INSIDE LETTERS page 3 CARRYING THE VIRGIN page 5 IVY BRIDGES page 6 THE GREEN MAN page 8 KING DOG page 10
JANUARY 2013 VOL. 7, NO. 8
Albemarle Circuit Court Rejects ReStore’N Station
SELLING CROZET page 12
WINTERSWEET page 13 OLIVE OIL CAKE page 14 TOWN HALL DAY page 14 SYNCOPE page 15 RVCC page 18 HOME HELPERS page 19 TIE THE KNOT page 20 BREAK THE BONDS page 21 CROSSWORD page 22 FLICK FUN page 24 NEEDED NOW page 25 MARKET UPDATES page 25 READ ON page 26 BELL CHOIR page 28 WARM SNOW page 29 WARRIOR GAMES page 30 TREAD SOFTLY page 31
Greenwood has had a post office since the 1840s.
Greenwood Rallies to Save Its Post Office Concerned that the United States Postal Service is proceeding with changes that will lead to the closing of the Greenwood Post Office, members of the Greenwood Citizens Council are organizing to save their threatened community landmark. Greenwood has had a post office since the 1840s. It moved to its current location when the Greenwood train depot was closed in 1960. It now serves about 600 residents and 275 delivery addresses. “The Greenwood Citizens Council has existed for 30 years,” said Scott
Peyton, one of the leaders of the effort to save the P.O. “It has a history of tilting at windmills. It opposed the closing of Greenwood Elementary School [a fight it lost] and the contamination from the Greenwood Chemical Company, which became an EPA Superfund site and was cleaned up. We’re all volunteers. We try to represent the community. We’re a classic case of a grassroots organization. “We heard rumors in the spring that we were being considered for closure, and I’m convinced of it,” Peyton said. continued on page 4
In a ruling on Dec. 17, Albemarle Circuit Court Judge Cheryl Higgins overturned a ruling by the county’s Board of Zoning Appeals that had found that plans that enlarged the second floor of the ReStore’N Station gas station and convenience store proposed on Rt. 250 in Crozet were “in general accord” with conditions set by the Albemarle Board of Supervisors when they approved the project in October 2010. The new ruling is a victory for Crozet residents who fought to keep the building from being a mega-station designed to draw traffic, including tractor-trailers, off Interstate 64 and whose water demand potentially posed a danger to the wells of residents of the Freetown neighborhood behind and below its site. The ruling essentially returns the design of the station’s second floor to the 1,000-square-foot dormered design reviewed by the supervisors when they set their conditions for giving the project a special use permit. Higgins heard lawyers’ arguments in the case Dec. 9. Craig Marshall of the Zobrist Law Group represented
continued on page 7
Redistricting Committee Recommends “Holding Pattern” for Elementary Schools There is no compelling reason to change the student population at Ivy’s Meriwether Lewis Elementary School, the parent committee representing the four elementaries in the Western Feeder Pattern concluded at their meeting Dec. 18 at Henley Middle School. The committee, which included parents from Brownsville, Crozet, Meriwether Lewis and Murray schools, had been formed to recommend to Albemarle schools superintendent Pam
Moran how or whether to redistrict 55 children out of Meriwether Lewis, which is technically that much over its intended capacity, for the next school year. There had been a heavy turnout of speakers at a public hearing the committee had sponsored Dec. 11 at Meriwether Lewis School, where sentiment was strongly against redistricting, and 323 interested people, mainly parents of affected children, filled out a school surcontinued on page 9
The Crozet Historic District is now officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Above is The Square in 1914. [Photo courtesy of the Phil James Historical Images Collection.]
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CROZET gazette
JANUARY 2013
From the Editor To the Editor Keep Shooting! Many readers noticed that the Gazette did not publish a calendar this year. So, we are bringing back our photo contest for 2014. Throughout the year, keep an eye out—your cameras close—and send your photos (limit 10 per entrant, please), to photos@crozetgazette. com. You may drop CDs or other electronic files by our office in the Blue Goose Building. The final deadline for the contest and consideration for the 2014 calendar will be October 15, 2013. Please include the place the photo was taken and the name of the photographer. More details will be posted on our website at www. crozetgazette.com.
Letters reflect the opinions of their authors and not necessarily those of the Crozet Gazette. Send letters to news@crozetgazette.com or P.O. Box 863, Crozet, VA 22932. The Gazette does not publish anonymous letters to the editor.
ReStore’N Victory The recent Circuit Court decision that overturned the Board of Zoning Appeals approval of the mega-gas station on Route 250 was a terrific victory for Crozet. The entire community owes an enormous debt of gratitude to the many people who achieved the win that reversed the 2011 BZA decision. Many thanks to Duane Zobrist, Craig Marshall, other attorneys at the Zobrist Law Group, T.J. Aldous, (formerly of the Zobrist Law Group), Marcia Joseph, and the
Freetown and Crozet community members who worked tirelessly on the ReStore’N Station court case over this past year and a half. This decision is an important milestone in the community’s long-fought battle against this bad project that would forever change the gateway to Crozet and the lives of the people who live adjacent to the development. While many of us intuitively knew that adding a second floor to the proposed building, and more than doubling its square footage, was not in “general accord” with Albemarle Supervisors’ attempts to reduce the size of the project in 2010, it took community members willing to step forward with a lawsuit and the Zobrist Law Group’s excellent work and countless hours of service (much of it donated), to
see the case through to its successful conclusion. Mr. Zobrist and other community members hung in there on a case that was hard for many of us to grasp as winnable. This legal success will have longreaching effects on Crozet. While we don’t know what the final disposition of the development will be (appeals and the like are possible), we do know that this win will throw a serious roadblock in the way of this ill-conceived venture. Among the many ill effects of the project, the quality of life for Freetown neighbors would be seriously degraded by a looming and oversized building sucking the local aquifer dry, and an already bad traffic situation for the three nearby schools would become even worse if a large gas station were to be built continued on page 25
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CROZET gazette
JANUARY 2013
Greenwood —continued from page 1
Greenwood P.O. services could be altered by what the U.S.P.S. calls a PostPlan (post office structure plan), which would reduce its hours and days of operation, and by what the U.S.P.S. calls DUO (delivery unit optimization), a reduction in the actual P.O. functions. Mail sorting and rural delivery routes would become the responsibility of Crozet Post Office. According to a rating system the U.S.P.S. uses, Peyton said, once these plans are put into effect, the Greenwood P.O.’s rating would fall below the threshold for continuing to exist. PostPlan and DUO are thus the opening moves toward undermining the P.O.’s existence, though so far U.S.P.S. officials say it will not be closed. “We have many customers for our post office who are diverse in age and economic situation,” said Peyton, “and they have difficulty driving long distances. “The post office is inextricably
linked to a rural community’s sense of identity,” Peyton said. “No place but the post office carries the name of a place officially.” A delegation from the Greenwood Citizens Council met with U.S.P.S. officials in Richmond recently and learned that the Greenwood Post Office continues to operate at a profit, as it has traditionally. “The problem for the U.S.P.S. is that in 2006 Congress mandated that it prefund its pension fund and retirement health costs at 100 percent,” said Peyton. The annual cost of that amounts to $5.5 billion. It’s an exceptional requirement and not one that public agencies or the states usually meet, 80 percent being typical for the AAA bond rating. Peyton said some people speculate that the requirement is meant to cause the U.S.P.S. to fail so that it can be privatized. But the U.S.P.S. is obliged to serve every delivery address every day of operation and it is not clear that a private delivery company would want to take on that responsibility. The U.S.P.S. is created in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. It has a legal monop-
oly on first class mail. According to its documents, Peyton said, as of 2011 it operates from 31,000 locations across the nation, 3,000 of which are in rural areas. “We’ve gotten into this and educated ourselves,” he said. “We see we are caught up in a government bureaucracy and a lack of business common sense.” Six members of the GCC went to Washington to talk to Fifth District congressman Robert Hurt and representatives of Virginia’s senators, Peyton said. “We learned there are some deep political issues embedded in this.” He credited Hurt with being responsive to their concerns and contacting the U.S.P.S. in defense of the Greenwood post office. The Fifth District contains many rural P.O.s. The U.S.P.S. is currently intending to close 100 post offices in Virginia. When GCC members met in Richmond with U.S.P.S. Virginia Western District manager Jacob Cheeks, he agreed to suspend implementation of DUO. “We naively interpreted this as removing the threat, but it was just
a postponement. We are now under review again to have our hours reduced from eight to six per day and to close for a half day on Saturdays.” The P.O. is staffed now by Mandy Connelly, who is part time and receives no benefits. The last regular postmistress was Joyce Dudley, who retired over a year ago. “Cheeks said it’s all about revenue,” Peyton said, “but Greenwood’s revenue is up 16 percent in the last year. We committed to him to help build more revenue for it. If it were failing, I could see it being reduced. We told him we do not want an adversarial relationship with the U.S.P.S. We value our post office.” The U.S.P.S. will hold a meeting at the Emmanuel Episcopal Church parish hall in Greenwood January 9 at 5:30 p.m. to discuss the Post Plan. They had originally scheduled a meeting for December 3 at 4 p.m. in the parking lot in front of the post office, a time that Peyton felt was not actually meant to get community input, but that meeting was rescheduled after protest from the GCC. “They are supposed to do a sur-
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CROZET gazette
JANUARY 2013
vey. It’s directed to an already established conclusion. It asks which hours we want to be reduced to. It’s not really an open process,” Peyton said. The GCC drafted its own community survey and found overwhelming support for keeping the post office as it is now, he said. “They are trying to kill us softly in progressive steps. If implemented, DUO would reduce our rating to a level that would mean we would be closed. We are still under review for it. It’s not a public process and there is no opportunity for public input. We were blindsided by the news of DUO,” Peyton said. “If DUO is implemented, the post office will be less useful and its revenue will fall. It will be less profitable and then in danger for closure. We adamantly oppose both DUO and PostPlan. We’ve been thrown into a pot of rural post offices that does not look at profitability. We should be looked at on a case-by-case basis.” Peyton said that from what he has learned, the U.S.P.S.’s better option is to raise the price of first class stamps to 50 cents each. Sign up on jazzercise.com/sale January 1-8 or in class January 7-8!
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“Our location is at a main crossroads for Greenwood. It is serving people who come from outside our zip code, including Crozet people. The G.P.O. has the capacity to expand service, for example along Greenwood Road to Jarmans Gap Road.” Peyton said growth in Crozet may tax the ability of the Crozet post office, especially if it is also given responsibilities now handled by neighboring rural post offices. Peyton said that Greenwood, which has 30 available boxes, could add more and could relieve pressure on Crozet’s post office. Its lease is on terms highly favorable to the U.S.P.S., he said. “We are not part of their problem. We are part of their solution. We are a profitable P.O.” The GCC drafted a petition to the U.S Postmaster General calling for the G.P.O. to be left alone and so far 400 area residents have signed it. Peyton said the GCC’s aim for the Jan. 9 meeting is to prevent a reduction in hours at Greenwood. “The status quo is our goal.” He is hoping for a strong turnout.
Virgin of Guadalupe Procession Crozetians of Mexican descent carried a statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the patron saint of the Americas, from Orchard Acres to the Crozet Moose Lodge Dec. 11 singing and praying as they went. The procession and celebration to mark the vigil of her feast day on Dec. 12 are traditional. This is the second year that the procession has been held in Crozet. It commemorates the apparition of the Virgin Mary before Juan Diego, a converted Aztec peasant, in 1531, and the miracle in which a permanent image of her appearance was left on his cloak. The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, where the cloak is housed, is the most visited Catholic pilgrimage site in the world.
