Crozet Gazette November 2015

INSIDE LUCKY DOGS page 4 SMART ENERGY page 8 OLD FUN page 9 HOUSE SALES page 12 EARTH ACADEMY page 14

NOVEMBER 2015 VOL. 10, NO. 6

How John Kelly Saved the Blue Ridge Tunnel

CTC 5K page 17 CHALK TALKS page 18

By Mary E. Lyons

SPIRIT WALKS page 18

American flag was suspended from the extended ladder and draped over the scene. Its listless wave seemed mournful.

The Crozet volunteers conduct the funerals of their dead with dignity and ceremony and Martin’s had fallen on the same day as their big celebration.

“It’s been a long day,” said Chief Preston Gentry as he formally convened the evening. He thanked Judy Schmertzler for taking care of the

In 1849, after two decades of resistance, the Virginia Board of Public Works initiated an ambitious strategy to reach the Ohio River—and its lucrative trade connections—by rail.

Their elaborate plan called for 423 miles of track between Richmond and what is now Huntington, West Virginia. The scheme involved three railroad companies. The Virginia Central—formerly the Louisa Railroad—would continue its tracks westward to Charlottesville. Moving farther west, the company would then lay rails to Mechums River in western Albemarle County, at the intersection of Routes 250 and 240.

Meanwhile the state-funded Blue Ridge Railroad would lay tracks from Mechums River, bore a tunnel through the mountain at Rockfish Gap, and wind down to the South River on the west side of the mountain. The Virginia Central would pick up the path at the South River and lay tracks west to Covington in

continued on page 11

continued on page 6

HIKING page 19 TRUCKS pages 22 CROZET COSTUMES page 23 MAN UP page 24 DAILY DATA page 25 THE CRAZIES page 26 TOP STICKS page 27 IF ONLY page 28 VARMINT LOVE page 30 WITHOUT SOUP page 31 DO ROBOTS NEED US? page 32 BACON FOREVER page 33 CROSSWORD page 34 GET IT LOCALLY page 35 FREE CONCERTS page 38

Top firefighters Mike Boyle and Mike Rabin at the CVFD’s annual awards dinner October 18.

Rabin Named Firefighter of the Year The Crozet Volunteer Fire Department’s annual awards dinner, typically festive, began in a somber note when the volunteers gathered at King Family Vineyard’s banquet hall Oct. 18. They had buried longtime volunteer Richard Martin few hours before and the agony of grief was too present to overcome. Martin was buried at Hillsboro Cemetery and the department brought its ladder truck out and parked it outside the cemetery fence along Rt. 250 near Brownsville Market. Their giant

Barnes Development to Begin with Commercial Block Adjoining the Square Frank Stoner, representing the owners of the 20-acre former Barnes Lumberyard property in downtown Crozet, revealed the latest stage of plans to the Crozet Community Advisory Committee October 21, focusing on what he called Phase 1, a new block of commercial buildings next to The Square.

“This is where the planning process is migrating toward,” Stoner said.

Meanwhile, a “prerequisite for success” is that Crozet needs “a clear

brand,” he told the committee.

Stoner referred to the “Nelson Byrd Plan” that the CCAC reviewed in August as one “people responded favorably to” and his drawing labeled Block Plan D obviously drew on the Nelson/Byrd layout of the project’s road plan, but it shifted the town square area west into the proposed block, moving it from a location on the east side of High Street and apparently reducing its size. This location is

continued on page 29

Frank Stoner at the October CCAC meeting.

2

CROZETgazette

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CROZET gazette

MICHAEL J. MARSHALL, Publisher and Editor news@crozetgazette.com | 434-466-8939

© The Crozet Gazette

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Published on the first Thursday of the month by The Crozet Gazette LLC, P.O. Box 863, Crozet, VA 22932

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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: John Andersen, Clover Carroll, Marlene Condon, Elena Day, Phil James, Charles Kidder, Dirk Nies, Jerry Reid, Robert Reiser, Rebecca Schmitz, Roscoe Shaw, Heidi Sonen, David Wagner, Denise Zito.

Don’t miss any of the hometown news everybody else is up on. Pick up a free copy of the Gazette at one of many area locations or have it delivered to your home.

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CROZETgazette

NOVEMBER 2015

To the Editor Send your letters to the editor to news@crozetgazette.com. Letters will not be printed anonymously. Letters do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Crozet Gazette.

Thank you, Crozet, for Being My Home On Monday night Sept. 28, I visited the Crozet Library to hear the presentation on Crozet Yesteryear and Happy Anniversary to the library. I listened to the speakers sharing what it was like growing up in downtown Crozet and how they felt part of the town even at a young age. How very special is that. Everybody knew everybody and their children and their children. It was a tight community. Nobody locked their doors. It was just a closeness you felt. You just felt safe because you knew there was always somebody looking out for you. It made me feel like I wanted to share my thoughts on our town of Crozet.

I think about when I first came to Crozet in the spring of 1983. I was made to feel like part of the community by everybody I met. What a great feel-

ing. Nobody made me feel like an outsider. It was as if I had always lived here.

In 2003 I had a major life change. My first thought was to leave Crozet. One of those very special Crozet people I had met told me, “Don’t you leave Crozet, Jean Seal. This is your home and everybody here loves you.” I would like to say thank you, Faye Baber. That shows what kind of people make up our town. It is 2015 and I am still here and proud to be because it is where I belong.

What a great community we have.

I always liked the saying, “I was not born in Crozet but I got here as quick as I could.”

Thank you to each and every one I have met as a member of the Crozet community for making me feel like this is home.

When somebody asks where are you from, I am always proud to say “I am from Crozet.” It is home for me.

Thank you, Crozet, for embracing me as one of your own.

Jean Seal Crozet

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Hey Crozet, We’re Getting a Dog Park !

After nearly two years of planning and fundraising, the new Crozet Dog Park will officially open its gates Saturday, December 5, with a brief dedication ceremony scheduled for 10 a.m.

Installation of fencing and gates is underway for the partly wooded, 1.5-acre site located just to the east of the lower baseball field at Claudius Crozet Park. Many of the hardwoods along the perimeter of the dog park and within the fenced-in areas have been left to provide shade for dogs and their owners.

Based on dog park best practices and input from donors, the site has been divided into two areas: one for big dogs and one for little ones, although the larger area will be open to all dogs—big and little—depending on temperament. Dividing the site was also necessary to avoid disturbing a creek running across the site. Prior to opening, both areas will be fully fenced with double-gated entries, bag dispensers, and water hydrants.

The dog park will be open from dawn to dusk every day of the

year. All dog park users will be subject to a set of posted rules based on what has worked best at similar parks.

The dog park is reached by entering Crozet Park either on foot or by car, turning right once you reach the end of the main entry and coming down to the baseball fields and parking area. Walk between the playground and the lower baseball field to the wooded area just past the corner of the right field fence. From there a trail will bring you down to enter into the dog areas.

Building the dog park was a community effort that spanned the past 18 months. I am grateful for the enthusiastic work and support of a number of people and organizations.

First and foremost, I’d like to thank Albemarle County Parks & Recreation (ACP&R) for designating the 1.5-acre site for the dog park. The Countyowned dog park site adjoins the community-owned Crozet Park property. In addition to providing this property, the County team did brush clearing for the site and installation of the water continued on page 16

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CROZETgazette

NOVEMBER 2015

John Kelly

—continued from page 1

Alleghany County.

The Covington and Ohio Railroad, still an unfunded gleam in the Board of Public Works’ eye in 1849, would approach from the Ohio River—then the western border of the state—to meet Virginia Central rails in Covington.

Only 16.81 miles long and sandwiched between Virginia Central Railroad tracks, the Blue Ridge Railroad was a railroad inside a railroad. Yet those few miles were the most difficult to build, passing through mountainous terrain that Virginia’s chief engineer, Claudius Crozet, once described as “dangerous ground.” Four tunnels would pierce the mountain at Rockfish Gap. Three lay in Albemarle County. East to west, they were the Greenwood, Brooksville, and Little Rock Tunnels. The almost one-milelong Blue Ridge Tunnel would begin in Nelson County, just over the Albemarle County line.

It would pass 700 feet under the mountain and emerge in Augusta County. These were the pre-dynamite years. All work would be done with hand tools, gunpowder, mules, and muscle.

Irishman John Kelly was contractor for the Greenwood, Brooksville, and Blue Ridge Tunnels. Born in 1812, likely in Rathcooney, County Cork, Ireland, Kelly was the son of a respectable but small farmer who tilled three acres of land near Cork City. Young John would have attended one of two Catholic schools in the civil parish of Rathcooney, where he received the “rudiments of a plain English education,” as a nineteenth-century biography stated.

John Kelly’s biographer wrote that he worked in a flourmill as a young man. This would have been the extensive Glanmire Flourmills, located a mere three hundred yards from Rathcooney. The job became tiresome for Kelly after a few years—a situation made more frustrating by his Catholic father’s annual burden of a mandatory tithe to the Protestant Church of Ireland.

The mills were next to a river that flowed into the world-class Cork Harbor. With the sea almost at his doorstep, Kelly must have felt a powerful urge to try his luck elsewhere. He sailed to the United States in 1834.

Immediately after landing in New York, John Kelly found employment on the Long Island-Jamaica Railroad. The following year he worked on the Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad. Kelly was a quick learner and a frugal saver. By 1837, he was a sub-contractor on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. During the next twelve years, he became a full contractor and, working under civil engineer Benjamin Latrobe, Jr., directed construction of bridges and tunnels on the Baltimore and Ohio line in Maryland. Kelly’s qualifications were surely apparent when he responded to advertisements that Claudius Crozet placed in numerous newspapers in the summer of 1849, including a version that appeared in New York’s Irish American Weekly.

The notices called for contractors to build two tunnels for the Blue Ridge Railroad. On December 1, 1849, Kelly and his Irish partner, John Larguey, signed on for the Brooksville and Greenwood Tunnels. The latter included a difficult, unsta-

Map of route from Richmond to the Ohio River. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Greenwood Tunnel was closed in 1944.

Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

ble section that came to be known as Kelly’s Cut. Crozet unwisely chose New Yorker John Rutter, the cheapest bidder, to build the Blue Ridge Tunnel, but by early 1850 Rutter failed to meet the terms of his contract. Kelly and Company then signed on for the mammoth bore. Three tunnels. Towering, man-made embankments to connect them.

Numerous culverts. Kelly’s Cut. It was an astonishing amount of simultaneous construction that far exceeded the commitments of other contractors on the project, and it called for many hundreds of laborers.

Blue Ridge Tunnel payroll names, combined with matching marriage, citizenship, death, and burial records, indicate that the majority of Irish in the Blue Ridge Railroad-Virginia Central Railroad community were from County Cork. A good many had lived along the CorkBandon Railway, a line with tunnels and embankments under construction in southwest Cork during the late 1840s. The men may have learned their tunneling skills on the Cork railway or in mines that dotted the region.

Kelly had a remarkable rapport with his workmen. This was due, in part, to their shared origins in Cork, where regional allegiance trumped nationalistic sentiment that meant little to the British-ruled Irish, anyway.

Some of the men may even have known Kelly in Rathcooney— letters he would have sent home might well have contained an invitation for friends and acquaintances to work on his various railroad projects. This would have been especially true during Ireland’s Great Hunger, which began in 1845.

The greatest natural disaster of nineteenth-century Europe, the famine lasted through 1852,

just as the Blue Ridge Railroad project was approaching a critical shortage of laborers. More than one million Irish fled the chaos and disease wracking their homeland during these years, most with the help of friends or family members who had already immigrated. Several nineteenth-century documents state that Kelly was known for his hospitality. One of them noted that “no appeal from the needy was ever made to him without a generous response.”

We can imagine that Kelly, via letter, offered railroad jobs in America as an escape for desperate families in the Rathcooney area.

Whatever the reason for the men’s allegiance to John Kelly, it remained steady, despite many crises that shadowed the Blue Ridge Railroad. By early 1851, night shifts—which were unpopular with Irish laborers on public works—were underway on the east side of the Blue Ridge Tunnel. Still, under Kelly’s direction, the men drilled and blasted around the clock, boring an average of only nineteen feet a month through the extremely hard greenstone.

Claudius Crozet defended the slow pace to the Board of Public Works. “All I can say with certainty about it,” he wrote, “is that the contractor [John Kelly] is alive to his interest and remarkably energetic and skillful in this business.”

In December 1852, a blast ripped off the hands of Blue Ridge Tunnel worker Michael Curran. The Blue Ridge Railroad Company continued

Blasted approach to the west portal of the Blue

CROZETgazette

Mary Lyons. Her book The Virginia Blue Ridge Tunnel was published in October

by The History Press.

his wages of one dollar a day through January 1853, but ended their benevolence in February. Kelly asked the Richmond men to reconsider.

They refused, but at least Kelly’s workers knew they could count on his advocacy. This was no small matter. Curran’s disabling injury and possible subsequent death was not an isolated incident. Nine men at the Blue Ridge Tunnel had already died—most from blasts—by this time, with more to come.

Men boring through the Greenwood Tunnel worked under equally hazardous conditions. In 1853, pressure at the east portal crushed timbers one foot square. It was, Crozet reported to the Board, “an awful impending mass.” Kelly’s men stabilized the timbers by the fall of that year. “That this dangerous work has been brought to a successful completion without the least accident,” Crozet wrote, “reflects much credit on the contractor Mr. John Kelly.”

The men completed the tunnel in December 1853.

Ridge Tunnel, 2014. Photo: Author’s collection.

NOVEMBER 2015 Brooksville Tunnel proved to be the most perilous of all.

Kelly’s shanty was hard by the passage in a mountain cleft known at the time as Kelly’s Hollow. From there, he guided his workers through the daily dangers of earth slides and caveins. “I must do justice to his unflinching energy, skill and perfect control over his men,” Claudius Crozet told the Board, “who expose themselves, even recklessly, wherever he directs them. Where they are now at work no craven would venture; but his commands are unhesitatingly obeyed; and all the difficulty I experience is rather to impress him and them with the necessity of caution.”

Word of John Kelly’s leadership qualities eventually spread to the halls of Richmond. “At times the work has been accompanied by such threatening aspects,” the Board of Public Works reported to the General Assembly in 1855, “that the laborers have retreated from it in dismay, and under a less intrepid and indomitable contractor, they could hardly have been persuaded to return.”

Had John Kelly and his men abandoned their perilous efforts, the railroad might have found willing replacements eventually because the labor shortage on the Blue Ridge Railroad eased in 1855 as more Irish immigrants poured into the country. By September 1855, the company had hired an additional twenty-eight men “from the north,” as the payroll stated.

But it’s improbable that any other contractors on the project would have saved the entire venture with personal funds.

