Depot Dazed

Wow…all that wonderful stuff in the Vision 2020…all those great projects happening in some areas of town…All Town Council’s visions (see: ThinkChristiansburg.com). Then, on the other handthere are issues like: (more…)

F.O.I.A. … now let’s see where have I heard that before? Oh, yeah! It is that Freedom of Information thing. You know, that thing where at either the National or State Laws clarify a citizen’s right to access public documents. (more…)

I kept waiting for someone to bring up a couple of issues about this, but they never did during the Joint Public Hearing held on January 6, 2010. The discussion was concerning the application of fees for those people who wish to pay their town bills using a credit card. (more…)

According to the State Code: found on LIS (see below) terms of existing Town Council Members or Mayor are not to be shortened except as noted in Section D below which states:

This shortening of some people’s terms (those who were elected in May of 2008) will mean that those people will need to run again and be elected in the November election.
There is one apparent hitch in this ‘get-along’ in that the shortening is restricted to 6 months. Given that the Town of Christiansburg elected officials don’t take office until September (rather than in July as other jurisdictions do) it appears there will need to be some overlap.

Is it possible that for a 2 month period we could have more than 6 Town Council Members? Suppose the 3 incumbents ran in November and were defeated, could we possibly have a situation where for 2 months we would have 9 Town Council Members?

What a mess? Well, the Town of Christiansburg set their starting dates in September while State Code says they state in July (§ 24.2-222. Election and terms of mayor and council for cities and towns. Apparently, this date was established in the 1954 Charter for the Town of Christiansburg. Since one of those council members affected has put forth that he will be seeking legal recourse to the shortening of his term, it may be that things will get interesting…again.

(Town Council Videos of this meeting should be available later today at myvaresouces.com.)
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§ 24.2-222.1. Alternative election of mayor and council at November general election in cities and towns.

A. Notwithstanding the provisions of § 24.2-222, the council of a city or town may provide by ordinance that the mayor, if an elected mayor is provided for by charter, and council shall be elected at the November general election date of any cycle as designated in the ordinance, for terms to commence January 1. No such ordinance shall be adopted between January 1 and the May general election date of the year in which city or town elections regularly are scheduled to be held therein.

B. Alternatively, the registered voters of a city or town may file a petition with the circuit court of the city or of the county within which the town is located asking that a referendum be held on the question of whether the city or town should elect the mayor, if an elected mayor is provided for by charter, and council members at the November general election date of any cycle as designated in the petition. The petition shall be signed by registered voters equal in number to at least ten percent of the number registered in the city or town on the January 1 preceding the filing.

The court, pursuant to § 24.2-684, shall order the election officials on a day fixed in the order to conduct a referendum on the question, provided that no such referendum shall be scheduled between January 1 and the May general election date of the year in which city or town elections regularly are scheduled to be held therein. The clerk of the court shall publish notice of the referendum once a week for the three consecutive weeks prior to the referendum in a newspaper having general circulation in the city or town, and shall post a copy of the notice at the door of the courthouse of the city or county within which the town is located. The question on the ballot shall be:

“Shall the (city or town) change the election date of the mayor (if so provided by charter) and members of council from the May general election to the November general election (in even-numbered or odd-numbered years or as otherwise designated in the petition)?”

If members of the school board in the city or town are elected by the voters, the ballot question also shall state that the change in election date applies to the election of school board members.

The referendum shall be held and the results certified as provided in § 24.2-684. If a majority of the voters voting in the referendum vote in favor of the change, the mayor and council thereafter shall be elected at the November general election date for terms to commence January 1.

C. Except as provided in subsection D, no term of a mayor or member of council shall be shortened in implementing the change to the November election date. Mayors and members of council who were elected at a May general election and whose terms are to expire as of June 30 shall continue in office until their successors have been elected at the November general election and have been qualified to serve.

D. In any city or town that elects its council biennially or quadrennially and that changes to the November general election date in odd-numbered years from the May general election date in even-numbered years, mayors and members of council who were elected at a May general election shall have their term of office shortened by six months but shall continue in office until their successors have been elected at the November general election and have been qualified to serve.

(2000, c. 1045; 2002, c. 30.)

What would you want to see done differently?

What are the primary issues that you see as needing to be addressed?

These could be important questions. Maybe some of those who will be running for Town Council positions will read and head. Remember we have one more May election before the move to November. That could mean one last big push to create change or, one final push to maintain the status quo for a few more years before the November elections have an impact.