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CROZET gazette
JANUARY 2013
New Bridges Planned in Ivy The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) will replace two bridges in Ivy in 2015, one crossing the CSX railroad tracks at Broomley Road and Old Ballard Road (Rt. 677) and the other over Ivy Creek on Dick Woods Road (Rt. 637) just south of Ivy village. VDOT engineers hosted a public comment session at Murray Elementary School Dec. 20. The new Broomley Road bridge will be a 30-feet-wide, steel truss structure, prefabricated and designed to be lowered into place by a crane. It will be 23 1/2 feet above the tracks, nearly four feet higher than the current bridge (which was built by the railroad). Once it is in
place, a concrete deck will be poured on it and it will be rated to carry all legal loads, meaning tractor trailers. A three-way stop system will be used at the bridge once it reopens. Construction is expected to close the roads for six to nine months. A 2011 count showed that 740 vehicles use Route 677 daily. Traffic will have to detour by way of Owensville Road. The project’s cost is estimated at $4.68 million and funding is in place. The bridge on Dick Woods Road over Ivy Creek will be a 28-feetwide single-span pre-stressed concrete slab structure with steel guard rails and capable of carrying all legal loads. The project’s estimated cost is
Illustration of the new bridge on Route 677.
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CROZET gazette
ReStore’N —continued from page 1
Brownsville Market owners Chris and Ann Suh, and Bruce Kirtley and Richard Brown, close neighbors of the project, in their appeal of the BZA decision. Andrew Herrick represented the county government, defending the “general accord” decision made by deputy zoning administrator Ron Higgins, and Michael Derdeyn represented Jeffries LLC, the company building the station. In the project’s original plan, a future addition of rental office space was shown along side the 3,000-square-foot first floor of the convenience store. In their determination to make the project smaller, the supervisors made a condition limiting its footprint, its foundation walls, to 3,000 square feet. Assured by the applicant that no changes were contemplated for a 1,000-square-foot second floor space that was described as “a family office,” the supervisors imposed no conditions on the second floor. When the revised plans for the station were submitted to county zon-
JANUARY 2013 ing officials to show that they conformed to the conditions, the store’s second floor had grown to nearly 2,000 square feet and rental offices were included. In effect, the rejected future addition had been put on top of the store. Nonetheless, plan reviewer Ron Higgins decided that the revised plan was in general accord with the supervisors’ intentions. Crozet residents who had been following the project cried foul, arguing that the developer had taken advantage of a loophole he found in the formal conditions in order to circumvent them. They appealed the ruling to the BZA and in a perfunctory hearing of the matter Jan. 11, 2012, with Ron Higgins serving as staff advisor to the BZA and asking it to confirm his decision, the BZA went along, seemingly uninformed about the supervisors’ actions on the project. Their decision led resolute citizens to appeal again to the Circuit Court. Marshall first challenged the BZA’s legitimacy, saying that according to the Virginia Code it
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was improperly constituted because it had only four members at the time it heard the case. State law calls for a county BZA to have five to seven members. One member of Albemarle’s BZA had recently died and a replacement had not been named at the time that the ReStore’N Station appeal was heard. Marshall said the county had had time to name a replacement (three months had passed) and should have alternates named who are prepared to fill in under such circumstances. Derdeyn disputed the contention, noting that the BZA was formed with five members and that state law does not require all five to be present. Judge Higgins agreed with him and ruled against Marshall’s motion. Marshall’s second contention was
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that the BZA erred in making its ruling. “It seemed clear to us that they had already made up their minds,” Marshall said describing the occasion of the BZA decision. He traced out the history of the design footprint and concluded that in revised plan “the second floor is essentially doubled” beyond what the supervisors had seen. “The board’s intent was to lower the size and scope of the project,” he asserted. “I agree with you there was significant discussion of the size of the station,” Higgins responded. Marshall pointed to the transcript of the supervisors’ meeting, calling attention to the statement by project consultant Jo Higgins, who was working for Jeffries LLC, when she assured the supervisors, “It’s only a partial second floor, a family office space.” Marshall argued that the supervisors used the term “general accord” because they wanted to leave flexibility for the Architectural Review Board, which had yet to sign off on the plan, and presumably would continued on page 19
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CROZET gazette
JANUARY 2013
Freeman Allan’s Quest Arrives at the Divine Feminine Meaning. Truth. Some people seem to be able to live without thinking about them. For others no other thought is worth pursuing. Buddhist prayer flags wave ceaselessly, alive to the most subtle breeze, on the knoll above Greenwood that is Freeman Allan’s front yard. Freeman, now 67, the founder of Sacred Source, a company that makes icons representing all of the world’s religious traditions, has recently published an autobiography, also titled Sacred Source. It tells the story of his life, of course, but it is more an account of his spiritual quest, seemingly desperate at times, to arrive at peaceful co-existence with life’s meaning. He offers his story, he said, not because he is noteworthy, but to say to others how his path unfolded and to offer encouragement to those who will take their pilgrimage up the misty slopes of the mountain of truth. And what has he seen on the climb? “The divine feminine and the
sacred masculine are a union,” Allan said. “We in Western culture, over 3,000 years, have forgotten that it’s a balanced union of opposites, each of which brings parts of holiness to life. In a way, our various spiritual traditions of the book—Judaism, Christianity and Islam—have gotten sort of hijacked by overemphasis on the masculine. “That’s the core of the work I ended up finding myself doing. I was a boy from Mobile, Alabama, and Pascagoula, Mississippi, who didn’t really think about religion. I was brought up devoutly Catholic with three aunts and a grandmother who were strong women. So I got a love of Jesus and a great respect for the wise women who were my mentors. Freeman, born Richard H. Allan III, is the first son of a hero of the assault on Iwo Jima in World War II. His father was an officer in the Marine unit that became iconically famous when it raised the American flag on Mount Suribachi, an inspir-
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Freeman Allan in front of an Indonesian painting of The Green Man.
ing moment that was captured in a photograph and later recreated as a statue for the U.S. Marine Corps Memorial in Arlington. His father was badly wounded in the attack and had a long and painful recovery that began shortly after Freeman was born. His mother stayed at her
husband’s hospital bedside, leaving Freeman in the care of her mother. Allan admits in his book that this event caused him not to become properly attached to his mother, a factor perhaps in his lifelong attraction to feminine divinity. continued on page 16
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CROZET gazette
JANUARY 2013
Schools —continued from page 1
vey on the question. The holding pattern option got approval from 82 percent of survey respondents. Four possible options for shifting neighborhoods to different schools, mainly to Murray Elementary, were all voted down by more than half of respondents. The idea of adding on to Red Hill Elementary in North Garden, which might have shifted Batesvillearea kids to Red Hill, was also rejected by two to one. The same majority agreed with adding on to Crozet Elementary. Former Woodbrook Elementary principal Keith Hammon, an atlarge member, made the motion for the “holding pattern” option and it passed 11-0. Murray parent Kate Bakich said, “We want effective use of an addition to Crozet Elementary. The process is really ongoing. It’s important to see if there is a data trend in enrollment.” Fellow Murray parent Mary Margaret Frank summed up the
group’s consensus as, “There’s no evidence for any action.” Crozet parent Jeffrey House said, “The benefit of not moving kids now is that we maintain flexibility for a future redistricting.” County schools Chief Operating Officer Josh Davis asked the committee whether they favored an addition to Crozet or construction of a new school in the feeder pattern. The Crozet Master Plan anticipated that a third elementary would be needed in Crozet and a possible location for one was projected in eastern Crozet. But that site would have had to have been garnered by the county through a rezoning proffer from a developer—a payment for being allowed a higher residential density—and the conjectured property has meanwhile been designed as a by-right subdivision, Westlake Hills, with no proffers in play. On another 11-0 vote, the committee recommended that the school division’s Long Range Planning Committee revisit the matter of adding on to Crozet, now projected to raise the capacity there to 472 students (currently 342) and to con-
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Tuesday, January 15 & Thursday, January 17 6:30-9:00 p.m. at Old Trail Community Building Peachtree baseball offers competitive, well-organized divisions for those 4-15 years of age. If you will be league age by April 30, 2013, and live within the district, then come by to sign up to play baseball in your community. Blast Ball Tball Rookie Minors Majors Babe Ruth
sider a larger scale addition that would raise the school’s capacity to more than 600 students. The committee considers Crozet to be the best candidate for expansion of the schools in the feeder pattern. Among its recommendations it said that schools within the designated growth area (Brownsville and Crozet) should be the ones getting additions, not the two schools in rural areas. Davis said afterward that enrollment projections do not support the construction of a new school, which he estimated would cost $25 to $30 million to build. “Any new school we build will be for 450 to 600 kids,” Davis said. “It will be explored, but the addition to Crozet is the more plausible option.” A recommendation to add on to the Crozet school could not go before the Board of Supervisors for consideration before July, Davis told the committee and it would take another year of design and preparation before it could get a funding allocation. The earliest the addition could be usable is the 2016-17 school year. Davis said, “There is a 99 percent chance that there will be
redistricting once the Crozet addition is built.” Most of the shifting would likely be from Brownsville to Crozet. Tiffany Barber, who also sits on the Long Range Planning Committee, said she had heard that some parents at Crozet Elementary were opposed to an expansion of the school. “We assume it’s a good solution,” she said, “but it may not be.” House differed with that and said, “Some parents think the school should be bigger to reach a critical mass for parent involvement.” The committee recommended that “for parity,” Red Hill School get modernized and renovated, but for the sake of its current students and not with an eye to moving new ones in. For the sake of supporting communities, the committee recommended that students not be shifted across feeder pattern boundaries. Hammon said that the growth in elementary school student numbers means that capacities at Henley Middle School and Western Albemarle High School should be looked at again by the LRPC. Davis
New this year! Registration is now OPEN online at WWW.PEACHTREEBASEBALL.COM Scholarships are available
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continued on page 23
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CROZET gazette
JANUARY 2013
By John Andersen, DVM gazettevet@crozetgazette.com
Canine King of the Mountain “Joey” is a twoyear-old, 40-pound mutt, best described as a spoiled and loved house dog. He came to me one day for evaluation of aggression with other dogs. Specifically, he had just attacked his neighbor’s dog in the street and Joey’s mom was literally in tears with frustration and disbelief at what her dog had somehow become. You see, Joey’s parents had done everything they were supposed to do to raise a well-rounded dog. They took him to puppy class starting at 12 weeks of age and they were dedicated to socializing him with other dogs. Joey had regular play
dates, frequented dog parks, and was walked regularly. He was neutered at 6 months, did great with basic obedience, and by one year of age his parents were feeling pretty good about their canine good citizen. But then things slowly started to change. First came some occasional scuffles at the dog park. “Those dogs were not well-socialized,” his owners first thought. Then there was the barking at other dogs while on a walk. Initially they thought it was just Joey wanting to play, but on a few occasions they weren’t so sure. Joey also became increasingly protective of their house, spending more and more time watching out the window and growling and barking at other dogs passing by.
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Over the recent few months though, it had become clear that Joey was having some serious problems with other dogs. The trips to the dog park had become full of more and more fights, mainly with other male dogs. As much as they didn’t want to believe it, Joey definitely started a few of those. Also, he had become downright unruly while walking through their neighborhood, often barking and even lunging at other dogs (again mostly other males) to the point that Mom would have to cross to the other side of the street when approaching other dogs. They began to research this new behavior and figured they were doing something wrong. “Maybe we need better treats on our walks, or we should start using a harness,” they surmised, or “Maybe we need to go to the dog park at a different time of day.” Then there was the event. Mom was bringing some groceries into the house when Joey bolted by her, right to the street and attacked her neighbor’s unsuspecting dog (another male). Joey ripped a big
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hole in the dog’s side and their neighbor, frantically, had to take him to the local ER. Joey’s mom was understandably horrified and embarrassed and felt like a terrible dog owner. Joey’s story is not uncommon – a young dog who gets along with everyone, but gets to be around 1 ½ to 2 years old and starts having dog aggression, mostly with other dogs of the same sex. My first response to Joey’s mom was to tell her that this has nothing to do with their lack of training or socialization. This is, in fact, very normal for some dogs. As I often do, for an explanation I went way back to wolf behavior. Wolves live in packs with a very strict social hierarchy. There is just one alpha male and one alpha female. All other adult dogs in the pack fall in line somewhere below the alpha pair. Step out of line and you’re going to have a bad day. Having this hierarchy keeps order and reduces conflict within a pack. Pups have it easy; the whole pack cares for them and their youth is continued on page 27
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CROZET gazette
JANUARY 2013
11
by Phil James phil@crozetgazette.com
New Beginnings
in
Old Crozet
Early on New Year’s Eve 1908, Walter Whately was still hard at it, penning one last piece of business correspondence to get to the post office before the noon pick-up. Wearing the hat, at that moment, of secretary of the Crozet-based Virginia State Horticultural Society, he had been tirelessly processing entries for an exhibit of apples at the society’s upcoming annual meeting in Lynchburg. “I have had a pretty busy time the past month,” he wrote. “As a matter of fact while writing some 12 letters a day, & making out entry cards, & records, have not written any letters I could avoid. Besides the Christmas season has intervened, & I have had certain annual letters to send to Old Country friends, & also a certain amount of social obligations to perform. [Image from Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper, 1909.]