During a financial crisis that began in early 1855, Virginia’s bonds fell below their stated value. From then until September 1857, Kelly and his partner advanced money to the state from their “private resources,” as a state report termed it, for the cost of construction materials and wages at the unfinished Brooksville and Blue Ridge Tunnels. Kelly and Company also paid for labor on the 135-foot-high tall embankment leading to the east portal of the Blue Ridge Tunnel.

(Designated as the “Great Bank” on payrolls, the embankment was greatly lowered by construccontinued on page 20

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CROZETgazette

NOVEMBER 2015

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Andy Wright and Galen Staengl

Staengl Engineering Settles In Below Crozet Library Staengl Engineering, a firm that designs energy-efficient mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems for “green” buildings, has opened its office on the lower level of Crozet Library, joining neighboring Crozet Running and completing the occupancy of the building.

The company, founded in 2002 by Galen Staengl, has been based in Charlottesville.

Staengl is a graduate of the University of Virginia’s School of Engineering and Applied Science.

“We were in a small office in cubicles,” said Staengl. “We needed bigger space and lots of us live out here [in Crozet].

“It is about quality of life, the live-work balance,” added Andy Wright. “We like the open office where we can collaborate.”

Mechanical systems are exposed in the office’s blackpainted ceiling. “It’s part of what we do,” Wright noted.

The firm has a staff of seven, including Staengl. “We’re still growing,” he said. “We want to bring on more staff. So we started looking on this side of the county. This checked the boxes. We like the idea of being in Crozet. We like the feel. We like the community taking on the development of downtown in a smart way.”

The firm’s design principle is to “use the minimum energy that still functions,” he said.

“We hope to be able to help with our expertise. We’re

involved in cutting-edge building projects.”

The firm is engaged in the biggest passive solar project underway in the U.S. right now, a 300-unit apartment building in Kansas City, as well as a net-zero-energy house in Tennessee. The firm is also competing in a design competition to renovate the former Clifton Forge high school, a three-story building.

“We think we can have the same spaces we have now but use less energy,” said Staengl.

“As building methods have evolved, the costs, relatively, have come down. You can save money if you design the right way. That’s what allows us to grow. We’re working under architects to design internal systems. We try to help them think more energy-efficiently.”

Staengl said a 50-unit, multi-family commercial project is the firm’s strong suit. “A 50,000-square-foot building is a good project for us. We do some residential. It helps if the owner is already thinking about sustainability. It’s hard to put on a balance sheet the virtue of a sustainable plan. It takes time to see it.”

The firm’s lease is for only one year as the library shies away from longer leases for fear of needing the first floor space.

“We hope to be here for a while and enjoy what the community is doing in Crozet. We’re interested in space in the new projects.”

CROZETgazette

NOVEMBER 2015

By Phil James

9

phil@crozetgazette.com

Homemade Fun Homemade clothes. Homemade food.

Homemade music. Homemade fun! What wonderfully cozy, quaint terms.

However, homemade means hand made and handmade takes time—and hands. Lots of hands. Time was, before “modern times,” country life was all about work. Everyone in a household was required to help keep that home functioning. Children worked as their size and strength allowed. School attendance fell off during planting and harvesting seasons. Work was relentless, and even the family dog might be harnessed to a cart to help the smaller children forage for light kindling.

But, even as the Holy Scriptures command that work be done in six days, allowing the body and mind some rest on the seventh, there were also seasons and holidays that allowed some respite. Three former residents of lower Sugar Hollow in western Albemarle County shared personal recollections from some of those breathers taken during the late 19th to mid-20th centuries.

“What did we do for entertainment?” gracious, good-natured Emory Wyant (1911–2001), who grew up in a 12-member family, repeated this writer’s question.

“Well, I’ll tell you. It wasn’t a whole lot. We worked all the time. Might go swimming.

We’d cut our own fishing poles to go fishing. When we had the time. The rest of the time we pulled weeds in the garden.”

Bettie Via Gochenour (1882–1957) grew up in Sugar Hollow, not leaving until her marriage in 1899. Her memoir is filled with

How to build an airplane: one nail keg, two discarded wheels, a splintered plank and a broken fence paling.

This puddle jumper was engineered and assembled by the fearless Fisk brothers of Blackwell’s Hollow. [Photo courtesy of John Fisk]

rich remembrances of pleasant as well as difficult times. “[Brother] John and I were great on sliding down the hill when it snowed,” she wrote, “and we wore our shoes skating on the ice when the river would freeze over. We didn’t know anything about skates. I’ve been

“Big Day” in 1927 at the Mission Home school grounds on the Albemarle-Greene County line brought together children from Frazier Mountain, Blackwell’s Hollow, and Simmon’s Gap. Approximately 400 attendees were treated to the children’s own homemade circus that included a lively band, plus “clowns of every description, magicians, snake charmers, and animal trainers with elephants, ostriches, bears, monkeys, and snakes.”

[Photo courtesy of Larry Lamb]

so sore and stiff from skating that I could hardly get down to put my shoes on the next morning, but that didn’t stop us. We would go right back again.

“Up the mountains from there lived Uncle Wash Via and Aunt Susan. I have walked up through the woods and pasture fields many times to go see them, sometimes to spend the night. I would sleep upstairs in a big feather bed that was so high that I could hardly crawl in it. Aunt Susan would say, ‘Wash will take you home on one of the beasts.’ I would enjoy riding down the mountains, too. The mountains were so steep we would have to zigzag to keep from tumbling over the horse’s head. Oh, those were happy days, with not a care in the world. We didn’t hear about all the horrible things that were going on outside of our little world.”

Malcolm “Junior” Cook never passes up an opportunity to reminisce on his youthful adventures “up in The Hollow.”

“Uncle Bennie Blackwell had a Schwinn bicycle with the carrier on the back,” Junior recalled. “I used to ride back there and Uncle Bennie would pedal us up through Sugar Hollow. We would start hand fishing in the Moorman’s River all the way back continued on page 10

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CROZETgazette

NOVEMBER 2015

Homemade Fun —continued from page 9

down to the ford where you crossed to go up to where Grandma Ora Blackwell lived.

“One day as we were feeling under a big flat rock, Uncle Bennie said, ‘Now don’t let him get out on that side.’ I felt something bump against my hand once in awhile. Uncle Bennie said, ‘I can’t get him to move to where I can get a good hold on him, so give me that safety pin in your britches so I can stick him to get him to move.’

“It worked. He lifted from under that rock with a chokehold on a huge water moccasin.

I took off up the middle of the river. Uncle Bennie always laughed when he told it, and said I walked on water. He may have been close to the truth.

“I can honestly say we didn’t know then that there was a word called “bored.” One of our fun things we did [was] with Grandma’s Cat Head biscuits after they got too hard to eat.

Grandma had three dogs: old Traveler was a big blue tick; Buster was a shepherd mixed breed; the other one was a Walker hound, but I can’t recall his name. Anyhow, we would stand on the porch and sail those biscuits, something like a Frisbee, one at a time, to those three dogs who would be waiting just below the porch—to see which one would make the catch before the biscuit hit the ground. It seldom hit the ground because those dogs knew that if it did, they were going to have to fight for it.

When Forrest Walton (left) and his brother Bryce Jr. hitched up the family’s billy goat to their Hercules freight wagon, even their two best friends could not wait to get in on the fun and adventure at the home place near Boonesville. [Photo courtesy of Forrest Walton]

On Tanner’s Ridge in Page Co., necessity was often the mother of invention. If a “mountain automobile” was needed, then every component necessary to build one must be found close at hand.

[From an album assembled by Rev. Dennis Whittle who oversaw a nearby Episcopal mountain mission. Rev. Whittle’s photograph/scrapbook is now part of the St. George Church Collection.]

Looks like Mervin Davis (right) and his brother Russell (wearing a bowler hat behind the wheel), along with an amused friend, were trying to get their show on the road one more time. These fun-loving Boonesville boys spent the summer months traveling the east coast sawdust circuit with their family’s Bruce Greater Shows carnival. [Photo courtesy of Larry Lamb]

“We had lots of recreation in those mountains. We would walk down and play in the river until we got hungry. Then, halfway back to the house, we would stop at the little spring coming out from a big round rock. There was birch growing beside the rock and we would always break off some—to eat the tender bark. The taste of birch in your mouth seemed to make that spring water taste extra special. After eating, we would sometimes walk back to the river and play until suppertime. I never measured it, but was told it’s almost a mile from the house to the river.

“Some days we would choose to play on the surrounding ridges. One of our sports was to

find a small tree three or four inches in diameter, climb it, and when near the top, let our weight bend it over and lower us gently to the ground.

Sometimes we would underestimate the size and strength of the tree, and it would leave us hanging with a long drop to the ground. Sometimes a few scrapes and bruises, but nothing serious. The amazing thing was we only got a new pair of shoes once a year, so in all of those adventures in the mountains, we went barefoot.

“We were almost completely shut out from the world. No electricity, no phones. But a lot of Sunday afternoons, some of the older aunts and uncles or kin would come to visit. We would be on the front porch watching and listening for an automobile coming up the road to Grandma’s. And trying to guess who it was before they came in sight by the sound of the motor. And trying to see who it was that had to get out to open the gate, way down past the hill leading up to Grandma’s house. So you see, we had drama in those days.

“Did I mention, we didn’t know about bored?”

Follow Secrets of the Blue Ridge on Facebook! Phil James invites contact from those who would share recollections and old photographs of life along the Blue Ridge Mountains of Albemarle County. You may respond to him through his website: www.

SecretsoftheBlueRidge.com or at P.O. Box 88, White Hall, VA 22987. Secrets of the Blue Ridge © 2003–2015 Phil James

CROZETgazette

NOVEMBER 2015

CVFD Awards —continued from page 1

preparations.

“We’d like to thank all of you who make Crozet such a great community,” added CVFD President Rodney Rich. The general moment of gratitude for each other, for the unremarked-on sacrifices that so many make, just ordinarily, was palpable and keen.

After greeting guests, among them visitors from other departments and county fire officials, Gentry introduced the evening’s speaker, retired Charlottesville fire chief Julian Taliaferro.

Taliaferro described the changes in local firefighting prowess since he first signed on in 1962, a 50-year career.

Taliaferro’s first post was at the then-new Bypass Station on Rt. 250. “I waited six weeks for my first call,” he recalled. “I worked 84 hours a week. We’d get 35 volunteers per call then.

You could stomp out a fire with all those people. By the 1990s you’d get three volunteers to show up.

“Training was on-the-job and technique was poor in the city.

We needed to put larger volumes of water on fires. A fire in Glenaire, in Ivy, changed the way the city worked. Crozet fought it too and suppressed it with a small supply.” The city took a lesson.

“A bad insurance assessment in the early 1970s led to a service reorganization and to improvements in firefighting,” he said. “It led to cooperation with Crozet and Scottsville, the only other departments then.

We did more cooperative training. It was a lot of effort by the volunteers and the career people. Now our area has some of the best equipment in the USA and we have the support of our community.”

When Taliaferro concluded and the awards were about to begin, Gary Dillon called from his seat for a story about chief Gentry. He wanted Gentry to tell the story of how he got the nickname “Slick.”

“I can’t tell that story,” answered Gentry, with his usual geniality.

“One thing I’ve learned,” he said, veering to a different topic, “is adapt and overcome. I learned that again today.” He

CVFD Chief Preson Gentry with Chief’s Award winners Mitch Fitzgerald and Elise Linquist.

alluded to the moment Martin’s casket had been lowered.

Gentry called the department’s honor guard forward and they solemnly carried flags and fire axes in parade formation down the aisle between the tables. Gentry read aloud the names of life members who died in the last year: Cary Crickenberger, D.W. Sandridge, Alvin Toms.

“Richard Martin could be the most aggravating, loving person—he was a big bear. If you needed anything, he would be

there.” Emotion obliged Gentry to stop.

The fire bell was rung five times for each name in loud, brassy clangs that filled the silent room. “Let us not forget our brothers and sisters who have gone on and when we make decisions, let’s think about what they would want,” Gentry said.

He called on the active members who were present to stand.

About 25 men rose. “These are the gentlemen who protect our continued on page 13

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NOVEMBER 2015

Western Albemarle Third Quarter Real Estate Report

A Good Third Quarter for Crozet Real Estate Sales by david ferrall | ferrall@crozetgazette.com Five Year Sales Trend (Total Sales) 700 574

600 500

245

234

'12 Q1

197

266

486

428

340

'11 Q4

214

'11 Q1

252

200

281

'10 Q4

300

461

418

379

400

418 331

295

225

415

234

208

100

'15 Q3

'15 Q2

'15 Q1

'14 Q4

'14 Q3

'14 Q2

'14 Q1

'13 Q4

'13 Q3

'13 Q2

'13 Q1

'12 Q4

'12 Q3

'12 Q2

'11 Q3

'11 Q2

0 '10 Q3

What a difference a year makes. For the Crozet real estate market in the third quarter, a year made one real difference, and that was in total sales. There were 20 percent more sales in Crozet than at the same time last year, an awesome increase by all accounts. It’s especially eye-popping as the county as a whole experienced a slight decline (see accompanying 5-year sales trend chart provided courtesy of Nest Realty).

But in most every other category figures were flat. Average prices for all homes and detached homes were flat. Average price of construction, was mostly flat too. It’s a welcome breather as tighter inventory could have led to higher prices.

In their recent year-over-year forecast of price change, Core Logic suggests all 50 states will experience price appreciation in the coming year. With mortgage rates in check and consumer confidence firming, buying remains strong, as shown by the recent surge in new construction sales nationwide. If these trends continue, prices in Crozet will probably follow suit, perhaps relegating this quarter to an anomaly.

There were 93 total residential sales in the quarter in Crozet, up from the 77 sales during the same period last year.

There was one sale over $1m, which for statistical purposes will be excluded. The average price of a home in Crozet

CHART COURTESY NEST REALTY

dropped slightly to $403,000, from $407,000 in 2014. The average cost of construction went up slightly, from $156 per finished square foot last year to $160/sqft this year. There were eight land sales during the quarter, up a whopping 300 percent from the two sales last year.

There were three distressed sales (short sale, foreclosure or auction) in the quarter, down from four last year.

Of the 93 sales, 71 were for detached properties. Eighteen of these were for properties of an acre or more. This 25 percent of the total sales figure is a bit higher than the usual 20 percent average. These sales are usually in outlying areas where lot sizes are larger. Twenty-three of the sales were for new construction properties. Eleven of these sales were in Old Trail, the balance being four in Foothills, three in Wickham Pond, and two in Haden Place. There were also three new construction sales on private lots. The average price for detached new con-

struction was $576,000, at a cost of $182/sqft. That’s a stark difference to the average re-sale price of $361,000, at a cost of $149sqft. The average price for all detached homes was $430,000, down about 1 percent. Average cost was mostly unchanged at $159/sqft.

