said Sandridge,
“and how to be a great leader in
your community, in your school,
and anywhere you can to step up
and help someone. It was also very
worth the effort we put into raising
money and it was an wonderful
learning experience, overall.”
To help pay their way, the girls
wrote letters to local businesses,
family and friends. Maupin helped
Sandridge sell lettuce at the Crozet
Farmers Market and they baked all
the goods for their bake sale. (“Mom
washed the dishes for me,” Maupin
said.) The bake sale raised over
$200.
“I wasn’t able to raise all of the
money I needed for NYSP,” said
Maupin. “But I tried to raise as
much as I could. Part of being a
leader is taking responsibility for the
things you want to do.”
Advertise
in the Gazette
contact Allie Pesch
[email protected]
(434) 466-8939
Crozet gazette
page 22 s AUGUST 2008
Mt. Salem—continued from page 12
The altar is flanked by Victorian–era
wooden, straight-back chairs that go
back to the origins of the building,
which has about two dozen pews in
it. The walls are paneled up to the
window ledges and above that they
are painted a fresh white. Across the
ceiling space stretch two pairs of
rods with turnbuckles that pull the
old walls plumb. A space heater sits
behind the piano and a flue with a
thimble where a woodstove once sat
has been closed off. On the piano
sits a pitcher that reads: “Pouring
out Blessings.” The atmosphere of
the room is warm and comfortable.
Sounds in it are softened and clear
and light takes on a cool, shady
quality. It’s as homey as a family TV
room.
The Moton Family next sang
“There’s a Praise Inside I Can’t Keep
to Myself.” The congregation was
clapping along. The church was
using the National Baptist Hymnal,
1977 edition, and many books had
broken bindings that had allowed
pages to drop out. Moton sang
songs from a binder he had assembled.
“If you don’t have praise for God
on the inside, you can’t be beautiful
on the outside,” Missionary
Colemon said when the song was
over. “We are truly blessed to be in
the land of the living. God didn’t
have to let us be here to see each
other again.”
Marva Eaves, the church clerk,
made the announcements. The
members of Mt. Salem church were
invited to a homecoming at Mt.
Carmel in Brown’s Cove on August
12.
Colemon, not being a pastor
(though perhaps she might become
one), next offered words of encouragement, rather than a sermon.
“We’re not lacking here at Mt.
Salem,” she said. “We’re not numerous. But wherever there are two or
three gathered in His name ….” The
crowd knew how to fill in the rest.
“All we have to do is stay faithful.
We are pressing forward to keep
these doors open.”
She has recently returned from a
trip to Rome. She wanted to see the
holy city, as she called it, and tour
the Vatican. She had encountered
an elderly lady there in need of help
and she had spent a lot of time with
her. She felt God wanted her to
extend that help. “We don’t know
what God has in mind for us to do.
We have to keep our hearts and
minds open. When you give, God
supplies your needs,” she reminded
the crowd. True to her title,
Missionary Colemon has also made
a trip to Ghana in west Africa.
“We are blessed,” she said. “We
need to count our blessings. We
need to keep leaning on Jesus.
“Churches can burn you out,”
she acknowledged. “You need to
take time for family and friends and
fellowship.”
She came back to I Corinthians.
The congregation had pulled out
their Bibles, mainly large, leatherbound volumes with big print. They
fell open as if exhausted from hard
use. The gilt had been worn off the
page edges by so much thumbing
to find passages. Most had been carried in in tough zippered pouches.
Some were plain and some had been
embroidered.
“Unity. Unity! That’s what we are
here for today.”
Mt. Salem is praying for a pastor,
but she warned them to be patient
and careful. “Many wolves will
come in sheep’s clothing.” Pastor
Colemon had worried about this.
Crozet Baptist Church
5804 St. George Avenue
434-823-5171

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Mary Colemon, Bianca Horne (of Boston, MA), Joyce Colemon, Jon Colemon and Marva
Eaves.
They don’t want someone whose
real motive is just to secure a salary,
someone who would take advantage
of them and move on. “We are
equipped here spiritually,” she reassured them. “We want a spirit-filled
pastor. We believe in teaching. Bible
study is not just for children. It’s for
everybody.”