“We had 15 inches of snow here last week & some still remains, thus it is very muddy on the roads now. Here we have organized a Board of Trade & starting to clean house & inviting strangers to come in.” Those muddy roads certainly had not facilitated Whately’s task of “starting to clean house & inviting strangers to come in” because the “house” being referred to was the entire turn-o’-the-century village of Crozet and its rural environs. The “strangers” were the ones who would respond to a yearlong advertising campaign championed by the newly minted Crozet Board of Trade, of which he was also secretary. Comprised of a progressive group of local bankers, principal farmers and merchants, the members of the Crozet Board of Trade exuded pride in their growing community. They shared the belief that others also would appreciate the town’s advantages and wish to contribute their own talents and energies for its advancement. The Chesapeake and Ohio
Railway’s simple graded crossing had been little more than a manmade bump in the road since the 1850s, shared by the adjoining farms of Ballard, Rothwell and Wayland, and travelers along the old Three Notch’d Road. That bucolic setting changed forever with the reading of Samuel Miller’s will in 1869. A macadamized road was laid down to transport building materials between that rail crossing and the 1870s construction site for Miller’s Industrial School near Batesville. Crozet had been on the move, slowly but steadily, ever since its official genesis in 1876. That Centennial year endured a most contentious presidential election contest, and Rutherford B. Hayes’ controversial victory had led to political compromises that brought an end to the Reconstruction era in the South. Farm owners adjacent to the new rail stop willingly divided off small plats of land to businessmen eager to capitalize on the opportunities continued on page 12
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CROZET gazette
JANUARY 2013
Board of Trade —continued from page 11
afforded by the increased traffic. The initial ramshackle assortment of buildings was upgraded and expanded as business profits were reinvested. Freight and passenger depots constructed by the railroad, in addition to regularly scheduled service, attracted and encouraged even more growth. In the early 1890s, Rev. J. J. Lafferty purchased land just south of the growing village, a move that would project the name of Crozet toward an even larger audience. The Methodist clergyman moved his family there along with his Richmond Christian Advocate publishing business. Lafferty’s new property included the former Powell’s Mill. Rev. Lafferty, a member of the Board of Visitors of the Medical College of Virginia, had long nurtured an interest in improving the nutritional value of wheat flour. Upgrading and [Image from Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper, 1909.]
expanding the old mill site on his property, he perfected a milling process that preserved the full nutritional value of the wheat kernel. The Lafferty Complete Flour Company, with its beginnings at Lafferty’s Mills in Crozet, was marketed through offices in Richmond and New York, advertised in numerous periodicals, and stocked on grocers’ shelves all along the eastern seaboard. The profits realized by local farmers and orchardists with ready access to rail markets brought a great interest in new plantings of fruit tree stock. By the first decade of the 20th century, Crozet’s name was being recognized and respected in ever-increasing markets. Albemarle Pippin and Winesap apples were enriching the coffers of all who could dedicate even a small plot of land for their propagation. The Bank of Crozet’s original building had been constructed next to the Crozet Cooperage in 1906. By 1908 the diminutive structure was already straining to handle the increasing successes of its patrons. A new two-story Corinthiancolumned edifice was constructed on the town’s Main Street. In addition to the bank’s own offices and burglar-proof vault, other concerns that occupied office spaces in the modern structure included the Post Office, Crozet Cider Company, Crozet Cooperage Company, and the Albemarle Manufacturing Company. Lodge rooms for several fraternal organizations were located on the bank’s second floor. Beginning in January 1909 and continuing on a monthly basis through December, the Crozet
Rev. Dr. John J. Lafferty (1837–1909) improved the milling process to produce a more nutritious flour at his mill near Crozet. [Image from Richmond Times-Dispatch newspaper, 1895.]
Board of Trade trumpeted the village’s attributes through the pages of the Richmond TimesDispatch newspaper. The word was out and mailed inquiries began pouring across Walter Whately’s busy desk. CROZET! — on the main line of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad; in the centre of one of the most famous fruit districts in the country and is the largest fruit shipping point in the State; neighboring mountains and valleys are well adapted to the growing of peaches, apples, strawberries, cherries and other fruits, and these products have taken grand prizes at the Chicago, St. Louis, Buffalo and Jamestown Expositions. CROZET! — Virginia bluegrass which is indigenous to this section makes excellent grazing, so that the raising of cattle, horses and sheep is made very profitable; Grasses and grain crops here are the equal of any in the world; Its climate is unsurpassed, combining one of the most healthful sections of Piedmont Virginia with that of the Blue Ridge Mountains; educational advantages include a new public school building and close proximity to the University of Virginia. CROZET! — with six grocery stores, a drug store, eight churches in a radius of eight miles, four daily mails, two grist mills, a cooperage plant, a cider factory, and the best known and highest class cattle breeding establishment in the Southern States. “Although these enterprises have not heretofore been brought to the notice of the general public... the Crozet Board of Trade has now been formed to accomplish this purpose.”
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 © 2003–2013 Phil James
CROZET gazette
inthegarden@crozetgazette.com
Winter Fragrance Imagine stepping into your garden and being greeted by delicious fragrance. In winter. In Central Virginia. No, it’s not what we usually associate with our coldest time of the year, but by choosing the right plants, it’s actually a possibility. Most of us are familiar with cherry trees, perhaps either the native Black Cherries or one of the Asian species known for blooming at the Washington Tidal Basin. Less well-known is their cousin, the Japanese Flowering Apricot, Prunus mume. It’s something of a mystery why these small trees (to a maximum of twenty feet) are not more widely planted, but it could be yet another case of the dreaded Spring Syndrome. Too many gardeners don’t venture out to nurseries until spring, and if a plant’s not in bloom, it’s invisible. By then, the Flowering Apricots are through flowering, hav-
ing done their thing off-and-on throughout the winter. Depending on the variety as well as the vagaries of the weather, their spicy-sweet flowers can open any time from December through February. One of this plant’s greatest virtues in the winter garden is its staggered bloom sequence. During a mild spell, many of its flowers open, perhaps only to be caught by harsh weather that follows. Not a problem, since the tree holds many dormant buds in reserve, waiting for the next warm spell to repeat the show. There are a couple of dozen Prunus mume varieties available, with flowers ranging from white to pale pink to rosy pink, either single or double. All appreciate full sun, moderate moisture and average soil. Flowering Apricots are what we would call a single-season plant, however; fairly non-descript when not in bloom, they probably don’t merit a place of honor in the middle of your front lawn. Plant them where they can recede into the background when not in bloom. Another winter bloomer that
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should not be plunked down in your front lawn is Mahonia, sometimes known as Leatherleaf or Holly-grape. Not that Mahonias aren’t worthy plants for your garden; it’s just that their often somewhat gaunt, leggy appearance won’t cut it standing all by themselves. They look better up against a stone or brick wall, or perhaps backed by a row of more delicate shrubs. Also, they don’t particularly appreciate full sun, especially in winter. The best Mahonia for winter fragrance is M. bealei; unfortunately, it also comes with the caveat of being invasive in the Southeast. Plant it only if you remove the flower heads before they ripen into the berries that birds will spread. (And if you sell your property, dig up the Mahonia and compost it!) A better choice would be Mahonia xmedia, available in several cultivars; ‘Winter Sun’ is one of the more popular. These are less fragrant than M. bealei, but better behaved. They can get up to ten feet tall, and in December and January are topped with sprays of bright yellow flowers. Sweetbox (Sarcocca spp.) is
Fragrant Wintersweet Arboretum NCSU]
[Photo:
Ralston
another plant that’s good for shady places in your garden. An evergreen shrub, Himalayan Sweetbox (S. hookeriana) can reach six feet tall, but it’s more commonly sold as the cultivar humilis, which tops out at about two feet. The small, creamycontinued on page 22
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JANUARY 2013
14
CROZET gazette
JANUARY 2013
Seasonal Flavors
MEMORIES & RECIPES FROM AN ITALIAN KITCHEN [ by elena day | elena@crozetgazette.com \
Eat Well January brings a needed rest from the more than month-long (beginning now on Thanksgiving Day after 5 p.m.) riot of shopping, gift giving, eating and drinking, and parties that has been inculcated into our culture as the American Christmas/Holiday tradition. I’m all for the latter two categories and could well skip the first two. January also brings restlessness with its cold and often gray short days. It’s a time to eat well and reinvigorate one’s body and spirit. I’m featuring Sicilian Olive Oil Cake this month. At least the name brings us memories of sun and warmth. The second is a healthful Kale and Potato Soup that is an amalgam of different recipes. My son brought home an overly large bag of kale from the heirloom garden where he works. Everyone extols the merits of eating Brassicas these days, kale in particular. Kale is high in beta carotene, calcium, B6, and magnesium, as well as vitamins A, C, and K. Kale and fellow Brassicas like collards, arugula and bok choy, thrive in cold weather, even under an overlay of snow. Cold sweetens them!
Mountain Plain Baptist Church Our friendly church invites you to worship with us. Sunday School • 10 a.m. Traditional Worship Service • 11 a.m. Rev. Sam Kellum, Pastor 4281 Old Three Notch’d Road Charlottesville (Crozet), 22901 Travel 2 miles east of the Crozet Library on Three Notch’d Rd. (Rt. 240), turn left onto Old Three Notch’d Rd., go 0.5 mile to Mountain Plain Baptist Church
More information at
www.mountainplain.org or 823.4160
Sicilian Olive Oil Cake 1 ½ cups olive oil (extra virgin is preferable) 1 ½ cups orange juice (preferably fresh squeezed) 5 eggs 3 ½ cups flour ½ tsp baking powder 1 ¾ tsp salt 3 cups sugar zest of 3 oranges Beat eggs in large mixing bowl. Add sugar slowly. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Add orange juice to egg mixture. Add olive oil and flour alternately into egg/orange juice mixture. Add orange zest. Oil and flour a Bundt pan. Pour batter into Bundt pan. Bake at 350° F for approximately 1 hour and 15 min, until a toothpick comes out clean. One can glaze the cake with confectioners sugar and orange juice, but the cake is sweet enough without the glaze.
Kale and Potato Soup 2 medium onions 1 carrot 2 cloves garlic 6-8 medium potatoes ½ - ¾ lb kale shredded Olive oil Herbs such as savory, thyme, marjoram, & rosemary, to taste A few red pepper flakes Salt and black pepper to taste Sauté chopped or sliced onions and garlic in olive oil until translucent or beyond (but not burned). Add sliced carrot and herbs. Sauté a bit longer. Peel and cut potatoes in small chunks. Holding back the chunks from at least one potato, add the rest to the sautéed vegetables. Stir potatoes until nicely coated. Cover with water (or chicken broth).* When potatoes are soft, take ¾ mixture and puree in blender. Return to soup pot and add more water and shredded kale and the potato chunks held in reserve. Simmer for 15 minutes to ½ hour. Serve hot with good crusty bread from one of our fine bakeries. *If I hadn’t been dealing with those pesky vegetarians, I would have added some diced salami or kielbasa to the sauté and likely used the chicken broth. The Portuguese kale and potato soup recipes call for chorizo, which is a bit too spicy for me.
