Lots of conversation

Check out the comments under the post below from the August 18th meeting....lots of intelligent conversation going on there....it's especially interesting because these people understand more of what's going on than I do....and they are putting it out there for all....Great job guys!

"V" - are you gone?

Anyway....here's the rest of the meeting on the 18th

There was a great deal of citizen discussion over one of the zoning cases, which is unusual. Usually, they fly right through, but Charles and Nancy Eanes wanted to zone their property over in the Rt. 58 area from residential to business (understandably, on their part, since that area is really starting to boom.) But many of the residents near that property didn't want it, because they said that the area was heretofore a quiet neighborhood without a lot of traffic. Hank Davis questioned this, since there was a trailer park on that road - he said there had to be a reasonable amount of traffic back and forth from that park. There was not a decision made that evening.

Yorktowne has not lived up to the requirements of their performance agreement - instead of the several hundred jobs that they promised by this time, they have only employed 87 people. The county is asking to re-establish their performance agreement to let them have more time. I personally think the more time the better, because the national econonomy has devastated businesses such as Yorktowne, who's cabinet business is almost totally dependent on the housing market.

The Tobacco Commission will finance bond payments for 10.5 million, for the Mega Park.

Mr. Ecker wants the waterline in the Grit area to be extended. There was some negative discussion on this, and finally Mr. Ecker said, "I supported waterlines for Whispering Pines, and I supported waterlines on Rt. 40 - why can't you support my constituents...this line is needed." The board finally agreed to have a feasibility study done and go forth from there.

The Board motioned to have a public hearing on the issue of freezing car taxes for disabled vets (surely that will be a no-brainer) and the entire board was, by the way, in favor of that.

The Northern Pittsylvania Food Bank wants a land donation - the 2 acres that was formerly the football field at the old Gretna Middle School. They want land to build a building for food storage. The board seemed to be in favor but wanted assurance that the Food Bank would build at some point, so the agreement should contain a stipulation that if a building was not built, the land would revert back to the county. A public hearing will be held at the next meeting on this issue.

The county hiring freeze (ha ha ha ha ha) was once again waived so that the Economic Development Director could hire a secretary. BTW, the Economic Development director was recently sent to the "Basic Economic Development" course. This course is held in Oklahoma or Chapel Hill. I assume he and Greg Sides were sent to Chapel Hill. Just for your information, most localities that hire directors look for people that have achieved economic development certification, which takes years and years. Basic is just the beginning. Why is the county paying $80K+ for someone that is so inexperienced that he has to be sent to Basic? Just so ya know - the old project manager for Econ Dev, Kyle Butler, had Basic under his belt, but he was thrown out with the bath water, and now he and his family are leaving for Hagarstown MD, where he has obtained a wonderful career opportunity. Once again, the county threw out a bright, intelligent young man and has the expense of starting all over - primarily because, in my opinion, Coy Harville wanted no one who knew more about Econ Dev than he thinks he does.

Opinion:
Two things - there is a lot of networking in the econ dev business, like it or not....and the old office employees had a lot of that already in the system...the new director will have to learn who's who and start all over making connections. This guy had to be hired because he sucked up to Coy and the four block.

And - the county complains about our intelligent young people leaving the area - but then they help throw them out, with their stupid decisions and egotistical self indulgences.

Aug 18 Board Meeting

I just wanted to let you know that I haven't forgotten you. I have just been to busy with my job this week, I haven't had time or energy to post anything. The meeting ran long, and I was just mind-boggled (as always) at the dog tag issue. I really thought that was a "no brainer" - I mean a lower cost for a longer time....what's not to love. It's a pain in the butt to have to go to Chatham every year to get that dog tag, especially when you work. I work in Danville - when am I supposed to go?? So I thought that would be a "non-issue" but boy was I wrong....there was more discussion over this stupid, stupid subject than I believe there was over refinancing the bonds....

I mean we're talking $10 here. People were like "what if my dog dies, and I don't get my 10 bucks worth?" Coy pulled out a letter similar to that and read it....I mean, he never read any letters since I've been there about "real" county issues. It was the craziest thing I have ever seen. I mean, what do these people want - a rebate. My dog died and I still had a year and 2 months left, so give me back part of what I paid for my tag.

I'll tell you something: I have a dog, and if anything happened to her, the last thing on my mind would be the lousy $10 that I paid for a dog tag. I'd be devastated over the death of my dog, not worrying over the tag.

