Concept Plan for Western Park Unveiled

INSIDE
the
MontFair
Vineyard opens
page 2
Afton “Cookie Lady”
page 3
Civilian
Conservation corps
page 5
Blueberry Muffins
page 8
Crozet Farmers’
Market
page 9
Information
Upgrade
page 10
One More Tough Job
page 11
Kayla Hansen
page 13
Crozet Annals
of medicine
page 14
Storm leads to Fire
page 15
JUNE 2008 VOL. 3, NO. 1
crozetgazette.com
Concept Plan for
Western Park Unveiled
Planning
Commission
Passes New
Downtown
Zoning
The features of the new County
park in Old Trail will emphasize natural areas, according to a concept plan
presented to the Albemarle County
Planning Commission by landscape
architect Will Rieley of Rieley &
Associates May 27.
Steep slopes and an extensive flood
plain on the 38-acre parcel limit the
possibilities for the park, he
explained—only 10 percent of its area
is buildable”—but “The character of
the land is pretty spectacular,” Rieley
said. “And it is teeming with wildlife
and there are lots of ways to enhance
that.
“People [at the planning meetings]
wanted the natural qualities of the
land to be maximized,” Rieley told the
Commission. “We get the importance
of making it a public park for Crozet
and not just for Old Trail residents.”
His firm also designed the Thomas
Jefferson Parkway, Darden Towe Park
and Walnut Creek Park.
“The general strategy is to use the
tongue of land [near the future pool]
as a dividing line with active uses—
sports—on the west side and naturebased activities on the east side. The
design is also intended to accommodate dogs and add more native plants,
he said.
A two-story pavilion and 50 parking spaces will be placed on the small
continued on page 30
Chicago Bonsai
Garden
page 16
New Fishing Pier
page 17
Happy Birthday lavert
page 18
continued on page 7
WAHS Musicians
page 19
Plants Stolen
From Downtown
Businesses
WAHS Champs
pages 20 – 23
Wayland honored
page 24
ABT Dance Gala
page 25
Library News
page 26
crossword
page 27
Bereavements
page 29
The Albemarle County Planning
Commission approved a new commercial district for downtown Crozet with
zoning rules that are unique in the
county and designed to promote a traditional, walkable, human-scale and
commercially vibrant town center.
Their action came at a joint public
hearing June 4 with the Board of
Supervisors, which was ready to follow
suit with their own formal approval of
the plan, until county legal staff asked
for a week’s delay to revise ordinance
terms in response to public comment.
They will add a provision that allows
County planners to grant an administrative waiver for minor and reasonable variations in proposed site plans
that otherwise conform to the new
rules, and thereby avoid costly and
prolonged rezoning proceedings that
Hay Baling
It’s the haying season and farmers are frantically trying to get their first cutting
up. Jim Stork of Ellsworth Farm in Crozet baled square bales on shares on Pleasant
Green Farm. “So far the season is good,” he said, “unless things get too dry.” Stork
said he was aiming for 500 square bales and 150 round bales from the first cutting. He reduced his herd to 20 cows last year as he fought off esophageal cancer,
and, now recovered, he’s glad to be back in the hay fields.
Business owners on The Square and
along Crozet Avenue were annoyed
and hurt to discover that flowers and
potted plants they set out at the doors
of their businesses had been heisted in
a rash of thievery over several nights in
May.
Betty Rauch, owner of B&B
Cleaners on Crozet Avenue, was the
first victim. “Mine was the first to go,”
she said. “And it had sentimental value
continued on page 15
Crozet gazette
page 2 s JUNE 2008
from the Editor
Victory is near in the town’s
nearly two-year effort to get zoning
terms for downtown that will allow
things to actually happen there.
Formal approval by the Board of
Supervisors is slated for June 11.
After the Crozet Master Plan, a
forward-looking definition of the
commercial district is the second
most important document in the
fate of Crozet, its prosperity and
character, and whether its historical
identity will survive the deluge of
growth that the County intends for
it.
It has taken relentless vigilance
from citizens and business owners
to ensure that the town’s agenda and
values are manifest in the rules, and
they can take pride in what they
accomplished. Sandy Wilcox, president of the Downtown Crozet
Association, was a persistent and
articulate advocate for the town center. Others have been faithful soldiers in the struggle, patiently sitting through nearly 40 meetings. As
the process went along, the County
regularly preferred its own agenda,
(particularly a greed for proffers
even if that undermines longer range
aims) over the goals of the people
who will actually live with the consequences of official decisions.
Nonetheless, the plan has essentially
what the town wants.
Still, to use a sports analogy, there
is a difference between the way a
play is drawn up and the way it gets
executed. Many of Crozet’s grievances with the Master Plan are not
the result of defects in the plan,
though some have emerged, but in
how it gets interpreted in individual
cases by planning officials and political leaders. The town will still need
to watch to ensure that the spirit of
the district is honored. Crozet is a
community with a long history and
an intact awareness of its past. We
mean to maintain our distinct identity.
It is not clear whether a plan
meant to incentivize investment in
downtown will accomplish that
goal. Individuals almost invariably
act in their own interest and we’ll
see if downtown has any better
allure than it has recently, when
businesses have instead been moving out to new shopping centers on
Rt. 250. The real estate slump has
given downtown a bit of a breather
to catch up its competitiveness.
Meanwhile, Harris Teeter is build-
ing a store on Rt. 250 and Old Trail
recently announced it has a pizza
parlor and a hair salon signed up as
tenants in the commercial building
now under construction. All of
those are good for Crozet. And now
downtown has a chance, at least, to
be part of the boom.
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NO SIDEWALK
I was surprised to see, as I drove
along Jarmans Gap Road, a young
woman pushing a baby carriage
along my lane. I drove around her
and noted that along the front of
the new development, there is no
sidewalk or even a place for one.
This would seem to be an oversight or neglect of the County.
Surely this situation should never
have occurred and should be corrected.
Jennie H. Merrill
Greenwood
Mountfair Vineyards Opens Its Doors
Chris Yordy and Fritz Repich of
Mountfair Vineyards opened the
doors to their timber-framed tasting
room in May, having spent the last
eight years building their dream.
And they have three newly
released red wines that generated
some buzz at the Virginia Wine
Growers Association meeting.
“We were thrilled with the
response our wines received. Now
we begin cultivating relationships
with our customers as diligently as
we have cultivated the relationship
with our vines,” said Repich.
Yordy and Repich met while
working at Cisco Systems, where
they continue to work full time.
Between them they have five children under the age of ten, all of
whom attend the same school. Their
wives have the same birthday.
Local winemaker Brad McCarthy
helped them find their style. They
wanted to blaze a different path
than most Virginia wineries. Most
people who enter the wine business
have a dedication to quality, a passion for winemaking and a fair
amount of money. Yordy and Repich
certainly have the dedication and
passion but they started their business with next to nothing.
“We had the land and we had the
dream. We didn’t have the bank
account to match our enthusiasm.
So, we started slowly, educated ourselves, and used our sweat equity to
move us forward,” said Yordy.
Staying small and going slowly is
their philosophy. They hand-sort
the grapes, punch down by hand
during the fermentation process,
and spend hours making sure the
blends highlight the right qualities
of the grapes. Repich said he spends
as many hours in the barrel room as
in the fields.
“You think about things differently when you are working the
land every day. This hasn’t ever been
about a single transaction. From the
small lots that we plant, to how we
interact with customers, we are
looking at the development of a
long-term relationship. Keeping it
small is what allows us to make critical modifications to sustain those
relationships.”
They built the winery from timber felled on the property.
Timberframing is a longstanding
passion for Yordy, having built his
first in 1985. For him the dream is
the realization of a sustainable, agricultural venture that lets his family
live in the shadows of the Blue
Ridge Mountains. “We spend a lot
of time thinking about the impact
we are having. We want this to be a
sustainable venture that 100 years
from now will benefit this community as much as it benefits our families. You can’t have one without the
other.”
Mountfair Vineyards crafts smallbatch, blended red wines using the
classic grapes of Bordeaux: Merlot,
Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet
Franc, Petit Verdot, and Malbec.
Complimentary tastings are available on Sundays from noon to 5
p.m., or by appointment. Call
823-7605 to schedule a visit. The
tasting room is located four miles
north of White Hall on Fox
Mountain Road, just off Brown’s
Gap Turnpike. Directions can be
found at www.mountfair.com.
Chris Yordy and Fritz Repich of Mountfair Vineyards
Crozet gazette
JUNE 2008 s page 3
Afton’s June Curry, the “Cookie Lady,” Remembers Her Hometown
By Kathy Johnson
She is known by thousands across
the country, and around the world,
as the “Cookie Lady.” Others think
of her as the “bike lady” and still
others know her as June Curry,
neighbor and longtime Afton resident.
June has been featured in magazines and on television in Charles
Kurault’s “On the Road” and she is
known and loved by bikers worldwide who visit her home in Afton
and share the hospitality of her
“Bike House.” Offering no-charge
accommodations for bikers and,
when her health was better, fresh
cookies from the oven, Curry basks
in the joy of her nearly three-decade
connection with those biking the
TransAmerica Bicycle Trail, which
runs just outside her door.
Nearly 30 years ago, June and her
father, Harold, noticed bikers going
by their small home in Afton.
Realizing that the bikers needed a
drink, June and her father set up a
sign for “free water.” Then they
started serving food and cookies.
When her uncle passed away they
converted his home next door into
a free (donations welcome) hostel,
offering a place to spend the night,
get a shower, something to read, rest
and relax.
“They come back and bring their
Don’t miss any of the hometown news everybody else is up on. Pick up a free copy of the
Crozet Gazette at one of the many area locations or have the Crozet Gazette delivered to
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are available for $20 for 12 issues. Send a
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VA 22932.
June Curry, the “Cookie Lady”
children, who call me ‘Grandma
June’ and that pleases me so much,”
she said with a warm smile as she
talked about many of the bikers
who have made their way up the
mountain. “Bikers are good people.
Just give them a chance. I get the
most wonderful letters.”
In 2003 she was honored by the
Adventure Cycling Association with
the inaugural June Curry Trail Angel
Award, “an annual award that recognizes the contributions made by
individuals and organizations who
promote bicycle touring and
improve conditions for cyclotour-
Published on the first Thursday of the month
by The Crozet Gazette LLC, P.O. Box 863,
Crozet, Virginia 22932
Michael J. Marshall,
Publisher and Editor
434-466-8939
www.crozetgazette.com
© The Crozet Gazette LLC
Crozet Gazette Route
Carriers:
Claudius Crozet Park neighborhoods:
Chris Breving: 823-2394
Western Ridge/Stonegate:
Ashley Gale: 823-1578
Cory Farm/Clover Lawn/Foxchase:
Austin Germani: 882-5976
Old Trail/Haden & Killdeer Lanes:
Andrew Periasamy: 989-5732
Curry’s tabletop model of old Afton
ists,” according to the Association’s
website.
June Curry stands less than 5 feet
tall, with blond hair now changed
to white and sparkling eyes that
belie her age (87), and tiny, delicate
hands. She has a warm smile and a
sweet personality. If you were from
central casting you would choose
her on looks alone for the part of
Mrs. Santa Claus. (And she comes
with her own Santa, a near life-size
dancing Santa that stands in her living room, a gift from biking friends
in Waynesboro.) Her hearing is failing and, as she says, “these two fin-
gers don’t listen,” referring to some
continuing problems from a stroke
in 2005, but Curry is all vim and
vigor and she loves to share her
memories.
June credits the bikers with making her recovery possible. A few days
after her stroke, the doctors told her
she could return home as long as
someone could stay with her for the
first week and then come daily after
that. Financially, that just wasn’t
possible. Bikers who visited her
from Waynesboro heard about the
problem. The story was posted on
some biking websites and, as June
tells it, “A few days later the nurse
came in and said, ‘You broke the
record today for mail.’ There were
stacks of mail and inside almost
every letter there was money–not all
from bikers.” The stacks of mail
continued and June was able to
return home. “Bikers paid for it all,”
she said, beaming.
During her recovery, June and
her companion spent time building
a tabletop replica of ‘downtown’
Afton in its heyday. Not to scale but
accurate in its placement of stores
and shops, the train depot, post
office, the replica shows the exciting
past when Afton was a bustling
community.
And that’s the next part of the
continued on page 18
Crozet gazette
page 4 s JUNE 2008
Wayne Theatre to Raffle Afton
“Bellflower” Banjo
Crozet Great Valu co-owner Jean Wagner presented a $1,000 scholarship check to Alexandria Brown, the daughter of Doug and Caroline
Brown of Ivy May 27. Brown graduated from Tandem School in
Charlottesville and will attend the College of William and Mary this
fall. Her mother noticed the scholarship application while shopping
and urged Alexandria to apply. Great Valu corporate offices in
Richmond select one winner for each affiliated store.
White Hall’s Thurman Shifflett and his band the Joymakers were among
the performers at the Mountainside Senior Living Music Festival May 17, a
fundraiser for the assisted living facility. The Joymakers played at Mt.
Moriah United Methodist Church in White Hall in the morning, at the
festival in the afternoon, and went on to do a show in Scottsville in the evening. Other performers included Ashley Hanger, Steve North and Sons, the
Crozet Crooners, William Munsey, Happy Darcus, Deloris Mosley, Blue
Country Band, the Skyline Country Cloggers, and Stella Roach and Freddie
Frazier.
Granny Isabel’s Housekeeping Tips
When you find yourself with leftover whipped cream, double-fold
pieces of aluminum foil and place teaspoons of the whipped cream in
them. Crimp the edges and store in the freezer.
A “Bellflower” banjo made by
Afton-based banjo maker Geoff
Stelling is being raffled off by the
Wayne Theatre Alliance as part of
their upcoming “Bluegrass, Blue
Jeans and Barbecue” event on June
14.
The banjo, valued at $4,300, was
made by Stelling over an eight-week
period. Each banjo requires more
than 25 hours in shaping, sanding,
staining, finishing, and final buff
before the assembly. Stelling banjos
can cost as much as $35,000.
