Dear Ms. Getz, and Like-Minded citizens of Page, This is a response to your Letter to the Editor in the Page News on June 28, 2007
Page County Watch is not the "local activist group" that got the Page County Supervisors to buy back the landfill, costing the taxpayers a debt of $13M and counting. We weren't involved or active in that issue. Indeed, we did not exist at the time.
Page County Watch did not criticize or attack the previous Boards of Supervisors. We did not exist until April of 2007. We only formed as a result of the December 19, 2006, meeting of the Board, in which our houses were threatened over the flood plain issue. Before that time, many of us either didn't live here, or weren't paying any attention to elections or politics.
We are not a "local activist group". We are just homeowners who went into shock when we found out the local Board of Supervisors had the power to take away our property rights. And no one was watching what they were doing, or paying any attention to them.
You're right that the people who are elected to the Board believe they are civic minded citizens doing what is the right thing for the county. They don't have an evil intent. But they are people spending a few hours a month, in addition to their day jobs, who are making decisions that will impact the taxpayers of the county for 25 years or more. They can't do that job well in a vacuum. They shouldn't be sitting in that boardroom alone, with no citizen input, no citizen feedback, no citizen pushback, no citizen guidance. But they are. Because Page County citizens just elected them and walked away.
Like you, I never attended or paid any attention to the county government until it tried to harm me. Right now, looking at the budget that grew in one year higher than the property tax rise, the debt that will require another property tax rise next year and the following year and the following year, etc, this Board is harming YOU. The property tax rise does not pay for the schools. The money is not being managed in a way that will allow citizens to live here peacefully, business is not moving here, and the Board is about to pass a Comprehensive Plan that will guide zoning toward lot sizes that will not allow the children who grew up here to buy houses, get jobs, and live in their own homes.
These are big problems, big issues, and dramatic impacts on the citizens of Page, that can't be resolved by a couple of well intentioned but not "up to the task" elected citizens, who run from citizen input and "retreat" when they are challenged. Ms. Getz, it is YOU and people you know who need to help them figure out what you want. Do you want them to rezone your neighborhood, changing the value of your home and possibly forcing your family and relatives to sell and move away? Do you want your property taxes to rise again next year and the year after and the year after that? Do you want your friends and family to have to car pool down route 66 to get jobs? If you do, then keep doing what you're doing, and ignore this Board and these upcoming elections, because that's what you are about to get, if all goes according to the Comprehensive Plan which they created WITHOUT broad citizen input.
If you don't want those things, then show up at these Board meetings, find out what these plans are, and get involved. That won't make you an "activist" any more than it makes me one.
Alice Richmond
Page County Watch is created for YOU, the citizens of Page County, Virginia. Add your comments to the posts by selecting Comments at the end of each blog, or read others comments. This is an OPINION site. Comments you read here are the opinion of the poster. They are not NEWS. Take them with a grain of salt. Your comments may take up to a day to appear, so post once, then come back the next day to see your comments in writing.
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June
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- The REAL Page County
- Dear Ms. Getz
- The Incomprehensible Plan
- Adopting the Budget
- Ding Dong
- Follow the Smell
- The Supervisors Retreat
- Directions to the Retreat
- The Original Donato Document
- FLOOD PLAIN documenting
- The Donato Document DRAFT
- Notes from the June 5 meeting
- FLOOD PLAIN news
- Meet the Republicans
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- Better than a three-ring circus (15)
- Zoning Rewrite (15)
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- Drinking the Bath Water (7)
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- By Right Subdivisions (6)
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Visit the home page of Page County Watch for more exciting news and information on the workings of . .
The Three-Ring Circus
in the towns of Luray, Stanley, and Shenandoah Virginia
Visit the home page of Page County Watch for more exciting news and information on the workings of . .
The Three-Ring Circus
in the towns of Luray, Stanley, and Shenandoah Virginia
About Me
- Page County Watch
- Page County Watch is a citizens organization formed to assist the members of the Page County Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors to know what their citizens want. We help them understand the issues. We began as a group of about 45 citizens who were hyperventilating about the proposed Flood Plain Ordinance. Until that happened, we ignored county government, just like you and all our neighbors probably do. After that disaster almost took our homes, we realized, we can't be complacent about what our county government might be doing. Our Home Page is at http://www.PageCountyWatch.org You can contact us at research@PageCountyWatch.org
10 comments:
get on out my County. go on and take your fancy educated selves back to the big city. ain't got no need for you.
Lula Mae Dovel Cubbage
Dovel Holler, VA
Jeez, Lula Mae. You must be fairly educated yourself, that you have the ability to Blog. You'd be surprised how many people shy away from pushing that Comments button and saying their piece. But it sounds like you have more on your mind. What is it that bothers you about the "imports" that have come here?
