A plan that would refurbish business buildings in the heart of Crozet — connected to or within walking distance of new apartments — might begin within several months, despite major financial stumbles.
And Bill Atwood verbalizes succinctly something I’ve been saying more verbosely for years (bolding mine):
Atwood said that in the retail world, “the longer you can get people to stay, the better the pay. In other words, if you have somebody who’s actually going to stay and eat at dinner and actually walk around, you’ll be viable faster. … Having people live there is the ultimate.”
Atwood said that young residents are “more apt to want to be in town and places where you can socialize, buy a dog and buy a cup of coffee. … I think that the idea of joining a village is going to be as important the next 10 years as joining a country club in the last 10 years.”
This is an update from Nelson County, the owners of the Blue Ridge Tunnel. The Tunnel is closed to the public at this time and any unauthorized persons entering at this time are trespassing. The Tunnel walls are not stable at this time. It is disappointing that some trespassers have been leaving trash and defacing the walls with graffiti.
It is the County’s objective to restore the Tunnel and convert it to a pedestrian trail. Woolpert Inc, our architectural & engineering firm is in the process of determining the most feasible, cost effective methods for rehabilitation and design of the Tunnel and related trails. Once that is complete construction will begin as funds are made available.
We appreciate your interest in the Tunnel, are working to make it safe for your enjoyment, and ask that you stay away until it’s completed.
I can’t help but publicize the Batesville Store’s writing. It makes me want to go this weekend. This is their weekly newsletter:
Dear Friends of The Batesville Store,
Relax. Kick back in your chair and plop your feet on the desk. Take a deep breath. Close your eyes. Imagine:
The cool of a cold beverage pressed against your cheek. The riot of fragrances wafting from the garden. The clattering of Little Leaguers’ cleats on concrete and the cicada-like chatter of the infielders. The sounds of music from outdoor parties floating in the air late into the night.
And then, repeat after me:
Summer . . . never . . . ends . . . never ends . . . never. . . ends . . . never . . .
And it doesn’t—not at The Batesville Store. Don’t believe me? Then check out our “Fourth of July” Cookout this Saturday evening from 6:00 p.m. till 9:00 p.m.
Getting us all in the mood will be the great high school rock band, Wille DE and the Wave. Featuring Batesville’s own Willie Denton-Edmundson on lead guitar and vocals, the quartet performs regularly at Floyd Fest, the most acclaimed rock festival in the Southeast, and won first place in the 2009 “Virginia Got Talent” competition. These kids are good. Very. Good.
While The Wave rocks inside, Kyle will be outside with the Char-Broil, grilling up a whole mess of burgers, veggie burgers, hot dogs, chicken, and veggie kabobs.
Meanwhile, Liza and Roberta will be lining up the farm table with cole slaw, potato salad, mac & cheese, baked beans, and roasted potatoes.
Plunk down 10 bucks (8 dollars for kids under 10) and you can eat and eat and eat . . . till summer (never) ends.
And if you are looking for something cool to beat the heat, we will have Sierra Nevada and Yuengling on tap as well as our usual selection of wines.
So climb into your shorts, put on your favorite tee, slip on your sandals, and head on down to the store. It’ll be a hot time in the old town Saturday night—don’t be left out in the cold.
There are plenty of contentious issues at stake, but it was nonetheless a calm affair when dozens of Crozet residents turned out to Western Albemarle High School on September 30 to be briefed by Albemarle County staff on the mandatory five-year update to the Crozet Master Plan, adopted in 2004. Folks listened politely as staff described progress on a major downtown streetscape project, the new library and a 28-unit affordable-housing project for seniors called Crozet Meadows.
At the town meeting on Sept. 30th, the progress of the Master Plan was reviewed by individuals spearheading each part of the plan that are seeing progress. A brief review showed attention to all of the 7 Guiding Principles. Take a moment to review the principles that you in Crozet set out as a guide from the very beginning of this process:
I’ve been showing property in and around Batesville quite a bit for the past several weeks; thanks to this I’ve had occasion to re-acquaint myself with the Batesville Store.
A reminder: it’s outstanding. If you’ve been recently, what do you think?