Tickets for the banjo are available
for $10 and will benefit the Wayne
Theatre Alliance in their goal to
restore the Wayne Theatre in downtown Waynesboro. Many area residents visited the Wayne as children
and adults prior to its closing in the
1990s.
To purchase a ticket contact the
Wayne
Theatre
Alliance
at
540-943-9999 or www.waynetheatre.com. Tickets are also available
for the “Bluegrass Blue Jeans and
Barbecue” event being held at the
Laurick Farms in Fishersville.
Crozet gazette
JUNE 2008 s page 5
by Phil James
Civilian Conservation Corps
75th Anniversary, 1933 – 2008
T
he roaring that characterized the 1920s in
America subsided to a whimper by the early
’30s. Society’s fortunate who had lived with
lavish excess simply withdrew into more moderate
patterns. But for the many who perpetually lived on
the margin, especially those in urban areas, economic hard times meant being without. The doublewhammy of nationwide climatic extremes soon
brought the realities of true hard times to the rural
population as well. Millions wondered how much
more they could take.
Walter McDowell (1914 – 2007) was a teenager
living in tidewater Virginia during the early 1930s.
The economic downturn had severely curtailed his
father’s work as a house carpenter. “There wasn’t
African-American enrollees from CCC Camp Gallion in
Green Bay, Virginia, were reassigned to Camp Albemarle
in June 1941. They were tasked in 1941–42 with finishing
the Lake Albemarle dam. [Photo courtesy of J. Harvey and
Margaret Bailey.]
any work to be done,” the younger McDowell
recalled. “Kids just roaming the streets. You couldn’t
find a job anywhere. It was right in the Depression.
You couldn’t even have bought a job then—if you
had had any money.”
The son of a waterman from Kinsale, Virginia, J.
Harvey Bailey Jr. (1909 – 2003) was a 1931 graduate of V.P.I. with a degree in civil engineering. His
new academic credentials, however, did not shield
him from the uncertainties of the times. When project funding was reduced for the mapping work he
was doing for the Coast and Geodetic Survey,
Bailey resorted to occasional survey work and shortterm teaching stints. One such assignment was a
mathematics class at the remote Blue Ridge
Industrial School near the Greene and Albemarle
County border.
Bailey stated, “President Hoover did not return
to the White House in 1932. Franklin D. Roosevelt
was his successor. The campaign was run on the
ability of which candidate could propose and manage a plan which would bring the country to an
economy that would furnish a fair living and assist
the individual to support a family and to seek
employment where it was offered. The problem
before the Federal government stretched across the
country. Employment had to be found and distributed country-wide.”
The first 100 days following Roosevelt’s inauguration are legendary. His “New Deal” programs
were aimed at providing immediate economic relief
to the masses and instilling hope for the future. On
March 21, 1933, seventeen days after his inauguration, Roosevelt called on Congress to adopt his plan
for Unemployment Relief.
“I propose to create a civilian conservation corps
to be used in simple work, not interfering with normal employment, and confining itself to forestry, the
prevention of soil erosion, flood control and similar
projects …The overwhelming majority of unemployed Americans, who are now walking the streets
and receiving private or public relief, would infinitely prefer to work. We can take a vast army of
these unemployed out into healthful surroundings.
We can eliminate to some extent at least the threat
that enforced idleness brings to spiritual and moral
stability.”
The Emergency Conservation Work Act was
signed into law on March 31, 1933, creating the
Civilian Conservation Corps program. Just 17 days
later, the first CCC camp in the United States—
appropriately named Camp Roosevelt—was established near Luray, Virginia. By early July, over
300,000 young men and their leaders were enrolled
in over 1,400 camps in every state of the Union.
The pathway into the CCCs led first to “conditioning camp” for most of the new enrollees. It was
there that Portsmouth teenager Walter McDowell
was assigned to an office group processing the
stream of fellow recruits. “They sent us to Fort
Monroe [Virginia] Army Training Camp. I stayed
there about a month. The first group that I was with
went up on the Skyline Drive right close to the north
end of it. I stayed in Monroe and we shipped ‘em
out by train and by truck. When they got ‘em all out
they put us on a train and sent us up to Crozet.”
It was early Sunday morning, June 11, 1933,
when 176 sleepy-tired young men detrained at the
C&O Depot in Crozet. They had been assigned to
continued on page 6
Civilian Conservation Corps Camp Albemarle, 1933–1942, was located at White Hall, Virginia, northwest of the intersection of present-day Brown’s Gap Turnpike and Sugar Hollow Road.
During WWII it was converted into an internment camp for German prisoners-of-war. [Photo courtesy of NACCCA archives.]
page 6 s JUNE 2008
Crozet gazette
Corps—continued from page 5
The group of CCC enrollees who arrived at Camp Albemarle in June 1933 lived in army tents for five months while they
constructed more permanent facilities. [Photo courtesy of Eldon and Mary Morris.]
Camp Albemarle’s CCC enrollees slept in five barracks measuring 20’ x 110’ each. All of the camp’s facilities were
maintained with a military-style neatness. [Photo courtesy of Truman and Elva Huckstep.]
The Camp Exchange, or PX, offered snacks, tobacco and sundries for sale to enrollees. The store’s profits were reinvested in
the recreation hall’s amenities and the leisure activities in the camp. [Photo courtesy of Truman and Elva Huckstep.]
J. Harvey Bailey Jr. holds a 1938 CCC Camp Albemarle
roster photo. Its parquetry frame was made in the camp’s
cabinet shop. Bailey was the camp’s principal engineer
and his six years of service there were among the longest
of any on the technical staff.
C.C.C. Company 338, Camp Albemarle.
“Trucks met us there and we unloaded our clothes
and whatever we had off the train into the truck and
they carried us up there and put us on that vacant
field at White Hall,” recalled McDowell. “Peach
orchard on one side of it. Moormans River right
down below us. When they dumped us out there the
only bath we had was the river. Threw some tents
out with us and said ‘ya’ll put ‘em up if you want to
sleep inside.’ So we were learning right from the
start. Dumped the cooking stuff out and they cooked
outdoors until we built a mess hall. We were right
out in the open. Yeah, a bunch of kids turned loose
there with three Army officers. They helped us out
with how to set up tents and stuff like that. We didn’t
know a thing about it! On the job training.”
Eight days later the temporary tent camp was in
order and the first work crews were turned over to
the “Using Service.” For the next month, a lack of
available trucks required the boys to walk six to
eight miles a day to and from their initial assignments of establishing fire trails in the nearby mountains. By July the mess hall was under roof, and in
September the shower house was completed.
Winter-like conditions arrived in October and the
completion of the permanent barracks in November
was a celebrated event. As McDowell reminisced,
“That was the good life then. You were getting three
meals a day. Place to sleep. Lot of them didn’t have
a place to sleep if they went back home. I really
enjoyed it. I had a good time there.”
Administered by the U.S. Army and assigned
work by the Virginia Forest Service, Camp
Albemarle operated for nine years—the duration of
the CCC program. Several thousand young men
benefited from the training and guidance they
received in the rolling Blue Ridge foothills of western Albemarle County.
CCC camps were segregated by race and Camp
P60–VA was established as an all-white camp. In
June 1941, with much attrition in the camp due to
an improving economy and the build-up of the
nation’s military machine, men from AfricanAmerican Company 1390, Camp Gallion, located
in Green Bay, Virginia, were transferred to White
Hall. Camp Albemarle was then assigned the new
Crozet gazette
JUNE 2008 s page 7
designation of “S60–VA”, denoting the camp’s
work focus change from working on predominantly
private or “P” lands to state-owned or “S” lands.
The reassigned enrollees from Camp Gallion
worked to complete construction of the Lake
Albemarle dam project that was begun in 1938.
J. Harvey Bailey was employed by the Forest
Service in 1936 to be the engineer for CCC Camp
Albemarle. He retained that position until the program closed in 1942. In a letter to this writer, Bailey
reflected on the work of the Moormans River/White
Hall camp: “Camp P-60, sometimes called
Moorman’s River, sometimes White Hall, was one
of the several who did work especially on suppression of forest fire. It built truck trails; improved secondary public roads; bridges (to expedite access to
isolated peaks and valleys); built telephone lines to
connect fire marshals; erected and manned fire lookout towers. The machine shop and equipment
brought on additional work from camps over the
state. After an equipment plant was built at Salem
for repairs and storage, Camp P60 hauled equipment to it. Its personnel built a pile driver to construct a rather lengthy body of water in eastern
Virginia; prepared a topo-map of about 300 acres of
the University of Virginia; built an impound for a
recreational area—Lake Albemarle—to be used by
the state. Nor should we forget the feeding of birds
during the harsh winters.”
President Roosevelt’s CCC boys lived out their
unofficial motto: “WE CAN TAKE IT!” Over three
million young men were enrolled in the corps during its nine-year run. Today, 75 years hence, our
society continues to enjoy the fruits of their labors.
A tremendous debt of gratitude is still owed to the
organizers and laborers in that remarkable chapter
of our nation’s history.
Zoning—continued from page 1
Let’s Have Fireworks for the 4th!
The Downtown Crozet Association, a non-profit organization, is again organizing a fundraising campaign to raise $6,000
to pay for the fireworks show at the Crozet Volunteer Fire
Department’s Summerfest event July 5 at Claudius Crozet
Park. The fireworks show will be at 10:30 p.m.
Donations, much appreciated and celebrating Crozet’s place
in America the beautiful, should be sent to the DCA at P.O.
Box 124, Crozet, VA 22932.
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
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Crozet Elementary School 5th grader Emma Gore won
the opportunity to sit in David Steppe’s Rear End
Dragster Car by exhibiting good character through the
school’s Character Counts Program. But first Principal
Karen Marcus got to try it out.Left to right are Anthony
Steppe, Emma Gore, Karen Marcus and David Steppe,
who brought the dragster to the school for part of its
year-end Fun Day.
might discourage new businesses.
Existing buildings are not affected
by the new rules.
Downtown business and property owners, and even nearby residents, backed the plan, nearly two
years in development. The County’s
existing
commercial
zoning,
designed for suburban shopping
centers, had been inhibiting new
businesses from establishing in
downtown. The County was won
over to Crozet’s cause when it
bought property in downtown for a
new library and then discovered its
own rules prevented it from proceeding without a rezoning procedure.
Supervisors’ and commissioners’
discussion dwelt on the tax implications of the zoning change on properties now residential, mainly on
Tabor and High Streets, which
would see their assessments rise once
they had commercial zoning. State
law requires assessments to be based
on the assessor’s analysis of “highest
and best use,” not on a property’s
current actual use. County tax assessor Bruce Woodzell said one possible outcome would be to assess the
land in the parcel higher, but reduce
the value of an existing house or
other structures. One High Street
resident has asked to be removed
from the district for that reason.
One property owner north of the
Dairy Queen asked to be included,
but action on that was deferred
because the parcel had not been
advertised in the hearing announcement.
Lumberyard
owner
Carroll
Conley told officials, “I approve of
this plan and have heard no complaints from neighbors on tax consequences. If the lumberyard was
ever sold, then the County has a
right to ask for a proffer.”
All adjoining property owners
were notified of the plan and no one
appeared to oppose it.
Carter Street resident Jon
Mikalson said, “I support the plan
as it has come through. We recognize that commercial development
will happen, but it should take into
account existing neighborhoods.”
He said the County planners should
be able to develop a concept for
transitional zoning between residential and commercial areas.
Tim Tolson, who sits on the
Jefferson-Madison Regional Library
board, said adoption was necessary
continued on page 24
Crozet gazette
page 8 s JUNE 2008
© Marlene A. Condon
Condon’s Corner: Cooking Made Easy
Easier and Better Blueberry Muffins
This is prime blueberry season. If
you have a stand-alone freezer, be
sure to buy several pints of blueberries for freezing. There are many
wonderful blueberry recipes that
you can make all the year around if
you plan ahead by growing or buying and freezing this fruit in season.
When choosing containers of blueberries that are in good shape, make
sure no juice is visible—a tell-tale sign that some of the berries have been
squished.
It is not difficult to freeze blueberries. Simply place the plastic pint container that they come in into a freezer bag that just fits around it so that
there is not much air space. (Air dries out frozen food so you want to minimize how much there is.) When you are ready to use the blueberries, pour
one pint of frozen berries into a colander, a few at a time so that you can
sort through them for stems, leaves, and bruised fruit as you go along. Rinse
the berries with cold water, giving the colander a shake to distribute berries
so they can drain well.
Now you are ready to make something delicious!
The following is a recipe that I
modified from a Betty Crocker
cookbook. In order to save time and
to use up an entire pint of frozen
Marlene A. Condon
blueberries, I have doubled the basic
recipe and I have added more frozen
blueberries than the original recipe
called for. I also place sparkling white sugar on top. Betty Crocker suggests
that the blueberries need to be thawed, but they do not. These blueberry
muffins have a light, airy texture, are attractive to behold, and they freeze
wonderfully.
(24)
Sweet Blueberry Muffins
Place 24 paper baking-cups into
two 12-hole cupcake pans (this is
easier than greasing).
In a large mixing bowl (a bowl
that has steep sides), mix together
with a spoonula or large mixing
spoon:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated white sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
In a two-cup measuring glass,
measure:
1 cup milk (non-fat milk makes a lower-fat muffin)
½ cup vegetable oil (a canola/
corn oil blend is more health-
ful than just corn or vegetable
oil)
2 large eggs
Using a fork or a whisk, blend
the liquid ingredients, making sure
that the egg yolks are broken and
mixed in well. Pour the liquid mixture into the dry ingredients and
combine well. (Note: Muffin recipes
always tell you to mix “just until
flour is moistened. Batter should be
lumpy.” Do not believe it! If the
batter is lumpy, you will find bits of
dry flour in your finished muffins.
Disregard this misinformation that
continues to get perpetuated by
people you would expect to know
better. The batter should be smooth
and well-mixed.)
