Comments from two citizens

When I read this comment, I was so moved - I don't know who this person is, but I wanted to make sure that others read her comment - and while you are at it - please read the comments that were left on this post - people are in agreement with these comments:

"This is the same problem we ran into about a two years ago. Our problem was simple but important to myself and neighbors. We wrote emails to each of the board and got no reply. We wrote several more times to see if they just never got the emails and still got no reply. We assumed they didn't use the email because they had no access to computers or something was wrong with their system. The problem was eventually taken care of by the good folks in our neighborhood pitching in together and taking care of the situation ourselves. Probably what they were waiting for any way. Incidentally this was before Marshall Ecker's time so perhaps we do have one person who cares on the board and is in this century. Although I wonder as the rest of the board is always after him and never agree with him. Our board is pitiful to say the least. I am an 81 year old women who took classes at DCC several years back to learn how to use computers and to type. I can't do it well and it takes a while as I have arthritis quite badly but I try. The board needs to change and young people who care about their County for real should be on the board. This board only cares about themselves, power,and getting reelected. It is obvious and why our whole country is in the shape it is. I am at the end of my life and am so saddened by what we have become. I love life but sometimes I wished I hadn't lived so long as to see what we have become. I am glad you who ever you are are doing this as I could never make a board meeting do to my health but am still interested in what goes on there. I am not dead yet."

And here is another comment from someone who tried to contact the supervisors via email:

"In response to this post: I sent all supervisors an e-mail on 4/21 requesting their view/opinion on a topic that I feel is important when discussing future revenue for our county. I only received ONE response, the following day, from Mr. Marshall Ecker. No others have bothered to respond. I actually sent this same question to my local town manager and also got NO response. Thank you fine leaders!"

Videos from the Board Meetings

More videos are at www.youtube.com - just key pittsylvaniainformer into the search box on YouTube and you will pull up all the videos. You can subscribe and you will notified by email when new videos are uploaded. The videos aren't "professional" quality, but right now we are just using a "Flip" video recorder, so we do the best we can. We will continue to put some of the videos on this site, but again, you can view them all on YouTube! Happy viewing!

Adjourned Board Meeting, April 21, 2009

First, we would like to urge citizens to attend at least a couple of Board Meetings. Since starting this communication effort, we have found that these meetings are actually interesting in many respects. Last evening, Phillip Lovelace spoke about the iron found in the drinking water pursuant to the uranium core drilling, Deborah Dix and Allen Gross also spoke on related topics. Karen Maute also spoke, however, because Ms. Maute is so soft spoken, we can never get her recorded so that she can be heard. If anyone reads this, please let Karen know that we would be pleased for her to write a synopsis of the issues she spoke on last night, and we will post it on the blog - a couple of paragraphs will be fine.



Nancy Smith reprimanded the Board due to the negligence of conducting Board business in line with Roberts Rules of Order. Mr. Snead and Mr. Ecker actually had the book with them, which was interesting.

A memorandum of Agreement with the Department of Corrections was voted on by the Board, and it was voted to go forward with this. Basically, in plain english, the old Prison Farm has been offered to the Conty by the state, and if the County goes ahead in a timely manner, they will be able to also claim "rights" to the beds, linens, etc. Basically, if the county is going to do anything at all as far as a jail space goes, this is the least expensive route.

Regional One's Contract was voted on and passed, 5 - 2, with Davis and Ingram against. There wasn't a public discussion, so we don't know why they dissented.

Wheeler Baker and Frank Martin from Hargrave Military Academy accepted a resolution from the Board in recognition of HMA's 100 year anniversary.

Then we had the rezoning cases, and this is usually boring - but one interesting topic arose - North American Properties - Coleman Marketplace wanted to rezone in the Sweetgum Lane area of the county from R-1 to RMF (Residential Multi-family). They intend to build housing facilities, with the intention that there will be no subsidized homes involved. With the second phase of the project, a traffic study will be required, but the company has proffered to have it done, at no cost to the county. The residents of the area signed a petition that they had no problems with the multifamily housing in their neighborhood.

