James River Exchange

Welcome to the James Exchange: Friday Forward, September 24, 2021.

In today’s episode, I had a conversation with Hazel. She is ten years old, and is an avid supporter of Scottsville and surrounds. As I continue to build out this podcast, I will be speaking with more of our young residents on issues that are important to them.

(Conversation with Hazel)

Even though I have pushed out this weekend’s events, I am going to continue. So many times, people have learned of an event after the fact. If you have an event or know of one in your community, send it to me at [email protected]. I am more than happy to support your cause!

This weekend is busy.

Hardware Hills Vineyard, formally Thistle Gate, kicks it off with music in the vineyard with Sh’boom this afternoon. They will be open from 3:00 to 8:00 pm. And, on Saturday, Andrea and Rob Nickels welcome everyone to come to their grand opening celebration at the vineyard from 11:00 to 6:00. There will be music by the crowd-pleasing Mid-Life Crisis Band.

On Saturday:

Community Day at the Park is in Esmont across from 2:00-6:00. This event is sponsored by Albemarle County’s Park & Rec and Police Departments. Activities include free throw contests, 3-point contests, tennis tutorials, arts & crafts, music, and much more.

Children's Fall Festival - from 2:30-5:30 pm at Mt. Zion UMC in Esmont for arts & crafts, pumpkin activities, cake walk, obstacle course, scavenger hunt, games, and petting zoo! The address is 2620 Mt. Zion Church Rd. Esmont,

VALLEY STREET SCAPES exhibition opens starting at 4:00 pm. Erin Root, SCAN Director is “excited to have 14 artists participating.” The SCAN group has been working on storefront art installs for the past week. Matt Lawless reported that this event is the kickoff for the new ABC ruling for drinks in public spaces. The Batteau, Tavern, Amici’s, and the James River Brewery are participating. The rule is each business must serve drinks in a glass from their establishment.

On Sunday:

 The Brass Quintet and CASE Play at Canal Basin Square.  The Brass Quintet and the Charlottesville Albemarle Saxophone Ensemble will be performing a concert of a wide variety of music: jazz, folk, classical, pop, and more!  The concert is free to the general public and takes place at Canal Basin Square in Scottsville.  Bring a chair or a blanket and enjoy the music!  The Brass Quintet kicks things off at 7:00 pm and CASE follows at 7:45pm.  Should there be rain, the concert will move to the Farmers Market Pavilion.

You can bring your family to an outdoor viewing of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe on October 1st starting at 7:30 at St. Stephen’s in Esmont.

The James Exchange: Special Report Tuesday, September 21, 2021:

Scottsville Town Council has a full slate of councilors. Shari Lambert was appointed to finish Laura Mellusi’s term which runs through 2024. Shari is also the chair of the Planning Commission. Meredith Hynes was appointed to fill out Lindsay Brown’s term. This seat will be up for re-election in 2022. Meredith has not been given a committee assignment.

For your information, Lisa Calibiano is the Vice-Chair of the Planning Commission.

ARB is holding a special meeting on Thursday, September 23rd at 7:00 to review the COA—Certificate of Appropriateness—application. There are some property owners in the Historic Overlay District that are not in compliance.

George Goodwin of Buckingham spoke at the public session in regards to parking on Valley Street. He is requesting that both sides of the street be two-hour parking, and spaces be removed at the intersection of Valley and Bird due to safety and visibility. Mayor Smith said Town Council and staff will look into it.

Weekend events

Hardware Hills (formally Thistle Gate) is having Friday night music at the vineyard. This week they are featuring Sh’Boom. They will be open from 3:00 to 8:00. If you haven’t met Andrea and Rob Nickels, stop by and welcome them to the community. They invite you to “come watch the sunset with us.”

And, Hardware Hills is celebrating its grand opening on Saturday from 11:00 – 6:00. There will be food and music by the crowd-pleasing, Mid-Life Crisis Band.

Community Day at the Park is in Esmont across from 2:00-6:00. This event is sponsored by Albemarle County’s Park & Rec and Police Departments. Activities include free throw contests, 3-point contests, tennis tutorials, arts & crafts, music, and much more.

Children's Fall Festival - Come out Saturday, September 25 from 2:30-5:30 pm at Mt. Zion UMC in Esmont for arts & crafts, pumpkin activities, cake walk, obstacle course, scavenger hunt, games, and petting zoo! The address is 2620 Mt. Zion Church Rd. Esmont,

VALLEY STREET SCAPES exhibition opens on September 25th starting at 4:00 pm. Erin Root, SCAN Director is “excited to have 14 artists participating.” The SCAN group has been working on storefront art installs for the past week. Matt Lawless reported that this event is the kickoff for the new ABC ruling for drinks in public spaces. The Batteau, Tavern, Amici’s, and the James River Brewery are participating. The rule is each business must serve drinks in a glass from their establishment.

