Taxpayer grumbling recently resurfaced in the pages of The Burgs. A story by reporter Mike Gangloff highlighted Montgomery County residents who are concerned about local debt burdens and want local governments to hold public referenda before taking out new bonds (“Bond referendum a mode of the past, or primed for return?” Feb. 24).

Readers of this paper needed to wait only a few days to see why that is a terrible idea. Gangloff last week reported on county supervisors’ authorizing money for schools, and his story illustrated the pitfalls of a county trying to come together behind specific spending (“Montgomery County School Board granted discretion over reserve fund,” Feb. 26).

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Montgomery County (Va.) Schools 2013 CIP Project Planning

Montgomery County (Va.) Schools Capital Maintenance List

Christiansburg serves as a model of how committed leaders can start to change unsafe driver behavior.

State legislators aren’t going to tap on your car window and hand you a lollipop if you’re wearing your seat belt, or wag their fingers at you if you haven’t buckled up. They could take more effective action if they passed a primary seat belt law, but they won’t do that, either.

That leaves the hard work to local law enforcement officers, community leaders and parents. Christiansburg is setting a good example for Virginians who want to protect their loved ones from unnecessary injury or death.

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By Christian Trejbal

When presidents deliver their state of the union addresses, they often declare something along the lines of, “The state of our union is strong.” President Obama went with “stronger” this year.

I’m no president, but for the last few years, the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership New River Valley class has asked me to deliver my own version of the state of the community. I did so on Thursday, and the state of the community is meh.

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Trejbal is a Roanoke Times editorial writer. Follow him on Twitter at @ctrejbal.

By Brenda Blackburn

Montgomery County School Board approved an updated, flexible scheduling model for middle school students last week. In a recent commentary (“Cuts would harm middle schools,” Feb. 17), Blacksburg Middle School teachers Gus Teller and Beth Levinson lamented this new model as harmful to the education of students in grades six through eight.

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Blackburn is Montgomery County Schools superintendent.

It’s a frightening thought in this day and age that strangers can and do step off the bus in Christiansburg and wander into Falling Branch Elementary School. Fortunately, everyone is taking the problem seriously and developing reasonable safety measures.

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By Gus Teller and Beth Levinson

Every morning as we walk into the classroom at Blacksburg Middle School, we feel blessed to have the chance to help shape the lives of our students. We see hope and curiosity intermingled with the personal challenges that each child faces both within and outside the classroom. We understand the importance of each student as a special human being.

Regrettably, teachers and parents have been largely excluded from conversations regarding the future of our students. Rapid decisions about sweeping changes that will impact the education of middle school students in Montgomery County for years to come must be addressed by all stakeholders.

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Teller and Levinson are 8th grade social studies teachers at Blacksburg Middle School. Both live in Blacksburg.

By Christian Trejbal

Twenty years ago, Christiansburg splashed onto national television on ABC’s “Primetime Live” as an example of a community adrift. Chain restaurants and stores had squeezed out the historic character; downtown was rapidly fading. Today, downtown is faded. It is a pale imitation of a vibrant community’s heart.

A trio of young professionals hopes to change that.

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Trejbal is a Roanoke Times editorial writer based in the New River Valley. Follow him on Twitter @ctrejbal.

Matt Gentry / The Roanoke Times

By Ernst H. Kastning

“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.”

Many times during my professional career I have been reminded of that oft-quoted line from the 1967 film “Cool Hand Luke.” To me it symbolizes a breakdown between people who are critical and analytical thinkers, and those who spontaneously act or react based on insufficient information or on predisposed and often biased viewpoints. The latter is often a result of having insufficient facts or knowledge or an inability or unwillingness to learn from experience. And that brings me to the following:

Heavy rains hit Radford hard the week before last. I was astonished that more than 100 automobiles were submerged in the lower parking lot adjacent to the New River. What I found most appalling was not the flood itself (we geologists know that they happen from time to time), but the inadequate communication Wednesday evening as it became obvious that the river’s floodplain would soon be under water.

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Kastning, of Radford, is a retired Radford University professor of geology and a consultant in hydrogeology.

Montgomery County residents need a “come to Jefferson” moment. If the current spat between supervisors and the school board about funding for repairs at Christiansburg High School is any indication, local democracy is not producing robust leadership.

Start with the board of supervisors.

When supervisors last year adopted one of the largest tax increases anyone remembers, they demonstrated at least some political courage. The increase should have been larger given the needs, but the 12-cent increase was a tough enough sell.

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