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upcoming events JANUARY 5
Delegate Landes Town Hall Meeting Virginia 25th House District Delegate R. Steven Landes, R-Weyers Cave, will hold a town hall meeting in Crozet Jan. 5 at 1 p.m. in the main dining room at The Lodge at Old Trail on Claremont Lane. Landes traditionally holds town hall meetings before the start of the General Assembly session. Landes has also mailed out and posted his annual legislative survey on his website at www.stevelandes. com. Constituents can complete the survey online or return the one received in the mail by January 14. Landes represents the 25th House District, which includes parts of Albemarle, Augusta, and Rockingham Counties. He was first elected in 1995 and is now serving his ninth term in the House. He will also hold meetings in Stuarts Draft and Harrisonburg.
THROUGH JANUARY 16
Christmas Tree Recycling Program
Albemarle County Parks and Recreation Department will host its annual Christmas Tree Recycling Program through January 16. The program collects discarded Christmas trees, which are chipped into mulch and then offered to the public at no cost. This program has been in operation since 1988 and recycles over 2,400 trees each year and yields over 114 cubic yards of mulch. Locally, trees can be dropped off from 7 a.m. until dark at Crozet Park and the Greenwood Community Center. Free mulch will be available to citizens starting February 1 at Darden Towe Park in Charlottesville. The Gazette’s Upcoming Community Events listing is intended for free, not-forprofit or fundraiser events that are open to and/or serve the broader community. Events are included at the editor’s discretion. Priority is given to special events. Space is limited. Submit event press releases for consideration to news@ crozetgazette.com.
CROZET gazette
15
JANUARY 2013
Parkway Pharmacy
BY DR. ROBERT C. REISER crozetannals@crozetgazette.com
Flying Solo One thing you hope never to hear as a plane is taking off is someone shouting “Help, 911!” But that is exactly how my vacation began a few years ago. The plane was still ascending when the agitated man stood up and cried out for help. My fellow passengers seemed both confused and concerned as to what this excited utterance foretold, but to my mind 911 signified not a date but a phone number, now apparently a universal cry for help. Seeing all the shocked looks, the man quickly amended his plea, “Is there a doctor on board? I think my wife is having a heart attack.” As luck would have it, there were actually three doctors on board. One was one of my second year residents in emergency medicine, on route to his vacation. As he and I stood up simultaneously and made our way aft in the cabin to the patient, we met the third doctor, a dentist, who was helpfully trying to support the unconscious woman’s neck. We assured him that we could manage the patient from here forward, and he returned to his seat. We introduced ourselves to the husband and the magic words “ER docs” calmed him a little and allowed him to focus. His wife had been fine until shortly after takeoff when she complained of nausea, vomited uncontrollably (and profusely) and lost consciousness. The medical term for this kind of fainting is syncope, from a Greek word meaning to cut short. Syncope has many causes including heart attack, blood clot in the lungs, and stroke as well as benign causes such as stress or discomfort or illness. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
was hospitalized two weeks ago after a syncopal (fainting) event that was attributed to a stomach virus and dehydration. In general, trying to determine whether the cause is a benign condition or an acute life threat makes syncope a high stakes puzzle for clinicians and patients. This was the case for Secretary Clinton, whose diagnosis continues to evolve now with a second hospitalization, and for our patient on this airplane. Now, Jeff the resident and I had worked together in the ER in similar scenarios dozens of times, and we knew each other’s capabilities and rhythms intuitively. As the senior clinician I was the lead and Jeff looked to me briefly. I nodded and he took charge of the resuscitation. A check of the carotid artery in the neck revealed a thready pulse and she was spontaneously breathing. We both took a deep breath ourselves; so far not as bad as it could be. Jeff reassured the husband and gradually the woman woke up. She was confused and complained of nausea and chest discomfort. The dentist’s wife, a cardiac patient herself, offered aspirin, which Jeff got the woman to chew and swallow. Rapid administration of aspirin reduces the mortality from heart attacks by as much 25 percent. Do not hesitate to give or take one 325 mg aspirin, chewed, if you are ever in a similar situation. In the ER we use 4 baby aspirins, the same dose but slightly more palatable. Unfortunately the woman vomited again and slumped forward, once again deeply unconscious. Oh boy. This was not looking so benign. This time Jeff could not get a pulse and he looked to me. continued on page 25
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CROZET gazette
JANUARY 2013
Sacred Source —continued from page 8
“A core issue for me was that my father fought in the Pacific War from its earliest assaults in the Solomon Islands. We sent essentially SEAL teams, called devil dogs, into the Japanese island to disrupt the Japanese. In the assault on Mount Suribachi, he came ashore below the mountain and had to go up. He was wounded half way up. Then his company put up the first flag. Another officer was carrying a silk flag in his pocket and he tied it to a Japanese plumbing pipe. “I was brought up to have tremendous patriotism for America and also to be a devout Catholic kid who revered the women around him.” He now considers himself post-Catholic. “The pivotal point in my life was my army service.” He was in ROTC at Davidson College and took his commission as a second lieutenant. “I thought I would be sent to Viet Nam, but instead I was sent to Germany as an intelligence officer. When I came out of the service in 1969, I had become aware of geopolitics. I met a lot of people who had served. I felt something was terribly wrong with the political leadership we were getting. Viet Nam created the turning point for so many Americans.” He joined Vets Against the Viet Nam War and was among a small number of them that threw eggs at Richard Nixon’s car as it passed in his inaugural parade. “It tore me up,” he recalled. “I was sensitive. I had learned that you’re supposed to love your neighbor. My tax money was buying
napalm. So I felt called to refuse to pay taxes. I joined a Quaker group. I wrote the IRS and they said, ‘Fine, the law says we can just take it out of your bank account.’” He went underground for a while and changed his name. “I got an alias, Freeman Alexander Joris. Alexander was for Alexander Solshenitzen. Joris was from a character, a woman, in a [Ingmar] Bergman movie who had to make a stand. I lived in a Blue Ridge hollow in Rappahannock County. I became radicalized during this period. “I was working as a carpenter when I got the calling to track down an old rumor that I had heard that none other than Walt Disney, who caused the world to celebrate nature through animation, had been brought to this realization by a Mexican shama who introduced Disney to the mushroom ceremony from the Mayans. Just as we Christians have been called to create our sacred ritual around sacred substances of wine and bread, the Mayans used the psilocybin mushroom in their process of worshipping ultimate reality. That’s what we call the Divine, capital D.” Thus began a series of ricochetlike movements in his life when he searched for the tracks of truth. “Readers of the book will learn what I learned on the mission,” he said, “and how it was the beginning of a great awakening in my own spiritual life.” He discovered the shama that had known Disney and was introduced to psilocybin mushrooms. A few weeks later, while traveling to Mayan locations in Central America, he awoke to a vision of Ganesh, a Hindu god that is a com-
bination of an elephant and a man. From there, a new phase of pilgrimage began. “Christ was the ultimate feminist, as far as I was concerned. He’s not just male-affirming,” said Allan. “In old religion, there was always a marriage of male and female. Anybody who lives rurally knows it. Dark fertile soil is feminine and the fertile, radiant sky that brings about the harvest is masculine. Life requires the union of sacred forces that we deify because we could not survive without that union. “In the book, I tried to step outside my life and just look at it. Life grabs a hold of you and points you in a direction. Life is about making meaning and also creating and giving back love. “After trials, you achieve wisdom and you try to pass on what you learned. I left Catholicism over its masculine-dominated doctrine. I
became really polarized. I pushed too far to the radical. For 10 years I was blue collar, and then I went on a quest. “I was influenced by female Christian mystics, Mother Teresa and Sister Susan [a stigmatic living in India]. I got to know Mother Teresa in 1968. For five months, I lived in a village on the Bay of Bengal as a Brother of Charity, part of the Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa’s organization. I wanted to do service to the poor. Mother Teresa put my feet to the fire to decide to become a brother. I had a dream about being at the crucifixion of Christ. I woke up with a powerful sense of devotion. I had been with Mary seeing the Lord look down on me. I had that dream twice. I realized it was a holy experience. From it I realized I needed to be a husband and a father. That was my path. It places you constantly in
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CROZET gazette
JANUARY 2013
issues of sacrifice and struggle. “I came back to New York City. I had to live very poor and quiet. I had become friendly with the Hindus. They had helped the Brothers and we became close. I noticed they made clay statues, murtis. I brought a bunch back because I care about these people. I was going to sell them and send the money back. “In India I met a hydraulic engineer—he inspected irrigations ditches. He would coordinate murti manufacture with the villagers. For seven years I sold handcrafted Buddhas, folk images, etc. People started buying them, and I started getting asked for images of pagan figures. People wanted images for all the spiritual traditions. I had to stretch myself. “My book is controversial because if we think of the pendulum as swinging from masculine to feminine, to get stuck in male, power-based thinking and erase access to the feminine and nurture, what you eventually get is a culture out of balance. There’s too much focus on the mental, on the sky god,
and a diminishment of body-based, feminine spirituality. We get to the crisis we have today, climate collapse. I won’t call it climate change; it’s climate collapse. The thesis of my business is to bring back the feminine against the overwhelming emphasis on the masculine. “What was fascinating to me was to find out that Hinduism remains pagan, worshipping hundreds of aspects of the creator in different forms. In Hinduism the tradition of making icons stayed alive. It’s a Neolithic skill set that they never lost! In the West the tradition was obliterated. That got taken away when we decided to worship mind and gave away our body’s ability to worship the creator. In Hindu shrines you see a god and goddess in holy balance and union. I felt I was being asked to bring it back to the West. “I would send drawing of figures to India, and they would execute the statues in high detail. I was a conduit. I had to do a lot of reading to be able to explain the images in the catalog. I had to become
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schooled in the religions of the world and their images and make them accessible to Westerners. I’ve never meant to be disrespectful of the religious traditions of our country. They are the heart of our country. All I’ve tried to do is bring back the feminine element in a way that encourages our psycho-emotional and spiritual transformation. Unless we can return to that purity of spiritual union and balance of masculine and feminine elements, we are at risk of disrespecting Mother Earth to the point where our children won’t be able to survive.” For years, Allan issued Sacred Source catalogs two or three times a year. The company produces over 500 sacred images, including a black Madonna. Folk icons of goddesses are often black to emphasis their connection with the womb, Allan said. He ran the catalog busi-
17
ness for 35 years. In 2001 he sold the business to Pete and Liana Kowalzik, but it still operates out of his warehouse, packing center and business office, which he dubbed the Gaia Center, near his house. In recent years they have tried to modernize some images, essentially simplify their lines, to bring them closer to contemporary tastes and widen their appeal. Some folk images are therefore trending toward looking like artworks. “The reason it’s grown is that we are crying out to understand what these old symbols of gods and goddesses are saying. We can learn from them today.” He’s working on a new book now. His mother died in 2002 and among her possessions he discovered papers tracing back to ancestors in the Revolutionary War era continued on page 20
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CROZET gazette
JANUARY 2013
RVCC Hits Its Stride to Start 2013 By Kathy Johnson kathy@crozetgazette.com Despite the slow economy and the persistent challenges of upkeep and remodeling a 1938 school building, the Rockfish Valley Community Center (RVCC) has come through 2012 with flying colors. A new management team finished the year with a bang and is hoping for the same success in 2013. New Executive Director G. Stuart Mills said the RVCC is starting their “Drive for Five” campaign–actually, they are closing in on the five–that’s 500 members participating in and supporting RVCC. Mills (who started October 1), along with Sara Taylor, operations manager (she joined July 16) and Marie Dennis, new Treasure Chest manager (her first day was November 27) comprise the new team. Last year the center completed the old gymnasium renovation,
which took approximately three months and lots of person hours (mostly volunteer) to complete. The old dropped ceiling was removed and replaced with a beveled ceiling that allows natural light from numerous windows to flood the once dark room with daylight. The new “auditorium” provides a great space for large meetings, fundraisers and other events, and, Mills said, “The acoustics are unbelievable … and we have the ability now for the room to go from dimly lit elegance to full blown fluorescence.” Of course, the solid maple floor still needs work, but that’s to come, explained Mills. “We were just about at 50 percent complete on our new ‘Floor Us’ campaign, when just before Christmas a check arrived putting us over the top,” Mills said. “The support from the community and donors has just been fantastic.” He has talked to the contractor and “hopefully it will only take a long weekend in midFebruary to complete the floors.”