Brass Quintet and CASE Play at Canal Basin Square.  The Brass Quintet and the Charlottesville Albemarle Saxophone Ensemble will be performing a concert of a wide variety of music: jazz, folk, classical, pop, and more!  The concert is free to the general public and takes place at Canal Basin Square in Scottsville.  Bring a chair or a blanket and enjoy the music!  The Brass Quintet kicks things off at 7 pm and CASE follows at 745pm.  Should there be rain, the concert will move to the Farmers Market Pavilion.

You can bring your family to an outdoor viewing of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe on October 1st starting at 7:30 at St. Stephen’s in Esmont.

There was a glitch in last Friday’s upload. Here you go with lots of music from the original jam musicians…this episode features tunes from a 2007 jam session held in Victory Hall Theater. I had a handheld recorder, so recordings are not perfect…but then again what is.

What to watch for in the coming weeks from discussion at September 13th work session:

At the Council’s monthly work session last week they entered into a closed session for “discussion concerning a business or industry or the extension of an existing business or industry where no previous announcement that has been made of the business or industries interest in locating or expanding its facilities in the community.” We can speculate all we want on what this means, but waiting until an announcement to the public is made, or Council discusses in public, waiting is prudent.

Council also had a robust discussion with Shari Lambert, Planning Commission Chair, on the two special use proposals on Upper Bird and Blenheim Road. I will have more on this.

Linda LaFontaine, Chamber of Commerce President, announced the coming of a new leadership team that will be in place in January.

On tonight’s agenda is:

Donna Price, Scottsville Supervisor, Mike Culp, Director, Broadband Accessibility and Affordability Office, and Jason Inofuentes, Broadband Program Manager will be presenting on broadband in Albemarle County. CenturyLink representatives have been invited by the County to join, but they are not listed on tonight’s agenda.

The next to last agenda item is the “appointment of qualified residents” to fill the two vacancies on Council.

All meetings of the Town Council and Planning Commission are recorded and available on the Town’s YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGr-wOXKMSED_ioJI3vcHQA

Upcoming events:

On Saturday, September 25th, there are two events in our area that look to be lots of fun.

Community Day at the Park is in Esmont across from 2:00-6:00. This event is sponsored by Albemarle County’s Park & Rec and Police Departments. Activities include free throw contests, 3-point contests, tennis tutorials, arts & crafts, music, and much more.

VALLEY STREET SCAPES exhibition opens on September 25th starting at 4:00 pm. Erin Root, SCAN Director is “excited to have 14 artists participating.” The SCAN group has been working on storefront art installs for the past week. Matt Lawless reported that this event is the kickoff for the new ABC ruling for drinks in public spaces. The Batteau, Tavern, Amici’s, and the James River Brewery are participating. The rule is each business must serve drinks in a glass from their establishment.

Painting with Earth Pigments is a special workshop with Laura Josephine Snyder on Thursday, September 23 from 6:30 to 8:00 pm. Participants will learn to make their own watercolor pigments. The fee is $35. For more information go here:

https://www.svilleartsandnature.org/scan-shop/p/paint-making-with-earth-pigments

SCAN has scheduled several classes and workshops, so check them out and have fun participating!

Movies are on the rise! Ed Brooks, Yancey Community Center Director, is planning outdoor movies in Esmont. And, St. Anne’s Parrish is providing movies at well.

You can bring your family to an outdoor viewing of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe on October 1st starting at 7:30 at St. Stephen’s in Esmont.

Enjoy your week!

Welcome to Friday’s James Exchange. This episode features tunes from a 2007 jam session held in Victory Hall Theater. I had a handheld recorder, so recordings are not perfect…but then again what is.

Welcome to the James Exchange: Monday Matters September 13, 2021. I am your host, Nancy Gill. In today’s episode, I spoke with Matt Lawless, the Town of Scottsville’s Administrator, on this evening’s agenda items.

The Town Council meets at 7:00. Due to the upsurge in Covid-19 cases, they have opted for a hybrid meeting presentation which is allowed under Virginia law. You may join via ZOOM at:

Remote access is available online at this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88059894673 pwd=WjVFTzhBOEtlbVpwbnE5Mzhab21OQT09#successor call 301-715-8592, then enter meeting ID 880 5989 4673 and passcode 1744.

I spoke with Matt on Friday, September 10 for highlights on this evening’s meeting.