Still, she stressed hospitality. You
never know who God will send your
way, she said.
“This church is going on because
there is unity here,” said Raymond
Moton, who visits lots of churches
to play. “The devil will try to come
in and cause division. Keep praying.”
Then he and his family sang
“Because of Who You Are, I Give
Crozet gazette
AUGUST 2008 s page 23
Missionary Joyce Colemon
You Glory” and “Work it Out,” one
of his favorites, he said.
“The devil always wants us to
think things are not going to work
out for us. Now God’s time is not
our time, but he will work it out. In
fact, it’s already worked out. We just
have to wait.”
Women, mainly, went forward
next and about 15 formed a circle
near the altar. They held hands and
prayed for their families and friends.
“Stand in the gap,” urged Missionary
Colemon.
Then the group dispersed outside
to set up lunch. A small beach tent
had been erected to protect the
food. The six picnic tables placed in
the shade of the grove were covered
with white plastic and had cups
with flower arrangements were
placed at their centers. The fare
included fried chicken, slow-cooked
green beans, creamed corn, macaroni and cheese, collards, shrimp
jambalaya, biscuits and cakes and
B e r e av e m e n t s
Matthew Benjamin Thomas, 22
June 28, 2008
Fred Massey Whiting, 81
June 29, 2008
James Albert Tomlin, 61
July 1, 2008
Mary Esther Couch, 82
July 4, 2008
Frances Wickersham Hoffman, 97
July 3, 2008
Nicholas Jerett Rogers, 23
July 3, 2008
Lawrence D. Wingfield, 62
July 4, 2008
Charlotte Mawyer Fisher, 59
July 6, 2008
Dorothy Etta Gibson, 71
July 7, 2008
Lucy Buck LeGrand, 99
July 7, 2008
Helene Arlene Witt Fields, 79
July 9, 2008
Elizabeth E. Smith, 71
July 7, 2008
Carter Randolph Allen, 86
July 10, 2008
Delaphine Bradshaw Norvelle, 87
July 11, 2008
Agnes Nadine Shiflett, 82
July 10, 2008
Harvey Morris Laub, 53
July 11, 2008
Mabel Watts Matheny Hayslett, 87
July 12, 2008
Charlie Ervin Johnson, 85
July 12, 2008
Robert Samuel Reid
July 12, 2008
Daniel H. Cowan, 80
July 13, 2008
Frances Lee Steppe, 71
July 19, 2008
Maria Elena Casas Rainey, 55
July 21, 2008
Henry David Walls, 85
July 18, 2008
pies. There was plenty to go around
and the meal was leisurely.
Elder John Marshall (a title of
respect reserved for pastors with
proven preaching skills and spiritual
sagacity), who leads the Free Union
Gospel Church in Louisa County,
arrived with some members of his
congregation. When they had had a
chance to eat, the evening service
would begin. The practice of church
congregations traveling to visit each
other is referred to as “fellowship.”
It is common among the churches
in western Albemarle, including
Piedmont Baptist in Yancey Mills,
Mountain View in Batesville, Union
Mission in Crozet, Mt. Zion in
Newtown and Mt. Carmel in
Brown’s Cove.
Elder Marshall seems mild and
serene—until he takes up his message. He wore a black collarless shirt
under a neat camel-colored jacket
that set off the modest, plain gold
cross on a chain from his neck. For
the evening service, the Moton family had taken places in the pews. The
service started with songs as members of the Free Union church came
forward in front of the altar to sing,
unaccompanied, as the spirit moved
them. First came “All My Troubles
Will Be Over Soon,” a rousing performance that produced a lot of
clapping in the church.
Then the microphone passed to
the next volunteer, who wanted to
sing “I Feel Like Going On.” “No
matter what goes on in your life,
you have to have a happy spirit,” she
said to explain her choice. Cries of
“Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” answered
her from the pews when she finished. The microphone passed again:
“Take My Hand, Precious Lord,
And Lead Your Child On.”