There were 70 percent more attached home sales in the quarter than in the third quarter of 2014. Of the 22 total sales, eight were for new properties.

Six were in Old Trail, with one each in Haden Place and Wickham Pond. These last two communities are just about out of new townhouse inventory, so most new attached properties will be in Old Trail until another new development surfaces that offers townhouses. The average price of these new homes was $432,000, at a cost of $196/ sqft. The average resale price of attached homes was $246,000, at a cost of $143/sqft. There were five resales in The Highlands, with the balance spread pretty evenly across

Westhall, Clover Lawn, Parkside, Waylands Grant, Wickham Pond and Old Trail.

Year-to-date there have been 217 sales in Crozet, running well ahead of the 181 sales through three quarters in 2014.

There have been nine sales already in the fourth quarter, and there are 41 pending sales that could close in the coming months. As there were 239 total sales in 2014 in Crozet, it would seem sales are on their way to beating last year’s total.

Even though housing costs were flat through the quarter, the underpinnings remain for continued price advancement.

Demand remains fairly strong, inventory is down, and mortgage rates continue to flirt with historic lows. According to a recent report from Trulia, in spite of appreciating home prices nationwide, rental costs are keeping up with, and in some markets exceeding, ownership cost advances. So it continues to be more expensive to rent than to own.

CROZETgazette

CVFD Awards —continued from page 11

community,” he said. “We put our lives on the line because we want to serve our community.”

General Assembly Delegate Steve Landes came to the podium to read a resolution passed by the Virginia legislature in honor of Bubba Baber, a former CVFD chief and a Western Albemarle Rescue Squad volunteer as well, who died young, from cancer, in 2014. The resolution remarked on Baber’s “courageous dedication” as a fourth-generation firefighter in Crozet and for the admiration he inspired as “a selfless leader.”

“Many people forget that when you go out you are literally putting your lives on the line,” Landes said.

There was sustained applause for the recognition. Gentry commented that he thought Baber was listening to it.

A Community Service Award was presented to Walt Davis, the pastor of Life Journey Church, who is now also the chaplain for the department.

He had presided over Martin’s funeral. Gentry noted that the church gave away thousands of bottles of water, free, at the Crozet Fourth of July celebration.

A second Community Service Award went to Kathy Wood, the owner of Otto’s. “She loves this community and she does a lot for it.”

Deputy Chief Will Schmertzler, who has served 18 years now, presented a third Community Service Award to King Family Vineyards, the banquet’s host for the fourth year. Banquets were previously held in the truck bays of the firehouse.

NOVEMBER 2015 A fourth Community Service Award went to the Women’s Society of Crozet United Methodist Church.

Rich conferred the President’s Award on the volunteers generally. “You give 100 percent and if you lose you never accept defeat,” he said. “This is for all the volunteers who give their best. We’ll hang in in the kitchen and when we look at it we can ask ourselves if we earned it. We’ll know in our hearts if we have.”

Gentry said that in deciding on the Chief ’s Award he asks himself, ‘Who gets along? Who gives extra? How active are they?

How hard do they work?’ These two individuals step up: Alise Linquist and Mitch Fitzgerald.”

Linquist is a new volunteer and Fitzgerald has now risen to the rank of captain. “He really moves things forward,” Gentry commented.

He called Mike Boyle, the winner of the Firefighter of the Year Award in 2013 and 2014, to the podium. “He’s from Louisiana,” said Gentry. “Don’t send him out in a snow storm.

We love him. What would we do without him!” Meanwhile, Boyle has gone ‘career’ and taken a job with the Waynesboro Fire Department.

Boyle came forward to present this year’s top award.

“I’m not a public spoken kind of guy,” Boyle began. “I hate to be in front of a crowd.

It’s been an honor to receive this award for the last two years and to hear, ‘That guy, he gives 110 percent!’

“This week has been a hard week. Dick Martin was like a father to me. It’s a great honor to be called his son.”

Handed the trophy to present, Boyle quipped, “That dude’s

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CROZETgazette

NOVEMBER 2015

Western’s Environmental Studies Academy Experiences Tremendous Growth

By Rebecca Schmitz becca@crozetgazette.com Big changes are underway at Western Albemarle’s Environmental Studies Academy. Now in its second year, the specialized academy— which is Western’s equivalent to the Math, Engineering and Science Academy at Albemarle High School and the Health and Medical Sciences Academy at Monticello High School—is adding a new classroom and greenhouse. The pre-fab greenhouse is being built by Winandy Greenhouse Company in Indiana and will be delivered at the end of November. The new classroom, designed by VMDO Architects in Charlottesville and being built by Mathers Construction of Waynesboro, will be ready for students to occupy when they come back from winter break. The two structures will attach to each other and form an “L” shape jutting out from the existing

ESA classroom.

The new space was part of the original plan for the ESA, which has doubled in size this year to 64 students. ESA Director Adam Mulcahy expects to add 40 to 50 students per year, for a total of 160-200 students when all four high school grades are represented. (Only freshmen were admitted the inaugural year, which means all four grades won’t be represented until the 2018-2019 school year.) Next year, 110 students, or 15 percent of the student body, are expected to enroll.

“We knew as we grew in strength we’d have to expand,” Mulcahy said. “We spent a lot of time discussing internally if there was any way to absorb the program into the school. But we didn’t have the internal space.

Each of the other academies [at Albemarle and Monticello] has an extra wing to their program, and we don’t have the space internally to do that. We knew if enrollment grew as antici-

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ESA student Ava DiVita samples macro-invertebrates to determine stream quality at South River. (Photo: Adam Mulcahy)

pated, we’d have to expand.”

“This was all supported and funded by the county and the School Board and the Board of Supervisors as a budget item.

We are grateful for their support,” he added.

The roughly 1,000 extra square feet of classroom space will house this year’s sophomores and, in future years, juniors and seniors too.

Freshmen—whose course of study focuses on the earth sciences, such as geography and geology—will remain in the current classroom. The new classroom will be about the same size and set-up as the current classroom, with flexible seating and ample space for students to work collaboratively.

Mulcahy said more space is “critical for this type of collaborative and lab-based learning.

You have the flexibility to be able to let students move around and work together in small groups. In a more traditional classroom, you’re almost forced to work tightly together in a big group because you don’t have the luxury of freedom we’ve been blessed with here.”

The greenhouse will be about 1,200 square feet. It is modeled after the University of Virginia’s greenhouse, which promotes a research-based field of plant study. Mulcahy said that many agriculture programs are more production-based, with a focus on the economics of growing and selling plants. “Our initial focus is more on the science behind it.” Students will have the space to design and carry

out their own research projects involving plant growth and maintenance. Once the ESA is at full capacity, Mulcahy said they hope to add a production bay, and students will able to choose which area interests them most, research or production. “That’s the dream—to have a greenhouse bay for both,” he says. The greenhouse will be positioned to optimize the sun.

“Since the majority of the time we’re in school is not the peak growing season, we need that southern exposure.”

Mulcahy and his students have worked hard since the ESA’s inception to make the most of the space they do have.

Using a grant to pay for materials and tanks, they transformed a little-used storage room outside the main classroom into a working “aqua lab.” They cleaned out the room and built shelves to hold fish tanks and other equipment. Last year’s senior art students painted the walls with vibrant images of sea life, including an orca, a sea turtle, and an octopus. ESA’s sophomores, who focus on biology, ecology, and horticulture, rotate “jobs” every three weeks. “The kids are in charge of taking care of all these tanks and monitoring everything. One group will record all the data and teach the next group the procedures. They look at the health of the fish and test the water quality. The room is designed for them to study, monitor, and learn about both the lifecycles and ecosystems of fresh and saltwater fish.

The little ecosystems they have

CROZETgazette

NOVEMBER 2015

15

Simon Radar, Cooper Lowe, Nathaniel Brawley-Magee, Evan Sposato, Dylan Bumgardner, and Eric Wilson (from left to right) prepare to build compost bins for the IRC New Roots program. (Photo: Adam Mulcahy)

in here are going to survive and thrive on their watch. They are actively involved as a portion of their learning,” Mulcahy said.

They have been creative in turning every available area around them into a makeshift classroom. “We gained a couple hundred feet that have added learning, just by transitioning from a hallway to a learning space,” Mulcahy said, referring to the hallway outside the classroom where students gather to grow and study plants. They meet in groups and take notes on whiteboards attached to the walls. Eventually the plants will move to the greenhouse, which will open up space in the hallway. “It’s great to have this flexibility,” Mulcahy says. “We have been able to move kids around and make messes and noise and think and build.”

The students also created a self-sustaining goldfish pond in the courtyard just outside, along with a waterfall and a pollinator garden. “The students eat lunch out here, they work together out here, and they are in charge of pruning and mulching it and keeping it nice and healthy.

What’s so valuable about this program is not just the curriculum, but the fact that the kids are really engaged. It really is their program,” Mulcahy said.

He noted that the students have put their knowledge to practical use to give back to the community. In October, “The freshmen helped winterize all the crop gardens at the International Rescue Committee in Charlottesville.

The kids were so excited when they finished because they felt so much pride, and they could

see the difference they made.

Because of the experiences these kids have, they’ll remember this kind of stuff. They’ve been really involved in the process of creating this academy.”

In the future, Mulcahy hopes to embark on other projects, such as terracing the hillside outside the classroom for gardens, so his students can learn about erosional control methods and how to grow on a variety of landscapes. He knows more learning space will be necessary and has planned for it.

Another classroom could be added on to the one that’s being built now.

The academy relies on grants, community support, and partnerships for many of its projects. One such project is a large aquaponics tank that gives students the opportunity for hands-on learning about growing plants without soil, using only mineral nutrient solutions in water. The project was funded by the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation.

“The more involvement we have from local businesses and nonprofit organizations, the better. I couldn’t do it without all their help,” Mulcahy said.

“One other big goal we have down the road is we want to give the students the opportunity for more mentorships and internships and job shadows.

Environmental studies is such a huge field.

“We’ve been blessed already with people in the community who want to help. The more people who can give the students these enriching opportunities, the better the whole model is.”

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CROZETgazette

NOVEMBER 2015

To the Editor continued from page 4

lines. I would especially like to thank Jim Barbour, Matt Smith, and Terry Hughes for all the time they’ve spent on planning and development, working with me to turn project requirements into reality. As our community-owned Crozet Park has grown and strengthened, so too has our partnership with ACPR under the leadership of Bob Crickenberger. This partnership is the cornerstone of so much of the progress we’ve been able to make these last few years at Crozet Park.

Our first effort at fundraising for the dog park came in the form of several “Pints for Pups” events held on the patio of Starr Hill Brewery in the spring and summer of 2014. We raised pints, dollars, and awareness of the dog park for the very first time. By the time we held our third and final event, “Cheers for Charity,” at Starr Hill in April of 2015, we had gathered funds, support and detailed input on the dog park (while also developing a more advanced knowledge of Starr

Hill’s fine brews!). Thank you to the team at Starr Hill Brewery for hosting these events and making so many of us with dogs in tow feel welcome. About a third of our total fundraising dollars came from Starr Hill’s “Pints for Pups” events, where they donated a dollar for every pint sold.

Thank you also to my colleagues and friends at the Charlottesville Albemarle SPCA, who helped me prepare for several of these fundraising events and then were kind enough to attend and show their support. I continue to be inspired by the SPCA’s mission and look forward to their continued support of state-wide efforts to build more areas for dogs to play.

The Starr Hill events and the resulting media coverage also triggered in-kind services, product donations, and additional funding. We are especially grateful to the Starr Hill Red Light Fund of the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation (CACF) that awarded Crozet Park a $10,000 matching challenge grant in June of 2015.

This funding came at a critical time in the project, allowing us

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to afford the installation all of the dog park’s fencing and gates.

Thank you to Ann Kingston and everyone at the Starr Hill Red Light Fund helping us make it happen.

Thank you to Yancey Mills Lumber for providing an immensity of mulch, doing so with a significant discount. This mulch was delivered to the dog park by W.A. Wells using two dump trucks rolling back and forth all day long. Thank you to the nursing team from the U.Va. Health System’s Department of Orthopaedics and Trauma, 6-East, who gave us an entire day of volunteering as part of the United Way Day of Caring. They spread many mountains of mulch throughout the dog park.

Thank you to Evergreen Fencing Company for installing all the fencing and gates at the dog park. Thank you to DoodyCalls, who will donate and install four mini-bag stations and over 22,000 bags!

DoodyCalls, headquartered in Charlottesville, is a national company providing homeowners and their communities with year-round professional pet waste removal.

To celebrate the “dog days of August,” the Crozet Dog Park was the sponsored charity at Fardowners. Throughout that month Fardowners donated 10 percent of food sales to anyone with a special dog park voucher.

Thank you W.C. and the entire team for continuing to support local projects.

On a more personal note, I’d like to thank my friend and colleague on the Park Board, Karl Pomeroy, whose devotion to this project was beyond compare. Karl was the liaison between ACPR and Crozet Park and, worked with all the ven-

dors hired by Crozet Park to coordinate services. Karl spent an incredible amount of time making sure every project detail was considered and completed.

He did all of this even though he doesn’t own a dog (though I give him updates on CvilleAlbemarle SPCA puppies and kittens in the hope of changing this some day!). Thank you, Karl. This project would have been far more challenging and a lot less fun if you hadn’t been involved.

And finally, thank you to all the many individual donors, some of whom donated more than once, to get this project off the ground. Donations came from around the County and beyond, and all added much needed energy and excitement.

As a community, we should be proud when the dog park opens—it adds one small component to the quality of life that we all enjoy in Crozet. But the work related to the dog park is not complete. We will look to future dog park users to form a group of volunteers to help set direction for the park and assist in maintenance. The dog park will need continued financial support for regular doses of mulch for the enclosed area and paths, plus fence maintenance and continued landscaping. For more information on how you can get involved, please visit: facebook.com/crozetdogpark and www.crozetdogpark.org.

Thanks to everyone for helping add this wonderful new amenity to Claudius Crozet Park! On December 5 bring your family and of course your dog, and join us for the grand opening starting at 10 a.m.

Kim Guenther President, Board of Directors Claudius Crozet Park

CROZETgazette 95 Years Young, The Woman’s Club of Crozet A very important group of women was tremendously involved in Crozet’s past. The Woman’s Club of Crozet organized in 1920 and joined the General Federation of Woman Clubs in 1929. The building on the corner of Jarmans Gap Road and Carter Street in downtown, still known as The Women’s Club to long-timers, was built by the club to be a meeting place for the community. Girl Scout meetings, the Well Baby Clinic, the first library for Crozet, Red Cross Blood Clinics, Lions Club meetings and special community occasions were held there, and it was for rent for wedding receptions, parties, dances, game nights, and club events.