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Mills said the police were unable to catch up with thieves who stole Christmas trees from RVCC, but even that had a silver lining. “The trees were stolen on Friday and on Wednesday a fellow came in and introduced himself and said he was ‘very perturbed’ that someone would steal from RVCC.” A few days later Mills opened a letter to find a check from the man for $500 to cover the profit lost from the sale of the trees. Mills was unwilling to identify the good Samaritans, saying only that they are local people, and it is that kind of enthusiasm and generosity that has really made his first three months exciting and rewarding. RVCC recently lost long time Treasure Chest thrift store manager Lynn Mark when she moved away, and new manager Marie Dennis is getting her feet wet. “It took me one week to find all the light switches,” she said with a grin. Dennis said the Treasure Chest is “a magical place. On a Saturday afternoon it’s like a party in here. Everyone in the county comes here to drop off or pick up things.” The TC will be picking up some space from renovations being done since the Hamner Theatre left this fall, and plans include being able to handle some furniture. Taking some of the space where the Hamner was once located is a new lounge and a 20- by 20-foot meeting room, ideal for anyone
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looking for classroom space. It will accommodate 20 to 30 people. “We were just given a big plasma TV that could go in there,” said Mills. Use of the remaining former theater space is unsettled. “We are $40,000 away from being done [with all the infrastructure needs],” said Mills. On the horizon, Mills said, are other projects. “We have ten acres here. I’d like to recondition the ball field and for a long time we’ve wanted to put in a walking trail with exercise stops along the way. We’ve got to hear from our members and the community. What do they want? We’re the space.” January plans include the regular First Saturday Pancake Breakfast January 5 starting at 8:30. Also on the 5th from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. RVCC will host a Red Cross Blood Drive with the first 50 donors receiving a $10 coupon good for food or beverages at Blue Mountain Brewery. At 4 p.m. the Jim Brewer art exhibit and artist’s reception will be held. On January 12 the Giving Hope Foundation will host the Miss Giving Hope Pageant at 3 p.m. On January 18 Barbara Martin and Liz Barnes perform at 7 p.m., and on the 26th the Inscape Quartet will perform at 7:30 p.m. For more information about these or other events at RVCC visit www.rockfishcc.org.
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CROZET gazette
JANUARY 2013
In-Home Care Business Launched Karen McConville of Crozet has launched an in-home companion care service for seniors, new mothers and others needing recuperative or continuing care. Home Helpers is a territorialbased franchise headquartered in Cincinnati. Based in Crozet, McConville will cover Charlottesville, Albemarle and Augusta Counties, as well as Greene, Louisa and part of Orange. Home Helpers offers free inhome consultations and tailors flexible care plans to meet clients’ specific needs and budgets. Services include companionship, personal hygiene, meal preparation, transportation, and medical services including medication management, vital signs monitoring and care management. The business also employs Direct Link, a medical alert system monitored at all times by a Certified Care Center, enabling seniors to live independently at home for as long as safely possible. Direct Link products include landline and cellular personal emergency response systems, automated medication dispensers, GPS client tracking, and remote vital signs monitoring systems. If a unit is activated or a reading is abnormal, the device alerts Home Helpers staff, 911 or any preestablished contacts, easing family anxieties and maximizing client independence. McConville said she is also moving into personal care (anything having to do with touching a patient, such as bathing) and is about to become state-certified. She came to the area after 18 years of working for corporations in
ReStore’N —continued from page 7
Karen McConville
the defense industry and opened the franchise in August. She is the youngest of seven children and a mother of three. She has hired seven caregivers and has her first clients, which is considered a quick start for a new franchise. “The business part is fine,” she said. “It’s enjoyable. I enjoy older people and that’s what this is, except for medical patients. The clients are so appreciative.” “One stat that has impressed me—and I checked this out—is that everyday 10,000 people will turn 65 for the next 18 years. People don’t live near their parents any more. There’s no family there to take care of them. It’s hard for some people to hire help for their parents because they feel they should be doing it. Meanwhile, parents are often feeling guilty because of all they are asking their children to do for them.” Her caregivers are certified nursing assistants and all are women. “We’re trying to fill all the times we need to and to have different personalities come in,” she said. Private insurance pays for the continued on page 27
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add requirements about landscaping and fencing around the project. He called attention to a passage in the transcript when White Hall District Supervisor Ann Mallek had said that if there were any change in the project’s square footage, it would have to come back to the supervisors for consideration. Scottsville District Supervisor Lindsey Dorrier worried aloud that the general accord term was “too open ended and would allow developer too much flexibility.” Marshall called the enlarged second floor an attempt at “sleight of hand that they got away with because of the ‘general accord’ ruling.” He said that Ron Higgins had told the BZA at its hearing that ‘general accord’ meant “the same broad characteristics.” “He was making up a rule for his own case because he did not want to be overruled in it,” Marshall said. “County documents show that after the ‘general accord’ debacle with ReStore’N Station, the county got a lot more explicit in stating what ‘general accord’ meant. 1,915 does not equal 1,000. 1,915 square feet is larger than the houses in Freetown. Enlarging the second floor was not contemplated by the supervisors. [The developers] took advantage of what they saw as a loophole.” He called Ron Higgins’ general accord ruling “capricious” and said that the BZA did not consider what the supervisors’ intentions for the project were. He asked Judge Higgins to find that the BZA was in error. Herrick argued that “The plans
19
are in ‘general accord.’” He said the original plan showed a larger parking and asphalt area than the revised plan. “The board could have limited the size of the second floor, but it didn’t,” he said. Derdeyn said that the supervisors had meant that the site plan for the project had to be in general accord, “not necessarily the design of the building. Architectural elevations are not at issue. “The board understood that it could have put a limit on the square footage,” Derdeyn said. “They didn’t do it. Moreover, they didn’t specify what they meant by ‘general accord.’” He asserted that Marshall had not met the burden of proof that his appeal required. “You have to look at what the supervisors put down as the conditions. It says nothing about the square footage of the second floor. Marshall contended in rebuttal that if what Derdeyn and Herrick were saying was right, then the developer could have added any number of floors on top of the footprint and still satisfy the supervisors’ intention of reducing the scale of the station. He noted that in the revised plan, the building actually had 4,690 square feet, larger than the 4,000 sq/ft building shown to the supervisors. “The BZA is supposed to put themselves in the shoes of the supervisors, not the property developer,” Marshall said. “Nobody would have tried to do this in front of Farmington and the County would not have let them get away with it.” Judge Higgins said she would review the documents for a week and then announce her decision. continued on page 25
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CROZET gazette
JANUARY 2013
Sacred Source —continued from page 17
and the early founders of Louisiana. “It looks at the out-group history of North America with a focus on slaves, the Welsh, the Scots and the Irish who don’t get written about,” he said. “It follows the generations that came to Jamestown and their migration in to what was called ‘the old southwest’—what’s now Mississippi and Alabama—and their intermarriage with the French and natives tribes and how they move forward.” In recent years Allan has canoed from his house, literally, down the Mechums River and on to Jamestown. He made another canoe trip from Blacksburg into Tennessee and down Alabama rivers to arrive at Mobile, where he was given a key to the city. He has also hiked the entire Appalachian Trail. “I’m not a pagan heretic. I love nature and I want our species to survive. We have to transform to a larger dimension of worship. Male dominance is an inheritance that has been going on since we got rid of God the Mother that was present in ancient civilizations. Males got jealous of women. But male advantages are coming to an end. We have to find the feminine in ourselves.” Sacred Source is available from Mountain Magic Press, P.O. Box 163, Crozet, Va 22932.
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Albemarle High School. The groom graduated from Chaminade High School on Long Island and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. He is employed by Microlab Diagnostics. The wedding was held at Pharsalia in Tyro, Virginia. The couple resides in Ivy.
CROZET gazette
JANUARY 2013
© J. Dirk Nies, Ph.D.
Energy Part Five: Dynamic Balance Energy on demand, that’s what fuels provide. Logs lie dark and quiet upon the hearth, candles stand stoically upon the mantle, gasoline waits patiently in the tank, until we call upon their energy. But have you ever stopped to consider why these organic materials (logs, candles, fuel) do not spontaneously ignite and burst into flames? Why is a match or a spark needed to set them ablaze? Why don’t flammable materials catch fire of their own accord? In a macabre way, Charles Dickens explored this idea. In his 1853 novel Bleak House, Mr. Krook, the malevolent, unctuous landlord and shopkeeper, dies of spontaneous human combustion. His living body was consumed by fire that started without the aid of an external source of ignition. Dickens relied upon documented cases as source material for Mr. Krook’s demise, such as the personal and deadly conflagration in 1725 of Nicole Millet, an innkeeper of Rheims, France. The Italian Countess Cornelia Di Bandi suffered a similar fate a few years later. Lest you think spontaneous human combustion is a passé superstition rooted in ignorance, Irish coroner Dr. Ciaran McLoughlin and his team of well-respected pathologists, scientists and fire officials certified this cause of death as the only plausible explanation for the fiery demise of Michael Faherty on the night of December 22, 2010. I bring up these dramatic examples for two reasons, to jar us into questioning our assumptions and to highlight the necessity to our economy, and to life itself, of being able to store energy in stable forms and to release this energy in controlled and directed ways. Understanding these thermodynamic and kinetic processes leads to a deeper understanding of the dynamic balance and interplay between life and energy.
Consider this analogy. Imagine a pane of glass leaning at an angle against the wall. Now envision placing a marble on its tilted surface. As soon as you let go, the marble will begin rolling till it strikes the floor. This behavior reveals what energy wants to do. Energy wants to move downhill. Like water, energy seeks its lowest level. No outside effort is needed to roll a marble down an incline, to transport water from the mountains to the sea, or in the case of spontaneous combustion, to start organic materials burning. They all happen naturally. If, however, this were the only force at play, it would be impossible to store energy. Without some sort of barrier, marbles will not stay put on the surface of an inclined pane of glass, water will move downstream, and energy will not maintain its perch. Without barriers at the atomic level, all organic compounds that contain carbon and hydrogen (sugars, carbohydrates, proteins, fats and fossil fuels) would instantaneously burst into flame when exposed to air. In the presence of atmospheric oxygen, the most stable, lowest energy forms of carbon and hydrogen are carbon dioxide and water. These two combustion products are what the carbon and hydrogen in foods and fuels naturally wish to be, and what they instantly would become, in the absence of any constraints. On the other hand, if the barriers were insurmountably high, there would be no way to release stored energy and it could not be harnessed to do work. Fortunately, natural barriers exist that are of just the right magnitude to allow energy to be stored in chemical bonds, while permitting these bonds to be broken and energy released under the right conditions. To help understand the effect of these natural barriers, imagine organic molecules as marbles sitting in a row on a glass shelf affixed to a pane of glass. Where the shelf and the pane meet, they form a “V.” All the organic marbles are held in the
trough of the “V” keeping the marbles in place. Now imagine jiggling the glass. The harder the glass is shaken to and fro, the more marbles fall off the shelf and unto the floor. Heat is like jiggling. Heat provides organic molecules with sufficient motion and vibrational energy to bounce out of these invisible but real energy barriers. Unlike marbles, however, as these organic molecules jump over and react with oxygen, they give off heat, thereby sustaining and perpetuating the process as long as there are fuel and oxygen in the proper proportions. Turning now to a practical application in our lives, the most energyintensive activity we do in our homes is to generate heat. In fact, two-thirds of all the energy we use in our residences is directed toward producing heat. We use this heat to warm our homes, provide hot water, and cook our food. According to the U. S. Energy Information Administration, Americans annually expend 45 percent of all residential energy to heat air. This is followed by our expenditures to heat water (18 percent) and to cook food (4 percent). Most residential heat is derived from natural gas. Let’s take a look at how the chemical energy stored in methane, the principal hydrocarbon component of natural gas, is converted into heat. In a gas-fired furnace, methane from the gas company comes in contact with oxygen from the air. In the presence of a flame, sufficient energy is available to overcome the natural barriers to allow reactions to occur. The carbon-hydrogen bonds of methane (CH4) and the oxygenoxygen bonds of molecular oxygen (O2) are broken. The carbon-oxygen bonds of carbon dioxide (CO2) and the hydrogen-oxygen bonds of water (H2O) are formed. Specifically, each time one methane molecule and two oxygen molecules react, they are transformed into one carbon dioxide molecule and two water molecules. This reaction is repeated myriad times as methane flows through the burner and combines with oxygen. Excess energy, derived from the difference between the initial, higher energy arrangement and the final, lower energy arrangement of the atoms within these molecules, is
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released primarily as heat. With the use of heat exchangers, cold outside air is heated and this warmed air is delivered throughout the house. Living organisms have another, more elegant, and more finely calibrated way for overcoming natural barriers and directing energy to perform useful work. Instead of crudely adding heat and allowing energetic molecules to react as they will, organisms selectively lower energy barriers using enzymes! These remarkable biomaterials are catalysts that facilitate reactions, select desired reaction pathways over others, and permit all this to happen at temperatures compatible with life. At a fundamental level, life can be defined as the continuous process of obtaining, storing and releasing energy in directed, controlled ways. This concept holds true for our economy as well. We imitate life’s energy processes with our technologies. Hydroelectric power plants mimic photosynthetic plants in that they both continuously gather and store renewable energy from an outside source and transform this energy into useful forms. Automobiles and battery-powered electronics are like carnivores in that they consume energy obtained from an outside source to perform work. In summary, our lives and livelihoods are not only dependent upon energy, but upon appropriate energy barriers as well. I will be mindful of this the next time I experience trouble lighting charcoal briquettes or starting my chain saw. I will chuckle at myself and be thankful that releasing energy in a measured way is as hard as it is. Firefighters and EMTs already have enough to do.
