At last, the public notices board is being moved from its 'forest in the building' alcove to a place of high visibility at the front enterance. It is also coming with a commitment to make it even more accessible in the near future by relocating it outside the entrance of Town Hall, in asecure, lighted display case where any citizen, at any time, can find out about meetings. Kudos to Ms. Carter for taking on this issue and sticking with it until the best interests of the citizens' was served.
Next surprise was a request to have the Town Manager review other jurisdictions to see how they set up meetings. This reasons for this (per Mr. Wade) would be to keep meeting time shorter while simultaneously allowing time for Town Council members to do additional research based on any information that might come up during the public meetings. It may be possible in the near future to have an issue addressed by Planning Commission a couple of weeks before it come up for Public Hearing, and then another couple of weeks for the Town Council to study the issue and hear from interested parties before deciding how to vote on an issue. (That is just a rough example. There are several different ways this can be set up. In my opinion, any of them would be better than what we have now!) And, yes, this could mean that it may take a little bit longer to make a decision. The biggest positive is that it does not put the wishes of the one over those of the many. A well thought out decision is less likely to result in situations that have to be addressed again later, or end up in unnecessary legal actions.
In an instance involving some 'lax taxes', Mr. Barber took a very good approach of asking that the business in question be requested to come up with payment options to bring the account up to par. Forcing the business owner to come up with the entire amount at one time could have been destructive to the business. Mr. Barber made a 'good sense' decision of allowing the business owner an opportunity to correct a mistake without doing damage to the business or causing a loss to the town. A win-win situation is always a good solution.
Now, Mr. Showalter noted a few things that were not in the last meeting's minutes that he wanted included. Darn it! That would have made such a good blog. Attention to detail like this and I am going to have to find a new hobby! I had already been working on a blog of what I considered some misunderstanding that occurred during the last meeting in a discussion about moving Town of Christiansburg elections to November. Mr. Showalter clarified that there would be a one time cost to the Town of approximately $5000 to transfer over the voter registration cards for all voters. (NOTE: this is almost the same as the cost of one election for the Town of Christiansburg in the current state where we have only one polling place.) Mr. Showalter also noted that the savings of somewhere between $4,000 to $5,000 would be a savings every two years. Additionally, the population growth of the Town is such that it is anticipated that by the next election, two polling places will be required which will just about double the cost.
To me, moving the elections to November shakes out like this:
1. Town invests $5000
2. Town saves between $4000 and $10,000 (depending upon when the 2nd polling place is activated) every 2 years for the next 20 or more years
So: For a $5000 investment, the Town gets a return in savings of $40,000 to $100,000 over the next 20 years.
That should pay for a few seats in the Aquatic Center!!!
Another interesting discussion concerned the Tourism Development Council bi-annual progress report. The discussion covered a lot of what the TDC and/or Chamber of Commerce has accomplished and what the Town wants. What I didn't hear about was the KUDOS that should go to the businesses that work hard to support this endeavor. This includes far more than just the hotels/motels generating the funds. You can pour a ton of money into advertising events/activities in order to get people to come to this area. However, that is a one time thing. What will bring those people back again is the service they are provided in those hotels/motels, local businesses, restaurants, at the events, and perhaps most importantly, the citizens who are willing to step aside a little bit in their daily lives to deal with the increased traffic and longer lines in stores and restaurant. It is those average citizens that can have a tremendous impact on how welcome visitors feel. Sometimes, it is the simple things that get overlooked. A simple smile and a "How are you today?" from a stranger when you are a visitor in a location could be the most important thing that happened to that person all day! So, Kudos to the TDC/Chamber, Kudos to Town Council, and Major Kudos to businesses and citizens who make this the type of place that people want to visit more than once!!!