At its peak in the ’60s and ’70s, the club had approximately 80 members. The national economy and the growing necessity for two

CVFD Awards —continued from page 13

worthless.” Then he turned earnest. “He steps up and he never fusses,” said Boyle. “It a great pleasure: Mike Rabin.”

Rabin, an airline pilot who is often away from home, accepted and thanked his wife for sup-

NOVEMBER 2015 incomes in families led to dwindling membership. The clubhouse was sold and members began meeting in members’ homes.

The club’s membership gives it the status of a “small club” in the 22-club Shenandoah District. We’d like to make the club active and vibrant again, undertaking community services for the betterment of Crozet.

A discussion in Crozet Library will be held in mid-November (TBA). A small sampling of the club’s illustrious past is on display in the Crozet Library showcase. We hope others will become a part of Crozet’s future through activities of The Woman’s Club of Crozet.

For more information, please contact Nancy Virginia Bain (823-4481) or Jo Anne Z. Perkins (823-4987).

17

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Jo Anne Perkins Crozet porting him as a firefighter.

“It’s been a pleasure to know everyone in the department,” he said. “I am truly honored and I look forward to continuing my service with you fine people.”

“It takes a team,” Gentry reminded the crowd as the awards wrapped up. “It’s not just one or two individuals.”

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The Crozet Trails Crew 5K inaugurated a kids’ run around the soccer field at Crozet Park as part of the 2015 event, which raises money to extend trails in Crozet.

Anderson Simmons, a first grader at Crozet Elementary School, came in first. The race winner among men was Steve Rosinski, who crossed the finish line with a time of 18:22, reclaiming a title he also held in 2013. Second was Mike Fox in 18:39.

First among women was Laura Brown in 23:03 and second was Allie Pesch in 24:07.

Winners have a trail bridge named for them. The event raises money to extend and maintain Crozet’s trails.

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CROZETgazette

NOVEMBER 2015

Brownsville Community Spreads Message of Hope & Happiness at “Kindness in Chalk” Event

By Rebecca Schmitz becca@crozetgazette.com Students and teachers arriving at Brownsville Elementary on October 9 were greeted by colorful, positive messages adorning the sidewalks surrounding the school’s entrance.

The messages were the work of more than 50 Brownsville parents, children, and teachers who had arrived at the school at 7 a.m., chalk in hand, in hopes of adding joy and smiles to the faces of everyone who entered the building.

The event was organized by Holly Grimm, who moved to Crozet from Minnesota last year and whose son Ansel is in kindergarten at Brownsville.

Grimm’s friend Nicki Brunner held the first Kindness in Chalk event in Minnesota last year to recognize October as National Bullying Awareness Month. She was inspired after witnessing the joy that her young daughter’s chalk sidewalk drawings brought to the faces of the peo-

ple walking by. Realizing that even something as small as a chalk sketch on a sidewalk could have a tremendously positive effect on someone’s day, Brunner began to spread the word on her blog, and the First Kindness in Chalk event was born. Seventy-five schools participated last year, and in 2015, that number increased to more than 250 schools. Locally, Brownsville Elementary and The Covenant School in Charlottesville participated.

After moving to Crozet, Grimm was eager to bring Kindness in Chalk to Brownsville. “It’s such a simple and fast thing—but it’s so impactful,” she said, wandering among the parents and children decorating the sidewalks with images of bees (the school mascot), flowers, rainbows, suns with beaming faces, and messages such as “You are awesome,” “BEE Friendly,” and “You are a BEE and BEEs are special!”

Principal India Haun believes

Holly Grimm organized the first Kindness in Chalk event at Brownsville Elementary in October.

the event was important to Brownsville because: “Anytime a community comes together to support one another and promote positive and supportive messages like the Kindness in Chalk event, the message is motivating for all involved. The activity built a bond so that we help one another every day.”

Jennifer Davis, who was decorating the sidewalks alongside her third-grade son Jackson, said she was there “to spread the message that bullying is not OK, through words of kindness and encouragement.” Like many at the event, she marveled

and the creativity and artistic talent of the Brownsville community and how enthusiastically the children had embraced the idea of spreading positive messages.

One look at the beaming faces of the teachers and students arriving at school that morning left no doubt that the event was a success. “The power an uplifting message can bring such as ‘You have super powers’ or ‘Smile, today is your day!’ are words that show everyone believes a child can do anything he or she sets their minds to,” Haun said.

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There was some firebrand revolutionary speechifying at The Field School during its annual Spirit Walk October 23 and 24. This year, rather than walking from downtown to the school, about a dozen campfires burned around the edges of the school grounds and at each students performed short skits describing characters and events from Albemarle’s Revolutionary War period. The large shadow cast by Thomas Jefferson was one theme. Here “George Gilmer” incites his fellow young men to form a company of soldiers. The boys assented by singing Yankee Doodle.

Another site showed Jack Jouett overhearing British plans to capture Jefferson.

One skit depicted Jefferson’s brief attempt at a public school, The Charlottesville Academy. For spirit walkers, there was beef stew at the end of the history tour.

CROZETgazette

NOVEMBER 2015

19

ort hod ox y

Celebrating Thanksgiving Every Sunday Eucharist, from Greek eukharistia ‘thanksgiving.’

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The Joy of Hiking Last month I interviewed Melissa Miller to get some perspective on Boot Camp and group exercise classes as an avenue to lasting fitness. We all struggle with finding the time and energy to get into a regular fitness routine. Often the answer is finding a path that really resonates with us and inspires us to pursue it with passion. This month, I want to explore another great local path to fitness, hiking.

I still am amazed how many people who live in Crozet have not yet explored nearby gems like Shenandoah National Park, the Appalachian Trail, Sugar Hollow, and Mint Springs Valley Park. We have these amazing mountain sanctuaries in our backyard and exploring them by foot is not only mentally relaxing and rewarding, but offers great physical benefits as well.

For this topic, I interviewed a friend of mine, Buddy Johnson.

I first met Buddy Johnson at a local 30-mile mountain ultra-marathon. Buddy was 62 years old then, putting out a steady pace of hiking and running up and down the mountain. Meanwhile his wife Genie was sitting at the finish line drinking beer and cracking everyone up. I knew these were special people.

Friendship with Buddy on Facebook has benefitted me greatly, as Buddy regularly posts beautiful pictures of his mountain surroundings in his hometown of Lexington with simple taglines such as “Mornin’” or “Evenin’” perfectly describing a foggy country sunrise or a clear expansive sunset. He also posts pictures from his extensive hiking past, including the entire Appalachian Trail.

JA: Where did you grow up and how/when did you get into hiking?

Buddy Johnson: I grew up in Lexington, and as a child I developed an appreciation for

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outdoor activities going places with my dad. I went to JMU for college, and being so near Shenandoah National Park really added to my growing passion for the woods. Trail maps and guidebooks soon became the main part of my free time reading.

After graduation I started off with day hikes. When doing my day hikes, I reached a point where I didn’t want to turn around and come home, and this is when the idea of long distance backpacking first emerged and of course somehow that led to the idea of “why not hike the entire 2,179-mile Appalachian Trail?”

JA: When did you finally hike the entire AT? BJ: 2002. I was finally ready to bite the bullet and make the ultimate hike from Georgia to Maine, and this culminated with a picture-perfect summit day on Mount Katahdin in Maine.

JA: Lessons learned?

BJ: Prior to hiking the AT, I had numerous miscues on some of my longer hikes and overnights, ranging from wrong turns to packing way too much weight. After much trial and error, I reduced my pack weight from 40 lbs. to 28, which consisted of just a sleeping bag, small tent, two liters of water, and four days of food.

Also, I was running a lot when I first started long-distance hiking. I thought, “If I can run 8-10 miles before work, I should easily be able to hike 15-20 miles during an entire

continued on page 38

823-2132

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Tabor Presbyterian Church (USA) Worship Service Sundays • 10:30 a.m.

FOLLOWED BY FELLOWSHIP Rev. Dr. Jewell-Ann Parton, Pastor Children’s Special Christmas Eve Christmas Reading Family Communion Service Sunday, December 20 • 10:30 a.m.

Thursday, December 24 • 5 p.m.

Traditional in worship, Progressive in outreach, Inclusive of All

Crozet Cares Schedule

An Outreach of Tabor Presbyterian Church All Events are in the Pickford-Chiles Fellowship Hall Unless Otherwise Noted

Embodied Mindfulness Workshop November 21 • 1 -4 p.m.

$25.00. Curious about yoga or meditation? Join Kara Snapp, Yoga Therapist, for a workshop in Embodied Mindfulness. No prior experience necessary.

To register, contact Kara at 434-906-5467 or kara.inwardbound@gmail.com.

Check out www.kara-snapp.squarespace.com for more information.

Crozet Community Handbell Choir Holiday Concert Sunday, December 6 • 4 p.m.

Enjoy varied styles of Christmas pieces performed on handbells.

Refreshments provided.

The Crozet Quilters Art Gallery Opening & Quilt Raffle Gallery Opening: December 12 • 3 - 5 p.m.

Raffle Tickets: $5 each

The Crozet chapter of the Charlottesville Area Quilter’s Guild (CAQG) will be showing their quilts in our gallery for the months of December and January. A twin-sized quilt will be raffled, with the proceeds benefitting Tabor Presbyterian Church. Tickets available through members of CAQG or members of Tabor Presbyterian Church. Or contact the church directly: 434-823-4255. The Gallery opening will be held December 12, 2015, 3 - 5 p.m. Raffle will be held the last day of January and the winner will be contacted.

Combined Orchestra Concert

Nelson County and Crozet Community Orchestras Saturday, December 12 • 6 p.m.

Also featuring the Crozet Community Handbell Choir!

At Crozet Baptist Church, 5804 St George Avenue.

Combined Choir Christmas Cantata Sunday, December 13 • 3 p.m.

At Crozet Baptist Church, 5804 St George Avenue. “Behold the Star,” a Christmas Journey to the Light of Christ by Lloyd Larson, is blend of narration and familiar carols sung by area church choirs. A Christmas Cantata not to be missed!

For more information visit

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Tabor Presbyterian Church

5804 Tabor Street • Crozet www.taborpc.org • 434-823-4255

20

CROZETgazette

NOVEMBER 2015

John Kelly —continued from page 7

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tion of the replacement Blue Ridge Tunnel in 1944. It’s now part of the Blue Ridge Tunnel Greenway in Nelson County.)

“It was fortunate that we were enable to continue the work in both tunnels,” Claudius Crozet wrote to the Board, “for there is no doubt that the most dangerous point of the roof in the main one would not have stood much longer, and the fall of the timbers might have been followed by so much of the loose rock as might have made the completion of this part of the work almost impossible.

The arch at that point was closed safely a few days ago . . .”

Sometime around January 1857, stonemasons installed a spectacular arch over the west portal of the Blue Ridge Tunnel.

It was a “handsome and massive piece of masonry,” according to the Richmond Daily Dispatch, and topped with a carved, stone plaque. “This work was constructed by the Commonwealth of Virginia,” the inscription began. “It was commenced in 1850 Under the Direction of the Board of Public Works.” A list of seven names followed, including those of the governor, Claudius Crozet, his former assistant engineer on the Blue Ridge Railroad, and state officials. In light of earlier praise, and considering that John Kelly and John Larguey had expended money out of pocket for that very stonework, the omission of

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Greenway to the east portal of the Blue Ridge Tunnel, May 2015. Courtesy of Trevor Wrayton and VDOT.

their names on the plaque was odd, indeed.

In September 1857, the Virginia Central assumed control of portions of the Blue Ridge Railroad that it considered safe and complete. Under criticism from a hostile press for the many delays, a weary Claudius Crozet resigned in January 1858. Three months later, the Virginia Central took complete control of the Blue Ridge Railroad, and it opened for business. Work on the Blue Ridge Tunnel was by no means final, however. Some of the Irish laborers continued as employees of the Virginia Central, chipping or blasting away rocky protrusions. An Irishman named Branaman died in the passage on June 8, 1859. Cork man Mick Hurley perished from an explosion that same day.

John Kelly’s job in Albemarle and Nelson Counties was now complete. He followed the railroad west to Alleghany County, where the underfunded Covington and Ohio Railroad was inching east toward Covington with six tunnels.

One of them would be the eponymous Kelly’s Tunnel, a then-single-track passage located at a place called Backbone. A number of Kelly’s Blue Ridge Railroad workers traveled with him to this lonesome ridge, living in twenty-six dwellings— most likely shanties—with their families. They completed all blasting and masonry work on Kelly’s Tunnel before the Civil War began.

In 1862, Kelly purchased Sweet Chalybeate Springs resort in southern Alleghany for $100,000. He raised livestock on 2,950 acres there while he sat out the Civil War with his wife, Hanorah, and seven children. According to a family Bible, their eighteen-year-old son, Dennis, was killed, perhaps in battle, on May 9, 1864. Some of the Irishmen who followed Kelly to Alleghany enlisted in the Confederate Army when the war began, but his views regarding the conflict are unclear. We know only that he stored more than 7,000 pounds of tobacco at Sweet Chalybeate Springs for a possible Union sympathizer; a Union general commandeered it mid-war.

Kelly’s biographer found him to be a “wise and thoughtful man,” though a feud with

CROZETgazette

NOVEMBER 2015

21

LOCAL MUSIC LOCAL FOOD LOCAL VIBE

Main building at Sweet Chalybeate Springs, 1933. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Virginia-born Oliver Beirne, the wealthy owner of Sweet Springs Resort one mile away, began around this time. Local lore maintains that when the new state of West Virginia was laying out its borders, Beirne convinced surveyors to run the line between the two resorts so that he would not have to live in the same state as John Kelly.

The Civil War disrupted all work on Virginia’s rail route to the Ohio. The last spike was finally pounded in 1873. By this time, the state had reimbursed Kelly and Company for expenditures they had made for the Brooksville and Blue Ridge Tunnels through February 1856. But for money they spent from then until the project was complete, the state repaid with bonds still below stated value.

In 1873, Virginia made a partial payment of $10,491.97, including interest, to John Larguey’s estate (Larguey died in 1858) and to John Kelly.

The money may have given John Kelly the impetus for still more railroad work. He returned to his former milieu in 1873 and contracted for six sections of the Valley Railroad north of Staunton. He applied the same energy to Sweet Chalybeate Springs as well, making improvements to what his biographer described as “one of the most popular watering places and delightful summer resorts in the whole Southern country.” John Kelly—mill worker, bridge builder, tunnel-maker, self-made man—was now a successful hotelier.