Our featured musicians this Saturday evening are Laura Wortman and Kagey Parrish, aka The Honey Dewdrops, who won first place in The Prairie Home Companion’s “People in Their Twenties” National Talent Show in 2008. Laura grew up in Batesville, and she and Kagey now live in Scottsville when they aren’t touring the country. We’d like to celebrate these true local favorites by putting out a buffet of Batesville Store local favorites—and I’m hoping that you will help us decide what to serve.
So I’m writing to you with a simple question:
What are your two favorite food items at the store?
You can nominate anything that can be eaten: a deli sandwich, a comfort food dish or smoked meat, a particular dessert, a deli side or variety of soup, a kind of bread, a flavor of ice cream . . . .
It’d also be great if you’d be willing to write a few words letting us know why each is a favorite. If we feature your comment at Saturday’s buffet, you will receive a $5.00 store credit.
Bring your family and friends to the 1st Annual Crozet Health and Wellness Fair.
On Sunday, October 18th, the Crozet Business Networking Group is sponsoring the 1st Annual Crozet Health Fair from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm. at Crozet Baptist Church on St. George Avenue (near Downtown Crozet). This free event is promoting healthy living for all ages, with over 20 Crozet health care professionals providing free health screenings, education, assessments and other services.
The event will also have a 1 Mile Family Fun Run/Walk starting at 2:00 at the church.
The Crozet Health Fair will feature free flu shots for children without insurance, cholesterol checks, child fingerprinting, massage, glaucoma tests, oral cancer screenings, body mass index (BMI) measurements, blood pressure screenings, audiogram, orthodontic screenings, energy field screenings, posture analysis, and sleep disorder screenings. There will be local food vendors and activities for children. Meet your local health care providers and find new resources right in Crozet.
Starting at 2:00 p.m., presentations and demonstrations on topics such as first-aid, stress management, and healthy cooking/nutrition, will take place every 30 minutes.
No appointments or pre-registration are needed; attendees will be seen on a first come, first served basis. Continue reading “1st Annual Crozet Health Fair and 1 Mile Family Fun Run/Walk”
“We don’t want the charm of downtown to die away,” Trigo said. “That’s why we have to keep the businesses alive and work together.”
The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors already has appropriated the money as part of its capital improvement plans, but Marshall said he and other CCAC members are worried the money will be spent on other county projects if property owners don’t get on board.
“Downtown needs this to happen and time is slipping away,” Marshall said. “This is a project that will benefit everybody, [but] the county needs to find a way to reassure [property owners] they are going to hold contractors to a schedule and stick to it.”
My question is this – if we don’t take advantage of this opportunity now, when will we? We’re not going to get a perfect plan – but we need to insist on getting this started and finished as soon as possible. What better time than the midst of a recession to prepare for the other side?
Secondly, I’m going to borrow tfjtolson’s comment from the Daily Progress in its entirety:
I want the business owners of Crozet to know that while they build it (the streetscape) we will keep coming. I want them to stay in business and I want Crozet to have the improvements.
Therefore, as a Crozet resident, I pledge to keep patronizing their stores during the construction.
At the Old School House this Thursday from 7:30 pm to 9 pm. Anyone who wants to write a story for RealCrozetVA will be thanked loudly, roundly and I’ll buy you a cup of coffee from one of the three local coffee shops.
One suggestion – if we really want to and intend to invite Old Trail into Crozet, we (really the CCA) should put signs at the entrances to Old Trail as well as at the intersections of Crozet Avenue and 240 (and Jarman’s Gap Road).
Jim Duncan: It’s a beautiful Wednesday afternoon in Crozet Virginia. I’m watching the cars drive by and all the necks are craning in anticipation of Trailside Coffee opening up. I’m sitting here with Marcia McGee, owner operator of Trailside Coffee. Hey Marcia!
Marcia McGee: Hi. Thanks for coming out.
Jim Duncan: Tell us why you started it.
Marcia McGee: Why I started it was because at the time there were no coffee shops out here and I live and grew up out here and wanted coffee. That’s why I started to deliver coffee to Crozet! It’s just taken me a little bit longer than anticipated.
Jim Duncan: What do you expect the shop to look like? What do you hope the vibe is of the shop and what are your goals?
Marcia McGee: The vibe of the shop, Trailside Coffee, I like hiking and I want to take this and bring it inside or make it a seamless transition. I want it to be very comfortable. There is going to be a fireplace and wood and natural colors and just a place for people to hang out and talk and drink coffee, tea, smoothies, whatever brings them here just to hang out.
