Christiansburg Town Council to Look at City Status and Moving Meeting Dates.

May 6, 2012

Carol Lindstrom Christiansburg, VA, Citizen Participation, Economic Development, Education, Local Government, Your Tax Money , , , , , , , , Comments Off

It came as a bit of a surprise at the end of the May 1st Town Council Meeting when Councilmember Steve Huppert requested that the Town Council again look at moving their meeting dates so that they do not conflict with the Montgomery County School Board.

I’ve been supporting this move for some time now. It has become even more important to me now that the Town of Christiansburg is making it’s own videos of meetings. You see, I’ve got this camera that for several years now I’ve been using to record Christiansburg Town Council Meetings. It’s gathering dust. I haven’t figured out how to be 2 places at one time, but I would love to be able to provide for the Montgomery County School Board what I provided for the Town of Christiansburg, citizen recorded public meetings of the School Board posted online to share with the public. The decisions made by the School Board AND their discussions/deliberations are just too darned important not to provide access to citizens. If the Town of Christiansburg moves it’s meetings to another date, it will mean that I lose more nights of prime-time TV (like I have time to watch that anyway), but it would give me a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the School Board and to be able to share that information here.

Then, came an even bigger surprise when Councilmember Cord Hall asked that it be put on the agenda of the next meeting to begin discussions of the Town of Christiansburg moving to City status. Wow! I’ve heard this discussed previously and I had been against such a move. However, now that I’ve had some time to really look at a LOT of budget numbers for a lot of different jurisdictions, I’m no longer sure that this is not the best move that Christiansburg could make. Christiansburg is growing and even in this “down” economy, continues to grow. Christiansburg has a tremendous retail base for which the taxes are now directed to the County School System.

Christiansburg also has superb resources in the Recreation Center and Aquatic Center that could be used with a City School system and we could become the home of future Olympic Champions!!! Christiansburg citizens already take great pride in the schools located within it’s boundary even though those schools are part of the Montgomery County School System. How much greater would that pride be in a situation where they were truly Christiansburg Schools!

Christiansburg citizens would have control over their schools! They would have their own School Board, and we know how to use our votes to get the biggest bang for our voting “buck”. We would have to have our own library. Maybe one with more computers and greater public usage? It would be responsible to the citizens of Christiansburg, not to the whims of the County.

Perhaps more importantly, our elected officials would have more control over services. We’re already “donating” money to social services, the library, and other such services. There is grant money and other resources available to Cities that is not available to Towns.

But, all this really means is that an honest and true cost-benefit analysis would need to be done. It would need to be done without any bias and, for me, that means contacting the Weldon Cooper Center (Economic and Policy Studies section). This is not a decision to be taken lightly, nor is it one to be discounted out of fear of the unknown. I hope Town Council will take a serious look at this, but as far as I can see, with the research that I’ve managed to do, Christiansburg is in the perfect spot to go to City Status. All of those jurisdictions who have dropped or are planning to drop back from City to Town status have not had the retail network that Christiansburg has (with more to come) developed. We’ve got it and we should maximize the use of it by keeping that money here.

 

Are you watching what’s happening in Richmond? At the General Assembly?

February 24, 2012

Carol Lindstrom Economic Development, Education, VA government, VOTE Comments Off

Democrats halt state budget in its tracks (Roanoke Times – 2/24/11)

(see the budget here) http://dpb.virginia.gov/budget/buddoc12/index.cfm

a collection of news stories on the budget http://www.statebudgetsolutions.org/state/state_list.asp?name=virginia&tabtype=in-the-news

The articles presents a picture that the blocking of the budget was because of “party politics”. I wonder if that is really so. There has certainly been an ongoing “tussle” about the way it appears that committees have been established with unequal representation. That’s about the abuse of power and control. Power and control can be abused by anyone in any party. It is simply a matter of who has the power and whether or not they choose to abuse it. Abuse IS a conscious choice.

On the other hand, those committees were the ones who set some of the spending levels and many agree that some of those are highly questionable. So, maybe it is by taking a longer, stronger look at the budget, maybe what is really about is what has been cut.Frighteningly, it is pointed out that our public schools will now be funded at levels below what they were in 2007, while tax credits are going to private schools which is further depleting revenues.

Now, while all of the work on this has been going on, there has been much talk of Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! Specifically, the creation of Jobs! What’s been happening on that front? Some examples that will affect us locally:

From the Roanoke Times 2/24/11:
Modea cuts work force by 25 employees
Postal Service shutting down Roanoke processing center

Now, the budget as it is applied to education will further cut jobs. Just how many jobs can we afford to lose in this area? For many businesses, things have been slowly getting better. The loss of these jobs could slow that process even further.

For each job lost, there is a loss of revenue stream coming into government through income tax, sales tax, gasoline tax, and more. Each job lost brings us closer to having to reduce services or increase taxes.

Cutting education funding has an even greater impact because it affects economic development. Sure we have a lot of children go through the school system, get a college education, and go to work …. work in other states. We don’t have the types of jobs here that they have prepared for, or if we do, the pay scale is much lower than it is in other areas and those people are recruited to other areas, or even other countries. Businesses want to locate at the most economically feasible area that provides with the best possible work force and those quality of life issues that will help them to keep that work force! That is where education plays a crucial role.

Education may well be the single largest contributor to quality of work force. For young adults, it is the education of their children that can tip a decision of which states they are willing to live in to work and raise families. If we do not have residents with the quality of education a business requires, that simply means they will recruit people from other areas, leaving the ranks of unemployed Virginians to climb.