An astute businessman, Kelly

never forgot that the state still owed him money for repayments made with bonds below par. Exerting the same force of personality that saved the Blue Ridge Tunnel, he sued the Virginia Board of Public Works in 1881. He won, and the General Assembly paid him $15,000, including interest, in 1884. Kelly also had the last word, after a fashion, in the quarrel with Oliver Beirne. The only Catholic cemetery in the area lay on Beirne’s Sweet Springs property in West Virginia. John Kelly was paralyzed, likely by a stroke, in early 1887. In mid-May, he suffered severe burns. Both led to his death on July 4, 1887. Kelly’s interment in the Catholic cemetery forced Oliver Beirne to endure the Irishman’s postmortem presence until his own demise one year later, at which time Beirne was buried ten miles away.

A few buildings at Sweet Chalybeate Springs still stand, as does the Blue Ridge Tunnel.

Though all are somewhat worse for the wear 160 years later, they are reminders of the determined John Kelly who rescued the tunnel with, as his biographer put it, “skills, stability, and workmanship,” along with “honest industry and practical economy.”

Mary E. Lyons is the author of The Blue Ridge Tunnel: A Remarkable Engineering Feat in Antebellum Virginia (The History Press 2014) and The Virginia Blue Ridge Railroad (The History Press 2015).

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CROZETgazette

NOVEMBER 2015

inthegarden@crozetgazette.com

The Mysterious Disappearance of the Gardener’s Truck Anyone who has gardened for a while is confronted with the need for a proper vehicle to schlepp plants, mulch, garden debris, etc. Having personally used almost everything except for a minivan, let me share some insights on gardening vehicles.

You may well have noticed a lot of old “cute little trucks” still on the road. One hopes that they’ll last forever, because all manufacturers selling trucks in the U.S. have abandoned the compact truck market. Trucks have been super-sized, chromed-up, and made powerful enough to tow your house— and are almost as large. So what’s the home-gardener to do?

I don’t think that anybody is actually going to go out and buy a family sedan for gardening, but my Camry was the first car I pressed into service. One slight advantage to most sedans: you can fold the back seat down and get a level surface that you might not care too much about getting dirty. And larger plants can stand up in the foot wells.

Assuming that you don’t fold

those seats down, that is.

Moving on to a more realistic solution, SUVs can serve pretty well for gardening purposes.

Put all the seats down, and you have a lot of room for perennials and annuals. Or you can even lay smaller trees and shrubs down on their sides and put them in the cargo area.

It may not look very macho, but a minivan can haul a lot of plants, especially if you wrestle the seats out. One advantage to all of the above vehicles: your plants are enclosed, so there’s no need to throw a tarp over them to prevent the wind from tearing them to pieces.

But when you get down to it, sooner or later most gardeners want a truck, and finding the right one can be tricky. My first truck was a Ford F-150 purchased in the late nineties.

(Please note: I’m mentioning brands only to provide information, not as any kind of endorsement.) This was a second vehicle, so it didn’t have to serve as my grocery-getter in crowded parking lots. Since I was then working as a gardener, I wanted plenty of room for tools and mulch, so I ordered the long eight-foot bed. The truck only

had a standard cab, however, so no room for people or large stuff behind the seats. My truck was merely long, not gargantuan, and it did its job well.

Skip to several years later. I was no longer in the gardening biz, and the Ford truck had gone by the wayside. But as an active home gardener, I was again feeling the need for a truck. This time I opted for a 2007 Toyota Tacoma. Once again, just a standard cab, and only a six-foot bed behind. It could haul a lot of yard debris and about a yard and a half of mulch. One slight drawback: the four-cylinder engine did not have a lot of punch when you were loaded up. After five years and only about 16,000 miles, I traded in my Toyota creampuff, for reasons that are not now abundantly clear even to me.

And sure enough, soon I was missing having a truck in my arsenal. Isn’t hindsight wonderful?

So the search began again.

New trucks don’t come cheap, so we started looking for a used one. Our constraints made the process difficult, however. We have no need to haul more than two people in a truck, so any kind of extra cab was potentially a waste. Crew cabs with four full-sized doors steal valuable space from the bed area.

Extended cabs let you keep the six-foot cargo bed, but add jump seats that convert to an enclosed cargo area. Possibly useful at times, but it adds length. Although we ideally wanted to restrict our search to regular cabs, broadening our scope to extended cabs gave us a lot more to look at.

We initially looked only for Toyotas, but later added the Ford Ranger to give us more

options. Looking over a large radius, we did find what appeared to be a lot of trucks that met our criteria. But then the grim reality of the situation began to sink in. Toyota trucks have a great reputation for reliability, so older ones still command a high price. Spending $7,000 to $12,000 for a truck with about a hundred thousand miles seems like a lot of money for a vehicle when you really have no idea how the prior owner(s) took care of it. Then again, you can go to a “respectable” new car dealer who proceeds to show you a truck that still has a big dent in the door and reeks of cigarette smoke.

And supposedly somebody wants to buy it As-Is, so they’re not going to deal(?!)

So, we took a look at a junker truck, a 1997 Tacoma with over 200,000 miles, but listing for only $2,999. Looked good for its age, and the “nice young man” owner had recently replaced the clutch. Still, what’s going to happen next? Expensive repairs could be just around the corner. If you want to give yourself something else to worry about, older vehicles don’t have all the safety features of newer models. Sure, you might not be driving it a lot, but who wants to gamble on your next accident. Ultimately, we swallowed hard and bought a new truck, under full warranty and with all the latest safety gizmos.

So, if you already own an old compact truck and know its repair history, it may make sense to hang on to it forever. And perhaps the rest of us should start a letter-writing campaign to manufacturers, pleading for the return of the sensible Gardener’s Truck. A Martha Stewart Edition, perhaps?

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CROZETgazette

NOVEMBER 2015

23

TRICK-OR-TREAT, CROZET!

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GHOSTBUSTERS SLI ME TRYING TO GET AUDREY HEPBURN (PHOTO: HEIDI SONE N)

24

CROZETgazette

NOVEMBER 2015

MEN’S HEALTH

by Ryan Smith, MD

Celebrating Movember

fresh air ed t s a t r e v ne

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O s & Sunday aturdays, Fridays, S until 11/22 M 10AM – 5P

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Happy “Movember” for those of you who take advantage of this month’s celebration of men’s health by growing facial hair. This is a great time to review some of the many ways that men can take control of their health.

No matter your age, it’s important for you to know your stats and keep track of key health numbers. For most men, your body mass index (BMI), waistline, blood pressure, cholesterol (LDL and HDL), and blood glucose (sugar) are key statistics to recognize and track over time. By keeping tabs on these and ensuring they remain within a healthy range, men can lower their risks of heart disease, diabetes, and stroke.

How else can you look after your health? One way is by having a conversation with your family. Our genes can influence the risk of developing some forms of cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and mental health problems. Knowing your family history helps you to know your individual risks. As men, we generally avoid going to the doctor unless the bleeding just won’t stop. Many diseases are preventable or treatable in their early stages so don’t wait, take action early and see your doctor.

Remember the saying “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” There are preventive measures that can minimize your risks of developing common chronic diseases. One of those is staying at a healthy weight. The CDC recently released data that shows that more than one-third of Americans and 28 percent of Virginians are obese! A growing waistline and BMI can increase your risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. How can we manage our weight? Diet and exercise are the mainstays of therapy and you don’t need a prescription for them. Start with eating a healthy diet. There are a lot of distracting fads in diets these days. One thing that hasn’t changed over time is the recommendation for eating a

well-balanced diet with an abundance of fruits, vegetables and fresh, local foods. What we take into our bodies is manifested in what we get out of them. Exercise is crucial in maintaining a healthy weight and every little bit counts. Start out with small goals and try to stay active throughout the day with small moves like taking the stairs, opting for a lunchtime walk or run and standing rather than sitting.

Don’t neglect your mental health. Reduce stress by taking time to do something you enjoy.

Exercise can also release endorphins that help balance your mood and reduce stress. Your efforts to reduce stress can be facilitated by getting plenty of sleep. The quality of your sleep can influence your appetite, metabolism and risks of illness.

Finally, limit your risks by avoiding common health pitfalls, like smoking.

Lastly I want to call men’s attention to the Virginia Institute for Men’s Health at U.Va. We have been fortunate in our community to have had an international leader in men’s health. The Virginia Institute for Men’s Health is the work of William Steers, who was the long-time chairman of the Department of Urology, a friend and supporter of our community and a wonderful mentor.

Dr. Steers passed away suddenly this year after battling cancer.

He has too many accolades to include here, but he gave his life to making this community a fitter and healthier place. He and Mark Lorenzoni were instrumental in establishing the Men’s Four Miler more than 11 years ago, which has been renamed this year in Dr. Steer’s honor. I would encourage all of you, as you are considering these lifestyle changes, to join us in honoring his life and the gift it was to this community. Come out to Scott Stadium and support men’s health on November 8th for the Bill Steers Men’s Four Miler. Do it for yourself and for your loved ones because waiting is just not an option.

CROZETgazette

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Crozet

Weather Almanac

OCTOBER 2015

By Heidi Sonen & Roscoe Shaw | weather@crozetgazette.com

Fall Colors Come to an End The last week of October is generally peak color in Crozet, and now that November has arrived, we are rapidly going bare and colorless. So sad! But it happens every year with remarkable consistency. Heidi and I especially enjoy watching the color turn first on Buck’s Elbow, elevation 3000 ft. This starts in early October and peaks midmonth. At the bottom of the mountain at our house, elevation 800 feet, everything happens about two weeks later.

Actually, the main trigger for changing color is the length of daylight, not temperature change. Less sunlight causes the

trees to produce less chlorophyll. The yellows and red of autumn are actually present in the leaves all year but are hidden by the green from chlorophyll production. As the green fades, the fall color is revealed.

Although daylight is the primary driver, certain weather events can harm the fall color.

Drought can cause the leaves to fall early. So can an early frost.

Wind just plain knocks the leaves off the trees. So does rain.

The best scenario is a moist growing season followed by a dry, sunny fall without frost or high winds or driving rain.

October Recap October started wet and ended wet but was dry and pleasant most of the month.

After 11 days of consecutive rain ended on October 5, we had 20 days with almost no rain. Frost nipped the low lying areas on the 18th, 19th and 20th and we got as low as 28 degrees at our house. Afternoons were still mostly warm with temperatures over 70 half of the days. A few days made the low 80s.

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CROZETgazette

NOVEMBER 2015

Robert Sims, Defensive Back; Osiris Crutchfield, Defensive End; Matthew Mullin, Inside Linebacker

The Defenders

By Jerry Reid jerry@crozetgazette.com Crozet Crazies at a recent football game.

Crozet Crazies

By Jerry Reid jerry@crozetgazette.com Everywhere across the country, when the lights come up on Friday night, the student faithful come out in droves to cheer their football teams on, win, lose or draw. They form Pep Bands out of their marching units, pick a name (or names) for their group, paint their faces and dress in the school colors or theme night regalia in the stands.

Western Albemarle High School Homecoming games stand alone as a cheering opportunity because alumni and students alike attend, making that night very special. And there are always rivalry home games, great for amping up the noise and chants, as the WAHS Fanatics, also known as the Crozet Crazies, exhort their team to victory.

Warriors’ supporters are no different in many respects from fans at hundreds of high schools, but they certainly represent the high end of energy when they get into their Friday night gear. School spirit on the campus in Crozet includes a Pep Band that gets the group moving with songs and drum rolls. The Western group, honoring parents and grandparents in the stands, proves that music from the ’60s still has a life,

playing Hey, Baby by Bruce Channel. The song, a one-hit wonder for Channel, was number one in March of 1962.

Seniors Nicole Herget and Chris Hughes are just two of many Western students who can’t wait for the gates to open for football games. Hughes is the leader of the Fanatics pack for this year, while Herget is completely thrilled to be a part of the festivities.

“Personally, I just really thought being a WAHS Fanatic was fun because everybody at our school really gets into it. It’s just a really fun atmosphere; you just feel the school spirit when you come in the stadium,” she said.

“Honestly, I think we have one of the best student sections in the whole District. We have chants for the offense and defense that really get them going, as well as our rowdy one, which is “r-o-w-d-y,” she explained, adding “and we do the song Hey, Baby.” That one really gets the crowd going and is awesome fun.”

Herget who has participated in the Western Dance Team program, hopes to go to college next year, looking at possibilities to attend Alabama, Tennessee and others. But her memory bank will be full of memories of friends, camaradecontinued on page 36

Wrapping up the Jefferson District Championship before the final game against Albemarle this Friday at home, the Western Warriors showed their trademark resilience and dogged determination in a 30-13 win over rival Charlottesville High School on their turf. They are 8-1 and 6-0 in the district, and this is their third title in the last four years.

The game wasn’t as close as the final score indicated, with Coach Ed Redmond liberally substituting late in the fourth quarter, giving the Black Knights a shot at scoring their last points of the night. This solid win was put together without Sam Hearn again. Substitute quarterback Henry Kreienbaum, a starter for most other teams, did a great job, but he rolled an ankle, putting him on the sidelines for a tape and wrap job. Derek Domecq, the next man up, did a good job until Kreienbaum eventually returned to take snaps. Speaking of injuries, lineman Mark Henley was seen walking gingerly with an ice pack on his right ankle.

The defense was outstanding, and the offense solid on the ground. With only the occasional sweep to the edge producing some long touchdowns so far this season, the Warriors’ interior defensive game usually stops every rushing attempt by an opponent. Two seniors, Osiris Crutchfield and Matt Mullin, are large parts of making the middle of the line simi-

lar to the Bermuda Triangle— you shouldn’t go there because it usually doesn’t get positive results.

Crutchfield is an impressive package of abilities, and takes up a lot of turf in Coach Ed Redmond’s schemes and plays.

His brother, Noah, is a junior and has put some good hits on those daring to run. Osiris said he started “playing when I was eight years old.” He doesn’t know whether he chose it or it chose him because of his obvious size and build for the game.

He did, however, fall in love with the game early on. And other sports, such as Lacrosse, were in his peripheral also.

For someone of his specs, basketball, a non-conflicting sports, is a fit. He has already put in two years on the court.

As far as playing this year, it’s “up in the air right now, due to certain things college-wise, but, yeah.” He would like to play with the round ball, but he’s being looked at by colleges, and injuries could be a problem.

“I think Western’s a great community of people who really come together. There’s a system around us where you can go out and hang out with friends. The teachers are special, and you get a great education where you get a step up on life,” he said firmly. “I think we win a lot of games because we trust each other. We do a lot of things together, we all have the same challenges to go through, and that common bond is there.”