Be sure the oven rack is in the
middle position and start heating
the oven to 400 degrees, unless you
are using dark-metal pans. These
pans require lower cooking temperatures to avoid overcooking, so set
the oven to 350 degrees. (Note: The
information that comes with these
pans says to lower the temperature
by only 25 degrees, but that is not
enough.)
With a large mixing spoon, fold
in the drained frozen blueberries
gently to minimize squishing berries. Try to make the blueberries
well distributed throughout the batter. Using an ice cream scoop, place
one scoop of batter into each paper
cup. Try to fill each cup to about
the same level (they should be about
½-¾ full; any leftover batter should
be added to the less-full cups).
Optional: For a professional look,
sprinkle a little less than 1 tsp. sparkling white sugar on top of each
muffin cup of batter. This special
sugar that can be bought through
mail-order baking catalogs does not
melt.
Place both pans of batter into the
oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes,
or until tops of muffins are lightly
browned and spring back when
lightly touched with a finger.
Remove from pans and place muffins on a wire rack. Eat fresh or let
cool completely before wrapping
and freezing.
Crozet gazette
JUNE 2008 s page 9
Local CCC Efforts
to Be Remembered
Albemarle County historian Phil James will present a program honoring
the workers of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s most successful depressionera recovery project, the Civilian Conservation Corps, in Albemarle County.
Photos, artifacts and first-person accounts will be shared Sunday, June 8,
from 2 to 4 p.m. at the White Hall Community Building in White Hall,
across from Wyant’s Store.
State Farm Office Opens
State Farm insurance agent Lauren Morris (center) has opened an
office in the rear of the former Rice and Rice office on Crozet Avenue,
joined by associates Cindy Cole and Jeff McCutcheon.
Morris, the daughter of Larry and Lorraine Wyant of White Hall,
is the wife of State Farm agent George Morris, whose Waynesboro
agency is well known. She recently sponsored the Western Albemarle
High School baseball team’s senior night for graduating team members. She is WAHS Class of ‘89.
The building’s street front offices are occupied by the staff of Allied
Portable Toilets, a firm created by Joe Mullins of Greenwood, who
also owns the building now.
John Watts
Crozet Farmers’
Market Attracts
More Shoppers
John Watts of Seal Ridge Road in
Crozet said he had “paid heavy” for
the sign he made to promote the
castor bean elixir he makes to keep
deer away from the garden. It’s sure
to work, he promised.
Watts was enjoying the busy traffic Mother’s day weekend at the
Crozet Farmers Market, which sets
up in the parking lot of Crozet
United Methodist Church on
Saturday mornings during the growing season.
Pam Roland, who sells her Joybelz
stationary creations, said “I’ve never
seen so many people. This market is
very kid-friendly. It’s very small
town. I love it.”
Last year her stand was a little
prone to falling over in a breeze so
she was showing off the new frame
she built to support it.
Christian Scherer, who was selling begonias, gladiolas, seedling
tomatoes, birdhouses and kindling,
commented, “I was the first person
[to set up] here and this is the most
people I’ve ever seen. It used to be
we attacked any customer who came
on the lot. This is so good for the
market.”
Bob Helt, who was selling persimmon trees, red raspberry canes,
and day lilies, said the editor of the
Gazette is a “delusional sensationalist” for writing stories about the
Crozet cougar.
Milt Wingfield of Brownsville
Road was selling bearded irises,
fancy-cut clock stands and birdhouses. Cindy and Katie Armstrong
had marigolds, heirloom varieties of
vegetables, window plants, sugar
cookies and brownie cakes. And a
dozen other stands had a variety of
baked goods, produce and gift
items. There was plenty of bustle.
Crozet gazette
page 10 s JUNE 2008
Mike Elliott
IT Help Desk
Information Upgrade
by Mike Elliott
In the last issue, we discussed
topics surrounding whether or not
you should invest in a new computer to address computing performance issues. This time, I’ve got
what amounts to a two-part article
where in this issue, we’ll focus on
how you use your computer and
what’s available over the Internet. In
the next issue, we’ll get into details
about specific options for moving to
a faster Internet connection.
One of my favorite things to hear
my wife say is, “Honey, why is our
computer so slow?” Okay, so it may
not be at the very top of the list, but
it sure leaves a wide opening for me
to pitch the justification I’ve been
working on to buy a new home
computer. And I’m always working
on those types of justifications. I’m
constantly pouring over magazines
and catalogs, salivating over the latest and greatest – the bigger, better,
faster computers with a wanting
look on my face. I know I’m not
alone here. But what many of us
forget (and sometimes intentionally) is that the computer itself is
only one part of the equation.
When looking at the speed/performance of your computer, the factors should really center around the
types tasks you’re expecting your
computer to help you complete. If
you’re like the majority of home
users, the bulk of these tasks are
probably: email, browsing the
Internet, managing digital pictures
and music, perhaps writing papers,
doing homework assignments, and
possibly managing home finances.
Even though this barely scratches
the surface of what can be done
with computers, it’s what most of us
use as the basis for our new computer purchase justification. Now,
of course the speed of the computer
matters, and some applications
demand higher performance to run
properly. Think of the latest computer games like flight simulators,
or how about editing the video you
took using your new digital camcorder—those types of tasks will
make you crave the fastest computer
you can afford (or beyond).
But what about the mainstay of
what we do? What about email and
browsing the Internet? We both
know that you don’t need a supercomputer to do these things. Again,
if you’re using an ancient computer,
it certainly wouldn’t hurt to have
something newer regardless of what
you’re using it for, but email and
web-browsing are manageable on a
slower machine. The factor that
weighs heavier in this space is your
Internet connection speed. This
becomes an even bigger factor as
your workload increasingly relies on
an Internet connection.
Back in the early days of “home
computer communications,” I used
a state-of-the-art “1200-baud”
modem and felt like I was flying
when I connected to CompuServe
(one of the original AOL-like information services) and computer bulletin boards (the early-days equivalent of today’s online forums). It’s
not important that you know what
these things from the past are, but
suffice it to say that Internet communications at that speed would
make you never want to use a computer again. Typical Internet connection speeds at present times clock in
on the order of 500 times faster and
in some cases can be over 10,000
times faster. So why do we need this
speed and how do you get it?
You may know that every computing task I’ve mentioned so far
can actually be executed using little
more than an Internet browser and
a good connection to the Internet.
I’m not sure that I’d want to use a
web-based video editor over my current Internet connection (much less
my current home computer), but
those applications are out there.
New applications are popping up
every day on the Internet, available
solely as online tools that require
only a browser to use. Examples?
Google has Google Docs and Microsoft is rumored to be working on a
fully online web-based version of
Microsoft Office; but nothing beats
the variety of what’s available right
now at Zoho.com in terms of total
number of available “office-like”
applications. And they’re fun to play
with too, especially if you have any
inkling of what’s going on under the
hood to make them work. There are
way too many great ones to mention in this space, but if you have a
need, I’ll bet there’s an online solution waiting for you to find it.
Bonus features of these online software applications are that you no
longer need to install and run the
application on your computer and
you don’t need to worry about getting the latest patches and updates.
These applications run on server
computers at computing centers
that you access via a web browser.
All the maintenance is taken care of
by the company hosting the applications. This is an area of computing that’s guaranteed to grow as the
proliferation of higher-speed Internet connections become available to
a wider base of users.
So, if you want to use these applications or maybe you just want
quicker response from websites...
what are your options? The answer
is based partly on available technology and largely on location—that is,
where you are when you need to be
connected. So next time, we’ll jump
into the rapidly changing sea of
Internet connection options and help
you pick the right solution for you.
If you can’t wait and you’re under
the impression that dial-up to AOL
is the only option you have in your
area, then I recommend you start by
contacting several local cell phone
carriers to see what type of Internet
service they offer using their existing cell tower infrastructure. You
might be amazed at what’s available
and you’ll be surprised how easy it is
now to get high-speed Internet service, even if you didn’t think it was
available in your area before now.
Otherwise, look for more details
next issue where I’ll cover connection options from Internet Service
Providers (ISP) using everything
from fiber-optics to satellites and I’ll
try to illuminate the pros and cons
of each.
Send me feedback or stories you
have related to your Internet connection and performance. I’d even
be happy to receive an email telling
me CompuServe is still alive and
well as an AOL subsidiary. Just
email me at Mike@informationupgrade.com. I look forward to
hearing from you!
cssatcrozet@embarqmail.com
continued on page 17
Crozet gazette
JUNE 2008 s page 11
A New York Yankee in Chief Bubba and Hubba’s
Firehouse
By Tom Loach
One More Tough Job
You would think that when it comes to the chemistry of fire­—add a little
fuel, a little oxygen and touch it off with a heat source—all fires would be
much the same, but you’d be wrong.
To me, each fire of any size has its own personality, its own set of challenges. No one method of fighting fires will suffice. Such was the case recently
when an alarm came in about 8:30 p.m. for a structure fire right here in
Crozet. Upon arrival on the scene it was clear that somewhere within the
structure there was active fire, with thick dark smoke showing from anywhere it could escape the building.
I was riding the back seat on Engine 58 with Dick Martin driving and
operating the pump and Troy Hunt in the Officer seat. Jumping off the
truck we could see Chief Bubba was already sizing up the situation and preparing to engage in the fight that was about to commence. Firefighter Hunt
and I were ordered to pull a hose line and proceed to the basement level
entrance. When we got there Captain Will Schmertzler was at the door waiting to make entrance into the building. Like a number of times before, I
would be number two behind Captain Will, who would be on the nozzle,
and firefighter Hunt would back us up.
We checked our air packs, bled the hose line to make sure we would have
water as soon as we needed it, got low to the floor and entered the black
haze. Within a few feet, even crawling on our bellies, visibility was zero and
we moved forward by touch and feel looking for the glow of the fire we
knew was there. As we inched our way forward, banging and bumping into
one obstruction after another, we finally ran into a wall and found we could
go no further. Sometimes not finding the fire is as bad as finding the fire
since you now have to find your way back out of the blackness.
Thankfully, in this case we had the hose line to follow back to fresh air
and sunlight. Once outside, I got a new assignment from Chief Bubba: start
opening all the windows at the basement level to improve ventilation. With
my trusty Haligan bar, a heavy steel tool used for forcible entry, I started
breaking the basement windows. While ventilation allows the heat and
smoke to escape, it also gives the fire more air to breathe and by the time I
had worked around the building, I could see fire was now coming out two of
the basement windows. Worse yet, fire from one window was licking right
up against the home’s oil storage tank. I told Captain Will about the oil tank
and suggested we pull a line to keep it cool. Dragging the line back to begin
working the tank I thought to myself, “me and my big mouth.” Moving forward while spraying water on the tank, I was forced back at least twice by
the heat of the fire. Muttering a few choice words, the third time was the
charm and I made it all the way to window, shoving the nozzle in the window and at the fire. Here I was sitting next to a fuel oil tank with the fire
trying to cook both of us and a new thought popped into my head: “What?
Are you crazy?”
The good news was that within a few minutes I could see the flames
diminish and the heat start to drop. Sometimes being a firefighter is like a
soldier in battle because you don’t know what’s happening six feet on either
side of you, but there certainly was a lot going on all around me. I could see
Chief Bubba circling the house trying to figure a way to get at the fire before
the fire got at the rest of the house. On the first floor Captain Preston Gentry
and firefighter Jeff Bodine had started to locate and strike the fire. Crawling
along the floor they could feel the tremendous heat generated by the fire
right through their turnout gear. As they moved forward, Captain Gentry
noticed the wood from the floor board had started to separate and the edges
were black. Captain Gentry’s 30 plus years of fighting fire kicked in and he
ordered firefighter Bodine to back out. It wasn’t till the fire was out that we
noticed that all of the supporting beams for the first floor in the area where
Captain Gentry had entered were almost completely burnt through. Had
they continued over this section of floor there was a good chance the floor
would have given way and both Gentry and Bodine would have fallen into
the fire. In fire fighting, experience counts big time and a bit of luck never
hurt either.
There’s an old adage in fire fighting that says “once the fire goes out everything gets better.” With the bulk of the fire knocked down and the building
opened for ventilation, the interior crews started to make progress putting
out hot spots and looking for any remaining fire in any hidden spaces.
Fighting a basement fire is never easy. Access is usually a problem and it’s
not unusual for the only way to get at the fire is down the basement steps,
which is like walking down a chimney. We all know the amount of clutter
that ends up in the basement and things like old paint cans and other flammable substances add to the danger. In the end we would save a good bit of
the home from the fire and had the satisfaction of knowing we stopped the
fire exactly where it started despite the fact that the fire had a good head
start. What was accomplished was due to a team effort and besides the
Crozet Fire Department we had help from the Charlottesville City Fire
Department, Earlysville Fire Department, North Garden Fire Department
and Rockfish Valley Fire Department. As always, the Western Albemarle
Rescue Squad would provide medical support for all the firefighters working
the fire.
It would be another two hours to clean up, return to the fire house and
get the truck ready for action again. I got home just before midnight,
grabbed a hot shower, knocked down a couple of Tylenol to mitigate the
pains I knew would be coming the next day and hit the sack knowing it was
just one more tough job that was well handled by the fire service.
Crozet Music Festival Presented Check to WARS
Bill Rossberg, left, organizer of the Crozet Music Festival, presented a
$500 check to Western Albemarle Rescue Squad assistant chief Purcell
McCue May 24, the day of WARS’s community open house. The squad was
marking its 30th year of community service. “All volunteer, all the time,”
McCue said proudly. He has served with the squad for five years and was
formerly an active firefighter with the Crozet Volunteer Fire Department.
The open house was a chance for citizens to meet squad volunteers and the
squad gave out literature on disaster preparedness, nutrition, and child safety.
Other giveaways included magnets, toy ambulances, Frisbees, whistle key
rings and candy.
Rossberg also donated to the CVFD, the Downtown Crozet Association’s
Fourth of July fireworks fund, and to an emergency fund for Mountainside
Senior Living residents. Claudius Crozet Park was also a beneficiary of the
festival, which is being planned again for this fall.