Dan Sleeper informed the Board that the Hurt Volunteer Fire Dept. requests a lease on the Wayside Park in Hurt. The county will maintain what is already there; however, if the FD builds something on the property - i.e. a ball diamond - they would be responsible for maintenance on it. The Board unanimously approved.

In new business, a resolution to the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and the VDH (Virginia Department of Health) requesting an investigation of the well water problems passed after some resasonable discussion.

The Board voted 4-3 to support Lindsay Bowman with a $500 contribution to support her pageant participation in the Miss VA pageant. Harville, Barber, and Snead voted against the proposal - citing that this should not be funded with county taxpayer money; Mr. Snead said that he made a personal contribution as supervisor from Lindsay's district and he thought that was the better route. I must say that I agreed with them, citing the tight budget right now. However, I did discuss this with Mr. Ecker, and he said that he felt it was the right thing to do, since she was, after all, representing our county. My opinion softened somewaht - BUT, since she is running as Miss Danville Pittsylvania County, shouldn't Danville pony up $500, too?! At the date and time of this meeting, Mr. Harville informed us that the City had contributed $0.

Dan Sleeper explained a Cost Allocation Plan that had a $10K price tag attached to it; however, he did explain that due to the county's use of this plan (which the county has been contracting for since 1979) Pittsylvania County gets back 5 0r 6 times that in federal grant money. Interesting.

The Board discussed the issue of giving Chatham Elementary (with exception of the Registrar's Office) to the Town of Chatham. Mr. Ecker said that there should be a stipulation made that the town can't turn around and sell it - in that case, the county may as well sell it. There is to be a public meeting to discuss this on May 4th, at the Regular Board meeting.

I have a few videos to upload, so check back later!

Send your Supervisor an Email

See how long it takes for your Supervisor to answer your email....the email addresses are below. Don't you think it's time for ALL the Supervisors to be able to work with something as simple and as vital as e mail? Find out if your Supervisor is "techno-savvy."

Coy.Harville@pittgov.org

Marshall.Ecker@pittgov.org

Henry.Davis@pittgov.org

William.Pritchett@pittgov.org

James.Snead@pittgov.org

Tim.Barber@pittgov.org

Fred.Ingram@pittgov.org

Adjourned Meeting, April 21, 2009

The Adjourned BOS meeting will be held at 7:00 pm. Here is the Agenda for the meeting:

http://www.pittgov.org/documents/AGENDAS/2009/April%2021,%202009,%20Adjourned%20Meeting.pdf

Try to be on hand if you are able.

If you would like to see the committee agendas for committees that meet before the Board Meeting, here is the Legislative Committee Agenda:

http://www.pittgov.org/documents/AGENDAS/2009/April%2021,%202009,%20Legislative%20Committee.pdf

And here is the Finance Committee Agenda:

http://www.pittgov.org/documents/AGENDAS/2009/April%2021,%202009,%20Finance%20Committee.pdf

So at least we know what the committees will be discussing to bring before the full board.

Open Forum

The last Poll question showed that 9 out of 10 people would like to attend an open discussion forum with the supervisors. I think it would be a good idea so that all views could be openly discussed. If you would like to ask for an open forum, email the supervisor from your district and ask that one be scheduled. Here are the supervisor email addresses:

Coy.Harville@pittgov.org

Marshall.Ecker@pittgov.org

Henry.Davis@pittgov.org

William.Pritchett@pittgov.org

James.Snead@pittgov.org

Tim.Barber@pittgov.org

Fred.Ingram@pittgov.org

You Tube

Just a note for the "video buffs" - the videos from the meetings are posted on You Tube. All you have to do is go to www.youtube.com and in the search browser, type in PittsylvaniaInformer (all one word) and you will be directed to a page with all the videos. We will probably post videos here from now on and simply put the link on this blog, simply because it's so much quicker to upload more than one video at a time to youtube. We plan to continue to monitor the Board meetings, and try our best to get information on this blog in as timely a manner as possible for us. Thanks to all.