His parents, Jason and Eve, are inspirations for him every day, and being on the same continued on page 37

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Field Hockey Seniors: Alexandra Douvas, Eliza Brody, Peyton Hughes, Genevieve Repich, Isabel Freisitzer, Hannah Plantz, Lily Stoke, Dylan Wright, and Olivia Markopoulos. (Photo: Jack Masloff)

Field Hockey Trounces the Rest of the Conference

By David Wagner david@crozetgazette.com Outscoring their opponents 51-4 over 19 games, the Western Albemarle varsity field hockey team finished the regular season in strong fashion, including wins over Powhatan and cross-county rival Albemarle High School.

Western’s eight seniors were recognized for their efforts as the Warriors faced the Powhatan Indians October 13. In their previous Jefferson District match-up at Powhatan High School, the Warriors escaped with a 1-0 victory. Senior Night in Crozet was a different story.

Western started slow and Powhatan appeared to be poised for the upset, but the Warriors would have none of it. Western won 3-0 behind goals from seniors Olivia Markopoulos and Hannah Plantz, along with one from junior Madison Masloff.

Senior goalie Genna Repich and a stout Western defense kept their District shutout run intact.

A week later the Warriors

traveled to Albemarle High School to face the Patriots. It was senior night at AHS this time, and again Western was facing a team they previously beaten 1-0. The game stayed scoreless into the second half.

But late in the game, on a short corner, junior Valerie Hajek of Western came up with a huge goal to give the Warriors the go-ahead score. Hajek scored the only goal in the two teams’ previous meeting, too. Western held on for the win, extending their unbeaten, shutout Jefferson District win streak to 10 games. The Warriors finished the regular season with wins over Charlottesville and Orange County to claim the regular season crown. They went into the Conference 22 playoffs with moxie and confidence.

In the playoffs Western Albemarle cruised through the first two rounds behind their strong defense and opportunistic offense. They beat Culpeper 4-0 in the quarterfinals and Fauquier 3-0 in the semi-finals

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CROZETgazette

NOVEMBER 2015

By John Andersen, DVM gazettevet@crozetgazette.com

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In my 13 years of practice, I’ve never once had an animal talk to me. If only they could talk, my job would be so much easier! And your job, as the pet owner, would be so much easier!

So much of the evaluation of a “sick” animal is trying to figure out just how sick the dog or cat is. Did your dog not eat this morning because he just feels a little nauseated because he ate a bunch of mulch yesterday? Or is he not eating because he has a plastic knife in his stomach that’s about to perforate? Is your cat peeing outside of the box because she is stressed out? Or is it because she’s got a terrible, burning urinary tract infection?

Reading the history and clinical signs for these answers is really more judgment and experience vs. science, and we certainly learn from cases that did not go well.

I can remember the cat who wasn’t eating and was lethargic, who in the end died because she ate tons of strings she got from unraveling the undercover of the owner’s box spring.

I’ll never forget the dog who did have a plastic knife in his stomach. It didn’t show up on an x-ray because it’s plastic. And the dog was eating, even though the knife had poked through his stomach (gotta love Labs!). If only he would’ve told us.

Or how about the outdoor cats who come home limping with a wound or broken leg?

We’ll never know what happened. Or the dog who had diarrhea all over the house— he’ll usually never tell us what he got into, but we know it was something.

In the end, when we see dogs and cats who are sick or injured, but are still not speaking English, we work them up.

Somehow, someway, we usually will get our answers.

Sometimes the owners have all the answers. They know their

pet like the back of their hand and can give a list of details as to what possibly could have happened. Other clients need some gentle direction: “So how long has Maggie been vomiting for?”

“A while.”

“Hmmm, like a day, or a week?”

“A pretty long time.”

“So again, the exact first time you saw her vomit was when?”

“Yesterday”…

I wish I could say this was an exaggerated conversation. But of course most people are pretty sharp and quickly join in the detective work.

“Rusty didn’t eat breakfast this morning, and in the eight years I’ve owned him, he has never once missed a meal. I am really worried about him.” Yeah, I’d be worried about that one too.

That is very different from: “Rusty didn’t eat breakfast this morning, but he’s not a big eater, and sometimes randomly doesn’t eat for a day.” We’ll need some more information on that one.

When we’ve finished getting a detailed history from the owners, we turn to the pets. In the case of some pets, especially ones who come to the vet regularly, we get to know their personalities and can tell that something is wrong: “Oh my, Maxie always jumps up on me when I come into the exam room and she’s just lying on the floor. She must be feeling really sick.”

Some pets we don’t know well and don’t have a baseline to describe their current energy level against: “Is your dog always this calm at the vet?”

Most dogs and cats, believe it or not, are very calm and polite at the vet. Even in normal health, they typically hold still and let us examine them head to tail. Sometimes when we are getting close to a sore or painful

continued on page 38

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29

Barnes

—continued from page 1

the highest ground in downtown. Byrd said his plan placed the town square on the east side of the street in order to create a same-size companion commercial block to The Square.

Stoner said that the Virginia Department of Transportation insists on a “continuous road” through the parcel and that “a block system is not considered continuous.” This rather flabbergasted CCAC members who brought up examples of existing roads in Crozet that make 90-degree turns, such as nearby Park Road and Hilltop Street.

VDOT will require a traffic study for the development and is currently establishing the technical requirements for the study to answer.

Stoner also raised parking as a long-term issue that needs a plan, but said that surface lots could accommodate parking needs for Phase 1.

The new block, which he called the “digestible portion” of the property, would have 78,000 square feet of building space on 4.5 acres. He said his

plan now is to go to the county next year for approval for that phase and have it rezoned and added to the Downtown Crozet District.

“I like that you develop the commercial end first,” said CCAC member Phil Best. “I celebrate that.”

Phase 2 would build a road

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from the new block east to connect with Hilltop Street and Phase 3 would later add a parallel road that extends Library Avenue to also connect to Hilltop Street.

The Downtown Crozet Initiative, a planning group formed by Stoner, has created a website where the public can follow planning for the project and review earlier versions of

development proposals. Visit it at www. downtowncrozetinitiative.com.

CCAC chair Jennie More reported to the group that after his presentation to the CCAC in September, Piedmont Place developer Drew Holzwarth revisited his plan and found a way to add four parking spaces to the project, bringing its total to 32.

Field Hockey

ship game the Warriors expected a tough contest against George Mason. Western’s defense met the test but Mason’s defense was just as impressive. At the end of regulation the Warriors and Patriots were tied at 0-0. The game went to double overtime before the Warriors won on a goal by Masloff.

Western field hockey is 16-3 overall and 12-0 in the Jefferson District going into the championship contests.

—continued from page 27

before facing the George Mason Patriots. With Repich in the goal, seniors Lily Stoke and Dylan Wright shored up a very stingy Warrior defense. On offense, the Warriors were led by with Markopoulos, Plantz, Hajek, Masloff, Hanah Weyer, Genevieve Russell and Joie Funk.

In the conference champion-

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Foxes, Skunks, Coyotes, & Raccoons, Oh My! And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.”

[Genesis 1:24] But man does not necessarily agree. In fact, he finds many of God’s creations to be so pestiferous, especially if they go after his livestock, that he has coined a word to describe them: “vermin.”

Even our state wildlife department refers to some kinds of mammals as “nuisance and problem wildlife,” even though part of its mission statement reads that this agency exists “to provide educational outreach programs and materials that foster an awareness of and appreciation for Virginia’s fish and wildlife resources [and] their habitats.”

Indeed, the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (DGIF) should not be employing words, such as “nuisance” and “problem wildlife” that carry the connotation that certain animals exist solely to vex mankind. On the contrary, God created every living organism on Earth to support mankind’s very existence!

You can know this statement is true by simply examining the order in which God brought about his creations.Everything came before mankind, which makes sense.

So why does man insult his Creator by implying that some of the Lord’s creations are anything but “good”? Usually this attitude is the result of a lack of knowledge regarding the functions of wildlife in the natural world.

For example, consider the red and the gray fox, as well as the eastern coyote. These mammals will take chickens and/or their eggs, and lambs if they can get to them.

Predators exist for the express purpose of limiting the populations of other kinds of animals.

By doing so, they make possible the perpetuation of all species of life (including plants) on Earth by not allowing one particular kind to overwhelm the limited resources of the environment.

Predators were not given the ability to comprehend that man’s farm animals are off-limits to them. Man is the one who was endowed with the ability to think about how to coexist with the other critters that share this planet.

Additionally, he was given the proper anatomy to be able to physically act upon whatever actions his thought processes tell him he must perform— humans have opposable thumbs.

Opposable thumbs allow people to grasp objects so they can build the structures necessary to keep out predators and keep in their vulnerable animals. In other words, chickens and their eggs, and sheep giving birth, need to be inside structures that protect them from predation.

The problem is that even though people have the brains and the thumbs to keep farm animals safe, their initiative to take action falls far short of the motivation of predators to go after livestock. Thus they often take the easy route of just killing off predators, something DGIF currently and wrong-headedly encourages with coyotes.

Instead, DGIF should educate farmers about the necessity of predators in the environment. For example, it’s precisely because we lack large predators that we have overpopulations of White-tailed Deer and Canada Geese.

If farmers own too many animals to protect by way of structures, an alternative is to employ large guard dogs or llamas to protect their livestock. In fact, llamas are a common sight now in Highland County, Virginia,

Although the Common Raccoon is often thought of as a “pest”, a family of raccoons is fun to watch.“Mom” peeks out from a wildlife box (about 30 feet from the author’s kitchen door) that has often been used by screech owls.

The sow’s two kits were playing on top.

(Photo credit: Marlene A. Condon)

where I hear there are more sheep than people!

And it should go without saying that babies, young children, cats, and small dogs should never be left alone where predators—including the human kind—roam.

The striped skunk (found in the eastern half of Virginia) and the common raccoon are often considered “nuisance and problem wildlife.” Because skunks and raccoons feed upon ground-nesting birds and their eggs in the wild, they will also feed upon chickens and their eggs if the farmer hasn’t taken the proper precautions to keep his fowl safe.

But in addition to their role of limiting the numbers of birds in the wild, skunks and raccoons also fulfill other important roles in nature, such as preying upon insects or their larvae, such as grubs, which are the immature forms of beetles.

The function of a grub is to feed upon dead plant roots that need to be recycled so they don’t take up precious space that another plant could use. But if the number of grubs becomes too high, the grubs will run out of dead roots and by necessity start feeding upon the roots of living plants in order to survive.

This kind of feeding could be harmful to live plants.

By digging up grubs in the soil, skunks and raccoons limit their numbers so that the immature beetles don’t run out of their preferred food. Thus the mammals help the plants to remain healthy so they can perpetuate themselves.

Yet instead of accepting the free assistance of skunks and raccoons, people usually complain about their digging, even

though the dug-out soil is easy to push back into the holes the animals made. When folks refuse to let these mammals do their job, they cause the grubs to increase in number and thus become problematic for their plants. Then people spend time and money to apply pesticides that are quite harmful to the environment, unlike the skunks and raccoons whose “harm” is only aesthetic and temporary in nature.

Even organic pesticides, such as Bt and Milky Spore Disease, are detrimental to the proper functioning of the environment. In addition to killing the nonnative grubs of Japanese beetles that are a big concern for folks, these pesticides also kill native scarab beetles that are closely related to Japanese beetles.

The purpose of pesticides is to kill as many animals as possible, but it’s never appropriate to wipe out native animals of any sort—they are here for a reason!

This statement is true even if you believe all species are the result of evolution instead of God. No matter the origin of life, every wild critter fulfills several functions.

It’s important to recognize this truism, especially if you do believe in God. Otherwise, you insult your Maker by implying that you know better than He does about how the environment should function, and you show disrespect by destroying his creatures instead of coexisting with them when you should.

“Should” refers to situations in which the animals are not really causing harm, such as when skunks and raccoons make holes in the lawn or garden, or when you are responsible for creating an attractive nuisance, such as by allowing easy access to chickens and lambs to animals that are very hungry.

Yes, sometimes there may be collateral damage, such as a plant being dug up that you didn’t want harmed. But you should keep in mind that you could have lost more plants than the one if the skunk/raccoon hadn’t done its job and limited the number of grubs in that location for you.

To paraphrase the ancient Greek philosopher, Zeno, the goal of life should be to live in agreement with nature.

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Green Bean Casserole One of the quintessential elements of the American Thanksgiving dinner is green beans in mushroom soup with the crunchy onions on top.

Don’t we love them! But oh, my goodness, that mushroom soup has some ingredients (modified food starch, monosodium glutamate and way too much sodium) that we should be loath to eat now that it is two thousand fifteen and we should all know better!

So to keep the taste but improve the nutrition, I propose making it from scratch. If this makes you gasp, just assign it to your most industrious guest, assuring them of everyone’s gratitude for the improved nutrition and virtuous feeling imparted to the dinner.

It’s not that onerous. Cook the beans and dry them. (I will be using quarts of green beans

that I canned this summer so I just need to drain and dry.)

Sauté the mushrooms, caramelize the onions, add some sauce fixings and then—and if you are like me, you are not a complete purist—be frivolous and go ahead and use those packaged crunchy onions. The worst thing in them is palm oil and you can’t beat that crunch.

The result will be delicious. You or whoever made it can brag that you are providing an oh-so-delicious alternative. And we can be thankful. As we are thankful.

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Thanksgiving Green Bean Casserole From Scratch 6 handfuls of fresh green beans (or 3 cans of green beans) 3 large onions 1 pound assorted (or not) fresh mushrooms ¼ cup butter for the onions and 2 T for the mushrooms 2 T olive oil 1 ½ cup Greek yogurt 1 can crunchy onion topping, if you dare ½ tsp salt As much fresh ground pepper as you are willing to add.

Cook the fresh green beans in salted boiling water until just tender. Drain and lay on a tea towel to dry. This and other steps keep the dish from becoming too mushy.

Thinly slice the onions and put in a large fry pan with ¼ cup butter. Keep heat low and cook for about 45 minutes until tender and caramelized (just starting to brown).

In a separate fry pan, melt the 2 T butter and add the olive oil. Sauté the mushrooms until they release their liquid and then allow that liquid to cook off, leaving the mushrooms cooked and shiny with the oil, with no extra liquid in the pan.

Combine the beans, onions and mushrooms and add the yogurt, salt and pepper. Put all into your prettiest baking dish and top with the crunchy onions. Bake at 350° F for 30 minutes.

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NOVEMBER 2015

© J. Dirk Nies, Ph.D.

A.I. and Robots and Drones, Oh My! “The revolution that began with machines and chemicals proposes now to continue with automation, computers, and biotechnology.