What do you want to see happen in your town? I’ll be adding a few ideas of my own over the next few months. AT the same time, I’ll be looking hard at your suggestions, at the town code, the comprehensive plan, meeting minutes since 2001, audio and video recordings (which by the way are finishing loading and should be all up to date by noon today), and all the emails I’ve received from you.

I think it is a good idea to begin discussing issues now to give a better idea of what citizens identify as issues to those who may be running for election.

One benefit of moving the Town of Christiansburg, Virginia elections from May to November is that it will require an update to the Town Charter. This provides town government with a great opportunity to update some other things as well.

For example, in the Town Council Meeting Minutes for 2003 the following can be found from the November 4, 2003 Minutes’s Town Manager Report Section:

MANAGER TERPENNY asked for Council approval to ask Delegate Nutter to sponsor a Charter amendment allowing Town purchases to follow State Code guidelines. He explained that Town Charter has never been changed egarding Town purchases and is currently way below public procurement laws. Currently, Town Charter requires bidding for purchases over three thousand dollars ($3,000.00); State law requires bidding for purchases over fifty thousand dollars ($50,000.00). Councilman Barber made a motion to allow Manager Terpenny to proceed with the request for sponsorship of a Charter amendment allowing Town purchases to follow State Code guidelines, which was seconded by Councilwoman Carter. Council voted as follows: AYES: Ashworth, Ballengee, Barber, Carter, Lester, and Weaver. NAYS: None.

Unfortunately, we are now almost 6 years after this issue was reported to Town Council and Town Council voted to approve the Charter change and no such change has occurred. I did check the Legislative Information System data for changes in Charter throughout the State and this change did not appear in list of passed, failed, or in any pending/committee lists. Unless, of course, some reason was found to indicate State officials did not think this was a good idea. (No evidence of that was found either.)

In other words, it appears that a problem was identified, a solution was found, and the ball was dropped. No further reports were documented in the Meeting Minutes to indicate if Del. Nutter had been contacted or not. One would have to assume, based upon any lack of updates to this, that it was at the Town level that communications fell apart.

If the referendum to move the vote is passed, the Town will need to update the Town Charter to reflect the new date and starting dates for candidates. This would be a good time to make an effort to go through the Town Charter looking for other issues that should be addressed and making sure that all needed updates are made. I certainly hope that the town would not plan on take 6 or more years to update the Charter for the new election date.

If the referendum fails, maybe it is still a good time to look at fixing issues that were identified 6 years ago! Either way, there needs to be some method for making sure that things are followed through on after they are presented to and voted upon by Council. Believe me, there are plenty of other such “ball dropping” events filed throughout the Minutes. But, don’t take my word for it, look for yourself …. at least until I finish my report:)

If you like a short read….you’re at the wrong place today. You might want to just copy and paste the text to a document file and read it as you have time. But, please do read it! If you have problems reading this here due to the length. just go to http://myvaresources.com/blogs/depotdazed/

A recent Roanoke Times article “Town Council plots out Christiansburg’s future“, pretty much says it all.

In the first line of the article you will find : “Town officials have a vision for what they want Christiansburg to look like in 2020.

First off, a true long-range view typically covers, at a minimum, a 20 year time span, NOT 11 years. Secondly, this makes if very clear that the Town officials are thoroughly convinced that they are the only ones who should make a determination of what Christiansburg should look like. Thus implying that what citizens want or think is totally unnecessary. Next, Mayor Ballengee notes he has “…always felt we needed to have a long-range plan for Christiansburg…” … duh!… that’s what a Comprehensive Plan is about. That’s what a Capital Improvements Program is about! Since we’re not making effective use of either of those two, we should try something else? Typically, this type of Vision Statement is the starting part for writing a New Comprehensive Plan. Maybe that is what the Town has in mind? Not likely. They have out of date charter, out of date codes, a comprehensive plan that is inadequate and did not include sufficient quality citizen input to be a fair representation of what citizens want….why break up the set! Maybe they are trying to change. I personally doubt it. This just looks like more of the typical ’smoke and mirrors’ distractions of citizens to keep them as ignorant as possible of what is going on. Only time will tell. And, this is one time that I sincerely hope that my expectations are wrong and that a new era of openness and the inclusion of citizens is going to really happen. I will not hold my breath though. Ballengee’s statement “We hope our community will embrace this plan,” pretty much says it all. What plan? Where is it? Where can citizens see it? How can citizens comment on it? You want us to embrace ‘it’, without knowing what ‘it’ is, without hearing what we (all citizens) think about what you have decided is best for us? Well, that’s how it has worked previously. It is the attitude that has lead to massive developments without fair consideration being made of the impact on citizen’s lives (i.e., traffic, overcrowded schools, increased crime, etc.). Wouldn’t it be novel if the Town asked for a change instead of dictated?

