Crozet Trails Will Cross Lickinghole Creek!

This is fantastic news. In the CTC email today.

Be sure to vote tomorrow–every vote matters! Then celebrate at Pro Re Nata Brewery this Wednesday 11/7, 5:30-6:30 pm with the Crozet Trails Crew’s Appreciation of our Albemarle County Parks & Recreation Crew partners–Tucker Rollins, Jim Barbour, and Matthew Smith–who help us in so many ways all year by mowing, clearing trail, laying crushed stone, and clearing fallen trees.

This weekend, join us for a Guided Trail Walk on Saturday, Nov 10 at 10 am. Meet at the kiosk in Crozet Park. This walk was postponed from October 27 due to weather.

Great news! The County has received permission to extend the Crozet trail system across Lickinghole Creek toward Route 250. This is a big step in connecting neighborhoods on the south side of Lickinghole, such as Cory Farms and Liberty Hall, to Crozet Park and downtown Crozet via the Crozet Connector Trail. *We will begin work on building the trail on the south side of the creek at a CTC Workday at 9 am on Saturday, Nov. 17. To get there, take Park Road past Crozet Park into Westhall. Turn left on Westhall Drive. Meeting place is one block on the right, where Eastern Avenue ends in a dead end. Wear long pants and sturdy shoes. Work gloves, hats, and insect repellent strongly advised, as we may be clearing thick underbrush.

Our next monthly meeting will be Thursday, Nov. 15, 6:30-8 pm at Mi Rancho in Old Trail.

Clover Carroll, Secretary
Terri Miyamoto, President
Crozet Trails Crew www.crozettrailscrew.org

*that bolding is mine.

 

Three Things about Voting in Albemarle – 6 November 2018

You might have heard. 6 November there’s an election.

 

  1. Make sure you know where you’re supposed to vote. (things may have changed)
  2. Check the sample ballot before you go in.
  3. You’ve studied the constitutional amendments, right? Right?
    1. Read a bit more about them.
  4. Now’s a good time for homebuyers to search out neighborhoods and try to discern if they might like the neighborhood.

 

 

Crozet Sports- Upcoming Football Clinic and Winter Break Kids Camp

I was tempted to not post this, as it is essentially a free ad,, but I’d like to see
1) RealCrozetVA as a place to inform the community and
2) if we can support this type of programming, maybe sooner rather than later, we’ll have a facility here that will require less driving out of Crozet, and that’s good for all of us.

via email –

Join Crozet Sports for the following upcoming youth programs in Crozet!

Youth Football Clinic-  JoinPatrick Estes, former UVA standout and San Francisco 49er, as well as other former NFL and NCAA Division 1 football players for an instructional youth clinic being held on Sunday, November 18th at 4pm at the Old Trail Community Park Field.  Beginners, flag, and tackle players ages 6-12 are welcome.  Players will learn essential fundamentals and the best ways to safely play the game.  No gear is needed.  All players must register at https://crozetsports.com

Winter Break Kids Camp-  Join Crozet Sports, licensed educators, former athletes, and coaches for the upcoming Kids Camp being held at Brownsville Elementary on December 20th & 21st from 8am-4pm.  Participants of the Kids Camp will experience a well-structured academic and athletic environment including fun character-building activities, STEM learning challenges, academic-themed games, athletic opportunities, and much more.

All participants must register for the camp at https://crozetsports.com

Our recent youth baseball, softball, and field hockey clinics were a huge success!  We’d like to once again thank the participating families, youth sports leagues and WAHS for their role in supporting our mission and the growth of these sports in our community.  Action photos and highlight videos of each clinic are available on the Crozet Sports website.  Like our FB page and complete the email sign-up on our site to stay updated on our plans for 2019!

Thank you,

Crozet Sports

FAMILY | COMMUNITY | SPORTS


Fixing the Hum at Yancey Lumber

Here’s the website the lumberyard has set up for sharing information about the hum.

via press release (bolding below is mine)

R.A. YANCEY LUMBER COMPANY RESPONDS TO NOISE DISTURBANCES IN CROZET

CROZET, VA (Oct. 23, 2018) – R.A. Yancey Lumber Company (Yancey Lumber) announced today that lumber production will scale back significantly beginning this evening in response to the noise disturbances reported by neighborhoods surrounding the mill. The noise is stemming from the exhaust stack of the boiler for the company’s kilns. The company has ordered a custom-made sound muffler for the stack as a solution; however, it is estimated it will take two weeks to manufacture and ship. Until the muffler is installed, the kiln will run in “pilot light mode,” allowing the boiler to maintain enough heat at night to power up and treat lumber during the day, but halting all lumber curing operations at night.

Local citizens began reporting noise disturbances in neighboring communities last month. Several companies – Yancey and Dominion, among others – were approached about the source of the noise. At that time, Yancey Lumber did not believe the mill was the source, as no new equipment had been installed. A kiln was refurbished in August, but that kiln had been used since 1992 with no prior complaints. Given the community’s concerns, Yancey Lumber hired Acentech, an acoustical consulting firm, to investigate and measure sound levels at the mill and properties of several neighbors who had reported disturbances.

On Wednesday, Oct. 17, Acentech determined that the noise’s origin was the Yancey boiler’s exhaust stack. The company immediately began attempting to source the right equipment to muffle or cancel the noise. It has ordered a “silencer” insert that will be custom built on an expedited basis. In the meantime, the company has been making adjustments to the drive frequency of the boiler fan to reduce its speed; however, based on the reports, the reduction did not have the intended effect.

