Events of the June 19 meeting of the Board of Supervisors
This meeting went on for 3 1/2 hours, but nothing happened.
The tenor has changed from a game of Rope-A-Dope to a game of Trivia.
The Performing Arts Center was granted a waiver of their property taxes because they are 501c3.
The budget was passed.
Citizen comments were heard but ignored, unless it was to respond defensively to any perceived criticism.
Natalie made a plea to be careful if they are changing the Comprehensive Plan because they could be Revising it if they do that, and this was only an Update not a Revision. (See the Comprehensive Plan section on the main website)
John Mayeaux made a request that they consider doing something about all the people who don't have affordable housing. (This was ignored.)
McWhorter commented on everything, ending with praise for what a good job the Board was doing.
Rogerson, Lansberry, and Richmond talked about the budget and the lack of information presented about it. We all pointed out that there was information that the citizens do not have about the debt, the budget and the tax raise.
At the end, Carol Lee Strickler pulled out some old newspapers from 1985 and gave a little prepared speech. Rather than address citizen comments that the budget had not been presented with understandable line items that would actually inform the public, she said there was so much "misinformation" being spread. Terrible misinformation in Letters to the Editor and other places. For example, we said "nobody ever died in a Page County flood". So she held up some old yellow newspapers from 1985 that said three people died in Elkton and McGaheysville (which are not in Page County). And said it was a shame there were people who were putting so much effort into spreading misinformation instead of behaving properly like the good people who work on these committees. LaFrance echoed her sentiment. They also said if anybody wanted to understand the budget, they could have come to all the meetings in January, February, and March when the departments made their budget requests. (The issue citizens were trying to talk about was the debt and the construction financing, but that was ignored.)
Alice
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After the Board meeting last night, it seems rather clear to me that Carol Lee-Strickler, lashing out about a flood in 1985 in some other county, and Mr. LaFrance saying that she stole his thunder, have not let the Flood Plain Ordinance die, contrary to what Mr. LaFrance said to me on the phone last week. It appeared to me that she was attempting to scold the audiance for not taking her personal view on the flood plain ordinance.
(Here we go again, never receiving consistent information).
We know that the elections are coming up soon. I believe that once the elections come and go, the flood plain ordinance will rise again.
The citizens have been constantly given the run around. We need straight shooters and I believe Gerald Cubbage is one. But as far as the rest of the Board, in my view, we need to do some serious house cleaning. I don't think it really matters where they say they stand on the flood plain issue, it's never consistent.
We need a fresh start with people who will do what the people want.
There was nothing on the agenda about the Flood Plain Ordinance last night but Carol Lee Strickler threw it out there again. These are the kinds of things that keep happening that are unacceptable to the public and we need a change.
Donna Eames
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