Alice
Ya, Lula Mae I guess we'd all be better off if none of us were...educated or even worse off if we were "fancy educated". Hoowee, looks like my 25 years here still doesn't qualify me for a piece of "your" county, guess we'll have to consider heading back to the Beltway. Dangnation!
I was just on the Beltway for a couple of days. Believe me, we don't want that mess out here. I say, whatever it takes to protect our rural lifestyle, I'm for it. If that takes zoning 10 - 15 acres before you can build . . . so be it.
Lula Mae, I can say with absolute confidence that my ancestors were a part of this area long before you and yours. My family's roots here are deep...very deep. This is my county just as much as it is yours. Not that ancestry makes a difference. If you own property here, this is "your" county.
The sad irony here is that my ancestors owned a great deal of land here. That is, until the government forcefully took it away. Our family has been down this road once, we don't want it to happen again.
buck rogers - First, this area will never turn into what the metro D.C. area has become. That is, unless they decide to move the capital of the United States to Page County which I just don't see happening anytime in the foreseeable future.
Second, I find it very sad that you would so easily disregard the property rights of people who have put their hard work/time/money/life into their homes. I guess it is easy to so carelessly brush off the issue when it's not your home that is in jeopardy. I pray the government never decides to go after your home.
Finally, lest we forget, this ordinance, if approved, will take not only the homes of "imports", but it will also take the homes of "old timers" as well.
If you live on the flood plain, this ordinance does not care if you just moved to the county or if you were born and raised here.
If you live on the flood plain, your home will cease to be your home.
-Kim Orndorff
Imports or originals...who cares, we're all in this together. Yes, if you own property here it really is "your county". We either hang together or we hang separately. Stay together on this thing people. And lets remember folks, this is not just about the Shenandoah, it's about ALL the flood plains in the whole county. It includes the Hawksbill and every little stream or run there is, including every farm or house, those streams that run off the mountain and, yes, anywhere water rises or collects after a storm or other weather event. Thousands of us are/will be effected by by this.
I really felt good last night at the Elections Debate at the VFW when the audience applauded Larry Sours, JD Cave, and Jim Turner, who are all candidates for Supervisor. They all said they were against the flood plain ordinance. The audience cheered for that and it made me feel greatly relieved, because I was worried that people who don't think it impacts them didn't care. The real issue here is Property Rights. The county should not be able to take away somebody's home. The state delegate Todd Gilbert, and also Mark Obenshain, said they had worked on something at the state level called "eminent domain reform" which prevented counties in Virginia from taking people's land just because they think they could get more tax money from some developers offer. However, it is still possible for a county to take people's property rights through zoning changes. OR if there is a public safety issue.
That's why it is so important that we be vigilant when we hear Supervisors (ie Carol Lee Strickler) talk about the public safety issues of the flood plain. There is no more public safety issue in Page than there is anywhere else, and nowhere else thinks they have to steal people's houses.
It's also critical that we pay close attention to any proposed zoning changes.
I was quite concerned that John Rust did not attend the debate last night. I know he was informed about it, and his opponent, Larry Sours, attended. Page County Watch will have a lot of questions about the zoning changes in the future, and I personally will be sure to attend the zoning subcommittee meetings and report on this website everything that happens.
Alice
I love all people every where but the people that I have contempt for , rather they are import or native is the ones that would take away our property rights or regulate us to the point of no end I feel very sorry for the people that dont see the importance of property owners rights for I don't believe they no the joy of working hard for something and being proud of what you have accomplishedand wanting to protect that, people's property is all some people have and they are trying to take that away, rather I am elected or not I will fight to the bitter end protecting these freedoms we enjoy as americans, goverment is not in place to put undue burdens on people, the people need to wake up and realize that they are ultimately in charge of there destiny, and hold elected officials accountable.
Jim, I'm thinking of the sincerity in all the people I saw last night running for election, and I'm trying to figure out what happened to that sincerity after the current Supervisors were elected. I'm thinking what could have happened after they were elected that made them change to the attitudes we are seeing in the Board meetings? They ignore the citizen input.
Actually, with the exception of Gerald Cubbage, I mean. Gerald Cubbage still seems like the same sincere person, and he is trying to listen.
But the rest of them? It's really strange. Is it a problem with the system? Will the new candidates elected change like that, too?
Is somebody whispering in their ears and telling them secret information that's making them act in ways that are clearly against the public interest, but maybe they know some secret information that we don't have access to? That's what they act like.
I know you aren't going to do that if you're elected, Jim.
I know Alice it doesn't make any sence, goverment in Page County is upside down they act like the people are working for them, we have got to turn it around this year, and start giving the power back to the people were it belongs , I will make one promise I know I can keep, I wil remain the same as I am now because that is how my parents raised me, STAND UP FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE, AND YOU CAN NEVER LEARN ANYTHING IF YOU ARE ALWAYS TALKING, YOU HAVE TO LISTEN TO LEARN.
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