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CROZET gazette
JANUARY 2013
Wintersweet Very Superstitious? —continued from page 13
white flowers are inconspicuous, except for the powerful fragrance they emit in late winter; ditto for the glossy purple-black fruits, which are noticeable only when you look carefully. Sweetbox creeps by stolons, but never fast enough to be a problem. Sarcocca confusa is reportedly even more fragrant, but only marginally hardy in this area. Witch hazels are stalwart fall-, winter- and early spring-bloomers. Our native Hamamelis virginiana blooms in late fall, sometimes with the leaves still hanging on the shrub. This can diminish the floral show, but doesn’t affect the sweet fragrance. For fragrance in late winter, the many cultivars of H. xintermedia sport flowers that may be yellow, reddish or coppery. ‘Arnold Promise’ is an old standby with yellow flowers that are particularly fragrant. Arguably the most fragrant of the winter bloomers is the aptly-named Fragrant Wintersweet (Chimonanthus praecox). The ¾” bell-shaped flowers are attractive, although not terribly showy. The outer petals are a pale, translucent yellow, revealing purplish petals underneath; they’re best shown off with the sun coming from behind. You’re really growing these somewhat ungainly shrubs for their wonderful sweet aroma, but if you insist on something a bit more showy, look for the variety ‘Luteus,’ with brighter yellow flowers. These shrubs can ultimately attain a height of 10’-15’, with slightly less breadth. If they get too big for your taste, they can be whacked back to twelve inches in early spring, following flowering. And don’t confuse this plant with Chionanthus. A very similar name, but a totally different plant. With all of these plants, flowers and aroma are dependent on weather. Although they can flower in surprisingly cold temperatures, fragrance will be much more noticeable on a mild, sunny day. As long as their basic horticultural requirements can be met, it’s best to plant them near a door or path where you will frequently walk by them and enjoy the fragrance. A little something to brighten up the gloom of winter. And good gardening in 2013!
Heed the Omens and Have a Happy ’13! Across 1 Make equal 7 Reagan’s “Star Wars”: Abbr. 10 Org. for Tiger Woods and Bubba Watson 13 Oregon town near Eugene 14 It’s guarded in field hockey 15 Pound sound 16 Read tea leaves 18 Agnus _____ 19 With 25A, unlucky strolls? 21 Always 24 _____ Lanka 25 See 19A 26 Eliot’s Marner 28 Old gray mare? 31 Take it easy 32 Bad luck at the dinner table? 36 WWII spy agency 37 Lance _____, OJ judge 38 _____-mo: replay technique 39 Ewe call 42 Bad luck on the sidewalk? 45 Pretext 48 Sea to Sarkozy 49 Rolling Stone Richards 50 Go in 52 Winged mammal 55 It’s copped sometimes 56 Bad luck upon reflection? 60 Squeak end 61 Omens purposes? 65 Unwrap, to Keats 66 Comes on television 67 Sloppy one 68 Toe count 69 Arafat grp. 70 Ersatz
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by claudia crozet Solution on page 24 6
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by Mary Mikalson
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6 Awaits resolution, as a patent or application 7 Soothing butter 8 Scout Finch’s friend, based on Truman Capote 9 Husband’s sister or wife’s mother 10 Canoe need 11 Plato and Socrates 12 An absolute original 14 Twine 17 Always, to Byron 20 Dodge follower, board preceder 21 Exxon-Mobil, formerly in US, currently abroad Down 22 Honored guests, for short 1 Santa’s helper 23 Manning and Whitney 2 _____-doo 27 Narrow opening 3 “To _____ is human; to forgive, 29 Part of PTA divine.” 30 Lavish event 4 Not man-made 33 New couple 5 Double negative prefix? 34 Curt refusal
Solution on page 26
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35 Key partner 39 Parachute (out) 40 Play break: entr’ _____ 41 Indigenous East Asian hill tribe 42 Try to find 43 Heavenly circles 44 Play it again? 45 Geek for start back up 46 Still green 47 Purloined 51 Hit the highlights 53 Jackie’s number two 54 Defeat convincingly 57 Polish site 58 Wall to Diego Rivera 59 Small bills 62 Tidewater Va. college 63 HS diploma test 64 Full house sign
CROZET gazette
Schools
—continued from page 9
had told the committee at an earlier meeting that county school officials are examining whether a new high school should be built in northern Albemarle. “If you build a new high school, you wouldn’t build on to Western [because there would be a countywide redistricting.] The alternative to a new high school is to build on to Western and Monticello.” Davis asked the committee if it would be willing to meet in November, once the next school year’s enrollment numbers are known, to review its recommendations. It agreed. At a meeting of the Crozet PTO the next evening, parents were alarmed to realize that an overcapacity problem at Meriwether Lewis, from which they expected they might accept more students, had become a move to add on to their school and potentially enlarge it to twice its current capacity. “Having 450 students is imaginable, maybe even healthy,” said par-
JANUARY 2013 ent Karen Rubendall, “but going to 600 is too much.” Designed by VMDO Architects of Charlottesville, “new” Crozet Elementary opened 25 years ago as a state-of-the-art building. It was expanded in 1995. PTO leaders had asked Ken and Maggie Thacker, both school architects at VMDO whose children go to Crozet, to comment on the prospect of another addition. The Thackers were familiar with the design of the addition to Brownsville done six years ago. “We see Crozet as ideally sized at 350 students,” said Ken Thacker. “Economies of scale are causing school divisions to build schools the size of Brownsville. Growing room was designed into Brownsville, but seven kindergarten classes at Brownsville means they are about to be at capacity. “An addition to Crozet is possible,” said Thacker, adding that he would like to do the design. A new wing of either one or two stories could connect to the 1995 addition. “I see a discrepancy between Crozet and Brownsville due to redis-
tricting,” he said, referring to two earlier redistrictings that transferred Crozet students to Brownsville and later to Meriwether Lewis. “It could be remedied by having more kids at Crozet.” Maggie Thacker said the problem with an addition to Crozet is that “it would tax the core areas—the library and the cafeteria—that aren’t easily expanded. “I feel strongly about the capacity and the chemistry of the school. I was an active PTO member. There was a rich community with lots of engagement. After the second redistricting, we never recovered. We always turned to the same individuals for volunteer effort. And they’re worn out.” Rubendall suggested that Crozet
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and Brownsville be made kindergarten through third grade schools, that the county build a new school in Crozet to be for grades four through six, that Henley Middle School house grades seven through nine and Western Albemarle have grades 10 through 12. The possibility of renovating the old Crozet elementary school across the street and splitting the grades was raised. Thacker said that renovating the old school “is not a show stopper.” It is currently the home of The Field School, a middle school for boys, and Crozet Arts, a nonprofit arts school. For many years it housed the Charlottesville Waldorf School. Crozet PTO members said they wanted to meet with local representatives to the LRPC soon. Ballet Theater Music Yoga Art
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CROZET gazette
JANUARY 2013
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Trouble with the Curve
(Drama with Clint Eastwood)
The Dark Knight Rises
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The Bourne Legacy
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Ice Age: Continental Drift
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Ted
(Comedy with Mark Wahlberg)
Premium Rush
(Action with Joseph Gordon-Levitt)
Total Recall
(Sci-Fi with Colin Farrell)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days (Children’s with Zachary Gordon)
Resident Evil: Retribution
(Franchise film with Milla Jovovich)
January picks PETE’S PICKS
Trouble with the Curve (new); Cactus Flower
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CROZET gazette
Medicine —continued from page 15
“Let’s get her on the floor and start CPR. I’ll take the feet. “ This left her vomit-soaked torso for Jeff to wrestle with (hey, he is younger and stronger than I am), and he gave me a sharp look, but his professionalism took over and we got her out of her seat and flat on her back in the aisle. Needless to say, this drama in a packed airplane deeply shocked the passengers and the fear and uncertainty were palpable. As she settled to the floor she began moaning faintly and regained some consciousness and a pulse. Okay, round two’s over. What’s next? The flight attendant appeared with a first aid kit and offered Jeff and me gloves. Jeff glanced at his vomit-slicked hands and then at me. I shrugged. What are you going to do? We belatedly donned the gloves. Who knows, it could get worse. The pilot summoned us forward to a phone connecting to the cock-
To the Editor —continued from page 3
on the site. Thank you, Zobrist Law Group and all Crozetians who worked on this case. We can support their efforts by showing up to future hearings for the project. Please stay tuned. Mary Rice Crozet Thank You From the Crozet Farmers’ Market On behalf of the Crozet Farmers’ Market, I wish to thank the community for your support in 2012. The market, which is held weekly on Saturday mornings in the parking lot of the Crozet United Methodist Church, successfully closed with a $500 donation to the church’s Food Pantry. This success was possible through the hard work of our vendors and the tremendous support of many shoppers who made the weekly trip to the market. The market is truly a community-based activity and we
JANUARY 2013 pit for consultation. I sent Jeff. It was his case and his call and I had confidence in him. I stayed with the patient with my finger on her wrist pulse continuously. Jeff returned from the cockpit phone and told me the pilot wanted to know if he should divert the plane to the nearest airport or continue slightly further to our destination. It was late, I was tired, and diverting would surely mean missing our connection and a night in the airport. It still wasn’t clear what the cause of her syncope was. Perhaps it was a (bad) stomach virus. I sighed and told Jeff I thought we should divert. He grinned and told me he had already told the pilot that. Diverting a commercial airliner mid-flight without consulting me! How I love these bold young doctors. It was the right call. In the end, after several more close calls, we landed safely with the patient lying in the aisle, Jeff’s finger on her pulse continuously. Medics were waiting to meet us and transported the patient to the nearest hospital. Jeff and I cleaned up in the
are very proud that we can support our community and help our neighbors at this time. I thank Pastor Doug Forrester and the members of the Crozet United Methodist Church for their continuing support, Sandy Wilcox and the tenants of the Blue Goose Building for supporting the vendors and providing overflow parking spaces, and Allison Montgomery and the Master Gardener volunteers from the Virginia Cooperative Extension for providing a gardening help desk and planning children’s activities throughout the season. In 2013, the parking lot will be under construction and the market will relocate across the street to the parking lot of the Tabor Presbyterian Church. I thank Rev. Dr. JewellAnn Parton and the Session for allowing the market to use this lot and remain in downtown Crozet. For information about the market, contact me at 434-823-1092 or email aminutolo@embarqmail.com. Al Minutolo Crozet Farmers’ Market Manager
airport rest room and debriefed as the adrenalin wore off. It took a while for the plane to be cleaned and put back in service, but the airline got us to our destination and held the connections for all the passengers. Very classy. The flight attendant treated us like celebrities (she had been in a similar flight situation without any doctors and it had shaken her). I had to turn down a number of offers of free drinks from my fellow passengers and I am sure from the fawning attention my young colleague was getting he had to turn away several phone numbers. How I love these resourceful young doctors. I later learned through channels that the woman did well with no discernible lasting cardiac damage. It is really a measure of our collective human decency that, far from being outraged at having their plane diverted, my fellow passengers actually wanted to thank Jeff and me. I said goodbye to Jeff in the terminal and we boarded different connecting flights. He was ready to fly solo.