Matt & Nancy: Good morning. Good morning, Matt. It's almost not morning anymore. So, I'm catching up on what we discussed last week, which came out on Tuesday. We had a conversation basically on these meetings coming up with the planning commission and the planning commission did meet this past Tuesday. What was the feeling of the meeting?Matt: It was a really productive meeting. Shari Lambert did a wonderful job. In the role of chair. She managed the time very well and spent a good chunk of the meeting on feedback from the public. It was a very respectful meeting. We got a good technical briefing from Justin Shimp, the engineer representing these new applications. We'll take our time to figure out all the details on it, but Planning Commission felt it was important to hear more from the public and get all the questions out here on these projects. So, they have their formal public hearing next month, October 4th. Folks who are interested in learning about these special use permits and sharing their views can definitely tune in, participate on October 4th.Nancy: Moving on. One thing I was really excited to see was the expansion of the CSX project. This harkens back to way before my time as mayor trying to get the train station rehabbed to a place where it's saved and it's aesthetically pleasing to people coming in. So, talk to me about how that came about and what plans there may be for it.Matt: Oh, well, you might know better about how it came about than I did. That was one of the first introductions that you made to me was CSX staff. It’s been a partnership that's been years in the making, but the Architectural Review Board served CSX with a poor condition notice about the state of the Depot that we're worried about the future historic preservation of that building and CSX response was, well, maybe we can work together on the preservation of it. I'm not quite sure what to make of this offer that we, we, we told CSX, we're not satisfied with the condition of your building and their response is, well, would you like to take over the maintenance of it yourself and keep it looking the way you want it to? So the offer is for the town staff and volunteers to have permission to work around the Depot, do paint and carpentry work the way that we see fit, but not open it to the public as a museum or anything, and not interfere with CSX Israel, operations. I’m not sure that that’s the best, the best deal for what we want to do, but it’s a good step. I’m glad CSX is interested in working with us.Nancy: Well, that's actually the deal that I tried to come up with them back in 2016.Matt: So, this looks like progress?Nancy: It looks like progress to me. And, I think maybe ACE might be able to get some materials donated. I don't know, I'm just putting it out there. They may not be in a position to be able to do that. We have a lot of contractors in the area. Perhaps they want it looking better, just like we do. And, maybe a couple of weekends, we can get some volunteers.Matt: Yeah. We're, we're, we're looking at soffit and trim board and a coat of paint and the old railroad colors, and it would be looking nice.Nancy: How is the roof on it?Matt: I went inside and it's not leaky CSX uses it for active storage. So, they're interested in a good roof.Nancy: Well, before I go onto Green Infrastructure, how are the native plantings along the ditch, which was a part of the original canal coming?Matt: Now that's in progress. Wild Ginger Field Services. Nicola McGoff’s approach to this is really interesting to me when she inspected that site, they're closer to the river from route six, just outside the flood gate. She was fascinated by it. And she described this as being some of the best undisturbed, bland around town, and almost 200 years that property has had only two owners, the canal company, and then the railroad. And, it's never been excavated. It's never been messed with. And so, when she went and poked around under the Johnson grass, she found all manner of unusual native plants, which have been in this undisturbed habitat for the better part of 200 years. She’s very interested in carefully removing the weeds and restoring some of the hardy, perennials, and natives that are there. It’s slow going and it's cleaned up a little bit. It doesn't look like a big difference, but she's gradually learning about what old species are there and restoring them. So, it really is an important little biodiversity project, right at the edge of town in a forgotten little piece of land.Nancy: I didn't know that. I just knew that it was a remnant of the canal and we should do something to recognize that since that's what built the town. Now going on to the green infrastructure center, they are working on possible rehabs or excavating the riverfront there by the boat landing.Matt: That's right. I don't have a whole lot to share on that one because they're still finishing up the boards and t presentations. So, I don't have what they're going to show on Monday. The teaser is that we're working together to think about a more useful and appealing riverfront is a big reason why people come to Scottsville. In a lot of ways, it's a neglected piece of land. With the river coming and down, it gets muddy. The parking pattern doesn't make sense. You come, you put in your boat and you leave. It’s not a landscaping that we take very seriously. It doesn't look like a piece of property that we're proud of as a reason for being in town. We want to try to invest in that. Green Infrastructure Center is going to help us with some recommendations on plantings, traffic flow, cleaning that site up so that it looks and functions better.Nancy: Do you think that town residents or people can go there and sit at some point? I know that's been a bone of contention. I think it's the Department of Inland games and Fishery that has a lease on it. Are they going to loosen up there?Matt: There’s a couple of different ways that we can go about this. One is by contracting with them more clearly. If we're helping to maintain the site, then we have a say in what the rules on it are, but there's also, I think, differences of interpretation. I was real tickled on a recent trip towards DC. Burke lake in Fairfax, they have a sign where it said it's a public fishing lake managed by DGIF, but it's got all these other trails and boats and things around that you can do there. And, it says the lake was built with fishing license dollars and is managed exclusively for fishing. Other uses are allowed only if they do not interfere with fishing, not to say that you can't do it, but as long as me having a picnic, doesn't get in the way of your, of your casts.Nancy: That sounds good. And Green Infrastructure we'll be presenting Monday night.Matt: Yes, exactly what Jessica Huang and Karen Firehawk, wonderful planners. I've enjoyed working with them, and I'm glad their office is right here in town.Nancy: I want to discuss three other things with you. One is the Columbia gas franchise. Just give us a quick synopsis of what that is.Matt: In the quirk of state law. The gas utility means a local ordinance, giving them permission to operate and do business in town. They're not a public utility like the water, and it's not an unregulated do whatever you want kind of busin…