Crozet gazette
page 12 s JUNE 2008
Summer Events at
Humpback Rocks
Mountain Farm
Humpback Rocks Mountain
farm, a re-created late 19th century Appalachian pioneer farm, swings
into full gear in June with traditional musical events and cultural
demonstrations scheduled for every
weekend.
Musical groups from the area will
take the stage under the walnut tree
on Sundays from 2 to 4 p.m. Scheduled to perform are:
June 8: Sunnyside with Carol
Phillips, performing old-time and
Carter-style music.
June 22: The Mountain
Messengers with Keith Fitzgerald
entertain with bluegrass/gospel.
June 29: Grassy Ridge and Pam
Ward playing traditional songs of
the mountains. June 15: Harry Baldwin will have
his Percheron draft horses at the
Farm for everyone to admire. Please call 540/943-4716 to confirm events. All events are free. The
farm is located at Milepost 5.8 on
the Blue Ridge Parkway.
June at the
Hamner Theater
Saturday, June 7: From Aretha
to Ziggy. Dance Party benefit for
Rural Nelson. Suggested donation
$5 to $10. 8 p.m.
Saturday, June 14: In the
Cabaret: TigerLily. Nelson County
favorites, a soulful equation of one
part bass and three-part harmony.
Doors/Bar/Food at 6:30 p.m.
Music at 7:30 p.m. $15 includes
food, by reservation only. Call
434-361-1999 for reservations. For
more details, visit www.hamnertheater.com
The Hamner Theater is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) project of the
Rockfish Valley Community Center
in Nelson County.
Pollak Vineyards Hosts Ribbon Cutting
With guests and staff in attendance, Margo Pollak, co-owner, and
Jack Busching, manager, (both far right in front) celebrated the winery’s “official ribbon-cutting and opening” May 16. Located on
Newtown Road in Greenwood, the Vineyard is open daily from 11
a.m. to 5 p.m. There is a $5 per person tasting fee, which includes a
souvenir wine glass. Margo and David Pollak own Pollak Vineyard.
June 14 Guitar duo David Bailey & David Ferrall
June 21 Lulu and the Virginia Creepers (bluegrass)
Music 1-3 p.m.
Crozet gazette
JUNE 2008 s page 13
Miller School Will Miss Kayla Hansen
Some people take a long time to
realize that they are responsible for
where they go in life. Kayla Hansen
caught on at age 13 when she was
living in west Sacramento,
California, the only child of a single
mother. Now she’s graduated from
Miller School with nearly every Ivy
League university wooing her. She is
the first person in her family to go
to college.
On May 1 she was awarded the
Emily Couric Leadership Scholarship Award at Charlottesville’s
Omni Hotel. In her acceptance
speech, she used her favorite quote,
a famous line of John Milton’s from
Paradise Lost (which she had read at
Miller in the 10th grade): “The
mind is its own place, and in itself,
can make heaven of Hell, and a hell
of Heaven.”
“I really like Paradise Lost, though
I didn’t agree with my teacher who
said that it is the best romance in
history. He thought Adam was willing to leave paradise for love of Eve.”
Meanwhile, she researched Milton
for her “Chapel Talk,” a five-minute
public speaking requirement for
every Miller senior.
“I’m always prepared,” Hansen
said. “I was anxious to do it. I really
wanted to do it for my essay for college.
“When I think about it, it’s
because of how different I am for
my age. I am determined to make
my goals.”
Her boarding school goal “was
sort of a random idea,” she admitted. “I woke up one day and thought
public school was not going to be
much of a challenge. I looked at private schools in the area and they
Kayla Hansen
weren’t very good either. So I applied
to three East Coast boarding schools.
My mother didn’t know what I was
doing. I did all the financial aid
forms. When I told her what I had
done, she was shocked. She couldn’t
speak. But she signed to let me
come.”
Hansen had applied to Berkshire
School (400 students) and Andover
(1,000 students) in Massachusetts
and to Miller (150 students).
“My eighth grade math class had
80 students and a teacher with a
laissez-faire attitude. I wanted a
smaller class size where I wasn’t a
number. I really looked at the
teacher/student relationship. I
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wanted a bigger place [meaning a
bigger campus] too.”
She got good financial aid help
from Miller (all of its aid is needbased), too.
“I was already very independent,”
explained Hansen. “My mom said
the only person you can depend on
is yourself. I wondered if the people
around me were going to help me
get to college. I was scoffed at for
saying I wanted to go to Harvard or
Yale. They said, ‘Don’t even think
about it.’ I wanted to go somewhere
where they wouldn’t scoff and I
wouldn’t have to depend on just
myself.”
“It paid off!” she exclaimed.
“Mrs. Nancy Barnes always
taught that Miller is a place where if
you want to, you can go far. I recognized that and that I could use that
to my advantage if I wanted to work
at it.”
In her first year, she went into
student government and after that
came a “whirlwind of extra-curriculars.”
She played varsity tennis and volleyball. She was president of the
National Honor Society and cochair of Miller’s Disciplinary Review
Board, which handles student misbehavior. She set up a tutoring program at Miller and passed up a summer enrichment program at Harvard
University to go home to Sacramento
to tutor kids. She was the resident
advisor for Wayland Hall, the dormitory for 10th, 11th and 12th
grade girls.
She was the editor of the newspaper and meanwhile she took six
Advanced Placement exams: calculus, environmental science (she was
president to the environmental
team), English, French literature,
government, and U.S. history.
But she said she never felt overextended.
“I could swear there was a faculty
pool going on to predict which day
I would have my breakdown. Some
said October, some said January.
They never specified what a ‘breakdown’ would be. They worried that
I monopolized leadership positions
and what could happen.
“Being the resident advisor was
my favorite job,” she said. “I wasn’t
sociable when I came. I stayed in
my room and studied. I didn’t go
out and talk. My reason for being at
Miller was to get straight As. Being
an RA got me to reach out and
make other girls feel comfortable.”
Now her yearbook has three extra
pages tipped in to make room for all
the messages her friends wrote.
“Being an RA allowed me to
mature and realize it’s not all about
my problems. I’m glad to see that
part go. But I still don’t know about
clothes or fashion. I’m still sort of a
tomboy. I’ve been a Barbie to them
continued on page 27
Crozet gazette
page 14 s JUNE 2008
Dr. Robert C. Reiser
By Dr. Robert C. Reiser
Foreign Bodies in Familiar Bodies
The call came at bedtime as they mostly do.
Just as telemarketers seem to call just as you are
sitting down to dinner, so worried neighbors tend
to call when the prospect of a long night is facing
them with some unresolved health crisis.
“Erin put a bean in Robbie’s ear! What should
I do?”
Robbie was two years old and his sister Erin
was four. I suggested that Mom bring Robbie
over to my house for an extraction but that suggestion was overruled by Bernie, the wise doctor’s
wife. Her motherly logic was irrefutable. With
three young children of our own at home, one of
them would certainly be intrigued enough by this
event to put a bean somewhere it didn’t belong.
So I made a house call two houses down and easily extracted a pinto bean with a specially designed
ear curette instrument. The mother’s relief and
gratitude was out of proportion to the feat but
was payment enough. I went home to bed that
night with a feeling of accomplishment.
Since then, I have seen many foreign bodies
placed inside human bodies and they are usually
just as rewarding to see and treat. Beads, beans,
peas and other spheres tend to end up in toddlers’
noses and ears. Coins, especially quarters, seem to
prefer to lodge in young children’s upper esophaguses. Button batteries can end up anywhere, but
if they hang up in the esophagus they will need to
be retrieved lest the current burn a hole in the tissue. Cockroaches, more so than any other bug,
seem to crawl in human ears and refuse to leave.
Many times I have peered into an ear canal to see
a very contented and alive cockroach snuggled up
against the eardrum as if he had found his new
home. Medical journals are full of various proposed noxious liquid treatments poured into the
ear to encourage the bug to move on, but none of
them work. In the end the wriggling creature
must be gently grasped with bayonet forceps and
removed intact (hopefully!).
There exists a subset of psychiatric patients
who frequently and repeatedly swallow large and
unusual objects. Many are prisoners. I treated one
such patient recently. He claimed to have swallowed numerous objects this time and so the
treating resident in the ED had obtained an X-ray
of his abdomen. The X-ray was difficult to interpret because most common objects do not appear
very clearly on X-ray. I amazed the resident with
my ability to identify two pens, three pieces of a
dismantled pair of eyeglasses and two AA batteries on this X-ray. I should have told the resident
that I had seen this patient two weeks previously
with the same items (which the patient helpfully
listed for me), but why spoil the wonder?
On this occasion the patient actually hadn’t
ingested any new objects, but since the items
from two weeks ago hadn’t moved out of the
stomach we called a GI doctor in to remove the
eyeglasses and pens endoscopically. The batteries
were moving along just fine.
Once I asked the patient bluntly why he repeatedly put himself and us through all this.
“I get bored,” was all he had to say.
As the patient was being prepped for endoscopy, I overheard an intern grousing to the GI
fellow about how worthless this effort seemed to
be as the patient had gone through this procedure
dozens of times. I expected a bitter reply from the
fellow who, after all, had to come in from home.
But he had a different take on the seeming inconvenience. He explained that over the years this
patient had trained generations of endoscopists in
the techniques of foreign body removal. Indeed
the patient continued to escalate the degree of
difficulty, moving from simple objects like pen
caps to ever more challenging feats involving
razor blades, safety pins (open, of course) and
now eyeglasses.
The procedure was uneventful and I discharged
the patient with a referral to ophthalmology for a
new pair of glasses. On second thought, though,
perhaps contact lenses would have been a better
idea.
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Conveniently located on Route 250
across from Blue Ridge Builders
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Same gentle, friendly dental care.
Your comfort is our #1 concern.
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Sherman Smock DDS (Specialist in Periodontics)
434.823.2290
crozet
325 Four Leaf Lane, Suite 10
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Dental Cleanings, all types • White Fillings • Caps (Crowns), Bridges, Veneers
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434.361.2442
Crozet gazette
JUNE 2008 s page 15
Storm Drops Oak,
Leads to House Fire
An oak tree at least 50 years old in the Ballard
Drive yard of Eddie Shiflett toppled in a wind
storm May 15 and took out electric power in
Crozet. When the power was restored, a surge
apparently caused a failure in the main electrical
panel in the home of Phil and Robyn Eaton a little farther down the street and resulted in a fire
that nearly destroyed their house.
Shiflett said he detected a root mound swelling
at the base of the tree when he mowed around it
and called in an arborist to advise him. The tree
surgeon said the tree needed to come down and
he would be back as soon as he caught up on
other jobs. The next day the oak crashed down,
knocking out power for 4 hours.
Eaton said that the melted main switch has not
been positively identified as the cause of the blaze
that started in their basement and burned away
the joists supporting their kitchen. But it remains
the prime suspect. The fire appeared to have followed wiring, he said.
The Eatons were at a Lions convention in
Bristol and raced for home when they got the call
from a neighbor that smoke was discovered pouring from their house. Their house cat died from
smoke inhalation.
“Most of the stuff that really matters is salvageable,” said Eaton. Once we get over the cat we’ll
be good. The interior will need to be rebuilt.
“I want to say thank you to all our neighbors
and to the community. Everybody has tried to
look after us.”
Eaton said his insurance agent, Greg Leffler
with State Farm, was waiting at the house when
they finally arrived home at 1 a.m. Several of the
Crozet volunteer firefighters who had put out the
fire returned the next day to offer help, too, Eaton
said.
“It makes me remember why we make Crozet
our home. We wouldn’t even think of leaving
here.”
Plants—continued from page 1
to me because it was given to me
when Buddy [her husband] died
five years ago.” His photo sits on her
desk to the right of the counter.
“My son-in-law’s firm sent it to me.
It was very nice of them.”
The plant was a parlor palm now
grown as tall as a filing cabinet.
“It was such a stupid thing for
people to steal. They must have just
dumped it. It was recovering its
leaves on the bottom. It was going
to come back.”
The plant normally wintered over
in the shop and went home to
Rauch’s house for the summer. But
it had grown so large and heavy that
it was all she could do it scoot it out
the front door and she sat it there
until she could get help moving it.
She put it out in spring air and sunshine on a Friday afternoon and it
was gone when she opened at 6:30
Monday morning.
It’s not her first loss. The large,
round 50’s-style clock that used to
be mounted over the door, a glancing checkpoint for motorists for
years when the business was
Trimble’s Cleaners, was stolen
shortly after they opened. “That’s in
a collection,” she asserted.
Rauch bit her tongue when asked
for an opinion of the thief. “It had
to be at night,” was her answer, but
her eyes smoldered over the memory. “We don’t know who did it, but
we know what kind of person they
are,” she said finally.
Across the street at La Cocina del
Sol two large pots of flowers that
decorated the bases of torches on
their back patio disappeared. The
salt and pepper stands from their
front tables were stolen too.
“We’re surprised,” said manager
Myrna Montiel. “It’s never happened this. It’s a nice town and our
people are nice.” Then she remembered that one of their blue canvas
umbrellas was stolen earlier in the
spring. Monteil said she didn’t
bother to call the police on any of
the occasions.
“Why do they need to take that?
I think it’s really thieves who did it.
Maybe it’s somebody who loves a
flower,” she said wonderingly. It had
hurt them and she couldn’t come up
with a reason for it.
“It has to stop while it’s a little
problem,” she said firmly.
Next door at the Modern Barber
Shop, two heavy concrete planters
that had graced the front door for
50 years, undisturbed, were heisted.
They had petunias planted in them.
Barber Pete McCauley’s dad placed
them there. Pete and daughter Lisa
Miller, who spins the chair next to
him and snips along, both told their
story in wounded tones. One planter
disappeared on Mother’s Day weekend and the other one the next
Wednesday night. They were round
with a square base. Each weighed at
least 50 pounds.
“I’d like to have them back for
the sentimental value,” McCauley
said. “If anybody sees anything give
us a call.” It was the first theft of
anything from the business since it
opened in 1933.
As for a second attempt at setting
out their summer flowers, Miller
said, “We’re thinking about it. The
pots would have to be bolted to the
concrete. Unless whoever took them
is kind enough to bring them
back.”