Now, let’s get to the meat of the matter. The “Town” (those 7 elected and who knows how many appointed/paid employees who are privy to the deep dark secrets of Christiansburg) has a plan that specifically addresses (but not limited to) these issues (from the above Roanoke Times article):

1. Pursuing green initiatives.
2. Enhancing the system of walking trails and multiuse paths.
3. Focusing on public information and community relations.
4. Reviewing and revising the zoning ordinance.
5. Promoting the new Aquatic Center.

Looks, like your guess is as good as mine on the other 15 target issues.

The rest of this article will review some of the history that the Town Council and Town Manager have when it comes to these areas.

Now, it is time for me to play a bit:)

Concering #1: Pursuing green initiatives.

What evidence is there to indicate the Town has done anything other than pay lip service in this area. There are a few references to greenspace where developments were discussed but where has the Town Codes done anything but the bare minimum, to meet State Codes?

Sure, a lot of developments have opted for trails rather than sidewalks in subdivisions. And, yes some of those trails do exist, but they don’t GO anywhere. They are a disconnected, dysfunctional mass of bits and pieces that do not do the ‘interconnectedness’ that they were supposed to accomplish. Maybe the Town has been carefully laying out this patchwork quilt project for years without telling anyone what they were doing, but right now, it just looks like a mass of scraps.

In the June 5, 2007 Town Council meeting minutes this reference can be found: “Town Manager Terpenny drew Council’s attention to a flier placed at each of their seats regarding green infrastructure in the New River Valley. The “Green Infrastructure Initiative” was created by the New River Valley Planning District Commission to educate communities in the New River Valley on how to maintain a network of green infrastructure for healthy and sustainable community growth. An information meeting for Christiansburg is scheduled for June 21 at the Montgomery County Government Center and is open to anyone interested in learning more about this topic. (If you want to know more about this Initiative there is a website with information. Perhaps a good place for our public officials to start would be the page that explains what Green Infrastructure is. It will certainly point out that this has NOT been a top priority of the Town of Christiansburg! There are also meeting agendas and minutes available to the public at the site.)

The June 19, 2007 Town Council Meeting had a representative from the NRVPDC come and give a presentation. This presentation included documents related to funding opportunity request.)

At that same June 19, 2007 meeting, the Town Council gave unanimous suupport to a Resolution for Green Infrastructure Grant where the NRVPDC would seek a U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration Grant to develop a Green Infrastructure Plan.

October 2, 2007, Elizabeth Obenshain, representing the New River Land Trust explained how the town of Christiansburg could participate in that groups efforts to preserve land.

March 4, 2008 the ‘Go Green Virginia Initiative‘ was discussed. “Town Council was introduced to the Go Green Virginia initiative started by Governor Kaine and sponsored by the Virginia Municipal League. The initiative is a nationwide effort to conserve energy. Localities must register with VML to participate, and participants will be recognized for success in various areas included in the program. Three information workshops have been scheduled around the State, and the workshop closest to our area will be held in Abingdon on April 22, 2008. Councilman Wade commented that he attended a seminar on the Go Green Virginia initiative at the 2007 VML conference and he learned that localities are not only saving money by participating, but it is also resulting in better treatment of the environment. mayor Ballengee asked Council to spend some time reviewing the information they have received on the initiative and to be prepared to vote on the matter at the next Council meeting. At the March 18, 2008 meeting Council unanimously voted to participate in the Go Green Virginia Initiative sponsored by the Virginia Municipal League. Unfortunately, this late entry into the process meant that Christiansburg was not found in the 2008 Winners list or in the list of VML Certified Green Governments. I wonder if the Town will manage to make the Sept. 30, 2009 deadline for participating in the Challenge for 2009.

