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Category Archives: Your Tax Money

Christiansburg has a new rescue chief!

04 Aug

It has been a long process, but it is done. Christiansburg has a new Rescue Chief! Other than a few statements at Town Council meetings where I let it be known that I really thought the positions should be filled with someone who was a least trained to Paramedic level, I have kept myself pretty much out of the fray. My reason for keeping quiet? Because I have seen such positive changes in Christiansburg over the last year that I simply wanted to give time to let the process run and see the outcome. Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by on August 4, 2011 in Christiansburg, VA, Health Care, Local Government, Your Tax Money

 

Unfunded Federal Education “Mandates”?

31 Jul

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve heard a lot of rants about “unfunded federal education mandates”. After a bit of looking around, what I found was not all that surprising. A clear and concise summary can be found at the U.S. Dept. of Education in one of their archived reports: “No Child Left Behind – 10 Facts About K-12 Education Funding“. Item #8 of this report states: Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by on July 31, 2011 in Christiansburg, VA, Education, Local Government, Montgomery County, VA, Your Tax Money

 

The 10th Amendment and Education

28 Jul

The 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified on December 15, 1791. The goal of this Amendment was to make it such that all powers NOT specifically granted to the federal government or prohibited by the Constitution are reserved for the states (or the people) to control.

This Amendment was applied to Education. In 1790, the first U.S. Census was conducted (including only states, not the territories). Now, let’s take a look at what conditions were at the time that the 10th Amendment was written and interpreted to include education: Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by on July 28, 2011 in Citizen Participation, Education, Montgomery County, US Government, VA government, VOTE, Your Tax Money

 

Weldon Cooper Center School-Age Population Data

27 Jul

The Weldon Cooper Centers School-Age (5-19) Population Estimates for Virginia’s Incorporated Towns shows that:

  • Blacksburg has a school-age population of 3,556 which is 27.01% of the County total of 13,164.
  • Christiansburg has school-age population of 3,781 which is 28.72% of the County total of 13,164.
  • Montgomery Count’s school-age population is 13,164. (Subtract Blacksburg and Christiansburg from this and you have the Montgomery County count at 5,827 school-age students (over 44% of the total). Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by on July 27, 2011 in Blacksburg, Christiansburg, VA, Education, Local Government, Montgomery County, US Government, VA, VOTE, Your Tax Money

 

Weldon Cooper Centers Building Permits Data for 2010

26 Jul

I’ve heard so much about the deadly lull in development/building in Christiansburg and how hard hit our economy has been that I thought it warranted looking at some of the numbers. http://www.coopercenter.org/demographics/building-permits

The Weldon Cooper Center keeps track of building permits data for Virginia jurisdictions and the data I found for 2010 was quite surprising. Of the 27 Towns for which data is provided, a total of 295 units  (est. cost of $41,632,373) were reported. Of that number, Christiansburg had the highest number of units at 103 (est. cost of $9,199,311). The next highest units were recorded for Herndon at 41 (est. cost of $6,551,000), then Warrenton at 30 (est. cost of $3,700,000). (Building permits do not necessarily mean that the unit has been constructed, it simply shows that someone put forth the time and money involved to start the process.) Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by on July 26, 2011 in Christiansburg, VA, Education, Land Use, Local Government, Your Tax Money

 

Code Enforcement in Christiansburg, how it works.

14 Jul

If you didn’t make it to the Government 101 program at the Christiansburg Library on July 12, 2010, you really missed some valuable information. You can see the program in a 3 part video series at Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by on July 14, 2011 in Christiansburg, VA, Citizen Participation, Local Government, Your Tax Money

 

Capital Improvement Plan/Program for Christiansburg

07 Jul

Yeah, I know. I’ve heard the line before “but we’ve always done it this way.” That doesn’t necessarily mean that it is the right way, just the familiar and comfortable way to do something. Case in point, 2011-2012 CIP Christiansburg, VA. Planning Director Wingfield believes there is a difference between a capital improvement plan and a capital improvement program. Well, no difference exists for those in the Virginia State Codes and if you do a google search for Capital Improvement Plan Virginia, you will get a lot of links to capital improvement programs. If you go to Wikipedia and look up Capital Improvement Plan (which uses Plan and Project interchangeably) you find this definition: Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by on July 7, 2011 in Christiansburg, VA, Citizen Participation, FOIA, Local Government, Your Tax Money

 

Furlough Days: Did Council Comply with Their Adopted Policy?

02 Jul

Do you remember when — At the 9/7/2010 Christiansburg Town Council Meeting, Town Council voted to approve a freeze on Steps pay for employees. Then, on 9/21/10 the topic arose again. This time one of the supporters of the move moved to rescind that vote and to readdress the issue with the discussion being on whether Steps Freeze or Furlough Days would be more appropriate. You can see this discussion in Part 4 of the 9/21/10 Video I have posted on http://myvaresources.com. Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by on July 2, 2011 in Christiansburg, VA, Citizen Participation, Local Government, VOTE, Your Tax Money

 

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

23 Jun

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. Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by on June 23, 2011 in Christiansburg, VA, Citizen Participation, Economic Development, Local Government, Your Tax Money

 

Open Government Focus in Latest Issue of The Community Planner

20 Jun

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. Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by on June 20, 2011 in Citizen Participation, Economic Development, Environment, FOIA, Historic Preservation, Land Use, Local Government, US Government, VA government, Your Tax Money

 
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