ReStore’N —continued from page 19
When court was next called in session, Higgins said she had reviewed the record. She called attention to a passage on page 67 in the transcript of the supervisors’ meeting where the supervisors had said that the ‘general accord’ term was meant to allow flexibility to the ARB for fencing. She pointed out a further passage, on page 61, in which Mallek had stated that if the square footage of the plan should change, the plan must come back before the supervisors and that Dorrier had spoken up to say that was his understanding as well. “Therefore the court finds that the BZA erred in finding general accord,” she declared. Developer Jeff Sprouse, or the county, has until Jan. 17 to file an appeal of the decision. Marshall called the ruling a victory for the residents of Crozet and said that ReStore’N Station’s builders will now have to present a plan that has a 1,000-square-foot second floor.
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CLASSIFIED ADS ALTERATIONS AND TAILORING: Experienced seamstress with 30 years of tailoring and garment alterations experience, working from home in Crozet (Highlands). Call for a free consultation. Ruth Gerges: 434-823-5086.
FOR LEASE: Two commercial spaces in Crozet Shopping Center, retail or office only. Space 1 is approx. 859 sq.ft, Space 2 is approx. 1238 sq.ft. or can be leased as a whole. For more information, call Dave at 434.531.8462. FOR SALE: Spectacular 120 degree mountain views. Secluded, elevated and perked building site. 7 acres. Deeded paved easement. Crozet/ Western Albemarle. 2 miles from I-64 and 250W. $305,000. 434-823-1520. WANTED: 50 or more acres of pastureland to rent for cattle within 10 miles of Crozet. Lowry Abell 960-1334. WANTED: Professional firefighters seek to lease hunting rights for 2013-14 season. We are safe, responsible hunters seeking to partner with a land owner to enhance our hunting experience and manage the deer population. 540-4761177. WRITE YOUR LIFE STORY: Professional ghostwriter and personal historian writes memoirs, autobiograhies, family histories, marriage tributes, business or organization histories. Free consultation. Kevin Quirk: 434-823-7629 or Kevin@lifeisabook.com. Classified ads start at $16 (repeating) and include free online placement. Lost and found ads are free. To place an ad or for more information, call 434-249-4211 or email ads@crozetgazette.com
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CROZET gazette
JANUARY 2013
Richard LaRue
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Crozet Readers’ Rankings Last month’s best sellers at Over the Moon Bookstore
DECEMBER BEST SELLERS
Secrets of the Blue Ridge Phil James
Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power Jon Meacham
Flight Behavior
Barbara Kingsolver
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity Katherine Boo
The Round House Louise Erdrich
“A Rich Spot of Earth” [...] Peter Hatch
Bring Up the Bodies ALL ENGINES POSSIBLE SMALL ENGINE REPAIR MARK PUGH
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Proof of Heaven Alexander Eben
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JAN. RECOMMENDATIONS
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CROZET gazette
JANUARY 2013
Gazette Vet —continued from page 10
innocent. But eventually the pups grow into young adults. At first, they find themselves somewhere low in the pack hierarchy and are content to stay there. But with time, they become discontented and are ready to move up or move out. Wolves typically leave the pack in which they were raised by 1-2 years of age. They will leave to find a mate and or a new pack. So, translating this to our dogs’ behavior, between 1-2 years is when dogs are emotionally maturing and finding their “status” in life. Fortunately, many dogs are happy being a mid-to-low packer—content just to get along with everyone and to be submissive to the bossy ones if need be. These dogs were born “easy going.” But many dogs are naturally more dominant, like Joey. There was nothing wrong with how he was raised; he was simply born a dominant dog and it didn’t show until he was mature enough. In his world, he sees other dogs as a threat, either to his status or to his territory and his pack (his human family, especially mom). He is tireless in his endeavor to stay king. He cannot let a prolonged stare or a challenging growl go unpunished. He will try to fight any dog that comes too close on a walk or gets near his territory
Home Helpers —continued from page 19
care. She is not accepting Medicare for now. “It really doesn’t cover the cost of providing the care, so I can’t
(his yard and house). In consulting with Joey’s owners, I could tell this was hard news to handle. You can’t train dominant behavior out of a dog anymore than you can train anxiety or fear out of a dog. They are who they are. But you certainly can manage it. First, it is important to realize that some dogs are just not cut out for the dog park, and multi-dog social environments like that simply need to be avoided. Second, walks may never be easy, but that doesn’t mean they should be avoided. Joey is much more under control when dad walks him, so dad probably should do most of the walking. When mom walks him, she needs to be relaxed, but focused on avoiding and defusing confrontations. Sometimes it’s as simple as bringing high value treats and getting the dog to sit and focus on the owner while the other dogs walk by. Some dogs cannot be refocused easily though, and hiring a trainer to come to the house is a great idea. Similarly, trying to control barking inside the house and aggressive encounters when people come over is also difficult and may require the help of a trainer who can come into your home environment to best give advice. If your dog is like Joey, don’t get frustrated. Learn to appreciate his inner wolf and seek help to manage him as best you can. afford it yet,” she said. She said the franchise headquarters also supports the business by providing updates on health policy law and regulations. For more information, call McConville at (540) 910-3008.
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BEREAVEMENTS Elizabeth Willmarth Schmitz, 100
September 2, 2012
Jennie Leigh Flora, 51
December 2, 2012
Thomas Franklin Beddow, 94
December 3, 2012
Claudine E. Sprouse, 92
December 3, 2012
Nancy Ann Shifflett, 62
December 4, 2012
James Dewey Jones, 83
December 5, 2012
Charles E. Holloway, 90
December 6, 2012
Percy William Lilly, 75
December 6, 2012
Bertha Louise Fincham, 82
December 8, 2012
Nancy Lou Laudenslager Gilmer, 81
December 8, 2012
Jessie Ella Dixon, —
December 9, 2012
Herman Bernard Gerber, 90
December 9, 2012
Jerry Foster Wills, 60
December 9, 2012
Lewis Franklin Buttner, 76
December 11, 2012
Etta Marie Sprouse Estes, 75
December 11, 2012
Harold James Breeden, 79
December 12, 2012
Beulah Marie Shifflett, 87
December 13, 2012
James Milton Verts, 84
December 16, 2012
Cleo S. Gibson, 89
December 18, 2012
Donnell Hamilton Morris, 73
December 18, 2012
Mary Hosmer Wiley Lupton, 98
December 19, 2012
Evelyn Fray Watts, 94
December 21, 2012
Charles McCoy Johnson III, 65
December 22, 2012
Mary Margaret Davis Shelton, 93
December 22, 2012
William Byron Smith Sr., 72
December 22, 2012
John Edward Bailey, 84
December 23, 2012
Robnette S. Thomas, 79
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December 24, 2012
Carl Lee Carter, 81
December 26, 2012
James Thomas Marshall Jr., 50
December 26, 2012 DR. HILLARY COOK
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CROZET gazette
JANUARY 2013
christina@crozetgazette.com
Household New Year’s Resolutions
W
ith the holidays behind us it’s time to think about our New Year’s resolutions. This year, instead of the usual personal goals that are set and forgotten about within the month (speaking from personal experience), how about gearing your resolutions toward your home this year. Here are a few ideas. 1. Reduce clutter: Clear out cabinets, drawers, closets. Throw away anything broken. Get rid of old bills, newspapers, magazines and any paper waste that is piling up around the house. (Note: It is only necessary to hold onto utility bills and pay-stubs for one year (three if you are claiming them in selfemployment taxes). Keep tax forms for three to six years.)
2. Reduce your carbon footprint: By taking a few easy steps you can help the environment and your wallet. Like Mom always said, “turn off lights when you leave a room.” Dry clothes outside. Change your lightblubs to fluorescent. 3. Compost: Your garden will thank you! 4. Organize how you clean: Put all your cleaning essentials—products, sponges, rags, etc.—in a carry all tub so you have everything you need. Clean room by room to save time. Involve the whole family, giving each person his or her own task. 5. Entertain more: Now that your house is clean and organized, have your friends and family over to enjoy it. Happy New Year!
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Tabor Presbyterian Wins Grant for Community Outreach Crozet’s Tabor Presbyterian Church has been given a grant from the Presbytery of the James, the governing body of the Presbyterian Church USA in the Richmond area. More than 40 proposals were submitted, and “Crozet Cares” was one of 14 organizations selected to receive monies for programming over the next three years. Members of the church’s Outreach Committee wrote the grant to utilize the new Pickford-Chiles Fellowship Hall, seeing church as a center for the community. The grant provides money for programming to reach out to western Albemarle in the areas of health and wellness, the arts, and education. Nominated as director, Robin McElwee, a Tabor member and retired educator, will coordinate with the Outreach Committee and an advisory panel from the community to maximize outreach. In November, Tabor sponsored a
Women’s Retreat where participants generated many ideas for classes and workshops. Ideas include a health fair; dance, yoga and movement classes; a revolving art display; and classes to encourage artists and crafters alike. Crozet Cares plans to offer life skills classes such self defense for women and a lecture series, possibly on comparative religions or music and healing. Tabor has begun a Community Hand Bell Choir and would like more participants from the community to join. On January 9 at 7 p.m. the Community Handbell Choir will practice. On Saturday, January 19, there will be a free Orchid Care Workshop led by Dudley Miller. In February, an International Dance Class—fee based—will be taught on Monday nights. Please call the church at 8234255 if you are interested in taking part in any of these activities.