Links to the Board Meeting

Apologies for the lateness of this information....like I've said before, though, we all have day jobs, and lately ours are taking up a lot of time...so it's been difficult to keep up with this blog - but here it some of what we got from the last meeting. The links here will take you to the You Tube site. Give each video some time to "load" and if you're not familiar with You Tube, be sure to click on the arrow to start the video (then wait for it to load and it will then play.)

Marshall Ecker's propopsal to up the litter fines passed. Several citizens spoke on the litter problem in the county.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc8RDAdj6XY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT1HV9XiTbo


Miss Danville Pittsylvania County attended the meeting and spoke to the Board to ask for their support, along with any money they may care to donate to her "run" for Miss Virginia. The Board members fell all over themselves to get a picture with her...it was rather comical.

The Dan River Wildcats received a resolution of commendation from the Board for their successful season.

The meeting, in short, got interesting when the Board members started bickering between themselves in an almost PeeWee Herman way - any moment, I expected to hear "I know you are, but what am I"....

But to get serious, I am providing links to a small portion of the Board activitied during the meeting. To see more videos, go to http://www.youtube/ and do a search on PittsylvaniaInformer to see all the uploaded videos.

Meanwhile, you can check these out....again, we apologize for having to split these up, but we have to limit our video times to under ten minutes to be able to upload.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bS6iCOwNdUU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuiEgbl2MaA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqJ-LvmUcrc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ituEEwsWTv8

ASAP

We attended the Board Meeting last evening, and not as many citizens were there, but there was plenty of "excitement." Stay "tuned" to this blog for updates on the happenings!

Tonight!!!!

Don't forget that the Supervisors' Meeting is tonight at 7 pm. Hope to see you there. Get your agenda at the www.pittgov.org site - we have a link to everything you need on the right side of our blog!

You Tube

You can see these videos and more at http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=PittsylvaniaInformer&aq=f

Thanks!

Just a quick "thank you" to those who have shown support for our communication efforts. Keep on passing the link to this blog around - and keep the comments coming. We love them!

The "Other Side of the Story"

As promised, we have some statements from some of the Supervisors from the evening of the Budget Hearing on March 30, 2009. We would like to thank them for taking the time to talk to us about the tax issues.

Mr. Harville spoke to our camera to give his take on some of the issues. Mr. Snead was also kind enough to speak to us and here's what he said...

Mr. Ecker also spoke to us about the budget:

Mr. Davis had this to say:

And finally, Mr. Ingram spoke up during the hearing and had this to say to the audience in defense of the Board having to raise taxes:

We believe in Fairness

It would only be fair to get the Supervisor's take on some of what has been said at these hearings, and we have video of several of the supervisors, including Mr. Ecker, Mr. Harville, Mr. Davis, and Mr. Snead. It takes some time to upload and process the videos, and that is the only reason they aren't on right now, but within the next day or two, you should see this as well, so check back. (We have "day jobs" and have to take care of some of the time-consuming tasks of running this site at night. We hope you understand, and will bear with us, as we learn to run this site efficiently.) Check back tomorrow for words from the Supervisors themselves.