The congregation’s hearts were
prepared for Elder Marshall and he
assumed authority. Though the
Church was not especially warm,
some of the women had taken up
small wooden-handled paper fans
and were stirring breezes across their
faces. Some wore delicate lace coverlets in their hair.
“I can’t make it without Jesus,”
Elder Marshall began. Then he
advised his listeners: “Put away your
things.” He meant give up any
attachment to your possessions.
Then he told a story, a sort of parable, about a man who slaps another.
His moral was “whatever comes at
you, write it in sand, so the wind
will blow it away.” Let the injuries
done to you leave your heart and
mind, “and when it’s gone” (when
God has lifted your suffering from
you) “write it on stone so rain can’t
wash it away.”
He announced his text: Isaiah 43:
10-13, part of which reads: “Before
the day was, I am he.” Bibles were
brought out to follow along. When
the reader got to the line Elder
Marshall wanted to stress, he
stopped him. “Before the day was, I
am he.” There is only one God was
the point, and he ordained all reality.
“I love the Lord and I won’t take
it back,” said Elder Marshall
continued on page 24
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page 24 s AUGUST 2008
Mt. Salem—continued from page 23
emphatically. “The devil didn’t want
it to happen.”
He began to preach. “You are
healed from the inside outside. A
doctor cuts you open to heal you.
What happens on the outside is
going to pass away. What happens
on the inside could give you eternal
life.
“I’ve never seen a God like this,”
he said as if amazed.
“The things I used to do I can’t
do no more because God has taken
that away from me.”
He talked about a man bound to
alcohol. “AA can’t do nothing with
him, but JC can get rid of it.” God
is acting in situations where people
are addicted to drugs, too, he said.
Elder Marshall was an intense
speaker with shifting cadences. He
seemed to loom large. He gripped
the attention of his audience. When
he quickened the pace of his talk, he
gradually raised the steely determination in his voice. Then he might
pause. “Come on! Come on!”
demanded those in the church.
He asked for a hallelujah. He got
what he wanted. “Thank you, Lord,
for supplying my needs this day.”
“This day, this day,” agreed the congregation, some of whom spontaneously stood up.
“Sometimes you’re asking God
for something and you already have
it,” observed Elder Marshall, taking
up a more conversational tone.
“How many times have you said
you don’t have anything to eat and
there’s food in the cabinet? You’re
missing it. Until we realize what we
have, we’re missing it.
“I’ve never seen a God like this,”
he repeated, still seeming amazed.
“It doesn’t take much to take
what God has for you,” he advised
the crowd. “Keep your hands open
if you want something in them.”
He shifted between calm, meditative talk, storytelling, and urgent,
forceful, insistent points. “I’ve never
seen a God like this,” was his refrain.
He commanded the room for more
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than an hour, but the time went by
unnoticed.
“When God is fighting your battle for you, all you have to do is
stand still and watch it.” And the
people were ready to give their battles over to God to win.
Elder Marshall asked for any who
might need it to approach the altar
for prayer support. Several went forward and a few of the congregation
gathered around and placed their
hands on each petitioner, who quietly expressed his or her need or
anxiety. Singing began spontaneously.
“Give them victory, Lord,” prayed
Elder Marshall. “Give him whatever
he needs, God.”
People brought their injuries and
worries and left them, at least partly,
for Jesus to bear. The emotion they
sat down with was not what they
had stood up with.
The faith of Mt. Salem church
was manifest now and profound.
“You can’t see the supernatural,”
Elder Marshall had said, “but you
can feel it.”
The
service
was
ending.
Missionary Colemon made a concluding statement: “Our duty to
God is to be obedient to his word.
He has given each of us a mission.”
The congregations parted, but as
brothers and sisters and in unity.
Ladies of Mt. Salem tidied up the
church and put things in order.
Everyone had their jobs to go to the
next day and tasks still to do at
home, but Sunday they had devoted
to God at Mt. Salem.
The vision Pastor Colemon had
brought to the empty building at
the side of the road is thriving and
strong.
