Author: Jim

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The Next Phase of Old Trail Begins

If you haven’t driven through Old Trail recently, you might be surprised.

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Update from Dave Brockman at Old Trail:

Thanks for reaching out to me. The activity has certainly created a lot of excitement.  What I can share is that the work being conducted to the west is primarily to support our new residential lot sales, which required a significant amount of earthwork. However, we continue to have very meaningful dialog with several interested commercial development partners and felt confident enough to use this opportunity to start making preparation for further expansion along Old Trail Drive. Old Trail’s success of the last few years has given us the ability to be more efficient in our work towards the future.

If you’re curious, these are the homes that are for sale right now in Old Trail.

 

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December 2014 Crozet Gazette is Out

December 2014 Crozet Gazette

– Trailside Coffee becomes Grit Café. What Marcia and her team did at Trailside cannot and should not be understated; thank you. My opinion: this is a transition from really good people to really good people. As such, we all benefit. (more insight at C-Ville)

– Crozet Chosen for Renewable Energy Academy.

– Milestone Partners is moving forward to purchase the former Barnes Lumberyard. I think this is good for us all; a less-rushed process provides an opportunity for (hopefully) less polarizing conversations.

– Downtown Crozet’s improvemements are celebrated.  (Now … about repaving all the roads … )

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Stuff to do in Crozet This December

There is plenty of stuff to do in Crozet this December.  (Update: please make sure to check out the full calendar; more events are being added).

If you feel like adding your event to the list, you can do that here. If you don’t want to do that, you can email me your event and I’ll add it (although it’s really easy to add the event yourself). Also, images help the post a lot.

So far, some highlights for December:

 

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Crooks Caught?

Happy thanksgiving; hopefully these are the guys … received this email this morning:

I just wanted to let you all know that our detectives and officers have just arrested two individuals that have been linked to a large number of the burglaries and shed break-ins throughout the county. Though we may not be able to clear each case individually, we feel very confident that they are the people responsible for terrorizing our community for the past few months.

Happy Thanksgiving to each of you and your families.

Captain Gregory Jenkins

Albemarle County Police Department

Blue Ridge Division Commander

1600 5th Street Suite D

Charlottesville, VA. 22902

Office:  434-972-4041

[email protected]

Thanks, Albemarle County Police!

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Safe Routes to School delayed. Again

One day, the Safe Routes to School might get funded … I’m tired of writing about the delays, and I know Crozetians and the folks at the County just want the darn improvements finished (and started).

Trevor Henry with Albemarle County emails:

The Safe Routes To School (SRTS) bids were opened Thursday afternoon and unfortunately came in over staff’s construction estimate again even though there was significant scope changes in the plan from the previous bid, including adjusting the alignment of the sidewalk to remove ~ 350 ft. of ACSA water line relocation.

The bids were  ~$70K above the latest estimate and exceed the 25% difference in bid to estimate required by VDOT to allow the project to proceed. Staff utilized recent construction cost information from local projects and the VDOT cost database prior to confirm the cost estimate going to bid.

Staff discussed the bid results with VDOT and have  been informed that if the county can find the additional funding and justify the cost increase VDOT will support the grant funded project to move forward.  Staff is currently conducting the bid analysis are planning to request the funding increase at the January BOS meeting that if approved by the BOS and VDOT will allow the project to move forward in early spring.

Background.

With the coming budget cuts in Albemarle, I’m of the opinion that this may be a hard sell.

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Western Albemarle High School gets high ranking in new study

Western Albemarle High School was ranked the 24th best school in the state of Virginia. 

Matter of fact, the entire Albemarle County School system received an A+.

My opinion: despite the collective high rankings, schools are competing. With each other, with schools around the state, and around the county.

 

School quality matters for a lot of reasons, not least because school quality directly impacts property values – and school quality is one of the very few things in which home buyers do not compromise.