“I hope they enjoy them,” threw
in McCauley a little sarcastically.
“If they’re stolen, then maybe the
plants will be likely to die,” conjectured Miller, meaning to add a bit
of a curse on the thief.
Around the corner on The Square,
Dot Hutchinson at Crozet Snack
Corner lost two pots—they were
actually wooden barrel halves holding what Hutchinson described as
“miniature trees”—one day and
then the three remaining a few days
later. They were full of pansies.
“I had just put them out,” said
Hutchinson. She put flowers in
them by her door every summer.
She had no clues about what happened to them.
“I wish I did!” she said. “Who
can’t keep their hands off other people’s stuff?”
She did report the theft to the
police.
“I done. I’m not putting out no
more.”
Summer’s going to be a little drab
around downtown with our doorway flowers gone.
Crozet gazette
page 16 s JUNE 2008
By Charles Kidder
The Chicago Botanic Garden
The overarching impression of Chicago in midMay is: tulips! I can’t recall ever seeing so many
tulips, let alone in such pleasing color combinations. All too often, I picture tulips in retina-searing yellows and reds—think MacDonald’s or
Wendy’s décor---but here I was seeing mostly
subtle pastels. And I had not even reached the
Chicago Botanic Garden yet. Cheery beds of
tulips were everywhere in downtown and Lincoln
Park.
The Chicago Botanic Garden spreads over 385
acres in the town of Glencoe, about twenty miles
north of downtown. It is divided into 23 distinct
gardens and three natural areas that would take a
full day to properly enjoy. But given that we were
trying to work around rush hour traffic and my
cranky feet, we covered less than half the gardens.
After passing through the Visitor Center, we
crossed a short bridge with very attractive hanging baskets arching overhead. The bridge spans a
narrow channel, and water is everywhere in the
Garden. Many interconnecting lakes and ponds
were dug, and the resulting fill dirt was used to
create several hilly islands and peninsulas in the
otherwise flat prairie.
Chicago Botanic Garden Photograph © Robin Carlson
After passing The Crescent, planted with thousands of tulips and overlooking a fountain spraying fifty feet into the air over a lake, we moved
into the Heritage Garden. Modeled after Europe’s
first botanical garden in Padua, it reflects the pedagogical nature of these early gardens. Plants are
arranged in two ways: either by family, so that
one can learn the relationships of many plant
genera, or geographically, to show what type of
plants grow in South Africa, for example. Given
the harshness of Chicago winters, many plants
are carried over in greenhouses and planted out
when temperatures warm up.
We could get only a glimpse of the Dwarf
Conifer Garden’s many colors and textures, since
it was closed for renovation until June. So we
moved on to the Waterfall Garden, where water
cascaded over the rocks through a series of pools
in a manner that did not belie its man-made origin. Hostas showed off their endless variety of
color and variegation patterns, while a mass of
Judd’s viburnum perfumed the air. From atop the
falls hill we could view the Japanese Garden on
its two islands, sculpted black pines dotting grassy
mounds.
The English Walled Gardens recall many of the
Bonsai garden, Chicago Botanic Garden
Photograph © Robin Carlson
gardens of the UK, with six enclosed garden
rooms. In England, the walls surrounding the
gardens are often used to build up heat in their
cool, breezy climate, not so much of a concern in
Chicago summers. Brick and stone walls also provide an effective backdrop for plants, something
of a yin-yang of soft and hard textures.
Our day at the Chicago Botanic Garden was
beautifully sunny, but quite brisk, so by this time
we decided to head for the greenhouses to warm
up a bit. On the way we encountered many bonsai in the courtyard of the Regenstein Center.
Now, if you were to ask my opinion of bonsai, I
might say it’s all too tedious and fussy for my
taste. This would be only a theoretical answer,
however. When actually looking at examples of
this art form, I marvel at the skill and patience
someone has employed to create a miniature tree
that looks as if it has been growing on some windswept mountain for hundreds of years. So, do not
miss this collection!
There are three greenhouses adjoining the
Regenstein Center. I always appreciate the spiky,
thorny denizens of the deserts, and the Arid
Greenhouse also gave us a chance to shed our
jackets. The Tropical House was closed for some
work, so we moved on to the Semitropical area.
Here, it was a bit surprising to see some familiar
garden plants such as the Southern Magnolia
sheltered indoors, but such are the realities of a
Chicago winter.
We then moved on to the Native Plant Garden,
which includes two separate environments, the
sunny prairie and the shaded woodland. The prairie really hits its stride in summer, but even now
was showing Prairie Smoke (Geum triflorum) and
Shooting Star (Dodecatheon meadia).
The 760,000 annual visitors might not realize
how important the Chicago Botanic Garden is to
Crozet gazette
American horticulture. Its membership of over
50,000 is the largest of any botanic garden, and
they help support numerous conservation and
education efforts. The Joseph Regenstein, Jr.
School of the CBG hosted over 5,000 students in
2007, and has degree programs in conjunction
with both Northwestern University and the
University of Illinois.
This garden is a wonderful asset to the Chicago
area! Definitely put it on your itinerary if you are
out that way.
JUNE 2008 s page 17
Some Helpful Facts: The Chicago Botanic Garden
is open every day except Christmas Day. Admission is free, although parking is $15 per car; however, this is waived if you are a member of either
the American Horticultural Society or any major
botanical garden. (I strongly encourage you to
pursue either of those options, since they will pay
off at so many gardens.)
The CBG is just off the Lake Cook Road exit
on I-94. This road is currently a construction
nightmare, so secondary roads may be a better
option. The garden may also be reached via the
Glencoe stop on the commuter railroad, Metra.
Tim Richey of Christiansburg fished all day. It was his first visit to Mint Springs. “This is so
beautiful!,” he said. He started out fishing as a boy in Petersburg with a bamboo pole. He
didn’t give his own boys casting reels until they could handle a bamboo pole themselves.
On spring and summer weekends, the garden
runs a trolley to the Glencoe Station.
Note: My apologies to Gazette readers. Although
your indefatigable editor was able to get the May
edition out despite a flu episode, for yours truly a
combination of a bout of gout, a viral infection,
adjusting to new medications, plus visiting relatives and struggling to keep up with my own garden all prevented me from writing a column last
month. I hope that this at least allowed you an
extra five minutes to work in your own gardens!
The longer of the new piers.
Fishing Pier for the Handicapped Opens at Mint Springs
The Virginia chapter of Wheelin’ Sportsmen, a club for those confined to
wheelchairs who nonetheless pursue sports, inaugurated the new fishing
piers at Mint Springs Valley Park’s lower lake May 31. About 25 members
from across the state attended and fished at the park’s first handicappedaccessible lake.
Chapter president Robin Clark of Charlottesville said “We are proud to
partner with the County. This is a very accessible pier that gives us a chance
to get to the water’s edge and fish. A lot of guys want a place where they can
come alone. People can’t afford to travel theses days, so we spread things
[facilities] like this around the state.” The 400-member chapter also organizes hunting trips for deer, turkeys, and waterfowl.
Clark wheeled around in his battery-driven chair (he gets 30 miles a day
on an overnight charge and it can recline like a Lazy-Boy chair), smiling and
greeting folks. The County sponsored a cookout for the occasion and the
mood was festive with a cool summer breeze blowing down from the upper
lake.
The two piers, one 70 feet by 12 feet and the other 30 feet by 12 feet,
were designed by architect David Anhold of Greenwood. They extend over
the bank and sit five feet above the water. Together they can accommodate
about 25 wheelchairs at one time. The top rails are low so fishermen can cast
from a seated position and there is a low rail inside to stop wheelchairs from
hitting the main barriers. The decking is Trex, a composite that includes
recycled plastic. Diggs, Inc. was the general contractor.
The project also included paving the parking lot above the pier, adding
handicapped-accessible toilets nearby and building three picnic shelters. The
Department of Game and Inland Fisheries stocked the lake with about 400
trout the day before, but they hadn’t gotten hungry enough yet to rise from
the bottom and nibble at bait. A few were seen and a few Brim were caught
and thrown back. Mint Springs’ lakes are routinely stocked.
Residents of Mountainside Senior Living also came out to fish and
reported that every one of them had caught something. But none of the staff
members accompanying them had any luck.
The project cost $239,000, according to Bob Crickenberger, the County’s
Deputy Director of Parks and Recreation. Part of the cost was covered by a
$93,000 grant from the state’s Land and Water Conservation Fund. The
project took six months to complete and included the sighting of a pack of
coyotes at the Park’s gate. The piers have been ready since April, but the official ceremony was postponed to allow new grass to get established.
Crickenberger said Mint Springs is getting heavier use now in the “off-season
months” (not summer) and stocking the lakes is done more frequently.
Crozet gazette
page 18 s JUNE 2008
Cookie Lady—continued from page 3
story. June is Afton’s unofficial historian. Her knowledge and memory
are extensive, with photos and
memorabilia to back it up. (She’s
currently sorting her photos and
getting things ready to pass along.)
June remembers growing up in
Afton. “Back then there were 26
children,” she said, “and we went to
school together at the Blue Ridge
School (then located down Route
151 near the Rodes Methodist
Church). “That’s where I started
school and went through to the 7th
grade.“
“Our high school was there in
Nellysford–that new little restaurant, Dogwood, I think it’s called.
That was the high school building.
We only had three high school
teachers. One teacher taught in that
building. Two more teachers taught
in another building. And the way I
remember it the rooms were sort of
connected because whenever we had
a program they opened that up and
they had to make the stage. They
put planks in the open windows and
that’s part of how they made the
stage. You had to kind of be careful
where you walked.” She laughed as
she talked and her eyes gave that
extra twinkle that seems to spark
every time she tells something that
brings a bright memory.
“Afton had a lot of young people
in it, in its time, because all the
families had several children and
there were a lot of big families--the
Fitzgeralds, the Carters, the
Pucketts, the Scotts, and the Whites.
There were eight black families here.
So there were a good many children
around.”
June remembered skating on the
little pond between the Afton Inn
and Afton Chapel, “Mr. Sam
Goodloe gave land for the Church.”
Then she talked about swimming,
“She (the owner) used to let all us
children come down in the summer
time and go swimming in the pond.
And then she also let the little
church use it in the summertime for
baptizing. That was the only church
close enough that people who didn’t
have cars could go to. Most of ‘em
walked or rode horseback or horse
and buggy. That little church was
full every Sunday.
“It was all denominations. You
had a different denomination
preacher each Sunday. So, if you
lived here in Afton, no matter what
you were, there’d be one Sunday at
least a month for you. You’d wind
up going the other Sundays and
hear those preachers too.”
Then there were the cattle drives
through Afton. “The Goodloes
pretty much had control of Afton.
They had this big farm down here.
They raised cattle and they had
horses too, ‘cause they all liked to
continued on page 25
Happy Birthday to Lavert
Your Local
Grocery Store
We have added
Natural and Organic
products to the Meat,
Wine, Dairy and Freezer
departments.
Annie’s Mac & Cheese (6 oz.)
$2.09
Deluxe (10 oz.)
$3.19
Fair Trade Organic Coffee (10 oz.) $6.99
Organic Valley Butter (lb.)
All-Natural Whole Chicken
$5.89
$2.19 /lb.
or $1.49/lb. when on sale
Prices effective thru June 30, 2008
Lavert Via, formerly of Free Union and now living in Baltimore, and a
devoted reader of the Crozet Gazette, celebrated her 85th birthday May 27 at
a party hosted by her neighbor Todd Mattingly. Her friends in western
Albemarle send their best wishes!
Crozet gazette
JUNE 2008 s page 19
WAHS Band Trip to Florida
By Carrie Chiarella
WAHS band students Jiahao Wang, Grace Chiarella, and Monika
Fallon, directed by Angela Kelly, are three of the seven flutists who
will play with the area’s Youth Orchestra Flute Ensemble at the invitation-only National Flute Association Convention this summer in
Kansas City. Nationally renowned flutist Angela Kelly directed four
acclaimed flute choirs in Connecticut before becoming director
of Youth Orchestras of Charlottesville-Albemarle Flute Choirs.
Anyone wishing to make a donation to the trip or learn more about
YOCA’s programs can contact Scot Jonte, general manager, at (434)
974-7776.
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home on sits nearly 5 acres in
Western Albemarle. Beautiful mountain
and pastoral views. Just 20 minutes to
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Finishes include granite kitchen
counters, custom cherry cabinets,
magnificent built-ins, hardwood floors,
and stainless appliances. Other features include high ceilings, lots of
windows/light, spacious rooms, a 2-car garage and a bonus suite (bedroom &
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his attractive rancher
has become better than
new with total renovation &
addition of a fourth bedroom
(master or family room) and
second full bath. Hardwood
throughout, custom cherry
cabinetry, stainless steel appliances, replacement windows, upgraded
insulation, new heating & cooling system, new vinyl & deck, new plumbing
fixtures, laundry hook-up on first floor & in full basement. Amazing mountain
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outstanding Western Albemarle schools! $299,900 Co-listed with owner/agent
877-826-7799
434-823-7799
The Shoppes of Clover Lawn
Route 250 in Crozet across from
Blue Ridge Builders Supply
www.MountainAreaRealty.com
In the end there were fireworks
and Disney magic aplenty, but there
was no sorcery involved in getting
the Westerrn Albemarle High
School Symphonic Band to the
Disney Honors event in Orlando in
March--that road was paved with
lots of hard work and musical talent.
After the band won highest honors at the Heritage New York
Festival, WAHS director Steve
Layman looked ahead for an invitation to perform at the Festival of
Gold in Boston in spring 2008.
Disappointed that its dates conflicted with the band’s availability
and the county school schedule,
Layman applied to the Disney
Honors program in hopes of rewarding the band members for their outstanding performance by giving
them the opportunity to play in this
prestigious festival.
In September, the WAHS band
received the word it had been
accepted and would perform before
a panel of adjudicators in a noncompetitive festival of high school
musicians. But, as band members
(and parents) discovered, getting in
was just the beginning of the hard
work. Students had less than six
months to fund-raise to make their
Disney dream come true.