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qualifications
DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS: Until Filled
Albemarle County offers exceptional benefits programs, including medical, dental, and retirement programs, paid holidays, vacation, and a host
of other benefits options!
Please submit on-line application at www.albemarle.org/jobsCounty of Albemarle, Department of Human Resources
401 McIntire Road
Charlottesville, VA 22902
(434) 296-5827
Equal Opportunity Employer
Crozet gazette
AUGUST 2008 s page 25
Summer Movies
by Heidi Thorson
Across
Co-Owner
Put a New Face
on Your Garage
One of the most popular
home improvement projects is replacing the garage
door. This project enables
a homeowner to spruce up
his or her home’s appearance and improve the
garage’s utilization as a
work/storage area. When
selecting a new garage
door, homeowners are
advised to unify the style
of the new door with the
overall design of the house.
It also pays to select a
wood–composite material,
which is made entirely of
recycled wood fiber. Not
only are wood-composite
doors energy-efficient, they
resist cracking, rotting,
shrinking and expansion,
even in extreme climates.
Homeowners may also
want to pay attention to
garage organizing systems
that improve functionality,
whether the garage is used
as a work area or a storage
space.
Whether you’re looking for
everyday hardware supplies
or large building supplies
such as garage doors, you’ll
find them at Blue Ridge
Builders Supply and
Home Center. We are
your local alternative to
national home centers,
offering quality products
and good, old-fashioned
customer service.
Visit us at 5221 Rockfish
Gap Turnpike, Crozet, or
call 434-823-1387.
HINT: To save money on
electricity, select a new
garage door with windows
that allow sunlight in.
Visit our website at:
www.brbs.net
1. Built on ___
5. Frequently
8. Kind of spicy food
12. Bush and Ingles-Wilder
15.Spelling event
16. * _____-E
17. Precedes borealis
18. Building wing
19. ___ have to do
20. What *’d answers are
23. Opposite WSW
24. Jokers
28. Bug
31. Garfunkel
32. Put on
33. Pretty rock
34. Horse’s hello
36. Dating couple
38. Rational
39. * With 40 Across, Meryll
Streep’s current vehicle
40. * See 39 Across
41. * Kung Fu ___
42. Much, 2 words
43. Proceed
44. Stranger
45. Commandment number
46. Screened
47. Pitchfork-shaped letter
49. Commercials
50. Washes away
52. Prohibit
53. * Harrison Ford’s current character
60. Inflation hedge
63. Posess
64. Tri-colored cat
65. with 66 Across, Robert Downy Jr.’s currentcharacter
66. See 65 Across
67. The Dark ___
68. Salamander
69. Leaky inflatable raft sound
70. Surprised interjections
Down
1. Hunk
2. Anka
3.French dough
4. Bright, spongy shoe
5. Fat
6. Shrunken wool
7. Ma Bell’s industry
8. Precedes shout
9. It may be tipped
10. Entirely
11. Sick
13. Biblical boat
14. Rattled weapon
21. Exams one may take slowly
22. Politicians do this for office
25. Kampala’s country
26. Was undecided
27. Rubs wet paint
28. Cell dweller
29. Less imaginary
30. Geisha garb
31. Discovery sound
32. Expressionless humor
35. Clock standard: Abbr.
37. Roof metal
38. Unhappy
41. Hawaiian porridge
43. Truths
46. Rooster’s girl
48. Quick bite
51. “Oh no, you ___!”
52. Wedding announcements
54. “___ a Teen-age Werewolf ”
55. Middle Brady sister
56. Hodgepodge
57. Near
58. Canyon reply
59. Drunks
60. Sloe liquor
61. It’s mined
62. Feeling down
solution on page 26
Drought—continued from page 15
a day, depending on exposure, soil
and pot type, and variety of plant.
Conventional sprinklers and
automated irrigation systems are not
the ideal ways to provide water to
plants. Both lose a lot of water to
evaporation and tend to have spotty
coverage. The worst thing about
automated irrigation systems: many
dutifully pop up and spray every two
or three days, regardless of the water
needs of the plants. I’m sure you’ve
seen some blithely doing their thing
the day after a heavy rain. Utterly
unconscionable.