Welcome to the James Exchange, September 10, 2021. I am Nancy Gill, your host. In today’s episode, I had a conversation with Ed Brooks, the Program Director at the Yancey Community Center in Esmont. There is much happening there, and more on the horizon.

It is Community Day at The Park on Saturday, September 25 from 2:00 – 6:00 pm at Simpson Park in Esmont. This is a program of the Albemarle Parks & Rec and Albemarle Police departments. Check it out at www.albemarle.org/ParkDay.

On Monday, I will report on this past Tuesday’s Scottsville Planning Commission meeting. Two potential housing projects were submitted for a special use permit. Much more on this is coming.

Enjoy my conversation with Ed, and have a fantastic weekend!

Welcome to The James Exchange: Monday Matters September 6, 2021. I am your host, Nancy Gill. Today’s episode is all about Scottsville, potential growth, the DMV Select office, vacancies on Town Council, and of course Century Link. I spoke with Matt Lawless, the town’s administrator. Here is what’s up:

Public Safety: Not much going on. Flood control system check with the Army Corp of Engineers is on Thursday. More on the extent of the A. Raymon Thacker Flood Control System is also discussed.

The Planning Commission meeting is on Tuesday at 7:00. There are two special use permit applications for their review. This is for housing on Upper Bird property and the field by the water tower off Blenhelm Road.

Blenhelm Heights (Blenhelm and Albevanna Springs) is a cluster of 25 homes on 7500 square foot lots.

Upper Bird proposal is for 12 of the acres being utilized for 48 potential home sites.

The Architectural Review Board at last Thursday’s meeting reviewed two signs for new businesses coming to town. Baked on the James is opening at 358 Valley Street and Luetybells at 527 Valley Street. Stay tuned for when they are up and running. Of interest, BBQ on the Bend has relocated to 635 Valley Street.

The vacancies on Town Council are for two different term lengths. One is for three years and the other for one year. Also, all future elections in the Town will now be held in November for new terms starting in January. This takes place for the 2022 elections.

The fallout from the July 28 storm has left significant damage to 137 East Main Street. The Scottsville Supply Company has had to temporarily move to 492 Valley Street.

DMV Select office is up and running. They are doing a bustling business with daily transactions between $10,000 and $20,000. Listen for the detail on how this impacts the town.

Enjoy Matt’s reporting on town issues and happenings. Have a great Labor Day celebration. I will be back on Friday.

Welcome to the James Exchange, Friday Forward September 3, 2021. Today’s episode is a little different. Emma Thomas opens with a rendition of Ashokan Farewell on her viola with Grand Dad Ron accompanying. So, you will meet Emma and learn more about Scottsville’s Mayor Smith.

Coming up on Monday Matters is information on two potential housing applications that come before the Scottsville Planning Commission Tuesday evening. Monday is a holiday…

Enjoy.

Welcome to the James Exchange: Monday Matters August 30, 2021. I am your host, Nancy Gill. In today’s episode, Donna Price and I talked about broadband. This episode was recorded on Thursday, August 26 for publication today.

In preparing for our conversation, I did a little research on internet offerings in our region. There are two basic business models: residential and commercial. For instance,  CenturyLink/Lumen has fiber optic capabilities in the Town of Scottsville. This is only available to our business community. The residents rely on DSL.

As a note of interest:  In the mid-1980s Williams Communications Company laid fiber-optic cable alongside their natural gas pipelines. One of their lines, Transcontinental, is about 10,000 miles long and goes from Texas to New York City. This line passes about five miles to the south of Scottsville. I could do a podcast on the Williams Company and fiber, but to untangle the history from the 1980s to the present is a time-consuming task. My point is fiber-optic broadband isn’t new, and it is all around us.

On another note, several County residents have reached out to Donna asking why or if Albemarle can sue CenturyLink. The short answer is no because only those who contract with a company are in a position for bringing litigation. She has also reached out to county staff to start thinking long term on potential solutions. RISE is hopefully the beginning of this. After listening to this episode, you will know what RISE is.

I hope you enjoy the show with Donna, and mark your calendars for September 20 for the Albermarle Broadband Authority’s (ABBA—nothing musical here folks) presentation to Town Council.