On Sept. 2, 2008 Town Council Minutes: “Go Green Virginia Initiative. Mayor Ballengee presented each Councilmember with a copy of the energy Efficiency Plan prepared for review. After reviewing, modifications will be made as necessary. A copy of the Energy Efficiency Plan is attached and made a part of these minutes.” Unfortunately, a copy of that document was not provided to me or on the website. (You need to remember that the Minutes provided at the Town’s website are only the notes of the meetings, the multitude of additional documents that Town Council are provided with are seldom seen by the public eye…this is one such example.)
Concerning #2: Walking trails and multiuse paths

Notice that these are walking trails and multiuse paths, not sidewalks. These have been discussed for years and have not been able to get accomplished. Why? Do to not getting the grants needed to do it, and Town Council’s unwillingness to part with money for something as mundane as trails and paths when they could get an Aquatic Center instead. Other ‘finds’ searching for the word ‘trail’ led to places where the first 5 letters of the word ‘trailer’ were identified.
In 2005, there was a Montgomery County Greenways and Pathways Committee that the Town had representation on. Where have there been any reports back to the Town Council concerning any ideas/issues raised by this group. Is the group even still meeting? All of the references to this committee found on the internet are dated in 2005 and 2006. At least Montgomery County has some information on Greenways, Open Space & Trail Design on their website. maybe the Town can get some ideas from there or the links on that site.

Sept. 16, 2008, Councilman Vanhoozier proposed a pathway along Cambria Street from Sleepy Hollow Road to the Recreation Center. A feasibility study was suggested and Mayor Ballengee directed this matter to the Town Managaer.

The Town Council Meeting Minutes are full of references to the Huckleberry Trail. Most of these were ideas and plans for which there was no intention on the part of the Town to fund. The Town is more than willing to let public donations and groups accomplish the task. They have shown a willingness to let individuals and groups write grants, but the Town has shown no initiative on its own to make these connections to a viable trail system a reality.
Concerning #3: Public Information??????? Community Relations??????

Oh, they so do not want to go there with ME!!!! Simply go through all the Town Council Minutes online at myvaresources.com and see how many times the very word “public” is used for anything other than as “Public Hearing” or “public utilities”.

Public information and community relations do not appear anywhere in the Town Council Meeting Minutes, so this obviously has not be a priority before now. There are a couple of references to the 18 months the Planning Commission worked diligently to develop the comprehensive plan with the public’s input. Well, we already know what that actually meant.

In the Sept. 6, 2005 Minutes it was noted that “Councilwoman Carter commented that recently much attention has been drawn to evacuation plans. She noted that Christiansburg has an evacuation plan, but that the public may not be aware that a plan is in place. Manager Terpenny replied that while Christiansburg does have an emergency operations plan, it is only direction for public officials on how to handle catastrophes and not a specif plan on how to evacuate citizens.”

Concerning #4: Revising the Zoning Ordinance

Over the years, there have been a very few revisions of the overall Zoning Ordinance. In fact, there are significant questions as to whether or not even the State minimum is being met. How effective is any revision of the Zoning Ordinance going to be if they do not do a revision of the Comprehensive Plan? Simply updated the Zoning Ordinance to be up-to-date with minimum State standards may not be what citizens want. Anyone can cut and paste the existing codes from other jurisdictions that are up-to-date and form a Zoning Ordinance. It takes a decent, citizen-based Comprehensive Plan to form the framework around which that Zoning Ordinance is built. If that is lacking, you will simply get ‘cherry picked’ pieces that town officials want in the Ordinance with no inclusion of the overall community!
Concerning #5: Promoting the new Aquatic Center

What’s been done so far?
April 6, 2004 Town Council Minutes: Resolution for the Department of Conservation and Recreation Grant to Fund a Trail Project to the Future Aquatic Center Site was unanimously approved by Town Council.
April 6, 2004 Ad-Hoc Committee for the Future Aquatic Center created.
May 4, 2004 Adoption of a Resolution for Commonwealth Transportation Board Recreational Access Fund for Future Aquatic Center – This request is for an access road grant to construct a roadway from Nnorth Franklin Street to the new aquatic center site. Unanimously approved.
October 19, 2004 “Regarding the Aquatic Center, Town Manager Terpenny requested that the Finance Committee allow fundraising projects to raise additional funds for a fifty-meter competition size pool. Radford University and Virginia Tech are interested in utilizing the pool if it is a fifty-meter pool. This could mean substantial revenue for the Town. The difference in the twenty-five meter pool and fifty-meter pool is approximately 2.5 million dollars. Mayor Linkous commented that plans are to move forward with the construction of a fifty-meter pool while contributions are being sought.