That this has been and is a revolution is undeniable. It has not been merely a “scientific revolution,” as its proponents sometimes like to call it, but also an economic one, involving great and profound changes in property ownership and the distribution of real wealth. It has done by insidious tendency what the communist revolutions have done by fiat: it has dispossessed the people and usurped the power and integrity of community life.”

– Wendell Berry, What

Are People For? 1990 Worker productivity is at a record high, corporate profits are strong, innovation is brisk and our economy has been growing for sixstraight years.

But who is benefiting?

Historically these conditions lead to full employment, growth in personal income, and expanding opportunities for upward mobility. Yet, for the past 15 years, the percentage of Americans participating in the workforce has been declining.

And for those who are gainfully employed, many find their incomes stagnant and their purchasing power diminishing.

Downward pressures on employment and personal income are becoming engrained forces throughout the economy.

Unless deliberately counteracted, present trends suggest these pressures are only going to get worse.

What is promoting these transformations?

What is decoupling strong corporate profits and steady economic growth from increasing wages and abundant jobs?

First, here are some economic statistics that highlight and quantify this pernicious phenomenon.

Purchasing power is declining. The United States Census

Bureau reported in September: “Real median household income over the past seven years shows that income is 6.5 percent lower than in 2007.”

Income inequality is getting worse. The Gini index, which measures income inequality, (0 represents complete equality and 1 represents total inequality) now stands at 0.480 nationwide. As more and more wealth is held by fewer and fewer people, our society is degenerating slowly toward total income inequality. “Since 1993, the earliest year available for comparable measures of income inequality, the Gini index has increased 5.9 percent” says the Census Bureau. This is not a problem facing America only.

Worldwide, the wealthiest 1 percent own 50 percent of the world’s riches.

Poverty remains intransigent.

The Census Bureau also noted: “The nation’s official poverty rate in 2014 was 14.8 percent, which means there were 46.7 million people in poverty. …

This marks the fourth consecutive year in which the number of people in poverty was not statistically different from the previous year’s estimate.”

Housing is less affordable.

More and more people are living in households that include at least one ‘additional’ adult; a person 18 or older who is not the householder, spouse or cohabiting partner of the householder, and who is not enrolled in school. The Bureau reports: “In spring 2007, prior to the recession, there were 19.7 million shared households, representing 17.0 percent of all households. By spring 2015, the number had increased to 23.9 million and represented 19.2 percent of all households.” This trend of shared households masks the level of poverty of young adults ages 25 to 34 who are living with their parents. If they were out on their own, the poverty rate of these young adults would jump from the current 7 percent to nearly 40 percent.

Workforce participation is

declining. With each passing year, relatively fewer and fewer Americans have a job (or are actively seeking one). Workforce participation has not been this low since 1977. The number of working-age Americans who are not earning an income, including those who have simply given up looking for work, has risen to 37.4 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. As shown in the graph, the share of working-age people who are employed (or who are seeking gainful employment) dropped to 62.6 percent in June, where it has remained all summer. This is happening in spite of the fact that the ‘Great Recession’ officially ended in June 2009, as determined by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Finally, with each passing year, robots and automated machines comprise an ever bigger slice of the economic pie.

And they are doing so without having to be paid a wage. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis data reflect this reality.

Wages as a percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are lower now than at any time since the 1940s. People and their wages are becoming proportionally less important each year for the running of the economy.

The causes reducing the labor force, hollowing out the middle class and thwarting many in poverty from finding a pathway toward prosperity are multi-faceted and complex. They include the impact of globalization on the U.S. economy and the aging of the baby boom generation.

I wish to highlight another, less discussed aspect: the exponential growth in the power, capability and deployment of robots and devices that possess artificial intelligence (A.I.) that are replacing human labor.

We are in the throes of great and accelerating change. An astonishingly rapid revolution is underway. Potent technological tools—which are devoid of truth, authority, identity, spirit and virtue—are being unleashed throughout the economy.

Capital investment in automation technologies is usurping the need for and decreasing the value of human labor and knowledge. People are being displaced and dispossessed. To rephrase Wendell Berry’s ques-

tion, what do we need people for if machines can do the same work faster, cheaper, better, anywhere in the world?

Since the inauguration of the Industrial Age in England in the eighteenth century, technical innovation and entrepreneurship has generated great wealth and improved the standard of living of millions of people.

What is different now is the augmented power of machines to perform cognitive, diagnostic and managerial functions.

Machines can now understand spoken language and respond appropriately to voice commands. They can recognize faces. They can navigate unfamiliar terrain. They can learn and then apply their new knowledge to novel situations.

Previously, only physical labor could be outsourced to machines. Now much of the work done by sales staff, customer service representatives, warehouse workers, bank tellers, accountants, tax advisors, truck drivers, pilots, engineers, lawyers and doctors is in play and fair game to automation. Over the next few decades, robots, androids, drones and machines possessing artificial intelligence and extraordinary dexterity likely will replace roughly half of all jobs currently held by humans.

Obviously, these shifts in employment will be felt globally. In England, the BBC has developed a webpage, “Will a robot take your job?” to answer the question of how likely you will be replaced by automation: www.bbc.com/news/technology-34066941. Simply type your job title into the search box and the likelihood that your job will be automated within the next two decades appears.

For example, there is a 95 percent probability that sales and retail assistants will be replaced by robots in the next 20 years. Farm workers face an 87 percent risk of being displaced. Overall, about one-third of current jobs in the UK are at high risk of computerization by 2035, according to a study by researchers at Oxford University and Deloitte.

How should we prepare bravely for this new world of machines? What can we do to adjust to this rapidly expanding digital reality that is profoundly continued on page 35

CROZETgazette

NOVEMBER 2015

33

BY DR. ROBERT C. REISER

crozetannals@crozetgazette.com

The Dangers of Meat!

Uh oh.

Last week the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) announced that processed meat definitely causes colon cancer. Processed meat refers to meat that has been transformed through salting, curing, fermentation, smoking, or other processes to enhance flavor or improve preservation.

Most processed meats contain pork or beef, but processed meats may also contain other red meats, poultry, offal, or meat by-products such as blood.

Examples of processed meat include bacon, hot dogs, ham, sausages, corned beef, and beef jerky as well as canned meat and meat-based preparations and sauces.

That’s right, bacon causes cancer. I should have known it after having dined in California a few years ago. Every restaurant we went to had prominent signs posted at the entrance;

“WARNING: Chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer, or birth defects or other reproductive harm may be present in foods or beverages sold or served here.” Not too stimulating to the appetite and probably overstated.

In addition, the IARC last week classified the consumption of red meat as probably carcinogenic to humans. All this led to some alarming but misleading headlines in the media, like this one from the Guardian last week; Processed meats rank alongside smoking as cancer causes – WHO. Well, not quite. The IARC is an organization that evaluates the strength of evidence of existing research on the causes of cancer. In this particular analysis, published in the Lancet, a group of 22 scientists looked at 800 studies linking meat with cancer.

The IARC sorts hazards into continued on page 36

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CROZETgazette

NOVEMBER 2015

Other Great Falls ACROSS 1 Rainbow shape 4 Jumping sticks 9 Ultimatum word 13 Threepio pal 14 She has her own network 15 Pre-adult 16 Non sum qualis _____: I am not what I used to be.

17 “Queen of Mean,” _____ Helmsley 18 Sharpen 19 Came out of his shell?

22 Expert 23 Dutch cap.

24 Inuit accommodations 28 Read the riot act 30 Jackie’s second husband 31 Antiperspirant ad word 31 After apple eating?

36 1944 Normandy battle 39 Pied Piper concern 40 Dogmas 41 Travelling from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario?

46 Hill dwelling insect with 15 year life span 47 Rent 48 _____ we speak . . .

52 Pared 54 Former filly 56 Canadian prov.

57 After fair lady’s entrance?

60 _____ Mater 63 Final Wilde words: Either this wallpaper goes _____ 64 Proofreading symbol

65 Wander 66 Horse pops 67 Scot Celt 68 Scarlett patrimony 69 Nigerian President Goodluck _____ Jonathan 70 Young once DOWN 1 Fly white flag: declare _____ 2 One out of network 3 Freshman Eng. class 4 Synthetic or natural large repeating molecule, as in plastic or DNA 5 Newspaper pieces 6 Tile filler 7 MOAN scramble 8 Ari _____, NPR host 9 Alcohol type 10 Name of 13 popes 11 Abbr. before Bernie Sanders 12 Crozet/DC direction 13 Winehouse hit 20 Bye-bye 21 Weekend acronym 25 Bookmaking information 26 Provo neighbor 27 They can be deadly 29 Eagerly awaiting 30 Not pro 33 Doggone!

34 Some play by it 35 Yeats home 36 Crackle counterpart 37 Prong

Busy November ACROSS 1 Turn the clocks ____ one hour this month 4 Thanksgiving bird 8 Happy dogs ____ their tails.

10 The first Tuesday in November 11 Only the soccer goalie can touch the ball with these 12 A player’s number is on the back of this 14 Traditional kind of potatoes on Thanksgiving 16 No score in soccer 17 18-year-olds can do it for the first time on election day 18 Heat this up to press the tablecloth 20 The 11th month 21 Butter melts on a hot _____ 22 Opposite of dark

by claudia crozet Solution on page 39

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43 Rudolph’s pride 44 Too talkative 45 At some point 49 I’m not buying it!

50 Slanted 51 Iron/carbon combination 53 Peruvian pack animal 54 Watered silk

55 Cherub 58 Tiny bit of drool 59 Time to leave: “_____, if I were you.”

Kids’ Crossword 1

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DOWN 2 A ________ kick might lead to a soccer goal 3 Celebrate them on November 11 4 Holiday on the 4th Thursday 5 Traditional Thanksgiving desserts 6 Use yarn to make a sweater or mittens 7 Wear this over a shirt to keep warm 9 Brown sauce for mashed potatoes 13 Soccer players wear ____ guards 14 “As I was going to St. Ives, I ___ a man . . .”

15 Athlete on the high board 16 Typical lunch time 19 The sense used to enjoy aromas of cooking

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by Louise Dudley

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CROZETgazette

NOVEMBER 2015

35

VALUE IS NOT MEASURED BY PRICE ALONE, BUT RATHER BY HOW WELL WE MEET YOUR EXPECTATIONS OF SERVICE –Tammy Garber, Au.D., Doctor of Audiology

David Atwell and Nina Promisel

Local Food Hub Recognizes Greenwood Gourmet Grocery The Local Food Hub, based in a warehouse in Ivy, announced its annual Community Food Awards October 20 and recognized Greenwood Gourmet Grocery as the winner of the Retail Leader Award. Store owners David Atwell and Nina Promisel received a cutting board in the shape of Virginia with the LFH logo blazed in its mid-state location.

LFH executive director Kristen Suokko explained that the awards are designed to promote “access to farm-sourced food for everyone.”

Other winners included Kathryn and Hanks and Chris Pohl of Phantom Hill Farm in Louisa County, for both Rookie of the Year and Innovation in Agriculture. The Pioneer of the Field Award went to Petr and

Science

—continued from page 32

changing the nature of work and the structure of society?

Reconfiguring our educational systems, tax code and social safety net are necessary adaptations. But something much deeper is needed to preserve our humanity. The pragmatism of blind market forces is insufficient to the task. We need a broader vision to chart a way forward that is economically viable, resilient, just and humane. I challenge those who

Marina Dronov of Sunnyfield Farm of Rockingham County.

The Glen Bontrager family of Shepherd’s Hill Farm of Albemarle—noted for their year-round supply of eggs—and Anne Geyer of Agriberry Farm of Hanover County, excelling at berries of “unparalleled quality,” shared the Partner Producer of the Year Award.

The Institutional Leader Award went to chef Trey Holt and the dining services department at St. Anne’s/Belfield School for getting local food into a school.

“We are transforming the way this community feeds itself,” said Suokko.

Local Food Hub is a nonprofit organization that provides market and distribution support for area farmers.

are designing and those who are purchasing robots, androids and drones to consider above all else the needs of people and the integrity of the community; to recognize the purpose and meaning of work in our lives. If we don’t aim to make these artificially intelligent machines serve us in ways that utilize our talents and creativity, that reflect our wisdom, our moral authority, our truth about what is important and what is valuable, we will end up drearily serving them as they fill the pockets of the uber-wealthy.

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36

CROZETgazette

NOVEMBER 2015

BEREAVEMENTS Virginia Louise Kennedy, 99

September 21, 2015

Gary Max White, 80

September 27, 2015

Georgie Irene Herndon, 85

September 28, 2015

John James Carrier, 79

September 29, 2015

Charles R. Raines, 76

September 29, 2015

Cori Alison Petree Jackson, 35

September 30, 2015

James Edward Thomas Sr., 82

September 30, 2015

Rudolph Mansell Mickens, 78

October 1, 2015

Katherine Wood Sampson, 78

October 1, 2015

Hilda Jean Hunt, 71

October 2, 2015

Robert Campbell, 52

October 3, 2015

Marvyn Roy Harris, 80

October 3, 2015

Noah Blankenship, 67

October 4, 2015

Richard Anton Hrabe Jr., 67

October 4, 2015

Crystal Gail Rea Thurston, 75

October 5, 2015

Roy Thomas Fitzgerald Jr., 76

October 7, 2015

Denzel A. Ramsey, 75

October 7, 2015

Charles Elmo Stevens Jr., 89

October 7, 2015

George Daniel Brown, 80

October 8, 2015

Barbara Harris Stark, 84

October 8, 2015

John N. Fray, 87

October 11, 2015

Charlotte Jeanette Gibson-Jones, 61

October 11, 2015

Arthur Kermit Bryant, 83

October 13, 2015

Harry Jerome Hornbrook, 91

October 13, 2015

Stuart Earl Jones, 83

October 14, 2015

Richard Bland Martin, 70

October 14, 2015

Randy Allen Martin, 53

October 15, 2015

Constance P. Denison 91

October 20, 2015

Gaines Fulton Barnett, 68

October 23, 2015

Brian Keith McCauley, 47

October 23, 2015

Walter Schultz, 78

October 24, 2015

Margaret Marie Carter Brookshire, 87

October 25, 2015

Mattice Fritz Brandt, 91

October 26, 2015

Monte Baldwin Miller, 85

October 28, 2015

Medicine —continued from page 33

5 categories: Group 1: carcinogenic to humans. Group 1 includes plutonium, smoking, alcohol, arsenic, asbestos, and now processed meat. Also sunlight and air (pollution).

Group 2A: probably carcinogenic to humans. 75 items are on this list including red meat, as well as shift work and working as a hairdresser or barber.

Group 2B: possibly carcinogenic to humans. 288 items are on this list including coffee, pickles, firefighting, dry cleaning and carpentry.