Fundraising chairs (and band
parents) Pat Crawford and Jane Baer
orchestrated the fall bulb sale, the
winter and spring fruit sales,
Valentine candy sales, bagel sales at
the high school, and the sales of area
coupon books. Band students
worked hard canvassing their neighborhoods and family address lists to
ply their merchandise in hopes of
meeting their fundraising goals.
Each student’s fundraising proceeds
were credited into a band account
in his or her own name, while profits from bagel sales and other parent-run events were placed in a fund
to bring down the overall cost of the
trip.
Proud of the WAHS band and its
contribution to the Crozet community, the local Lions Club made a
contribution to the band’s trip fund
as did the Pfizer Volunteer
Foundation, which awarded the gift
in the name of band parent and
Pfizer employee, Michael Crawford.
Finally, the money was all
counted and on the evening of
March 6, Director Layman, 72
WAHS band students, and 8 chaperoning adults boarded two charter
buses at the high school to begin a
not-quite-so-magic-carpet 15-hour
ride to Orlando, Florida.
Upon arrival at Disney on Friday,
the band was escorted to Disney’s
Animal Kingdom for some free time
before having exclusive time in the
park after closing. The WAHS band
and several other festival bands were
treated to dinner in the theme park
and had a chance to meet Safari
Mickey and Minnie, too. Switching
parks to see the fireworks at the
Magic Kingdom, the band discovered the Sunshine State isn’t always
so, and a very water-logged band
boarded the buses for a return to the
hotel. The only souvenirs that night
were Disney raincoats.
Saturday, Disney tees were
changed out for formal dresses and
tuxes and the teens once-again
looked like a symphonic band.
The band performed for a panel
of three renowned university band
directors, hailing from as far away as
Colorado, in a room at Disney’s
Swan Resort. The next morning, the
director of the University of
Colorado bands instructed the
WAHS band in a music clinic.
While Director Layman and WAHS
band chaperones looked on, the
clinic conductor coached the band
in listening and playing techniques.
Following the clinic, the band
members had a chance to discover
Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme
park before returning to Epcot for
the closing ceremony and awards
dinner. Band students and parents
alike were enthralled with the specially-made Disney Honors chocolate design dessert, but Maestro
Mickey Mouse presenting WAHS
Director Steve Layman with a
Disney Honors trophy and recognizing his 31 years as a band director was a proud and magical event
for the WAHS band.
Four days and thousands of footsteps later, a smiling, but tired
WAHS band, wearing an assortment of mouse ears and Disney paraphernalia, boarded the buses to
return home. Many students and
chaperones probably had the same
feeling of tired satisfaction as retiring director Layman did when he
was quoted in the Disney OnStage
Magazine as saying, “I can’t think of
a better way to end things than with
a performance at the Disney
Honors.”
Crozet gazette
page 20 s JUNE 2008
Warrior Boys
Tennis Looks
To Repeat as
State Champs
By Nick Ward
The week after graduation is usually when groups of seniors travel to
the beach to celebrate the end of
their high school careers. Many
seniors from Western Albemarle
High School indeed headed to the
sand and surf, but not Mitch
Bowser, Ben Fitts, Gabe Kosowitz,
Brennan Dougherty, and Jamie
Thomas, all members of WAHS’s
undefeated varsity tennis team. Coach Charles Ix’s team cruised
through the regular season this
year. The Warriors have a unique
blend of depth, maturity, and talent, with their five senior leaders
and a host of gifted underclassmen. “The seniors mixed with the
sophomores that play for us is a
good mix,” said Coach Ix. Kosowitz and Thomas are the
captains of this year’s regional and
district championship winning
squad, and throughout all of their
matches they have kept the team’s
focus on repeating as state champions. Team leader Kosowitz has
played number two for the Warriors
all season and has very impressive
career
singles
and
doubles
records. The senior is 49-18 in singles matches and 31-11 as a member of a doubles team for the
Warriors. Thomas, whose nickname
Crozet
Baptist Church
Right to left: Mitch Bowser, Ben Fitts, Jamie Thomas, Brennan Dougherty, Gabe Kosowitz. is “Juice,” energizes the team and
keeps things interesting. He plays
number four for Western individually, and on the number two doubles
team
with
fellow
captain
Kosowitz. Thomas’s career statistics
are very impressive as well; 38-12 in
singles matches and 32-10 as a doubles partner.
“Jamie adds some fire to the
team,” said Ix, “and Gabe has been
our captain for three years. These
guys make a great tandem on the
number two doubles team. They’re
hard to beat.”
Bowser, Fitts, and Dougherty also
play large roles for the defending
state champions. Fitts plays along
side Joey Manilla on the number
one doubles team. This pair won the
regional doubles championship, and
will also compete in the State doubles championship. Fitts did not
play singles for the Warriors this
season, but he does have an 18-6
career mark as a player. Although
the senior was not able to play individually for Western this season, he
does boast the second highest career
winning percentage amongst the
seniors as a doubles player, going
42-5. Bowser is another spirited member of the squad. His sense of humor
and wit make him well liked among
his teammates. Like Fitts, Bowser
was not able to play singles for this
year’s extremely talented team. After
going 21-0 as a doubles player last
year, Bowser was also unable to
secure a spot on one of the top three
doubles teams this year. He has a
career singles record of 6-0 and an
outstanding mark as a doubles
player: 42-3. “That goes to show how strong
this year’s team is. Mitch is a great
player,” said Ix.
Dougherty has been a great singles player this year for Ix, competing in the sixth spot for most of the
year. Dougherty hasn’t competed
often as a doubles player in his four
years at Western, but he has been
extremely strong as a singles
player. His career record is 43-7,
which places him second among his
classmates in career singles victories. “I am going to miss each of these
guys,” said Ix. “Three years ago
when I began coaching here, they
were the first people that I was able
to work with. They have been one
of the reasons that have brought me
back every year. It’s been fun.”
Although each of the seniors has
had a very impressive career for
WAHS, none of them will be completely content until this season is
over and they are able to lift another
State title trophy above their heads.
Come along on a VBS “Friendship Trek” !
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Crozet gazette
JUNE 2008 s page 21
SNP to Allow
Free Entry to
Area Residents
on Neighbor Day
Shenandoah National Park is
inaugurating a Shenandoah Neighbor Day on the third Saturday of
every June. On June 21, it will waive
entrance fees for all residents of
Albemarle, Augusta, Greene, Nelson, Madison, Page, Rappahannock
and Warren Counties who present
their Virginia driver’s license as
proof of residency. Stores and food
concessions will offer a 10 percent
discount on lunches, on retail purchases over $35, on pony rides, and
on items available at the Dickey
Ridge and Byrd Visitor Centers.
Right to left: Kyle Satterwhite, Adrian Sitler, Coach Charley Hurt, James Howard-Smith, Nick Ward, Coach Lindy Bain, Ryan Dettmann
Warriors Take Second State Track Championship
By Nick Ward
After a marvelous indoor track
season, expectations for Western
Ablemarle’s boys’ track team were
incredibly high. Over the winter,
coach Lindy Bain’s team won the
Jefferson District Championship,
the Regional Championship, the
AA State Championship, and four
members of the team won Nike
Indoor Nationals in the Distance
Medley Relay. The team had three
athletes ranked in the top 25 in the
United States in their respective
events. Junior distance runner Kyle
Satterwhite sum up expectations for
the Warriors’ outdoor track season
very well: “Let’s win the State
Championship, then we can
exhale.”
The Virginia High School League
Group AA State Outdoor Track and
Field Championships began Friday,
May 30, and ended during the afternoon of June 1. The first night of
competition was very important for
Western. Its best relay team, as well
as the only field athletes who qualified for the State meet, competed
on Friday night. The first race of the championship was the 4x800 meter
relay. Western was seeded first with
the time of 7:55.29. The gun fired
to begin the fast section of the relay,
and the Warriors were looking good. Lead-off leg Adrian Sitler ran an
outstanding race and handed the
baton off to James Howard-Smith
in prime position. Howard-Smith
rolled around the track twice and
gave the baton to Kevin Dubowski
in the lead. The third-leg runner
from William Byrd High School
ran a stellar leg and edged out
Dubowski, who handed the baton
to Nick Ward slightly out of the
lead. Ward was not able to secure
the victory for the Warriors, but the
Blue and Gold took second place,
running a total time of 8:02.38. Although the loss disappointed the
Warriors, the 8 points that the relay
earned for the team’s score was a
great start to the championship and
they never looked back. Next, the pole vault competition
began. Ben Cherniawski and Tyler
Lewandowski were vaulting for
Western, and there were high hopes
for the two athletes. Lewandowski
won the Jefferson District and the
Region II meet and came into the
State meet seeded highly. As dusk
fell, the pool of vaulters grew
small. When only five athletes
remained in the competition, two
of them were wearing blue shorts
and gold tops. Lewandowski ended
up placing 5th after clearing 13’6’’,
and Cherniawski was one miss away
from winning the state title after
Nick Durante from Jamestown
High School outdid him by three
inches on his final attempt. Cherniawski’s 14’-vault was still
much appreciated by his teammates,
and the 12 combined points that
the two vaulters scored for WAHS
enlarged its lead. As the same moment most
Western seniors’ names were being
called to walk across the graduation
stage on Warriors field, senior captain Henry Loehr was settling in on
the starting line of the 3200 meter
run. This was the final event of the
night, and one that the Warriors
expected to score big points in. Tyler
Stutzman was seeded second and
Kyle Satterwhite was seeded
fourth. Loehr was also in the fast
heat, running his final high school
race. All three runners from Western
ran well. Each of them was towards
the front of the field as the distance
wore on. When the bell rang sounding the start of the final lap,
Stutzman was in second place. He
was chasing the defending champion, Peter Dorrell from Blacksburg
High School, a very talented athlete.
Dorrell held off Stutzman and won
the race, but Stutzman finished second with his teammate Satterwhite
coming in right behind him in
third. Loehr did not place, but he
invigorated his teammates by willingly missing his graduation ceremony to do all that he could for his
beloved Warriors. At the end of the first day, the
Warriors were ahead of second-place
team Brooksville High School, 34
to 19. This 15-point lead was comforting to the athletes, but they all
knew that it would take much more
to bring home another championship to Crozet. The first event of the next day
was the 1600 meter run. Stutzman
and Satterwhite were both competing in it, and both were in contention for victory. Dorrell crossed the
finish line first again, but as with
the two-mile race, two Western runners were close behind. Stutzman
finished 3rd and Satterwhite crossed
the line in 5th position. With
another 10 points added to WAHS’s
total, smiles could be seen under the
blue athletes’ tent on the hill, but
Brooksville was closing in. The 400 meter dash was soon
after the 1600m run, and Nick
Ward was seeded fourth. Ward
crossed the finish line in second
place of the fast section of the dash,
and ended up in third place overall
as Cornell Jones from Smithfield
High School clocked a faster time
continued on page 22
Crozet gazette
page 22 s JUNE 2008
WAHS Girls
Soccer JV
District Champs
The WAHS Girls Soccer JV team
won the 2008 Jefferson District
championship
by
defeating
Charlottesville High School in the
District final by a score of 2-0.
WAHS finished the season with a
record of 12-1-2 and was undefeated
in District competition.
Erin Steva was voted Most
Valuable Player for the season. Sarah
Barlow
was
awarded
the
Sportsmanship award. Leading
scorer Julie Nolet won the Golden
Boot by scoring 17 goals for the season. Olivia Beavers was voted Most
Improved.
Front Row, left to right: Leah Starns, Megan Adams, Christine Wesner, Aly Baker, Caroline Sampson; Second Row: Ashley Suttle, Phoebe
Fooks, Camille Garcia, Julie Nolet, Madye James, Emily Moffet, Sarah Barlow (co-captain); Third Row: Coach Jim Wilson, Caroline Andersen
(co-captain), Erin Steva (co-captain), Lauren Kaminski, Olivia Beavers, Krista Brown, Coach Leslie Kenner, Haley Gibson (manager). Not
pictured: Maddie Rhondeau, Zhou Moody
Track—continued from page 21
from a slower heat. Ward’s third
place finish gave WAHS another
six points, and helped them hold
onto their overall lead. With three events go to,
Western’s lead had dwindled down
to eight points, and tension was
high. Stutzman, Howard-Smith,
and Sitler were all running in the
800 meter run, and knew that their
team needed all of the points it
could get. Both Sitler and Stutzman
were able to place in the 800m,
Stutzman sixth and Sitler
eighth. The four points that they
secured for the Warriors were
enough to extinguish all hopes that
the competition had of winning,
and before the final event of the
day, the 4x400m relay, the athletes
from Western knew that they could
finally take a breath. Now the runners all get a few
weeks off before cross country
training begins, and they all can
relax knowing that they accomplished the unimaginable: winning
two State championships in one
year.