May 1, 2007 Town Council Meeting Minutes: “Town manager Terpenny said he was recently contacted by USA Swimming regarding possible contracted use of the facility. USA Swimming is willing to work around Virginia Tech’s scheduling. Projected opening of the facility is Fall 2008.”

On several occasions it has been pointed out that the Mayor has established a committee to elicit donations from businesses and/or individuals for money for the Aquatic Center. At the most recent town Council meeting, the Mayor admitted that these efforts have not been very successful. So much for the idea of promoting the Aquatic Center. The Town has not been successful at eliciting support from local businesses and citizens. Thankfully, the builder went beyond State borders and was able to find some financing for some of the most expensive embellishments on the Aquatic Center.

The Town has a long history of NOT promoting itself. It has depended upon other groups and governments to do that sort of thing for them, then sat back and complained about the results.

This seems to be a pretty major undertaking on the part of Town officials. They have decided what Christiansburg needs and wants, and they will be deciding how to accomplish those goals. Hopefully, they will also take the time to figure out HOW TO PAY FOR THEM!!!!

The Roanoke Times article speaks of hiring for a new Town position, Public Relations. Well, what about the Planning Staff that was in the budget? Is that position now being dumped although you acknowledged another Planner was necessary due to the work load? And, what about the money in the budget for Recodifying the Code. Neither the position nor the rfp for either of these has been advertised. Are you figuring that people will just forget that you have acknowledged there are problems that need to be dealt with simply because you put the money in the budget?

I got news for ya’ll: TALK IS CHEAP! All the empty rhetoric in the world will not convince voters. Let’s see some action. Quit talking and start doing! Oh, and by the way, doing it in front of the public rather than hiding behind emails, phone calls, and secret meetings would be a pretty nice way to start showing that you are really willing to change.

After all in that same Roanoke Times article:

“The vision for the town’s future states that in 2020, the goal is for Christiansburg to be known as a retail, commerce and tourist destination, a town of WELL-INFORMED AND ENGAGED CITIZENS, a recreational, cultural and entertainment Mecca, a green community, a clean, healthy and safe place to live, a model for effective land use, a sound financial entity and an interconnected community.

The long-range plan also touts the town’s downtown; the new Montgomery County courthouse; the national retailers, restaurants and hotels in the community; the aquatics center; the mix of residential, commercial and recreational land uses; and walking trails, multiuse paths and mass transit.”

Hey! But it’s all okay. Per the article, the Town Manager and his key staff are going over each of the vision items to determine how to accomplish them. Who the heck needs citizens involved? We have our government taking care of us….just like they have for decades now….and people are so…so…very happy with the results of that!

In order to find that out, you have to do a lot of work because there is no clear picture presented by the Town of Christiansburg. Trying to figure all of this out from documents that are available is quite a task, but I do love a challenge.

I have been working on such a project for some time now. I have gotten copies of the Capital Improvement Plans, Budgets, “Pay the Bills”, Town Audits, Auditor of Public Accounts Records, and Minutes of Town Council and Planning Commission Meetings.

By the way, at the last Town Council meeting, the Town Manager mentioned that there had been no need to pay extra money for outdated software…..guess he forgot that he was the one who told Town Council that fact and that the meeting was recorded. Age does things to memory.

But, anyway, in doing all of the research I’ve done, I’ve found a few little tidbits to share. They are far too extensive to be put in one blog so look for more in the future as I am finally summarizing data.

One of the first things that happens with deciding how your tax money is spent is that the Department Heads submit requests based on their projected needs. The Town Manager goes through those and trims out what he determines to be the ‘fat’ in the requests. Then the condensed version is submitted to members of the Planning Commission. (Based upon this flowpath, the Planning Commission members are some of the first to know of every major expense — like Aquatic Centers.) The Planning Commission then casts an eye on the proposed expenses, maybe ask a few questions, and it is then passed on to the Town Council.

There are two primary categories of expenditures that they ‘look’ at: General and Enterprise. General expenses deal with those routine services that are not designed to generate revenue or pay for themselves. the Enterprise expenses deal with those areas where the Town expects to receive payment in exchange for the services (i.e., water, sewer, garbage). Both of these have subcatefories: (Note: this denotes money approved. It does not mean that the money was actually spent. It also does not include any extra money the Council may have authorized after the CIP has been adopted.) Finding out what exactly was spent and when is what takes a lot more work to figure out. This is just the starting point.)