CROZET gazette
JANUARY 2013
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Crozet
Weather Almanac
DECEMBER 2012
By Heidi Sonen & Roscoe Shaw | weather@crozetgazette.com
Snow at 52, Rain at 30 Strangely enough, Crozet had snow in December when the air was 52 degrees and rain when the temperature was just 30. Although the 52 was our personal record for warm snow, Heidi and I once woke up to pouring rain with thunder and lightning and just 14 degrees! That happened in Ohio and the next day, kids were skating through the neighborhood lawns on ice skates. How can this happen? The precipitation type is determined mainly by what is happening above you. If rain is falling at 10,000 feet, then nothing can turn it back to snow no matter how cold at the ground. A snowflake, however, can melt into rain at any point on its descent. As forecasters, correctly assessing precipitation type is fascinating but also tricky. Often, the heaviest snow falls close to the rain/snow line. If your forecast storm track is off by a few miles, your rain forecast can end up 10” deep or vice versa. Heidi and I boil the forecast down into a big math problem with dozens of factors that looks something like this: POPT = Tsfc + T850 + THK85-5 +Thk10-5 + Tdsfc +Twetave +
Twrmlayer On December 18th, we enjoyed a 60 degree morning before a cold front came through. Temperatures dropped to 52 by 3 p.m. but much colder air had already arrived in the almost identical to November. That Rainfall Totals: Our dry spell ended with good upper atmosphere. Snow fell for means November was colder than about a minute. I ran to my ther- normal, but December averaged rain on the 20th and the messy slop nearly five degrees warmer than on the 26th got the streams running mometer and it read 52. Amazing. We have seen snow many times usual. Snow or ice fell five days fast again. Snow totaled two inches in the 40’s and even upper 40’s but including the day before and the but that came in bits and pieces, never 52. A snowflake can usually day after our pleasant Christmas mostly on the 26th. Univ. of VA 2.95” only survive about a 1000 foot fall day. The day after Christmas was a Crozet 2.58” Nellysford 2.42” above the freezing point. In this horrendously miserable day of CHO Airport 2.36” mixed precipitation resulting in a Greenwood 2.79” Shipman 2.87” case, the temperature was remarkpile of slop an inch and a half deep. White Hall 2.98” ably colder just above us for a brief moment. The opposite case, freezing rain, happens quite a bit here in the winter. The typical scenario is when dense, cold Canadian air wedges up against the Appalachian Mountains. Then, warm, wet air from Gulf of Haircuts|Beard Trims|Shaves Mexico moves our way. The warm Free eyebrow, ear & SUMMER SummerCamp Camp Ages 3-8mustache Preschool Summer 2 1/2 - 5CAMP PRESCHOOL moist air is lighter and Preschool gets forced Ages trim with haircut Ages 3 6 Ages 2 ½ 2½-5 -5 8 HAIRCUTS Sign Ages up for3-several days or for the Straight razor shaves A gentle, &Sign loving aloft and rain falls into the cold air safeAges up by the week A gentle, safe & loving ONLY A gentle, & loving Sign up for or forsafe the whole summer. atmosphere whole summer. Creative weeklyinclude hot lather, hot towels for one youngweek atmosphere young children stuck at the ground. Typically, this for $12! Creative weekly themes. children to beginsummer. to atmosphere for young or the whole themes. Private, in-ground wading & aftershave will start as snow, thentosleet, beginthen exploringchildren the world & towading Creative Private, in-ground explore theweekly world & to to begin themes. pool for swimming. forin-ground kindergarten. thedaily world & to prepare Private, wading pool for daily swimming. freezing rain and finally rain as theforexploring prepare kindergarten. Mon. Tues. Thurs. & Fri. 7:30 - 5:30 prepare for kindergarten. pool for daily swimming. cold air erodes and the warm air HALF DAY & FULL DAY Wed. 7:30 - 12; Sat. 7:30 - 3 Close Close to Charlottesville, Crozet wins. Close Charlottesville, Crozet Crozet & totoCharlottesville, & UVA UVa& UVA Walk-Ins; No Credit Cards NUMEROUS SCHEDULE OPTIONS SERVING CROZET SINCE 1933 NUMEROUS SCHEDULE OPTIONS (434) 979-2111 December Summary (434)434.979.2111 979-2111 vy.com | www.millstoneofi www.millstoneofivy.com www.millstoneofivy.com 1202 Crozet Avenue 434-823-4223 December temperatures were
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CROZET gazette
JANUARY 2013
Warrior Sports News by David Wagner david@crozetgazette.com
Warrior Football Looks Strong New Western Albemarle Head Football Coach Ed Redmon led the Warriors to the playoffs in his inaugural season and has plenty to build on for the future. The Warriors got their first playoff win since 2009 en route to a 10-win season. Behind the leadership of junior quarterback Kent Henry and senior linebacker Tommy Mullin, the Warriors captured the Jefferson District Regular Season Championship and were undefeated in non-district play. Coach Redmon had 22 juniors on the 2012 squad and many played prominent roles in the team’s success. He will also have an experienced team for 2013. Mullin will graduate this year, along with Daniel Kuzjak, Dom Christmas, Trevor Harlow and Isaiah Cowen, but the Warriors will have most of their starters returning, including two-year starter Henry, wide receiver/defensive back Nik Drapanas, Steven Hearn, two-way lineman Patrick Maupin, center Tucker Herr, Tre Banks and a host
of others. Redmon’s experience as a Head Coach was evident as the season progressed. His ability to work with a new coaching staff, as well as getting the team to buy into his coaching philosophy propelled the Warriors to the district championship and a playoff win. If they can shore up the defense, the Warriors could have a very special team. Scott Fox and Patrick Maupin will anchor the defense up front and Drapanas and Hearn will solidify an already strong secondary. Mullin will have to be replaced at middle linebacker, but the talent is there. The offense is loaded and Henry will be entering his third season as a starter. The main concern on offense will most likely be developing a running game outside of Henry. The quarterback takes a lot of hits. Henry has also been the leading rusher the last two seasons. In 2013 the Warriors should be poised to make a run at another district title.
Western Albemarle quarterback Kent Henry, Jefferson District Offensive Player of the Year, with his folks, Trevor and Kim, and sister Alora. Six other Warriors were also named to the All-Jefferson District team: on the first team were Daniel Kuzjak, Nic Drapanas, Patrick Maupin; on the second were Tucker Herr, Donte Henry, and Steven Hearn. WAHS head coach Ed Redmond and Louisa’s Jon Meeks were named co-Coaches of the Year.
Warrior Hoops: The Holiday Basketball Classic The Western girls’ basketball team routed Sherando in a first round game of the annual Holiday Basketball Classic Dec. 27-29. Rachel Cooke and Bridget Shaffrey dominated inside play as the Warriors rolled to a 58-37 win. Shaffrey had 14 points, nine rebounds and Cooke had a team high 17 points. Western Albemarle led 26-17 at the half before blowing the game open in the fourth quarter. Cooke and Shaffrey’s inside play proved to be too much to handle for Sherando. The Warriors continued to pound the paint in the second half and wore Sherando down. Western faced Spotswood in the semi-finals. The Trailblazers pounded Charlottesville High School 60-36 in the first round and didn’t let up against the Warriors. Leading the Warriors by 13 points at the half, Spotswood’s full court pressure forced eight consecutive Warrior turnovers to start the second half. That led to a 17-0 run that got Spotswood ahead 50-20. They never looked back, winning the game 62-37. It was the Trailblazers’ fifth consecutive trip to the Holiday Classic title game. Bailey Williams led Spotswood with 18 points and Tayler Dobson and Elizabeth Dofflemyer each added 13 points. WAHS freshman Anna Sumpter led all Western scorers with 10 points. The Warriors played Albemarle for third place. Albemarle had squeaked by Waynesboro 50-48 in the first round and was blown out by Miller School 73-36 in the semifinals. The Albemarle game was a back and forth contest for most of the game. The Patriots then made a run early in the fourth quarter to take a five-point lead. Western then turned up the defensive pressure, forcing turnovers and getting some easy baskets. Between Albemarle’s sloppy ball handling and a late surge by the Warriors, Western was able to win third place. Rachel Cooke scored 17 points in Saturday’s game after scoring 19
Chase Stokes against Jefferson Forest [Photo courtesy Ryan Jones]
on Friday and 17 on Thursday. Anna Sumter help propel the Warriors to victory, scoring 13 points. The Warriors hope to carry some momentum into the New Year and the district schedule. Spotswood defeated Miller School 62-57 in overtime to win their third straight Holiday Classic Tournament Championship. ••• The Warrior boys ended up fifth in the tournament after losing an overtime heartbreaker to Sherando in the first round, 68-64. Western bounced back with impressive victories on Friday and Saturday. They beat Waynesboro 63-41 and followed that up with a 62-49 win over Heritage. Senior Chase Stokes, along with Jeremy Barruch, Will Mason and Eli Sumpter led the way for the Warriors over the weekend. Western headed into the district play with a 9-4 record overall and looking to contend for district title. They beat Fluvanna at home the previous weekend by double figures in a game that surprised some in the area. Fluvanna also looks to be a contender in the Jefferson District.
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CROZET gazette
JANUARY 2013
The Blue Ridge Naturalist © Marlene A. Condon | marlene@crozetgazette.com
A Ghost of Winter Weather Past In December my husband and I watched the Charlie Brown a n i m a t e d Christmas special that first came out in the sixties. We hadn’t watched it for several years, even though I’d always loved this program since seeing it in my youth. One reason the show captured my heart was that it so accurately represented the very area where I grew up, from the several inches of snow on the ground at Christmastime to the frozen pond five minutes down the road where everyone (except yours truly) skated all winter long. But as my hubby and I watched, both of us felt an unsettling disconnect, which really took me by surprise. For the first time ever, the frozen pond and all of the snow just no longer rang true. My husband grew up in Virginia and never really had many white Christmases anyway. But the lingering dearth of normal precipitation in our area over most of the past decade, along with limited snow cover most years, made the snowy Christmas environment of the special seem like a figment of someone’s imagination that had no real basis in fact. I, on the other hand, am a New England girl for whom a green
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Christmas was a rarity when I was growing up. On the very few occasions that it occurred, it was depressing. It just wasn’t Christmas without snow already on the ground and perhaps more of it gently falling when we got up Christmas morn! All of my relatives still live in and around the area where I grew up. As my sister-in-law puts it, “brown” Christmases—those without snow to cover leaves, trees, and dirt—are much more the norm nowadays. Thus for those of us who have been around a while, it’s evident that the climate has indeed been changing. Yet there are many skeptics out there who pooh-pooh the idea of global climate change. I’m sure for some folks this is simply a sign that they lack a scientific understanding of the issue, but for many folks it’s instead a sign of denial. For years, cigarette smokers didn’t want to quit smoking so they refused to believe that cigarettes caused lung damage. Similarly, climate-change deniers don’t want to curtail their use of energy so they refuse to believe that their own actions can really bring about a change in climate. But we can, and we do, profoundly change our world. We wiped out the Passenger Pigeon, which went—in only 50 years—from billions of birds to none. And in addition to causing the
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extinctions of numerous kinds of animals around the world, we continue to badly pollute our waterways. People used to put so much oil and trash into the Cuyahoga River in Ohio that it erupted in flames many times. The 1969 fire brought about the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) because, sadly, government regulations are often the only way to get folks to do what they will not do on their own. Nowadays the EPA has once again been forced to come to the rescue, this time to save the Chesapeake Bay. Decades after sea life began dying off and people started losing their livelihoods, the Bay remains in dire straits. Everyone knew why this was happening and what needed to be done to fix this situation, but instead of people voluntarily doing what was right for the environment as well as fellow human beings who made their living from a healthy Bay, business just continued on as usual throughout the watershed. Construction crews caused soil erosion, transferring soil to the Bay where it smothered plants and wiped out habitat for animals. Homeowners created huge lawns and over-fertilized them, sending so much nitrogen downriver that algae blooms were able to occur in the Bay, depleting the water of oxygen and creating dead zones. Farmers allowed the wastes from cattle and chickens to enter rivers, adding their own nutrient loads to the Bay. And developers continued to overlay the land with impervious surfaces that helped polluted water to reach the Bay. Only now, out of desperation, are people being forced to face the results of their actions on the Bay and being made to live more in agreement with the natural world. Citizens also need
to recognize, and care about, the role they play in the warming of our planet due, in large part, to burning fossil fuels and forests for energy. This burning has resulted in an increase of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere, with concentrations going from about 280 to nearly 380 parts per million over the past 150 years. That may not sound like much, but it’s an increase in CO2 of almost 36 percent. In chemistry and physics, a change of that magnitude in a system can have a huge effect. It was discovered in the mid-nineteenth century that CO2 in the atmosphere acts as a blanket that limits the amount of heat escaping from the Earth. Increasing the amount of CO2 (and some other gases, such as methane) in the atmosphere thus works to increase the overall surface temperature of the planet. Indeed, global average surface temperatures have risen over the same 150-year period in which the amount of CO2 has risen. Is this a manmade occurrence? Yes. The extra CO2 in the atmosphere can be positively identified to its source by its isotopic signature. “Isotope” means “same type.” Carbon isotopes are carbon atoms that behave the same chemically but have different masses. The carbon released as a result of burning coal or oil has a different isotopic composition than atmospheric carbon. There’s a phenomenal waste of energy in our society because people don’t take seriously the idea that they should tread softly upon the planet. But it makes monetary as well as environmental sense to limit energy usage. And it’s especially important if you are concerned about the future that your offspring—and theirs— will face.
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© 2012 Hunter Douglas. All rights reserved. All trademarks used herein are the property of Hunter Douglas.
Duette® Architella® honeycomb shades can help you save money on your heating and cooling bills.
Contact us today!
Duette® Architella® honeycomb shades can help you save money on your heating and cooling bills.
Contact us today!
© 2012 Hunter Douglas. All rights reserved. All trademarks used herein are the property of Hunter Douglas.
© 2012 Hunter Douglas. All rights reserved. All trademarks used herein are the property of Hunter Douglas.
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