We are not a State comprised of parties. We are a State comprised of people. Each of those elected officials is SUPPOSE to represent the best interest of all of the people within the jurisdiction he/she represents REGARDLESS of party, race, sex, age, etc.

When are our elected officials going to stop pointing fingers of blame and start raising hands with ideas? When are they going to stop simply acknowledging that jobs are an issue and actively do something about it? I’m sorry, but cutting jobs at the level of state government is not going to solve our issues. We need to generate business growth. We need to start working together to get things done.

We don’t need to bring in more large outside businesses that will take the tax benefits offered, hang around for a few years then disappear. We need some “home-grown” businesses, right here in Virginia. They don’t have to be a huge company. Several small companies can accomplish the same economic purposes and actually spread the “wealth” around the state far better than one large company.

If I could win the lottery and had the “power to do so”, I would buy every darned one of our state elected officials a t-shirt. All of them the exact same color with a logo and the words: “I represent citizens of Virginia NOT a political party” on it. And, I would make that their uniform while they are in office. It might not solve the problem, but perhaps, just perhaps, it would cause some to acknowledge that there is a problem, and acknowledgement is the first step towards fixing!

One last word: Use extreme caution in choosing for whom you will vote. Are you voting for a person or are you voting for a Party?

 

Christiansburg Town Council and Hemp Growing

January 22, 2012

Carol Lindstrom Economic Development Comments Off

Okay, I’ve allowed enough time for the dust to settle after transitioning to a new Town Manager. Actually, there have been so many positive changes in government in Chrisitiansburg, there has been little to discuss. All good things come to an end though: More

Does Deregulation Create Jobs?

December 30, 2011

Carol Lindstrom Economic Development, US Government Comments Off

Yes, I am wandering a bit far afield here by taking a look at a National issue, but I have heard so much about how we have got to deregulate in order to get the economy going. In fact, it is the opinion of some that, without significant deregulation, the United States is doomed. So … off my little fingers go into Google land to take a peak at what information is available to support the assertions that deregulation creates jobs.

Deregulation does not create jobs when you have a failure in …  nope…not there. More

Do citizens living in Towns pay double taxes?

September 20, 2011

Carol Lindstrom Citizen Participation, Economic Development, Education, FOIA, Local Government, VA government, VOTE, Your Tax Money Comments Off

I have heard citizens of the Town of Christiansburg say, more than a few times, that they don’t like paying double taxes. A lot of people perceive that they are paying double taxes simply because they live in a Town and have to pay both County and Town taxes. More

Children Living in Poverty in Virginia

August 20, 2011

Carol Lindstrom Economic Development, Local Government, US Government, VA government, Your Tax Money Comments Off

 

I first heard of the Annie E. Casey Foundation when I was volunteering as a Guardian ad Litem in Florida. Over the years, I’ve continued to use it now and then to answer a question I was pondering. The League of Women Voters of Montgomery County, VA is currently studying the Role of Federal Government in Public Education, and I find myself again drawn to the wealth of data provided by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. More

Christiansburg is equal to Lynchburg when it comes to Special Events?

June 23, 2011

Carol Lindstrom Christiansburg, VA, Citizen Participation, Economic Development, Local Government, Your Tax Money 2 Comments

It was June 21st, my sister’s birthday, when Christiansburg Town Council held a meeting. Along with multiple other items on that agenda, there was a request from the Christiansburg Civic League for some help offsetting some unexpected expenses that were incurred at their Train Day event held in Cambria. More

Open Government Focus in Latest Issue of The Community Planner

June 20, 2011

Carol Lindstrom Citizen Participation, Economic Development, Environment, FOIA, Historic Preservation, Land Use, Local Government, US Government, VA government, Your Tax Money 1 Comment

The Community Planner is a quarterly journal on Planning. What makes it unique is that it is written to provide information to citizens as well as professionals. It is produced on a CD rather than in print because along with the 60 or so pages of each journal, there are also additional features added. For instance, in the article I wrote for the just released Volume I Issue 3, I refer  to several tools that can help people understand the Freedom of Information Act and several sources of on-line information that citizens can find useful for determining what documents they need to request. Attached to the article, via links, are 3 pdf files which have a list of websites where you can find information on each state’s Freedom of Information Act, Retention Schedules for documents, and websites for each state’s auditor/Auditor of Public Accounts. More

Christiansburg VA Budget Information & Citizen Input

March 6, 2011

Carol Lindstrom Christiansburg, VA, Citizen Participation, Economic Development, Environment, Historic Preservation, Land Use, Local Government, Your Tax Money 3 Comments

By now, most of you have see the “$100.00″ exercise that came to you with your water bill, was talked about in the newspaper, was posted on the internet, or came to a community/group meeting near you. Some of you have had some questions. And, many of you have had some questions bout the process.

The most important question I have heard from people working through the exercise is that they do not understand why there seems to be duplication of things in the different sections. There are several reasons for that to have occurred. More

Are local businesses ready for 600 visitors this weekend?

November 12, 2010

Carol Lindstrom Christiansburg, VA, Economic Development, Local Government 4 Comments

Did you know that there is a swim meet occurring at the Christiansburg Aquatic Center this weekend (starts 5pm today). See this article for more information.

Hopefully, if you are business owner who might be affected, you do know and have anticipated the possible impact to your business. More

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