Star Tribune's Article on Budget Hearing

Supervisors get tongue-lashing on tax increases
By TIM DAVIS/Star-Tribune Editor

A small but vocal crowd gave the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors a verbal whipping during budget hearings Monday night in Chatham.
"Tax, tax, tax - that's all Mr. Sleeper knows," said Nathaniel Dix, referring to County Administrator Dan Sleeper. "He ain't never cut the budget.
"Quit taxing the people to death," Dix told supervisors. "The whole budget is out of whack. What you need is a chop ax to cut and cut."
Although speakers were limited to three minutes, Dix, who has attended practically every budget hearing for the past 20 years, continued to berate supervisors long after his time was up.
Brandishing a copy of the Constitution, the feisty 92-year-old said, "I want you to listen to what I have to say, what the Constitution says and what the people are saying. Don't you vote for these taxes."
The proposed spending plan includes a 9-cent hike in the real estate tax rate, from 53 cents to 62 cents per $100 of assessed value, and 75-cent jump in personal property, from $7.75 to $8.50 per $100.
Other tax hikes include raising the vehicle license fee (formerly decals) from $29.50 to $38.75 - a $9.25 jump - and increasing the consumer utility tax on telephone, electric and gas bills from 15 percent to 20 percent.
Sleeper said the combined tax increases -$4.8 million - will go to pay debt service on renovations and new construction at the county's four high schools.
Voters approved the $70 million project in a referendum almost two years ago.
Tunstall District resident Charles Turner said he voted against the school bond, and urged supervisors to stop construction.
"The county budget needs to be cut down until it balances," he said. "If you really buckle down, you can make the budget work. The budget needs to get in line and stay there."
Turner said raising taxes seems to be an "easy button" for supervisors to push.
Mike Hudson of Ringgold agreed.
"Why do you have to keep spending money you don't have?" said Hudson.
Hudson said the county's population is declining, which means fewer students, yet the school budget keeps increasing.
"You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see it," he said. "The county is getting smaller and taxes are going up. Something's missing in the common-sense department."
Dan River District resident J.J. Moore said new schools look good, but buildings don't mean quality education.
"You spent money in the wrong place," he said. "You didn't spend it on education and quality people."
Moore sends his daughter to private school.
"I pay taxes for these new schools, but I can't get nothing out of it because I don't trust the school system," he said.
Karen Carter suggested pay cuts "from the top down."
"We can cut salaries," she said. "They are county employees. They work for us."
Carter also urged supervisors to take away cars and cell phones for county and school employees.
"I shouldn't have to pay for somebody to drive back and forth to work," she said.
Deborah Lovelace of Gretna told supervisors to stop spending money on industrial parks that are not producing jobs.
"I think that's just outrageous," she said.
Sylvia Deshazor said high unemployment and layoffs at Goodyear and Corning mean people can't afford to pay more taxes.
Deshazor and her husband worked at Dan River Inc. for 32 years before the textile mill closed. They have found new jobs, but the work doesn't pay nearly as well as Dan River.
"Our income can't handle any tax increase at this time," Deshazor said.
Richard Shumate agreed.
"Where in the world are we going to get this money from?" he said. "We don't have the money. It's just not there."
Monday night's meeting- the board's third and final public hearing on the 2009-2010 budget - was held to include $4.5 million in additional state and federal funds.
Schools received the extra money from the recently approved American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or federal economic stimulus package.
The school budget increased from $84.9 million to $89.3 million. The overall county spending plant went from $225.9 million to $229 million.
Sleeper said the additional school money includes about $2.3 million to improve the standards of quality, $900,000 for Title 1 programs and $700,000 for special education.
The board's finance committee will meet Monday to make its final recommendations.
The committee's chairman, Chatham-Blairs District Supervisor Henry "Hank" Davis Jr., hopes supervisors will cut spending and lower the proposed tax increase on real estate from 9 cents to 6 cents.
"I think a lot of people are frustrated," said Davis.
Callands-Gretna District Supervisor Fred Ingram blamed tax increases on the high school renovation project.
"There would be no tax increase this year if the $70 million bond issue had not passed," he said. "That's the bottom line. But it did. It passed. I'm sorry. And it has fallen on this board to pay the bill."
Tunstall District Supervisor Tim Barber said the budget should be cut.
"I didn't support advertising the budget to start with," said Barber. "I think it can be much better than it is. This budget can be trimmed."
Supervisors hope to vote on the budget April 6. The school budget has to be approved by May 1. The county spending plan goes into effect July 1.

More from the Hearing on March 30th

Well, Mr. Nathaniel Dix braved the ice and snow to come to the original budget hearing , and he came back again on Monday night to speak his mind. Good for you Mr. Dix. In this video, Mr. Dix is reminding the Board about the U. S. Constitution!