Lumos Continues Fiber Internet Service to Selected Neighborhoods
Lumos sponsored the Crozet Arts and Crafts Festival last month, and in a brief ceremony Sunday, confirmed its commitment to extending fiber optic network to areas as yet unserved. They’ve been working in Crozet since June 2022 to supply internet access to more than 2,000 homes. At the festival, Vice President of Market Development Derek Kelly took the stage for the ribbon cutting and was thanked by White Hall Supervisor Ann Mallek for his hands-on approach to community marketing. In a later interview, Kelly said the boundaries for Lumos service are Park Street and Crozet Avenue, with the focus on new construction. “That allows us to serve people who have no other available fiber options.” Fiber internet is faster than traditional internet’s upload and download speeds. He said they will continue to evaluate serving other areas. To check if the company’s fiber internet is available at your address, visit www.lumosfiber.com/builtforthefuture. Kelly also said a budget plan is available for those who need it. Those interested can apply, and then contact Lumos for service. Visit www.fcc.gov/acp.
Staunton Approves Pro Re Nata Brewery Expansion
Following a unanimous recommendation last month from Staunton city planners to allow the rezoning of the city’s long-vacant Coca-Cola building, the Staunton City Council has voted to go ahead with the rezoning. This change allows the owners of Crozet’s Pro Re Nata to operate a brewery and tasting room at the location. The previous zoning allows for a brewery only if there’s also a restaurant.
Support from city leaders will preserve what the city considers an important industrial structure. Like the planning commission vote, the council’s vote was unanimous, said John Schoeb, one of the owners of the popular Crozet brewery and music venue.
Schoeb said his interactions with the city have been professional and cordial: “The entire process should be taught as a lesson on how local government and private business should and can work together. Staunton officials were helpful, suggestive, but not insistent.”
The journey began when the Crozet brewery could not keep up with the demands of their clients despite several expansions. The owners located the abandoned building in Staunton that already had some of the features required for brewing beer. Residents of the surrounding neighborhood were worried about the lack of parking, but most neighbors were supportive. “We’re eager to help create a new small business in their city, Schoeb said. “We are working on asbestos remediation plans, historic tax credit applications and final detailed plans.” He expects construction, once begun, will begin take about a year to complete.
Once the renovation is complete, most of the brewing will be done in Staunton, with Crozet continuing to serve as a tasting room, gathering place and music venue.
Schoeb said the owners and staff are excited to begin this next phase of PRN. “We appreciate all our patrons who support us and the wonderfully talented and hard-working group of people I work with every day.”
Rose Guterbock Asks Viewers to Choose Their Own Adventure
Crozet’s Rose Guterbock, best known for her mobile “Inspiration Station,” promises that her exhibit at the Shenandoah Valley Art Center this month––her first solo show––will not be the standard collection of visual art usually found in a gallery.
“My hope is that this exhibit will offer a very different viewership experience,” Guterbock said. Her upcoming show, Power and Pain: A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Art Experience explores the ways in which the experience of pain leads to empowerment over time.
Attendees choose their own adventure by going to the exhibit’s website on their cellphones to find a program designed by Guterbock asking questions about each artwork. Their answers to the questions guide them through the gallery to selected artworks that contain the message they are meant to take away from the experience.
In addition to the art adventure, Guterbock said she’ll have experimental film and animation, zoetropes, automatons, and some textiles.
“I am also very excited to show my large-scale portraits of empowerment all together for the first time,” Guterbock said. “Some of the artwork is heavy and intense, while other pieces are full of joy and whimsy.”
Guterbock’s work with empowerment is designed to enlighten and inspire those who sometimes feel as if they’re learning the same lesson over and over again. “This narrative obscures the truth,” she said. “Although we all carry pain within us, we carry empowerment, too. It’s already a part of who we are.”
The show opens Saturday, November 4, at 5 p.m. at the Shenandoah Valley Art Center Invitational Gallery at 126 Wayne Avenue in Waynesboro, and continues through November.
Artisans Open Studios for Tour
No matter what direction you go on November 11 and 12, you’ll find the finest work from carefully selected Virginia artisans. From Madison and Stanardsville to the north, to Earlysville and Charlottesville in the center, North Garden and Lovingston to the south, and Crozet and Greenwood to the west, 24 studios will show the work of 52 artisans over the weekend, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. For all the details and an interactive map, visit www.artisanstudiotour.com.
Biz Bits
The Crozet location of Cardinal Home Center now has a resident kitchen and bath designer. Rhonda McClure has more than 20 years of experience working with cabinets, countertops and flooring.
First Friday at Bluebird & Company presents a pop-up curated holiday shopping event featuring five local artists and wine from Dogwood and Thistle. The event is 4-8 p.m., Friday, November 3. Vendors are Temper and True jewelry, Kmpressed pressed flower art, Maja Sandvang Ceramics small batch pottery, Spring Creek Blooms dried flower arrangements, and Emily Ruth Prints textiles and accessories.
The current exhibit at Crozet Artisans Depot, with ceramics by Corinna Anderson and paintings by Dale Carlson, remains through Nov. 17.
Thanks to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Virginia Museum of Natural History has received a mobile display unit for its use. The mobile display will be at the site of the future Waynesboro campus of the Museum of Natural History in Constitution Park until the building is constructed. It’s expected to open soon.
