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.

 

Health care public option: So elected officials wanna opt out for me…and for you?

October 23, 2009

Carol Lindstrom Health Care, VOTE , , , , , , , , , , 10 Comments

I do not like this at all. Who made elected officials so omnipotent that they should blatantly decide whether or not any citizen that they represent wants those officials to remove the possibility of a public option in health care.

Well, that seems to be one of the options being discussed. There is that darned word ‘options’ again. It sounds like politicians want to exercise their options to prohibit me from exercising my options. Maybe I’m missing something in this but something just doesn’t seem right.

I have no problem with the voters of a state deciding whether or not they wish to have a public health care option available to them. I have a great deal of problem with elected officials making that decision for me or any other citizen.

If the put the public option in and leave the opportunity for states to opt out, that should require a referendum by the public. The VOTERS should be the ones to decide, not elected officials who may or may not be tempted to make a choice based upon pressure from big interest groups.

In fact, since some elected officials seem to be so sure that the American people do not want a public option, maybe it should just be put on a national ballot and simply let people decide.

Some of these arguments against a public OPTION are so stupid that I find it embarrassing to think that the rest of the world is seeing this kind of discussion. Here’s some of the points I feel are important:

  1. If elected officials are so sure American’s do not want this, why not simply let the option go through, and the failure of people to choose that option will prove their argument?
  2. If we can trust insurance companies to do the right thing and police themselves, why did this ever come up as an issue? How did we get to this point?
  3. What is the big idea of trying to stop an OPTION when the Declaration of Independence clearly supports “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”.
  4. Add to #3 that the first line of the Virginia Declaration of Rights reads “That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.

There are some central themes here that tell me that it is citizens who should make the choice, not elected officials. Elected officials cannot be expected to get out to talk to every single citizen to ascertain what citizens want. Perhaps, a hundred or more years ago, that would have been possible, but not with today’s populations. In order for elected officials to do their jobs properly, they need to remember that it is simple things like: “freedom” which includes the RIGHT TO CHOOSE; “life” which means to be alive (something that health care seems to be pretty much directly related to); and, happiness (i.e., free from what worries and fears that one can be free of) which seems to be directly related to being healthy, being restored to a state of health, or, at least, being as comfortable as possible with whatever state of ill health with which a person has to live.

Another thing or two elected officials need to remember arethat lies, deception, and misdirection eventually come back to haunt you. We as citizens will watch, we will remember, and we will get out and vote! Just give us the truth and let us make our decisions about our lives. Do not be so out of touch with those you represent that you miss seeing and listening to those for whom the existing health care options are simply NOT financially feasible. We have far too many people in this country who cannot afford to eat, pay for housing, buy clothes, or buy Christmas presents for their children. For those people, being able to come up with the money to provide decent health care in the existing forms available is not an option .

We, as a country as only as strong as the “least among us”. People who cannot afford health care are not asking for money for enhancing body parts, unnecessary plastic surgery, or other such things. The issue is simply basic health care.

It is a crying shame when a country provides Viagra through Medicare, but  the woman with an unplanned pregnancy and no insurance could look at being financially devastated, possibly even end up losing custody of any other children she has simply because there was no health care option. If you are against abortion, then think about how the public option could help in cases such as this.

Don’t bother telling me that stuff like that doesn’t happen. I saw it when I was a child abuse investigator. Families devastated by medical bills that ended up unable to provide adequately for their children. I’ve seen children removed from homes and placed in foster care or with other relatives simply because parents could not afford to pay medical bills. I’ve seen families thrust into abject poverty trying to cover those bills, unable to feed and clothe their families DESPITE working one or more jobs where the person working could not afford the family plan. I’ve seen the loss of pride and dignity as people who have worked hard to provide for their children suddenly had their lives crash around them. I’ve seen people resort to illegal activities as a last resort to try to pay those bills and provide for their families.

Come on, all you elected officials, give us a chance to make our own choices. This has gone on for far to long. It is time to quit talking and start doing!