The Yancey family has owned and operated the mill in Crozet since 1949. “We are committed to being a good neighbor and community member,” said President Donnie Rose. “We are extremely sorry for the disturbances and sleepless nights the kiln has caused. We want the community to know that we’re doing everything we can to keep that from happening again.”

Humming Update

Sounds like (get it?) the sound is coming from Yancey Mill. Maybe?

via Nextdoor (having to pull information from private sites where logins are required sucks; this stuff should be open to all). Neither Nextdoor nor Facebook are the Internet.

Update: Crozet Gazette has the story.

White Hall Supervisor Ann Mallek confirmed Friday, Oct. 19, that the noise plaguing residents for weeks has been tracked to Yancey Lumber Corporation.

(oldest Nextdoor post first)

Continue reading “Humming Update”

October 2018 CCAC Recap | Baseball Lights & more

Well, that was fun. Read the tweets. Watch the video.

Video of the meeting, thanks to Crozet Gazette, is below.

Highlights

 

Continue reading “October 2018 CCAC Recap | Baseball Lights & more”

Letter from Rich Pleasants

via email: (on Nextdoor, too)

It has come time for me to speak my mind; on some of the happenings in our wonderful community.  Most Crozet area citizens have little knowledge of the dark side of what is going on in Crozet, right under our noses.  Let’s me start by saying, that when I moved my family here in August 2014, I had high hopes of retiring here. I still feel that way.  However, I can’t sit idly by and watch what is going on around us and not exercise my right to free speech.

Continue reading “Letter from Rich Pleasants”

CCAC – 17 October | Baseball Lights in Crozet Park?

Should be an interesting meeting. I suspect the presenters will be talking about the lights, all the neighborhood outreach they’ve done, and penalties when the lights are on beyond their allowed times.

CROZET COMMUNITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Crozet Library

Wednesday, October 17, 2018 from 7:00 p.m. to 8:45 p.m.

Agenda

  1. Introductions and Agenda Review (Allie Pesch – CCAC chair)
  2. Approval of Minutes
  3. Peachtree Baseball and Softball Field Lights at Crozet Park Lower Field (Cheryl Madison, Peachtree Board President; Drew Holzwarth, Claudius Crozet Park Board Member; Joe Forche, Musco Sports Lights – 30 minutes)
  4. Downtown Crozet Initiative Update (Meg Holden, DCI Board Chair –30 minutes)
  5. Discussion of Possible All-CAC Topics (All – 30m in)
  6. Items Not Listed on the Agenda
  7. November Agenda Topics (Note meeting date changed to November 14)
    – David Hannah, Natural Resources Manager, Albemarle County Community Development (proposals for water quality and stream health improvement)
    – Pleasant Industries, Inc.

Update on the Hum

Nextdoor has been abuzz. (Get it?)

Update – community meeting 30 October. Go to the bottom.

Ann Mallek sent this this morning:

Valerie Long had seen these postings about the noise as well, and had shared them with Sarah Yancey May (one of the three sibling owners) and the other family members who run the Mill.  She had also spoken to someone who had called her about it.  At that point, and again today, Sarah confirmed that there is nothing different that they are doing there that would be generating a noise like has been described.

The mill is shut down at night other than the dry kilns drying the wood and the boilers, and they have been in operation for decades.  They do run on a motor, but it does not generate anywhere near the level of noise that has been described in the neighborhood group postings.

Since there are some who have heard the noise near the Mill and are concerned that it may be from the Mill, the owners have asked an acoustic consultant to look into it for them.  They have engaged Bill Yoder with a firm called Accentech to assist them.  He is a scientist and acoustical consultant. He would like to speak with some of the residents who have been hearing the noise, so Valerie will connect him with Allen Billyk from the Old Trail Community Association who can then connect him to Marie Westbrook and Alice Faintich.  He will also be conducting an on-site investigation.

A bit more from Ann

Below, Please see links to videos and also dates of community meeting to learn more.

Here are some videos that might help better explain and describe the noises.

 

This first one is a guy changing the spacer which keeps the lines spaced and prevents them from hitting each other. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE__F9dTU8k Spacers can be different depending on how many lines there are per phase. If you go to google images and search for “transmission line spacers” you will see that there are spacers for two-, three-, and four-line phases.

 

This second one is a guy riding in a buggy, so you can hear the humming that they are referencing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeMFnyMXDNw

 


Good morning,

 

Phase 2 of the project is about half complete, and we are in the process of removing old conductor wire, which means they will soon be pulling new conductor wire.

 

Phase 3 of the project (the last segment) is in the pre-construction phase and will move into active construction soon. Our goal is to complete construction by April 2019. Rehab activities may still happen after the end date, however.

 

There will be a construction informational meeting held on Tuesday, October 30, 2018 from 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. at the Crozet Elementary, 1407 Crozet Avenue, in the cafeteria.  All of our customers are welcome to attend and ask any questions about the construction process.

 

We will be mailing postcards sometime this week, so they should be received sometime next week.

 

 

Public Hearings About Roads and Such. Fun. Important

via email from VDOT: (bolding mine for stuff that is Crozet-related, and interests me the most).

VDOT has combined six projects in Albemarle County into one $35.9 million design-build package. One contractor will be selected to both complete the final design and construct all six projects. The projects were approved for SMART SCALE and/or Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) funding by the Commonwealth Transportation Board in July 2017. VDOT proposes to:

Continue reading “Public Hearings About Roads and Such. Fun. Important”