Offer expires June 15th 2008
–
Crozet gazette
JUNE 2008 s page 23
Western Albemarle H.S. Spring Sports
Did you know that …
WE’re a Bakery
& Gourmet Deli …
•
•
•
•
•
•
Liza’s Cookies, Brownies & Sweet Breads
Lena’s Muffins & Fresh Apple Pies
Meatloaf á la Chris
Roberta’s Tamales & Fancy Deli Salads
L & L’s Pizza—Made from Scratch
Daily Lunch & Dinner Specials
A GROCERY …
•
•
•
•
•
Eggs, Dairy & Produce from Local Farms
Greenberry’s Coffee by the Pound
Friday Flowers from Patterson’s in Crozet
Bread from Goodwin Creek Farm in Afton
King Family, Cardinal Point & Other Local
Wines
and a gallery …
•
•
•
•
Pottery by Barbara Albert & Nan Rothwell
Historical Prints by Phil James
Jewelry by Sue Chase
Artwork by Bruce Caisse, Janet Pearlman
& Tanya Yerkovich
SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD WINNERS
Varsity Baseball: Sam Riedesel
J.V. Baseball: Scott Wakely
Varsity Softball: Laura Weesner
J.V. Softball: Elise Rooks
Varsity Boys Lacrosse: Lee Winslow
Varsity Girls Lacrosse: Laine Myers
J.V. Girls Lacrosse: Madeline DuCharme
Varsity Boys Soccer: Andy Stafford
J.V. Boys Soccer: William Plews-Ogan
Varsity Girls Soccer: Noaa Spiekermann
J.V. Girls Soccer: Sarah Barlow
Varsity Boys Tennis: Gabe Kosowitz
Varsity Girls Tennis: Sonali Nanda
Spring Sport Award Winners
Female Athlete of the Year: Mary Schwartz
Male Athlete of the Year: Max Pfeifer
Varsity Baseball
MVP: McCoy Loya
Most Improved: Peter Hurley
Most Improved: Matt Jensen
Warrior Award: Ryan Hughes
J.V. Baseball
MVP: Dillon Via
Varsity Softball
MVP: Kelly Miller
Most Improved: Kelsey Boggs
J.V. Softball
MVP: Meghan Kitchen
Varsity Girls Lacrosse
MVP: Mary Schwartz
J.V. Girls Lacrosse
MVP: Christine Fortner
Most Improved: Cara Letteri
Varsity Boys Soccer
MVP: Charles Stump
MVP: Aaron Myers
J.V. Boys Soccer:
MVP: Lane Gearheart
Varsity Girls Soccer
MVP: Lexy Eckerle
Most Improved: Sarah Chacko
Coach’s Award: L.P. Desch
J.V. Girls Soccer
MVP: Erin Steva
Varsity Boys Tennis
MVP: Joey Manilla
Most Improved: Nico de la Pointe
Most Improved: Alex Preve
Varsity Girls Tennis
MVP: Shannon Bayless
Most Improved: Lauren Hagspiel
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Crozet gazette
page 24 s JUNE 2008
CCA President Kathleen Jump and David Wayland
CCA Honors Wayland
Past Crozet Community Association president David Wayland,
who left the post in January after leading the civic group for three
years, was honored with the Association’s Good Neighbor Award at its
May 8 meeting. Wayland was caught by surprise and modestly made
light of his contributions. He is now serving his second term on the
Board of Supervisors’ Crozet Community Advisory Council.
CCAC New Members:
Joining the Crozet Community Advisory Council for two-year terms are
(left to right) Jon Mikalson, Nancy Virginia Bain, Kelly Strickland, Jessica
Mosey, and Bill Schrader. The Council is next undertaking a review and
selective revision of the Crozet Master Plan.
Zoning—continued from page 7
to save the new Crozet library from
further delay.
Camille Phillips, who intends to
open a coffee shop in the house just
north of the Dairy Queen, asked for
passage of the boundary, which also
includes the house next door to
hers, which may become a music
business. “It’s a bad place for a
house, but not for a business,” she
said.
Crozet Gazette publisher Mike
Marshall suggested the provision of
the administrative waiver and
reminded officials that without new
zoning terms, downtown remained
at a disadvantage compared other
commercial zones in the Crozet
growth area. He said the new rules
essentially level the playing field for
attracting investment.
White Hall Commissioner Tom
Loach made the motion to adopt
and he was seconded by Samuel
Miller Commissioner Eric Strucko.
“We started with a parking problem,” Loach said, “and then the government got involved and some
would say it went downhill from
there. The people of Crozet are
grateful for the infrastructure
improvements that are beginning to
be made and this whole plan is a
positive for Crozet.” He also
endorsed the idea of allowing some
flexibility in individual cases through
a waiver provision.
Jack Jouett Commissioner Bill
Edgerton agreed with the zoning
package, but had one concern. “If
we rezone the district, it’s no guarantee that the market will respond
and realize the [Crozet] master plan.
One thing that got lost in the discussion was the transition zone.
[The plan] is a compromise. I hope
it will work and the market will
respond to the incentives we are trying to offer.”
The commercial district passed
unanimously. It will go to the supervisors for final adoption on June 11
in order to give the county legal staff
time to define standards for the
administrative waiver clause. Rio
District Supervisor David Slutsky
said he intends to vote against the
district because he thinks that the
area should not have been rezoned
but only master planned, so that
property owners would have to take
parcels through rezonings and make
cash proffers.
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Crozet gazette
JUNE 2008 s page 25
Starr Hill Brewery’s Stout
Wins World Beer Cup Medal
Starr Hill Brewing Company’s Dark Starr Stout
was awarded a silver medal at the World Beer Cup
competition in San Diego April 19. Crozet-based
Starr Hill Brewery is a 10,000 barrel microbrewery which recently signed a distribution deal with
Anheuser-Busch Company.
The global beer competition reviewed 2,930
entries in 91 categories. Entries came from 646
breweries in 58 countries. An international panel
of 122 judges awarded gold, silver and bronze
medals to recognize the most outstanding beer
being brewed in the world today. Dark Starr Stout
won in the Dry Irish Stout category. It has also
won gold, silver and bronze medals at the Great
American Beer Festival.
Left to right: Haley Neisser, Lauren Ewell, Tamar Gutherz, Alex Modic, Lara Spiekermann, Anwyn Cook, Alexa Dube,
Margaret Given, Alana Mahon, Jonathon Andy Davis.
ABT Stages Spring Dance Gala
By Kelly Knox
On May 17 and 18, dancers from Albemarle
Ballet Theater entertained the community with
their Spring Gala of Dance, featuring original
ballet, modern, and jazz pieces, as well as the
whimsical story ballet Little Red Riding Hood.
In Concerto in Bianco e Nero, the advanced
class focused on the relationship between music
and movement. With original choreography by
Dinah Gray, this ballet work highlighted the
dancers’ musicality and ability to dance as a corps
and solo. Behind Her Eyes was a thought-provoking modern piece, which explored the inner psy-
Cookie Lady
—continued from page 18
ride,” June says.
“Once a year they would ride
horseback and drive the cattle and
they would come up the highway
here and come up with the cattle.
And when I saw ‘em coming I would
get up on the porch to watch. Mr.
John Goodloe was usually the one
that was ahead of that and he’d stop
and talk to Daddy and we got water
from them off the [Goodloes’ reservoir] line, you know,” she explains.
“So, he’d ask Daddy if the water was
doing all right and was the line
holding up and all. And he’d let me
sit up on the horse. So one day it
was real pretty and he was up on the
horse and he came by and asked
Daddy could he let me ride up there
with him. ‘I won’t let her fall off.’
So I thought that was wonderful
chology of a young girl, while Rhythm Reborn was
a crowd-pleasing jazz work with infectious music
and innovative choreography.
The performance concluded with the classic
fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood brought to life
by the talented dancers of all levels at the school.
Anna Rol and Lara Spiekermann starred as Little
Red while Haley Neisser, Claire Turner, and
Tamar Gutherz as the Duck, Cat, and Firefly,
respectively, added character and comedy to the
ballet. The performance proved an enormous
success as this local studio continues to grow and
enhance the quality of arts in Crozet year after
year.
and I remember going up there to
the reservoir with him.”
Before June’s parents’ moved to
Afton, the road through Afton ran
up the hill behind the house. “That
was the main road. They were putting this road through—it was a
rough road.” The area behind her
house is now where the original
road through Afton was located.
When the new road was put in they
had to fill some of that in with soil.
The house was originally three stories, but now appears to be only two
stories. The third story is a basement
below.
“When I was in 7th grade, we
had to study up on our state and
county,” June said as she talked
about her miniature layout of old
Afton. “And Nelson County ranked
either 3rd or 4th in the state of
Virginia for shipment of apples,
peaches and so forth. This area was
Workshop to Study Uses
for Old Crozet School
Albemarle County will host meetings over
three days, June 19-21, to gather public comment
on how the old Crozet Elementary School, built
in 1924 and most recently used as the home of
the Crossroads Waldorf School, should be used in
the future. The first meeting, from 7 to 9 p.m. at
Western Albemarle High School’s cafeteria, will
be a “work session” to collect ideas. Architects will
be available in the cafeteria the next day from
10 a.m. to 6 p.m. for drop-in discussions and
sketching and documenting concepts. On
Saturday, June 21, there will a be wrap-up presentation from 3 to 3:30 p.m. and citizens will be
encouraged to state their preferences among the
alternatives.
PMA Planners + Architects of Newport News
is preparing the report on reuse options.
the biggest shipper because, you see,
right up there is Albemarle County,
that over there is Augusta County
and then Nelson County. The three
counties come together. So the
county built a tall shed in there
(pointing near the railroad depot)
that brought a lot of business into
Afton.
“We had three grocery stores
here. One was right across the street
from the bike house. It burned
down. Then Mr. Robert Goodloe
had his and he had the post office in
the back (where the existing post
office is still located). Then my
daddy and his brother married sisters. And when they got out of the
service [World War I], Daddy got
interested in cars. He hadn’t been
around them much, but he was so
interested in them, that that’s what
they put him in– driving a truck.
They taught him mechanical stuff,
how to fix this and that ‘cause he
had to keep the truck up. So he and
my uncle went to automobile school
in Ohio. They both got married
when they got back and they just
always wanted to open a garage, and
they thought in Afton because at
that time if you were in
Charlottesville you couldn’t get to
Waynesboro any other way except
to go through this way. They
thought everyone’s got to come to
Afton. So downstairs in what I call
the bike house was a (grocery) store
and at the other end was the most
popular place in Afton–the ice
cream parlor. I still have one of the
little round tables and the chairs.”
There’s still more to Afton’s story,
of course, and if you want to know
it, June will be happy to tell it. Look
for her “free water” sign.
Crozet gazette
page 26 s JUNE 2008
Summer at the
Crozet Library!
For Teens at Crozet
Library!
Summer at Crozet Library wants to hear from its vacationing patrons. Send
a postcard from whereever you go to: Crozet Library, P.O. Box 430, Crozet,
VA 22932. Cards will go on display in the library.
Musings: a Teen Writer’s
Workshop
Tuesdays, June 3, July 1, August 5
6:30-8:00 p.m.
Interested in creative writing? Join
us and get inspired! This group is a
chance to practice your writing
skills, learn new techniques, read
what other teen writers are working
on, and hear helpful comments
about your own writing. Registration
is ongoing. Grades 6-12.
Pages: A Young Writers’ Group for
children entering grades 4–6 will
meet the first Thursday of every
month at 3 p.m.; that is: June 5,
July 3, and August 7. A chance to
meet other kids who enjoy writing
and get inspired. Class is based on
the ideas in the book Writing Magic
by Gail Carson Levine. Registration
is required and is ongoing.
Monday CRAFTernoons for children ages 8–11 will meet every other
Monday throughout the summer at
3 p.m. beginning June 16. Other
meetings will follow on June 30,
July 14, July 28, and August 11.
Make fun stuff for your room, awesome gifts for friends, and learn how
to turn ordinary everyday objects
into works of art. Registration is
required and begins two weeks prior
to each program date.
Storyteller Donna Washington
will appear Thursday, July 10, from
3–3:45 p.m. Meant for ages 5 and
up. Drop-ins are welcome.
The Super Summer Reading
Wrap-Up and Ice Cream Social
will be Tuesday, July 29, at 7 p.m.
For all ages. The grand finale of the
Summer Reading Program. Enjoy
some delicious ice cream and meet
special library guest Franklin the
turtle.
Wonderful Wednesdays
All Wednesday programs will be held
in the activity room of the Crozet
Firehouse at 10 a.m. Shows are for all
ages.
Outlandish Tomfoolery
June 18, 10 a.m.
Master musician, songwriter, and
storyteller Bill Wellington of
Staunton
Presenting Joseph Young Magician
June 25, 10 a.m. For all ages.
Joseph Young will pull off amazing
sleight-of-hand and crazy comedy
in a stupendous magic show. Warning: participation guaranteed.
Sing with C. Shells
July 2, 10 a.m. For all ages.
Tidewater singer-songwriters Cindy
Kays and Shelley Craig will get the
family groovin’.
Whoo’s Awake in the Night?
July 9, 10 a.m. For all ages.
The Wildlife Center of Virginia will
introduce some of their nocturnal
animal friends and en-lighten us
about how creatures of the night
find their way.
Rocknoceros
July 16, 10 a.m. For all ages.
Coach Cotton, Williebob, and
Boogie Woogie Bernie will rock the
library with their completely kidcool, parent-approved original hot
tunes.
The Rhythm of the Drum
July 23, 10 a.m. For all ages.
Embrace the spirit of African culture! The Healing Force will weave a
message from their booming drums
and rattling gourds.
For more information, call Crozet
Library at 823-4050 or visit www.
jmrl.org.
Outshine the Fireflies
Thursday, June 12. 2-4 p.m.
Recycle an old can into something
useful and beautiful—join us as we
make tin can lanterns. Bring a hammer if you have one, otherwise all
tools and materials will be provided.
Registration begins on Thursday,
May 29. Limit:12 participants.
Grades 6-12.
YABL (Young Adult Book Lovers)
Tuesdays, June 17, July 15, August
19. 6:30-7:30 pm
Say it with us: Yabble. Join Crozet’s
book discussion group for young
adults and enjoy refreshments as we
talk about a different book each
month. Call or stop by the library
to register and find out the next
month’s book. Registration is ongoing. Grades 6-12.
Inedible Jewelry
Part I: Introduction to Jewelry Making
Come learn how to create your own earrings, necklaces, and bracelets! This class will cover basic wire
wrapping and stringing skills. Bring any beads or
charms you’d like to use, but all supplies will be provided if you don’t have your own!
Part II: Sculpting Tiny Foods: Let Them Wear
Cake
Create miniature cakes and cupcakes! You’ll learn
basic techniques in working with polymer clay such
as conditioning, color mixing, basic sculpture, baking, and quenching. We’ll create a pair of cupcake
earrings and a frosted miniature cake!