I felt sympathy for Teresa Easley who got up and said that she was trying to simplify one thing in the treasurer's office, but if she had known it was going to cause this much controversy, she wouldn't have done it, and so just leave it the way it is, which is what they did.

And I'm telling you folks something else: if you all don't tell everyone you know that Sunday Beer Sales and Liquor by the Drink are not moral issues - they are revenue issues, that battle will be lost as well....

Write letters to the paper and tell people it has absolutely nothing to do with drinking - it has to do with restaurants and stores not locating here; it has to do with people driving out of the county to shop and eat....

I'm just about done with all this. In just the short time that we have been going to the board meetings and seeing what is going on in this county, I'm ready to surrender. I have never in my life personally witnessed such blatant ignorance on all sides.

Ready for Tuesday night's meeting?

Come out and support our effort to provide a "presence" at these meetings. It's a real opportunity to have our own "town hall" meetings - twice a month! Get your friends and come to Chatham and support this initiative. 7:00 pm

A few things on the agenda are Extension of the Grit waterline, freezing taxes for disabled veterans (per the board packet, this is the license fee), and a waiver of the county hiring freeze...

Also there is a new link to get to the Board Packets, agendas, etc. I will put a new link in the right column. Here it is:

http://www.pittgov.org/weblink7/Browse.aspx

Thanks Mr. Ecker

Mr. Ecker Posted the names of the Planning Commission under the post about pertaining to the Commission (below). If you want to see the names, you can open his comment and look.

Planning Commission

I wanted to clear up some information about our County Planning Commission. It is made up of regular citizens from each district. Each Supervisor appoints one person from his/her district to represent the district on the Planning Commission. I think there was some misinformation out there pertaining to this, and I wanted to set it straight. I don't know the names right of the top of my head, but if you all want to see the names I can get them. Let me know.

BOS Meeting Aug. 3 09

My apologies to everyone that reads this, for the lapse in time of posting this. Actually, there isn't much to post for a change....the meeting was quite uneventful. There were a few citizens that spoke about restricting the 18-wheeler traffic on Ringgold Road, since there is now an alternate route (Cane Creek Parkway) into the Industrial Park. This was a done deal before it started though, and steps will be taken to complete the process. Mr. Ecker also asked to put the same basic issue on the next agenda to have a public hearing on restricting truck traffic on Blue Ridge Drive (Old 29). Basically, there were nothing but basic operating issues that were ok'd by the full board and everyone went home early. (yay)

Recording Meetings

We are starting to record the entire BOS meeting and burn it to a DVD. What do you think we should do with our DVD's?

State of the County Address

We were at the Business at Breakfast this past Tuesday to hear the State of the County address. Coy Harville drug out a slide presentation that needed some updating, and proceeded to speak ("and this slide says....") It was excrutiating boring, because he didn't cut it to about 15 or 20 minutes like most other speakers....he drug it out for over 45 minutes - and after he was done, I still didn't know the main question: WHAT is the state of the county. When Mayor Saunders did the same address on the State of the City, he only spoke for about 15 minutes and he told us some of the bad, some of the good, some of the expected - and many times during the speech he said "The City of Danville is doing well." He gave us a synopsis, in other words. After Coy's lengthy presentation, he still never answered the question clearly - what does he say is the state of the county....I mean we heard about all the wonderful "Coy" slanted things that are happening....water lines, My Twinn moving from the bankrupt eToys to the Pluma building in Chatham....and how they put in a water line up route 40 (nevermind it doesn't have enough pressure for anyone to be able to reasonably hook up to it)....in other words, I guess the best thing I can say is it was the same old, same old soundbites that the citizens usually get, not a realistic portrait of what is happening, has happened and what's in store for the county. All we heard was a laundry list of projects - and not anything about any concerns....Admittedly, these breakfast things are for giving the speech in a glossy light, but we do expect to hear a little reasonable truth - I mean we all know that our county, like many others in the country today, is being squeezed financially - so tell us - and tell us the truth...It was obvious that no one wrote Coy's speech - all he did was read slides....he didn't have a speech prepared and it was all too obvious he wasn't really prepared for a Breakfast Presentation. Of course, this is my opinion - and it's a mean opinion, but I go to most Biz at Breakfasts, and they are normally interesting....normally.