Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Change in Meeting Venue

The March 2, 2009 Meeting of the Board of Supervisors will be held at the School Board (Observatory Building) behind the Court house. This will be for the public to speak and the Board will not make any decisions till the following meeting on March 17,2009. This will let people know how other citizens feel about taxes etc. If you are following this blog, please let others know about this important meeting.

The agenda for the Public Meeting is on the county site (http://www.pittgov.org/) or simply follow this link to see the agenda: http://www.pittgov.org/documents/AGENDAS/2009/March%202,%202009,%20Regular%20Meeting.pdf

These are the following issues on the table that night:

Public Hearing Notice.Chapter 6 Sect.6-1.1-6-1.3 Raising Personal Property Tax.03-02-09
Public Hearing Notice.Chapter 6 Sect.6-13.2-6-13.3 Raising Consumer Utility Tax.03-02-09
Public Hearing Notice.Chapter 6, Est. Discount of 1% full tax payments.03-02-09
Public Hearing Notice.Chapter 9 Ordinance Change Motor Vehicle Fee.03-02-09


The Legislative Committee is also scheduled to meet March 2, 2009 with Mineral Taxes and Changes in the Zoning Ordinance on the agenda: http://www.pittgov.org/documents/AGENDAS/2009/March%202,%202009%20Legislative%20Committee.pdf

The Personnel Committee plans also to meet that day. Among other things the agenda calls for
discussion, consideration or interviews of prospective candidates for employment:
http://www.pittgov.org/documents/AGENDAS/2009/March%202,%202009%20Personnel%20Committee.pdf

The Fire and Rescue Committee will also meet to discuss the contract wilth Regional One:
http://www.pittgov.org/documents/AGENDAS/2009/March%202,%202009%20Fire%20&%20Rescue%20Policies%20&%20Procedures%20Committee.pdf

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Adjourned Board Meeting February 17. 2009

We attended the Adjourned Meeting on February 17. 2009. There were several citizens signed up to speak against the uranium mining. Mr. Steve Worley of Hurt spoke and made a good point: no one on the study committee is from Pittsylvania County. The member on the committee closest to our county is actually someone from Appomattox. He pointed out that there is no one participating in the study that will be as affected as the citizens of Pittsylvania County. He, along with most of the other speakers, are also under the opinion that if the mining operation is allowed in our county, it will cause an exodus of people and business leaving, and also highly inhibit other businesses and/or industries from locating in the region.

Karen Maute also spoke about the possibilities of looking into taxing the mineral rights of the uranium rich land.

A concerned citizen (I didn't get his name) also spoke to the Board of Supervisors about the amount of delinquent taxes owed to Pittsylvania County. I believe that the budget deficit for the county is about $2.2 million - and the delinquent taxes owed to the county is also about $2.2 million. Now, I realize that some people have simply been forced to choose between food, housing or medicine in this ultra-rough economy; possibly many of these people have lost employment or sustained horrific medical bills - and I think that these people that simply cannot afford to pay right now should get a pass - with the understanding that they will pay when they are again gainfully employed. For that matter, the list may have mistakes on it. I was, myself, charged taxes on a car one year when I didn't even live in the state. When I moved back, I was told I owed car taxes and had to jump through hoops to prove that for two years I wasn't even in the state, much less the county! However, there are probably some on that delinquent list that are just "skipping out" on their taxes and I would suggest that the county find a way to look at this list and try going after some of what is owed to the county. If our county could recover even half of the delinquent taxes, that would mean the deficit would be cut in half. If you would like to see this citizen speaking about this issue to the board, you can follow this link - but warning, the sound isn't great, so be sure your speakers and your computer volume are turned all the way up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfwUG05GpbU


Then, of course, there was the great debate on a resolution originated by Hank Davis. He brought his own copy of what he had originally said in the resolution, because he said that the Resolution in the Board Packet was not what he had planned. There was a huge discussion that actually turned into a circus, over the wording of the resolution. It was totally ridiculous, and the audience got rather agitated over the Board spending so much time on wording which didn't really amount to a hill of beans. Coy Harville asked for a vote to get on with things, and the Board adopted Hank's resolution, which basically stated that no harm would be done or tolerated (by the uranium mining company) against the citizens of Pittsylvania County. At least, I think that was the 'jist' of it. The whole discussion had gotten so completely out of hand, that I, as a citizen, sort of lost track.

Well, those were the high points of the adjourned meeting. Anyone got any comments or ideas to put on this blog? Feel free :-)

Monday, February 23, 2009

Knowledge is Strength

This site is set up to help provide information to citizens of Pittsylvania County Virginia. If you do not know what is going on inside county government, how can you make informed decisions? If you do not know what your representative on the County Board of Supervisors thinks or stands for or how he or she votes, how can you make a decision on what to vote for or how to vote? Many people that would care to know are unable to attend meetings. For this reason, we have decided to set this site up to give a balanced view on what goes on in the Board of Supervisors Meetings for Pittsylvania County. Communication is a core foundation for growth and sustainability in any government. By allowing our citizens the right to communicate - to know and respond - hopefully we have provided our county a service. Citizens are welcome to leave comments on this site. We only ask that you keep your remarks clean and civil. Thank you.
The next Board Meeting is scheduled for the first Monday in March - March 2, 2009. If y ou cannot attend, check this blog later in the week for information about what went on.