Either lugging a watering can or
dragging a hose around your garden
is arduous, but it gets the water to
the plants that really need it. (Plus,
it’s a notable deterrent to over-watering!) A shower-wand extension on
your hose provides a gentle spray
and also gives you an extra three feet
of reach to get under the branches of
shrubs. Give each plant a good dose;
then move on to the next plant or
two, returning to the first plant after
the initial watering has had time to
soak down.
There are a couple of reasonable
alternatives to hand watering. One
is drip irrigation. This involves running a special hose through your
beds, to which are attached smaller
hoses with nibs. These trickle water
on to the plant for an hour or two,
allowing it all to soak in. Drip irricontinued on page 27
page 26 s AUGUST 2008
Crozet gazette
Crozet
Bookworms
Dig Deeper
Franklin, a character from the
Franklin picture book series by Paulette
Bourgeois, stopped by the Crozet
Library’s Summer Reading Wrap-Up
Ice Cream Social July 28 to congratulate Crozet kids for doing such a fabulous job of reading through the summer. Ninety-seven teens and 445 children participated in the library’s
Summer Reading clubs and together
they read a whopping 8,405 books,
according to Crozet librarian Wendy
Saz. That’s 975 more than last year’s
total of 7,430. And adults are reading
more, too, she said. The number of circulation transactions in June alone was
up 13.5 percent from last year.
Ice cream treats for the event were
provided by the Friends of the Library.
Solution to this month’s puzzle
CROZET
BEAUTY SALON
Mae Hazelwood - Owner
Open Monday - Saturday
Appointments encouraged. No credit cards.
Full line of Paul Mitchell & Biolage Matrix
434.823.5619
Crozet Shopping Center
Crozet gazette
Drought
—continued from page 25
gation is most practical for small
plants and plants in containers; for
larger plants it would require a spaghetti maze of little hoses.
Soaker hoses are much more commonly seen in home gardens. These
hoses leak—by intent. They are
porous and ooze a steady volume of
water onto the soil. Like the drip
system, very little water is lost to
evaporation or runoff. (Sprinkler
hoses are a little different from soakers. They lie flat on the ground and
spray up and out to about a foot’s
distance.) Soaker hoses can be buried just under the mulch if you don’t
like to see black hoses snaking
around your garden.
One problem with doing that: it’s
easy to forget the hose is there when
you come along to dig a hole for a
new plant. One whack with a shovel
and soaker hose becomes gusher
hose. Also, soaker hoses are probably
easiest to use in the straight lines of a
vegetable garden, less so in the more
random pattern of an ornamental
bed. Finally, in many applications
that I’ve seen, way too little soaker
hose is put down, so only a fraction
of a larger plant’s roots are getting
sufficient water.
All this talk of hoses and soil left
us no room to talk about some wonderful drought-tolerant plants! We’ll
do that in the next column, just in
time for fall planting. In the meantime, pray for rain!
AUGUST 2008 s page 27
Crozet Mac
Computer Tutor
 1 On 1 Help @ Your Home or Business  Your Mac Not Running Right?
 Get All The Secrets Of Mac OSX  Ran a Print Shop For 23 Years
 Mac Computer Consultant For Past 10 Years
Robert Elliott
804.366.7952
[email protected]
ClassiFIed Ads
Service
Technician
National Filter Service, in Central
VA, hiring Service Techs to change
HVAC filters at commercial sites. 2 weeks travel on consistent route
then 2 weeks off. Must be comfortable w/ladders, not afraid of
heights and have a good driving
record. Pays $13/hr. Contact Lisa
at (800) 688-4008 or [email protected]
For Sale: Nikon D70 Digital
SLR Camera (body only).
Complete with instruction book,
compact flash card, battery, battery
charger, wiring, strap and Nikon
software. Excellent condition.
Firm $400. If interested, call (434)
823-9968.
434-823-4626
T-Sun 5-10
Local Wine, Beer
and Art,
An American Grill
peppered with
International flavors
Friendly atmosphere
Art by Meg West
4th of July Parade