Jim Duncan: Are you going to have a full menu?
Marcia McGee: I say that yes we are. We’ll have Pannini’s made to order bring it out to your table kind of deal, but we’ll have sandwiches and different stuff made up for you and can heat them up – Pannini’s and soups and salads and stuff like that, muffins, and croissants and bakery items and cookies.
Jim Duncan: Are you excited?
Marcia McGee: Yes! Very excited! I’m a little reserved because I’ve been excited for so long. We’re close, we’re very close. It’s just that we’ve been close for a long time.
Jim Duncan: What are you looking forward to the most?
Marcia McGee: To coming to work everyday. It’s kind of what I want to do. It’s a social environment hopefully delivering people a cup of liquid sunshine everyday, getting to talk to them, and live, work and play all in one space. You know? I get to bike to work. I get to work out right down there. I get to see my friends and family and have it all happen in one spot.
Jim Duncan: I’m still hanging on that liquid sunshine.
Marcia McGee: [laughs]
Jim Duncan: How are you going to achieve that? Tell us about the process of the coffee and what you’ve learned about how to make a good cup of coffee.
Marcia McGee: Well you know it starts with the beans. Some of the beans we’re bringing in are of the highest quality so that process is a painstaking one that they all go through and then it’s delivered to us. It’s going to be about training people. I achieved my level one Barista certification; there are three. Colleen is ready to take the test and hopefully all of our Barista’s will be certified, if not a large percentage of them. Training will be a major focus and then it’s just teaching people about coffee and finding out what they like, having cuppings, showing the different types of coffee’s and everything that it has to offer. We’re going to broaden everything they thought the knew about coffee and just blow them away.
Jim Duncan: What’s the feedback from people then as you talk to them about Trailside Coffee opening up, besides the anticipation and the excitement, what are they looking forward to?
Marcia McGee: I think they’re looking for a community place. I think they’re looking forward to learning about coffee. That’s actually one of the things that’s been surprising is teaching people or just talking about that. People didn’t know how many hand-picked beans are in one cup of coffee or their latte’. I’ve had a major response to that. I already have people who want to come to the monthly cuppings. They’re just looking forward to having a place close. Right now they have to drive into town. They want to sit here because a lot of people live around here. I’m kind of blessed because we’re in Old Trail neighborhood. I think they want to walk and get the newspaper and enjoy a cup of coffee in the mornings and not have to drive somewhere else to achieve that.
Jim Duncan: I can’t imagine why anyone would want to sit out here on this patio!
Marcia McGee: [laughs] Yeah, and have a nice beverage.
Jim Duncan: It’s just so hideous out here with all these mountains and greenery.
Marcia McGee: It is, yeah!
Jim Duncan: It’s just beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.
Marcia McGee: Soon we’ll have ice cream, ice coffee, hot coffee, smoothies, tea, homemade lemonades and gingerales and all sorts of stuff.
Jim Duncan: Are you going to have alcohol or music?
Marcia McGee: Music, yes, especially we’re going to do things outside. We have the fields to kind of cross around. So definitely music. I’m set up for it. Wine. I have a place for wine and beer. The thought was to do that and I still may, but I’m kind of just taking it one step at a time right now.
Jim Duncan: Do you want to actually open first?
Marcia McGee: Yes. I want to open first and be good at a couple things and be really good at a couple things rather than just OK at a lot of different things, so that is something that I’m prepared to add onto the menu, right now we’re not. But now we have with the wine bar coming behind us I’m not sure that we’ll need to.
Jim Duncan: Right.
Marcia McGee: Again, it’s kind of focused on a few things. I didn’t think there was going to be anyone serving wine or beer here before so that’s why I was prepared and I am prepared. I have the space to do it so we’ll see. We’ll see.
Jim Duncan: Cool. Anything else you want to add to the future customers of Trailside Coffee?
Marcia McGee: Just come out, give us a try, come hang out, experience the place and let us know. We want to be the community coffee shop, so I don’t have a model of something we’ve been before. We’re certainly not a franchise, so all I can say is let us know what you think and what you want and honest feedback so we can be that. That would be it.
Jim Duncan: Cool. Marcia thanks so much for your time.