The Total $ Authorized includes monies authorized for Equipment, Construction, and Other (usually engineering fees or loan payments).

Note 1: Prior to the 2007-08 Fiscal Year authorization of funds for the Aquatic Center were included in the Parks and Recreation Department subgroup. The Aquatic Center total including those would be $36,573,500.00 in authorized funds. (A difference of $8,742,000.00.) This would also mean that the actual Parks and Recreation total would be: $14,895,500.00.

Note 2: The designation of Planning as a category is somewhat interesting because of the clustering of expenses included there. Downtown construction is a large expense but there is nothing to indicate whether that is related to streets or buildings, it also includes funds used to support the: Free Clinic, Museum, Literacy Volunteers, Trans Dominion Express, NRV Cares, Boys & Girls Club, Smart Way Bus, Round the Mountain, and several other items that are not associated with the “Planning Process” that many people may think of when Planning Department is mentioned. For some reason, the Town of Christiansburg puts its donations into the Planning Department Budget. Most jurisdictions have a separate category for these types of donations.

As noted previously, these are authorized/recommended fundings, not actual expenditures. They do, however, give a good indication of what the priorities of Town government are and, if you go to the actual CIP documents on the website MyVAResources.com (They can be found by going to the Town Council page and scrolling down to the section listing previous years. Then, click on the Town Council link for a year (2001 does not have a CIP because of it was finished and approved before the start of that fiscal year.) I hope to have a separate webpage set up with just those documents available to make it easier to access in a few days. In the meantime, you have to search like I did:) Or, you can use the .pdf file I made of my worksheets to get a better idea of what I am talking about since it provides more details. You’ll find the link on the Special Studies page of the website. The link is titled “Capital improvement Plan Review”.

Now, back to digging through all the information to find out how much was added and how much was spent. I bet this system could be made a bit more transparent with only a little bit of effort.

Councilman Michael Barber made the introduction of the new Finance Officer at the last Town Council meeting. Ms. Tweedie arrived here from her former home in Michigan to be greeted warmly by elected officials, citizens, and the weather:) Mr. Barber took a few moments to discuss her very impressive credentials, then Ms. Tweedie spoke briefly on looking forward to her job here.

When Mr. Barber discussed Ms. Tweedie’s credentials, one particular item caught my attention. Ms. Tweedie is bringing something into Town that could open a whole new world of opportunities for Christiansburg. She has extensive business in the management of grants. This has been an area that has been a major deficit in Town until now.

There are a lot of opportunities available for funding for Town projects that are grant based. Without having someone who is very knowledgable in writing and then managing those grants, the chances of getting those grants is slim.

Mr. Barber and Ms. Carter, on the Finance Committee, did a wonderful job of developiing the criteria for the position and making sure that the person hired had the qualifications to open the door to a brighter future in Chrisitansburg. While having such an experienced and qualified person working with the grant processes certainly does not guarantee that funds will magically become available, it puts Christiansburg in a much more competitive position.

A world of opportunities are on the horizon. Now, THAT IS PROGRESSIVE!

Welcome, and good luck to you Ms. Tweedie. No pressure, but we are counting on you!

By the way people, be patient. Ms. Tweedie will need a little bit of time to become adjusted and to make some adjustments, but I have an idea great things are coming!!!

Mr. Barber and Ms. Carter — great job!!

I finally got a chance to do a bit more work on the ‘myvaresources.com’ citizen webpage (home to all things Christiansburg related to government).

Along with a bit of a face lift (still working), you can find a copy of the proposed Zoning Amendment related to FloodPlain Districts that will be part of the Public Hearing on August 4th Town Council Meeting. There is also a video of the August 3rd Planning Commission Meeting (a good thing to watch if you ever want to apply for one of those positions.

I will keep working on this site and adding to it when I can find time. Unfortunately, one of the side effects of doing this is that I now have 5 web pages to manage (with a possible 6th coming soon) and they all pay the same … nothing. I have to try to earn a living in between the web work. These pages are not perfect and I always welcome suggestions for change. Please remember that I have only been doing this for a year now and have had no training in how to build and maintain websites. I know of a lot of mistakes that I found and corrected. There are probably that many more that I have not noticed yet. But, heck, it’s still not a bad deal since it is done for free:)

Hope to see you at the Town Council Meeting!