The following branches are offering “Let Them Wear
Cake” for Part II:
Wednesdays, June 18 and 25. 2:00-4:00 pm
NORTHSIDE LIBRARY
It’s Your Turn: Board Games @ the
Library
Tuesday, July 8. 2:00-4:00 pm
Come and hang out in our game
space with board and card games
and snacks – learn a new game or
bring an old favorite to play. Drop
in and bring a friend. No registration required. Grades 6-12.
Frosty Fun
Thursday, July 17. 2-4 pm
Beat the summer heat with a cool
treat. Make your own ice cream – in
a plastic bag! – and then enjoy your
creation with your favorite topping.
We provide the ingredients and
instructions; you provide the appetite!
Registration begins on
Thursday, July 3. Limit: 12 participants. Grades 6-12.
Neat Feet
Thursday, July 24. 2-4 pm
Give your flip-flops a makeover –
we’ll provide string, flowers, beads,
and ribbon to transform those flips
from faded to fabulous. Registration
begins on Thursday, July 10. Limit:
12 participants. Grades 6-12.
Don’t miss this two-part workshop with miniature
artist Jessica Partain! To see examples of Jessica’s
work, please visit: www.inediblejewelry.com.
Tuesdays, July 8 and 15. 2:00-4:00 pm GORDON
AVENUE LIBRARY
Registration for the Gordon Avenue session begins
on Tuesday, June 17.
Part II: Sculpting Tiny Foods: Juicy Fruit
Create miniature oranges and bananas! You’ll learn
basic techniques in working with polymer clay such
as conditioning, color mixing, basic sculpture, baking, and quenching. We’ll create a pair of orange earrings and a banana charm!
Thursdays, June 19 and 26. 2:00-4:00 pm
CROZET LIBRARY
Participants may sign up for either session or both.
Registration begins two weeks before each session
except where noted. Limit: 12 participants per workshop. Grades 6-12.
Crozet gazette
JUNE 2008 s page 27
Resisting
Overdrive
When you are using a power
drill to drive a screw into a
piece of wooden material,
you want to take precautions
against driving the screw
head too deeply into the
material and/or causing the
screw head to snap off or
strip. To guard against any of
these unwanted possibilities,
most new drills are outfitted
with clutches. To employ this
useful feature, you need only
twist the ring near the clutch
to the smallest number. Then,
try driving the screw. If the
chuck releases before the
screw is fully driven into the
wood, choose a higher number until you reach a setting
that drives the screw to the
desired depth prior to the
release of the clutch.
Whether you’re looking for a
power drill or other power
tool. Blue Ridge Builders
Supply and Home Center is
the place to go. We are the
premiere locally owned supplier of building materials,
millwork, hardware, home
and garden, tools and paint
in central Virginia.
Visit us today at
5221 Rockfish Gap
Turnpike, Crozet,
or call 434-823-1387
to learn more.
Hint:
Drills with clutches are particularly valuable when driving drywall screws that you
do not want to penetrate the
outer paper layer
Crossword Puzzle by Heidi Thorsen
Across
1. They get smacked
5. Carries burden
10. Representative
12. Hole in the ground
13. Smokehouse namesake, with
14 across
14. See 13 across
15. Keanu quote
17. Santa ___
18. Fish limb
21. Standing on
23. Matched pair
24. 2nd generation joint,
with 30 across
27. Italian dining namesake
29. Christmas song
30. See 24 across
34. Cheer at Cocina?
36. They “lunch”
37. ‘Zine
40. Without
42. School rally
43. Perfect serve
44. Fountain drink
46. Follows Three, with
49 across
49. See 46 across
54. Type of council
55. Spooky
56. Fidgety
57. Salad cheese
Down
1. Romanian cash
2. Ivy ___
3. Pipe plastic
4. Local del what?
5. Picks up women
6. Can be bent
7. Worldly book
8. French river
9. Sometimes sweet
11. Hedge tree
12. Entropy
14. Camp bed
16. Scalp protector
18. Regulates 47 down
19. Ret. sav. acct.
20. Neither’s partner
22. Father
25. Menagerie
26. Pipe joiners
28. Another name for
16 down
31. Speed
32. Last letter
33. Fatal snake
35. Artist’s aid
36. Used on trips
37. Type of ray
38. Oak seed
39. Understand
41. Sign of agreement
45. It changes annually
47. Network
48. Pasture product
50. Ump’s equiv.
51. Madness
52. Chick ___ (genre)
53. Where 48 down is
grown
Solution on page 31.
Crozet gazette
page 28 s JUNE 2008
History Day
Winners
March On
By Carrie Chiarella
Henley Middle School eighthgrader Charlotte Roland and
Western Albemarle High School
freshmen Henry Giles and Max
Weiner earned the right to advance
to the National History Day competition at the University of
Maryland, College Park, in June
after winning places at the statelevel History Day competition in
Williamsburg on April 26.
This year’s National History Day
theme is “Conflict and Compromise
in History” and nearly 40 Henley
students, plus the pair from WAHS,
rose to the challenge in submitting
historical papers, documentaries,
and exhibits at the regional competition held at James Madison
University March 12.
Besides Roland, who won second
place for her Junior Division
Historical Paper “West Virginia
Miner’s Strike of 1922,” seven other
Henley eighth graders won first or
second at the regional competition
and advanced to the state match:
Paige Rammelkamp, Historical
Paper (Conflicts of the Indian
Subcontinent), 1st Place
Rachel
Carlson,
Individual
Exhibit (The AC/DC Controversy),
1st Place
Hannah Chiarella and Alex Funk,
Group Exhibit (Tsar Nicholas II of
Russia), 2nd Place
Arthur Halliday, Individual
Documentary (Swiss Neutrality
during WW II) 1st Place
Josh Mandell and Lucas Xu,
Group Documentary (The Louisiana
Purchase), 2nd Place
Henry and Max were this year’s
only participants from WAHS and
the pair placed first in the Senior
Division, Documentary Category,
with their entry “Parthenon Marbles
and the Elgin Collection: A
Question of Return.” Their entry
earned them first place at both the
regional and state competitions.
Advisers for the competing students were Henley gifted resource
teacher Jenny Merrill and WAHS
history teacher Jennifer Sublette.
Hansen—continued from page 13
to dress up for four years.”
She was accepted at Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, New
York University, Wellesley and U.Va. She was wait-listed at
Columbia and the University of Chicago and turned down
(!) by Princeton.
She said she was ready to go to community college if she
was rejected from the big name schools she applied to.
Yale paid her way to New Haven for a visit (other schools
did this too). “I just loved it,” said Hansen. “They have the
program I want [the Ethics, Politics and Economics program] and the professors are attentive to students. I feel I
can grow there. It all just clicked.”
Her full scholarship from Yale includes travel money to
go home to Sacramento.
She said she intends to go to Oxford University for graduate work and then come back to the States for law school,
something in corporate law, she thinks. Talk about setting
goals.
“Of course everything could change in eight years,” she
acknowledged.
“I like to make plans. I’ve been surprised too much in
my life not to make a plan. My mom is quite proud now.”
“I’ve worked with many exceptional kids,” said Miller
Director of College Counseling Hugh Meagher. “Kayla is
very different. When she doesn’t achieve success she doesn’t
complain. She learns from it and moves on.’”
“I’m not a West Coast personality, relaxed about everything and ‘unique,’” she explained. “I like the East Coast.
Miller has done an excellent job!”
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Crozet gazette
JUNE 2008 s page 29
B ereavements
Andrew James Hickman Sr., 77
April 27, 2008
Stanley L. Patterson Sr., 86
April 27, 2008
Charles McClellan Wagner III, 60
April 27, 2008
Laura Breeden Herring, 72
April 28, 2008
Lydia Pitman Smick, 89
April 30, 2008
Everett Clifton Crickenberger Jr., 73
May 09, 2008
Rea Marshall Shifflett, 81
May 09, 2008
Joyce Snow Jarrell, 76
May 10, 2008
Thomas Edward Swink, 51
May 10, 2008
Louise O. Shifflett, 74
May 11, 2008
Claude Davis Garver Jr., 66
May 13, 2008
Ladys Marshall Graves, 94
May 14, 2008
Daniel Davis Via, 76
May 14, 2008
William Ralph Roach, 75
May 15, 2008
Evelyn L. Craft, 81
May 18, 2008
William Morton Gibson, 85
May 18, 2008
Joan Alice Lindemann, 67
May 18, 2008
Luther Franklin Gibson, 78
May 19, 2008
Jean Ann Dorothy Coates Sinclair, 89
May 19, 2008
Alice Burroughs Hope, 89
May 20, 2008
Katherine Callahan Respess, 85
May 21, 2008
M. E. Sandridge, 91
May 23, 2008
Brenda E. Thompson, 67
May 24, 2008
James Alvin Abbott, 80
May 25, 2008
David Morgan Via Jr., 87
May 25, 2008
Darlene Elaine Knott Cook, 61
May 26, 2008
Ruby Lee Dunnivan Gibson, 70
May 27, 2008
Irene H. Carter, 51
May 30, 2008
Charlottesville
Power Equipment
would like to welcome all of
Paul’s Lawn & Garden
Loyal Customers
We service and offer parts for
all major brands such as:
AYP, eXmark, Husqvarna, MTD,
RedMax, Simplicity, Shindaiwa, Snapper,
Toro, Troybilt & many many more!
919 East Market St.
Mt. Salem
Church Special
Program
Mt. Salem Gospel Church will
honor First Lady Joyce Colemon
for the work she is doing at the
church and commemorate the
vision the late Pastor Paul E.
Colemon had for the church on
Sunday, June 15, in a special program.
Minister Claytor Strother will
speak at 11:30 a.m., with lunch on
the Church grounds at 2 p.m.
Elder John Marshall and his congregation from the Free Union
Gospel Church of Gordonsville will
be special guests. A free-will offering. All are welcome.
Mt. Salem is located at the intersection of Three Notch’d Road (Rt.
240) and Old Three Notch’d Road.
(434) 296-6937
Fly “Old Glory”
June 14
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
Anderson
Funeral
Services
Inc.
Serving Western Albemarle
Families Since 1967
Robert S. Anderson &
John W. Anderson, Jr.,
D I R E C T O R S
823-5002
5888 St. George Avenue
Crozet, VA 22932
More information at
www.mountainplain.org or 823.4160
Crozet gazette
page 30 s JUNE 2008
Park—continued from page 1
ridge dividing the park. A playground
is proposed next to the pavilion.
“Our goal is to make this the best
picnic shelter in the state of Virginia
and I think we can,” said Rieley during
the discussion of the likelihood of a
two-story pavilion.
On the west side, the plan calls for
two playing fields, one a regulation size
multi-use field and the other a little
smaller.
Adjoining the pavilion to the east, in
an area favorably contoured for it,
would be an amphitheater with an
inflatable movie screen. A tennis court
could also fit nearby along the road
behind the Old Trail commercial district.
Further east, an existing wetland will
be expanded and a half-acre pond built,
and loop trails will be laid out. Some of
those may be paved, others would have
stone dust on them and others would
be left natural. At their very east end,
they would connect with the developing Crozet greenway system. “All will
be looping systems that lead back to
where you start,” Rieley said. Some will
allow bikes and others not.
A steep ravine in the east could
become another pond site or might be
a place for a skateboard park, Rieley
said, a possibility he qualified by adding, “We’re not convinced this park is
the right place for a skate park.”
Commissioner Marcia Joseph asked
if the park would be handicappedaccessible and Rieley answered, “To the
greatest extent possible. The shelter has
to be and that’s the greatest challenge.
To get to a second floor with ramps you
need 200 feet [of run.]”
Asked to elaborate on parking, Rieley
said, “That’s one of the things we have
to work with staff on about rule interpretation, about [parking requirements]
for various activities.” Parking along
Old Trail Drive is assumed in the plan.
Commissioner Tom Loach asked
Rieley to test for orchard pesticide residues in the soil.
The County has a $1.8 million placeholder for the park in its 2010-2011
budget, said director of parks and recreation Pat Mullaney. A realistic budget
couldn’t be drawn up without a park
design, he said, and the County expects
it will take 20 years to afford all the
plan’s components.
“What’s important is to make this
area be the best park it can be and not
just cram a lot of facilities on it,” he
explained.
Commissioner Eric Strucko observed
that “It seems only undevelopable land
continued on page 32
Tax Prep and Financials
Appointments: 434-823-1420 - Fax: 434-823-1610
beverlyk@embarqmail.com
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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
ClassiFIed Ads
S ummer T utoring .
Elementary grades 3-5. Math and
reading. Virginia-certified teacher
with 16 years experience in local
schools. One-hour lessons based
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Organist/choir director
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Pet Sitting. Indoor and outdoor pets, small farm animals, and
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References available.
JUNE 2008 s page 31
Crozet Mac
Computer Tutor
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Children • Adolescents • Adults • Couples
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On the Square (above Uncle Charlie’s Smokehouse)
1701 D Allied St. (behind Cville Coffee)
Lost: Female dark brown and
white spotted pit bull/boxer mix
dog, named Lucy. May be wearing
a blue harness with identity tags.
Missing since 5/27/08 from Grey
Rock North, Lanetown Road area.
Call 434-296-1761. Reward!
One or 2-room office
building for rent at the foot of
Afton Mtn, utilities and internet
included. $525-895 monthly.
540-908-2625.
Part-time or Full-time
sales rep needed. Experience
with natural stone or constructions
materials helpful. Send resume and
salary requirements to center4stonecreations@live.com.
Solution to this month’s puzzle
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
Park—continued from page 30
is available for the park.” Mullaney
reminded him that the Crozet Master
Plan also calls for creation of a new eastern park somewhere in the vicinity south
of Western Ridge. He said the County is
also working with the board of Claudius
Crozet Park to review its uses and development.
“I’m definitely very impressed with
the plan for this park,” Strucko said.
“It’s nicer for kids to be able to get to
nature,” Joseph agreed, meaning that a
park should be about more than organized sports.
“At $4 a gallon you shouldn’t have to
drive to Charlottesville to play ball,”
noted Loach.
“A consensus seems to be gelling that
the park have a natural theme,” said
Rieley after the meeting. He suggested
that Claudius Crozet Park might be a
better spot for a skateboard park.