Combined Crozet Community Association (CCA)
and Crozet Town Hall Meeting
As approved at January 10, 2013 meeting
November 8, 2012 at 7:00 PM
The Field School Auditorium
(Click here for PDF version of these minutes)
Welcome: Tim Tolson, CCA President, welcomed everyone at 7:03 PM. There were more than 50 people in attendance. Tim then introduced, Todd Barnett, head of the Field School, who welcomed everyone to the Field School and gave a description of the Field School and its mission and activities.
Agenda Review: Tim Tolson, President of the CCA, described the mission and annual activities of the CCA to everyone. As this was a combined Crozet Town Hall Meeting and CCA meeting, the agenda for the CCA meeting was quite short and the Town Hall Meeting was planned as the bulk of the meeting.
Approval of last meeting's minutes (September 13, 2012): The minutes were unanimously approved.
Treasurer's Report (Emery Taylor): Emery reported that the bank account balance is $414.82.
A Moment in Crozet History (Phil James): Phil James gave a very interesting talk about old downtown Crozet and read a letter from Mr. Hayden, describing some of the early movers and shakers of Crozet.
The meeting then moved to the Crozet Town Hall Meeting, in which the County gave updates about Crozet projects and citizens had the opportunity to ask questions and give feedback on those projects. Displays of different county projects were set up in the meeting room, and community members were encouraged to walk around and familiarize themselves with the projects.
Update on infrastructure projects – The county’s manager of facilities development, Trevor Henry, highlighted completed elements of the approximately $15 million invested in downtown Crozet. He noted that Phase One of Library Avenue is now complete and that the CSX parcel [known in Crozet as the Square] has been deeded over to the county, which is important both for parking and for running power lines underground in the future.
County Senior Planner, Ronald Lilley and Transportation Engineer, Jack Kelsey, gave updates on the building of the Library, the Streetscape and downtown’s storm water management. They described the projects and the problems hindering county’s progress in streetscaping, including right of way issues, and telephone cables that lie where the county had hoped to install storm water pipes.
Planned sidewalk projects were described that include a sidewalk extension from Crozet School to Ballard Drive, and a new sidewalk from St. George to the school, running north of Crozet, in the vicinity of the schools.
Steve Sellers, Albemarle County Chief of Police, reported to the community on the new geographic areas that the police will be using to divide up the county, rather than relying on police shifts to determine which officer was sent to a particular area. The Chief introduced Lieutenant Greg Jenkins, the new District Commander for our geographic area, the Blue Ridge District. Jenkins took questions and comments from the community, saying one of the purposes of the geographic apportionment of the county was so that community members could get to know their police officers, as the same one would be working our district for all of their shifts.
David Puckett, Deputy Chief of Albemarle County Fire Rescue, reported on the new Ivy Volunteer Fire Station. Service from the new VFD will begin in July 2013, and 30 new volunteers are needed for the station, most of whom have been recruited and are training.
Tim Hughes, County Parks and Recreation Athletic Supervisor, gave an update on Peachtree Baseball and the status of the Crozet baseball fields.
Dan Mahon, Outdoor Recreation Supervisor for Albemarle County, gave an update on Crozet greenways. He reported that the community of volunteers working on the Crozet trails and greenways are the model he uses when talking with other communities who want to build out their greenway infrastructure. He commended the Crozet Trails Crew for their excellent and hard work.
Ann Mallek, White Hall District Supervisor, gave an update on the Blue Ridge Tunnel Commission and the ongoing plans to convert the Blue Ridge Tunnel into a hiking trail through Afton Mountain.
Bill Schrader, chair of the Crozet Library Fundraising Committee (Build Crozet Library), reported that the library group has received a $100K matching grant from the Perrry Foundation and that since September 1, they have raised $50K towards that matching goal. He asked for help networking – identifying who they could ask to donate to the new Crozet/Western Albemarle Library. Naming opportunities by sponsors are going fast.
Ann Mallek than gave an update on several more items including: 1) VDOT projects, including the left-turn lane and sidewalk crossing she has proposed for in front of the Harris Teeter; 2) continued issue of police understaffing in the county that she is working on; 3) threatened closure of the Ivy Landfill; 4) the Crozet Historic District, which has been completed, but fundraising is still needed to pay for the final application process; and 5) Tabor and St. George Streets residents will be invited to a meeting about the water main replacement.
Meeting was adjourned at 9:00 PM
Submitted by Mary Rice, Secretary Pro-tem.
You are also invited to review the Twitter stream and comments at: http://realcrozetva.com/2012/11/08/crozet-town-hall-recap-8-november-2012/
and the informational slides provided by the Albemarle County staff by clicking here.