Group 3: not classifiable as to carcinogenicity in humans due to lack of data. This is by far the longest list.

Group 4: probably not carcinogenic to humans. There is only one substance in this group: Caprolactam, a component of nylon. So in a rare bit of good news, stockings are okay and in my medical opinion probably should be worn more.

Since some of my favorite things are on that list somewhere, I looked into what this study really means. First, it is important to understand that the IARC does hazard identification, not risk assessment. The IARC doesn’t evaluate how often something causes cancer, only whether it does so or not.

The classifications are based on strength of evidence, not degree of risk. Two substances could be classified in the same category if one quadrupled the risk of cancer and the other increased it by a tiny amount. The classifications do not evaluate how dangerous something is, just how certain scientists are that something can cause cancer.

Crazies

—continued from page 26

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

rie and coming together in the student section.

Hughes jumped into the school spirit arena because he “just had a lot of friends coming into Western, and I knew a lot of older students who let me in the front row a couple of times.

My senior year, they picked me to run it, and I’ll pass it on to someone who I think has the

Take the case of bacon. The WHO has concluded that eating 50 grams of processed meat daily (two strips of bacon) increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 18 percent. That sounds bad.

But that assumes you eat it every day for the rest of your life. More importantly, it is a relative increase in risk, not an absolute increase in risk. The lifetime risk for colon cancer for men in the U.S. is 5 percent. Eighteen percent of 5 is 0.9 percent; that is the amount your colon cancer risk may be increased by eating bacon. Any increase in risk is, of course, concerning, but the headlines may be overly alarming when viewed through the lens of the actual math. Colon cancer primarily strikes adults over 60, so the likelihood that you will die of something else anyway goes up.

Now take the case of smoking. Smoking increases your relative risk of cancer by 2,500 percent. So headlines such as “Bacon, burgers and sausages are as big a cancer threat as cigarettes, global health chiefs are to rule.”-Daily Mail, 22 October 2015, are wildly misleading.

But they do sell papers.

Given the strength of evidence we have so far regarding processed meat and red meat and cancer, I do think it is reasonable to try and change our diets to reduce consumption of these foods. The health of the planet would improve as well since one of the major contributors to greenhouse gasses is the methane produced by beef cattle farming. But do this if you are really interested in reducing your risk of fatal colon cancer: get a colonoscopy at age 50.

This could decrease your risk of colon cancer by as much as 50 percent. Now that is some good news.

spirit.”

He will also miss the overall experience of high school greatly when he graduates, but has a family history at Western that shows him the way to life after the Warriors. He said “my brothers (Wade and Ryan) played at Western as well, involved in basketball and baseball. I’ll miss a lot of these guys, I play baseball with Sam Hearn.

Oliver Herndon, Henry Kreienbaum, Matt Mullin—we

CROZETgazette

Football

—continued from page 26

team with Noah, playing together on the same side of the ball, is nearly perfect for mutual support and learning. “They instill a real work ethic, and being kind and all of the other aspects of being a good human being off the field,” said Crutchfield. On the field and in the locker room, Coach Redmond looms big for Osiris also. “He teaches life lessons like being in the moment, and making sure you take care of yourself, try to make sure you progress yourself in life, and not hold yourself back,” he recited.

“I’m looking for a college that fits me, and I went to VMI to see what’s there. I think they may submit an offer and U.Va. also. I’m looking at Richmond, William and Mary and Towson,” he said. Osiris is looking for a quality education, knowing that banking your life on sports possibilities that can go away in a heartbeat is too risky. “I just want to be a good person, a decent person and don’t want to harm anyone or myself,” he stated firmly.

Mullin, a senior like Crutchfield, spends time with special teams units and is a beast as a linebacker with nearly 30 tackles and a can-do attitude.

Due to older siblings being in the sport, it was always in front of him. “I have two older brothers who have been playing football since I can remember. Both of them are playing in college now, Michael at William and Mary, and Tommy at RandolphMacon, both on the defensive line.

This is his life, though, and he is again a part of a district champion, but his high school

all came through Henley Middle School together. They are my best friends and I just love to watch them play.”

Hughes is four-year baseball player, logging time at second base, and hopes to play in a junior college atmosphere, possibly in North Carolina. And he wouldn’t mind at all if they manage to win a state title his final year on the diamond.

He also unabashedly says that he would like nothing better

NOVEMBER 2015 days are coming too soon to an end. Part of that sadness at leaving is his heart-felt appreciation of the student cheering section, and he wishes all of the team supporters could be on the field, in uniform, with the Friday Night anticipation and adrenaline. “There’s nothing else like it. It clearly is just amazing,” he stated.

He has formed long-lasting bonds with lacrosse and football teammates. “I’ve had a great experience here. The coaches, especially with the Redmond era, have created a really strong foundation with the team, with us coming together as brothers more than anything else,” he said. “This team has really become a family for me. It’s just amazing to see how close we have become over the past four years. It’s astounding.

“On a personal level, Coach Redmond has been an inspiration to us, especially coming all the way here from New York just on a whim, to catch a high school football game,” Mullin said, adding, “It’s amazing to see the sacrifices he went through to be here with us.” Redmond stayed, much to the delight of the Warriors faithful.

It is a time of making grownup decisions. Mullin is ready to consider the options. “I’m really not sure what I want to do next year with college, because if I do choose sports, it could limit where I want to go academically, which is a huge part of my life. I really love history; I really want to study that in college. I’m going through the application process right now and it’s difficult to decide,” he said with a shake of his head. His application to the U.Va. last Saturday is a sign of leaning towards a life instead of a hobby.

than to jump into a college student cheering section. Hughes fully appreciates the friends he has made, the camaraderie that he has felt. “Everyone is just having such a good time, they’re just so excited. It’s good to see them getting so into the game even though they’re not playing,” he said.

The Crazies have one last shot at a football rival when Albemarle comes to our house this Friday.

37

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CROZET YMCA IS SEEKING INSTRUCTORS for Swim Lessons and Fitness Classes, Lifeguards and early morning Front Desk Attendants. Please visit: piedmontymca.org or email Jeri Evans, jevans@piedmontymca.org.

COMPUTER CARE. Quality computer repair in your home or office. Virus removal, networking, wireless setup, tutoring, used computers. Reasonable rates. Over 15 years experience. Please call (434) 825-2743.

FREE UNION ARTISANS OPEN HOUSE. Saturday and Sunday, December, 5 & 6. 10 to 5 Saturday, 10 to 4 Sunday. Free Union Country School, 4220 Free Union Road. Free Admission. Ten Artisans. Contact Nancy Ross 434-973-6846 HOLIDAY BAZAAR: Sat., Dec. 5, the UMW of Crozet United Methodist Church will have their Annual Holiday Bazaar in the church fellowship hall 8AM - 12 noon. Come for good food, good music, and shopping with 15 vendors.

GET UP, GET OUT, GET FIT: Boot Camp for REAL People is an outdoor exercise class for all fitness levels.

Check out www.m2personaltraining.com to find the right class for you. Call Melissa

Miller for more information or to register at 434-9622-311 or melissa@m2personaltraining.com LAND WANTED 3 – 10 acres in Crozet suitable for building a house on. Will pay for subdividing costs.

434-566-7124 THANK YOU CROZET for trusting in our twin senior daughters. They are available for pet and babysitting during the school year. Call: 434465-9019.

TUTORING PAR EXCELLENCE™ Academic Tutoring in Math, French (Native speaker), Spanish, by retired teacher.

References available. 540456-6682 tutoringparexcellence@gmail. com WEEKEND CAREGIVERS NEEDED – Earn Extra Cash for the Holidays. Do you love helping others? Home Instead Senior Care is hiring great people to join our team of CAREGivers! Helping seniors with activities of daily living can make a huge difference in their lives. No experience necessary! Paid on-going training is provided. Must be 21 years of age and consent to pre-employment State and National Background checks and Drug Screenings. Please call 434.979.4663 with any questions or fill out an application online at www. homeinstead.com/532.

COME OUT AND HELP US GIVE the gift of life !

November 14, 2015 at Misty Mountain Campground. All proceeds go to St. Jude. There will be a bake sale along with silent auction. We will be serving lunch! Doors open at 8 a.m.

Classified ads start at $16 (repeating) and include free online placement.

To place an ad, email ads@crozetgazette.com or call 434-249-4211

38

CROZETgazette

NOVEMBER 2015

community events NOVEMBER 14

Rockfish Nights

The Rockfish Valley Community Center’s fall fundraising gala brings the incomparable Julia Nixon, star of Broadway’s “Dreamgirls,” to Afton on Saturday, November 14 with a full band backing up her limitless vocals. A beloved fixture in the Washington, D.C. music scene for 20 years, Nixon is a neo-soul powerhouse and the recipient of the 2007 Helen Hayes Award, which recognizes the outstanding lead actress in a musical. Her tremendous vocal power has inspired comparisons with such artists as Aretha Franklin, Oleta Adams and Tina Turner. Her credits include performances on Broadway, at Radio City Music Hall, the White House, Lincoln and Kennedy Centers; and personal appearances spanning Tokyo, New York, and London; and performance associations with Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Kenny G., and Richard Pryor.

The evening will also feature fine food and the “Best of the Chest” Auction.

There will be dancing!

Tickets are $45 for members and $50 for non-members. Tickets for dancing and entertainment only are $20 (no admission before 8 p.m.). Doors open at 6 p.m and dinner is at 7 p.m. Tickets are available in the RVCC Office and online at rockfishvalleycommunitycenter.memberlodge.com/rockfishnights.

NOVEMBER 15

CCO Second Anniversary Concert

The Crozet Community Orchestra will hold its second anniversary concert under the direction of Philip Clark Sunday, November 15, at 4 p.m. at Crozet Baptist Church. The program will feature world-class husband and wife violin soloists Monika Chamasyan and Mark Dorosheff (USAF Strings) who will return to Crozet to perform the fabulous Baghdasaryan Rhapsody in its first U. S. performance with solo violin and full orchestra. Other highlights include works by Mendelssohn and Saint Saens.

The concert is free and open to the public. A reception and refreshments will immediately follow the concert.

NOVEMBER 16

Nelson Community Orchestra Concert

The Nelson County Community Orchestra (NCCO) will present their fall concert Monday, November 16, at 7:30 p.m. at the Rockfish Valley Community Center under the direction of Philip Clark, NCCO’s conductor and music

director. The program will feature guest performer Chan-Wei “Frank” Hsu, a high school exchange student from Taiwan, playing viola in G.P. Telemann’s Concerto in G for Viola and Strings. The orchestra will also perform works by Erik Satie, Camille Saint-Saens, and Johann Strauss. The concert is free and open to the public.

The NCCO is seeking musicians who play the violin, viola, cello, bass, oboe, bassoon, French horn or percussion.

Rehearsals are Monday nights from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the RVCC Lounge room (at the back of the building). NCCO provides a friendly, low stress, fun and engaging multigenerational orchestral environment.

For more information about the NCCO, visit www.nelsoncco.org, send an email to info@nelsoncco.org, or call Ellen Neal at 434-263-4745.

DECEMBER 4

Crozet Community Chorus Holiday Concert

The Crozet Community Chorus will perform a Holiday Concert under the direction of Jeremy Thompson Friday, December 4, at 7 p.m. at Crozet Baptist Church, 5804 St. George Avenue.

This first performance of the newly reorganized, 45-member chorus, will feature works by Mendelssohn, Handel and Rutter as well as traditional holiday favorites. The Crozet Community Orchestra Chamber Players will perform a prelude of holiday selections beginning at 6:30 p.m.

The concert is free and open to the public.

Gazette Vet —continued from page 28 spot, they don’t always complain. It’s almost like they’re just being really good and submissive.

Then there are the screamers. Even when they’re fine, if you grab their feet or touch their ears, they’re gonna scream like you’re killing them.

Perhaps the most challenging are the really, really bad dogs and cats. These are the ones that we can’t even examine without sedation. Even when they are sick, they are still scared enough that they feel they have to growl, bite, and scratch.

In the end, we can usually pair the history with the physical exam and come up with some general thoughts as to why Fluffy feels lethargic today, or why Fancy Cat is throwing up every morning. In the end we use our gut instincts to tell if the problem is a big one that deserves a proper work up with tests, or whether it’s a minor issue that needs some simple care or maybe no treatment at all, just time.

But boy, if they could just talk, my job sure would be a lot easier. I’d imagine I would get a lot of comments like: “Yeah, I ate a TON of grass and sticks yesterday, it just seemed like a good idea at the time.”

“When I pee, it burns like fire!”

“I’ve had a toothache for two years now.”

“I just really, really hate that new puppy they brought home. Really hate him!”

“I was out running through the woods, and am embarrassed to say that I simply ran right into a tree. Not one of my finest moments.”

If your pet is sick, or behaving differently, stop and think, and use your gut feelings. Nobody wants to bring their pet to the vet for a minor cold or sprain, but we also don’t want to ignore a potentially serious problem. If you have a question, at least call your vet, because some behaviors are classic of one thing or another and they can often guide you as to whether to come in or not.

In the meantime, please keep trying to teach them to speak!

DECEMBER 12 & 13

Fitness —continued from page 19

The Crozet Community Orchestra and the Nelson County Community Orchestra will perform joint holiday concerts under the direction of Philip Clark on Saturday, December 12, at 6 p.m. at Crozet Baptist Church and again on Sunday, December 13, at 4 p.m. at the Rockfish Valley Community Center in Afton.

A variety of holiday music and traditional carols from across the centuries will be performed. The Field School Boys Choir under the music direction of Heather Hightower will perform at the Saturday concert and the Crozet Community Hand-bell Choir conducted

by Chris Celella will perform a holiday repertoire at the Sunday concert.

Admission is free.

day.” This has a few fallacies, but mostly that the muscles used during a long hike are worked differently than in running and you are constantly carrying 30 pounds on your back.

The toughest part of the AT hike for me was simply the day-after-day grind of keeping the same routine. It really becomes a mental challenge. Also particularly tough for me was a stretch in NC where it rained for 14 straight days.

JA: Overall reflections on your AT hike?

BJ: The 2,179-mile Appalachian Trail hike did more than anything to shape my life, more than I could have dreamed. Running and hiking both offer me a special way to commune with nature as well as testing my limits. There is nothing more gratifying than winding my way up the side of a mountain and the beauty and feelings it offers along the way, as well as the satisfaction when the summit is reached.

Thanks to Buddy Johnson, a great example of embracing the beautiful mountains and trails that surround us and bringing the transformation that occurs out on the trail into our daily lives.

Crozet and Nelson County Orchestras’ Joint Holiday Concerts

CROZETgazette

NOVEMBER 2015

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