Welcome to the Crozet Gazette, a now-monthly, soon-to-be bi-monthly newspaper distributed locally á la The HooK and C-Ville. The stories are well-written, informative, timely and most importantly, Crozet-centric.
One aspect is exciting – a good Crozet newspaper is on the scene. On the other hand, part of this is saddening. It highlights the further segmentation of the CharlAlbemarle region. Now, one needs to look for the 29 North Gazette, the Scottsville Post, Pantops Times. For all I know, they might already exist. (update June 2018 – they don’t)
The Scottsville has been around for a while, and this is the fourth newspaper ever published in Crozet that I know of. There was the Whistle, which stopped publication a year or two ago, and there was the Scope and the bulletin which were around in the early 90’s. I think that small, weekly papers with a much closer local focus are the trend for newspapers – they are not an agile enough platform for national news in smaller markets…
That should read Scottsville Monthly, apparently angle brackets mean something…
The Gazette has history of the previous Crozet papers – it is nice to see this iteration.
I understand your lamentation about the ‘segmentation of the ‘Chalbemarle region.’ While I can only speak for myself, I don’t get the impression that Scottsville sees itself as a part of the Chalbemarle region, the same way 29 North or Pantops are.
It’s had it’s own unique identity long before it’s recent renaissance and it’s relationship with Chalbemarle is one about maintaining that identity, as a benefit both to Scottsville and Chalbemarle.
Additionally while our (Scottsville’s) Water Utility is managed by the same people (Albemarle County Service Authority) it draws from an entirely difference source and is not subject to the same strains of supply faced by the rest of Chalbemarle (one of the many reasons for towns opposition to that pipeline a while back). And as it is not served by Dominion power which means, my electric bill in Scottsville is much much lower than it would be in Cville. 🙂
I’m not really a fan of Cville (but it’s a necessary evil) or the Cville centric coverage of the area’s major papers, so I don’t view the addition of community newspapers as ‘segmentation.’ but instead as ‘added perspective’ on local issues (in a way that sometimes only a local can provide). With a benefit that sometimes papers like these make the community feel more like a community.
The Scottsville Monthly is a pretty good local paper. When there is news they’ve usually got good coverage on the big issue and when there isn’t news then it’s like a local version of the Lifestyle section of a larger newspaper (and I mean that as a complement), its a little bit of something for everyone.
Thank you so much for the response – I used Scottsville less for a correllation between Pantops and 29N and more to make the analogy – “29S” just doesn’t have the same impact as 29N or Crozet. Scottsville does have an identity all its own and I didn’t mean to take anything away from that – they are the only town in Albemarle, if I recall.
I see your point.
I think I’ve been around long enough that in my mind I’ve always given Crozet it’s own identity apart from the Chalbemarle area, and I think it’s just a little bit sad that it’s character seems to have been subsumed by the larger region. Perhaps it’s time for Crozet to adopt a “Town Status”? More the better to free itself from they tryanny of the BoS. 🙂 Or at least gain a larger measure of self determination. 😉
We at the Crozet Moose Lodge 2164, welcome the new paper. There are a lot of community functions going on right now. We as an nonprofit charitable organization would welcome the chance for this community to get to know exactly what we do for the community and how we have supported the community. Would like to advertise in the Crozet Gazette and would like to contribute some articles also. We received a letter from a student at WARS asking for our help to sponsor her in the Congressional Youth Leadership Council. We have sponsored other students in different programs in the past. Just one of the things we are about. Let us hear from you.
beverly adm.asst.