June 24, 2008There'll be no Sonic in Blacksburg, but Arby's?
It will, of course, have a drive through. That means special approval from the council because the drive through will have an outdoor speaker. Will the fast food haters strike again? The timeline for the application is on the jump. Continue reading "There'll be no Sonic in Blacksburg, but Arby's?" » May 30, 2008A blogging Christiansburg councilman
Residents might remember that Stipes is also the councilman largely responsible for pushing the town Web site redesign. Perhaps there's hope for Christiansburg's digital future with people like Stipes around. May 15, 2008Parking in downtown ChristiansburgThere's a new blogger on the prowl in Christiansburg, and she hits on a good issue out of the gate. Melissa "Lisa" Lucas Gardner over at Christiansburg Pet Peeves observes that after the town removed the parking meters downtown, it didn't put up any sort of limitation on street parking, like "two hour maximum." As a result, people going to the courthouse are crowding the street parking all day. Should Christiansburg place limitations on street parking? Should it return to meters? May 9, 2008Long meetings in ChristiansburgIn their roundup of Tuesday's Christiansburg Town Council meeting, the Ts over at Think, Christiansburg! make a good point about something that's bugged me since I started attending these meetings. On Tuesday, the meeting opened with a couple of public hearings about some land use proposals. Then the planning commission went into a separate meeting to discuss its recommendations. That took more than an hour, during which everyone else sat around bored. This sort of break in the middle of the meeting is typical. There also is usually another one toward the end of the meeting during which the council kicks everyone out. Afterward, it might just adjourn or it might act on whatever it discussed. The upshot is that Christiansburg council meetings feature considerable downtime that is a disincentive for citizens to attend. Here are two proposals to make it all go more smoothly: 1) Hold public hearings on land use issues before the planning commission at a separate meeting. Perhaps on Monday night before or something. Then the planning commission could hear testimony (council could attend and listen, too) and hold its discussion without disrupting the flow of the regular meeting. As the Ts observed, citizens with requests had to sit around all that time before presenting them on Tuesday. 2) Hold the secret council discussions prior to the regular meeting. If the council has something it absolutely needs to do behind closed doors, it can meet a half hour, hour or whatever it needs before the regular meeting starts and have its discussions. Then it will be ready to do its business in the public eye. These aren't earth-shattering changes. They're just simple adjustments that could make Christiansburg town government a bit more accessible. Blacksburg council agenda
April 28, 2008Blogging in ChristiansburgChristiansburg has a couple of home grown blogs keeping some extra eyes on town government. We've written several times on the lack of transparency there. In a story over the weekend, Donna Alvis-Banks reported on citizens joining the fray and their Web sites. Such citizen activism is welcome in a town that has been on cruise control for too long. April 20, 2008Discuss Sunday's New River commentary and lettersChristiansburg's secrecy saga Read Sunday's letters here. April 7, 2008Questions for candidates?We start our endorsement interviews for Blacksburg Town Council today, and Roanoke mayor and city council candidates tomorrow. Salem Council candidate interviews start tomorrow, too. (We've already begun interviewing Pulaski and Vinton town council candidates.) Any questions in particular you think we should be asking? March 27, 2008Pulaski town endorsementsWe've started our endorsement interviews. The actual endorsement editorials won't start appearing for a few weeks because there are dozens of candidates to talk to. Tomorrow (Friday) we'll speak with a batch of candidates for the Pulaski mayor and town council. What would you like us to ask them about? Oh, there's a meeting tonight on the Montgomery County budgetI just received this e-mail from Montgomery County. From: Montgomery County Email Lists Here is the agenda for Public Hearing on the FY 2008-2009 Proposed Budget and Advertised Real Estate Tax Rate scheduled for March 27, 2008 at 7:15 p.m. The public hearing will be held at the Montgomery County Government Center, 2nd Floor Board Room, 755 Roanoke Street, Christiansburg. Vickie Swinney, CMC A few weeks ago, I wrote about the weak commitment to open government in the NRV. In that piece, I mentioned that officials often don't send out agendas in a timely manner. Montgomery County isn't the worst offender usually, but 10 hours notice for what is sure to be a contentious meeting? Come on, they can do better than that. November 25, 2007Discuss Sunday's New River commentaryEarly education is key to later life Many young children in the New River Valley started kindergarten this fall. But would their teachers say that the children came ready to learn and to succeed in school? The answer depends largely on what those children experienced and how they lived in the all-important years from birth to age 5, when the learning process really began. September 27, 2007Hey, BURG, don't freak outBlacksburg has issued a grading permit for the controversial First and Main project. The Wal-Mart issue is still tied up in court. So don't freak out when the buildings start falling and the land gets smoothed. It needs to happen for whatever ultimately will go up there and should be welcome removal of some eyesores. Read more below the jump. August 26, 2007Comment on Sunday's New River ForumWhere's Blacksburg's Dumbledore?
Read today's letters here. August 17, 2007Blacksburg town logoA question has been raised about the 16-square logo of the town of Blacksburg and its use by the BURGers (Blacksburg United for Responsible Growth). Basically, some people understandably don't like it that a group that doesn't speak for the entire town has co-opted the image, and they want the town to make them stop.  I checked in with the town. Heather Browning explained that the town has never copyrighted the image, so it cannot legally force BURG or anyone else not to use it. There's the additional tangle that the idea of the 4x4 square originates from the original layout of the town. It is historic and would therefore be tough to control permutations. "While it would be our preference that BURG not use the 16 squares in their promotional materials, we don’t have a copyright," Browning said. "It’s so branded to the town that we don’t want any confusion that BURG might be a sanctioned group of the town." So there's the scoop. The town isn't thrilled either, but can't do much about it. March 22, 2007Montgomery reassessesFor Sunday's Current we will weigh in on Montgomery County's challenge to find a tax rate that doesn't hammer long-time property owners who are seeing their values soar but allows enough funds to handle the county's growth. February 22, 2007New River Valley airportsThe New River Valley has two public airports, one in Blacksburg and one in Dublin. Both are facing large bills for needed upgrades. NRV communities should seiously question whether the money is well spent. Could one airport not serve the needs of less than a quarter of a million people in the region? February 13, 2007Tech vet schoolIt was time for the cats' annual checkups and vaccinations, so this morning I packed them into their carrying cases and listened to them yell at me on the drive over. Since we're in the NRV now, we needed a new vet, the third in three years. Asking around, I finally settled on the Veterinary Teaching Hospital at Virginia Tech. I give them my official thumbs up. The student vets did a great job and answered all my questions. The service was efficient. And the professional vet seemed like he knew what he was doing. (I say 'seemed' only because I'm not a vet so cannot be a perfect judge.) The important thing, though, is that this is a chance to help out the upcoming veterinarians. Student vets need practice. Volunteering your animals is a great way to give it to them. I encourage other pet owners to in the NRV to take advantage of another perk of living close to Tech. January 8, 2007Grayson PrisonA couple of us are off to visit Grayson County this afternoon. We'll be taking a look at the proposed prison site along the New River and at land use in the area. What should be preserved, what shouldn't? Consider this an open thread to discuss all things related to the prison and the river. October 25, 2006Global WarmingI'm busting out my Sunday column for The Current today. It's about global warming, with particular attention to a climate change conference (open to the public) next week in Blacksburg. |
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Christiansburg Town Councilman Brad Stipes has started his own blog called 
Blacksburg recently redesigned its 
