The very first blog on Think, Christiansburg! was posted September 28, 2007 and summarized a Virginia Main Street "essentials seminar." This program is sponsored through the Virginia Department of Housing & Community Development and was hosted in neighboring Radford. Town leaders had been made aware of the event, but with over 70 other communities present -- Christiansburg government was absent.
On July 30th, elected leaders were notified of another meeting to be held August 21 in Radford which would provide networking and resources specific to economic development in downtown areas. The mission of the Virginia Downtown Development Association is to bring attention of the significance of downtowns to Virginia's economic vitality, and to enhance the effectiveness of organizations, individuals, and communities to foster vibrant economic development. Again -- Christiansburg government was absent while over 40 other communities were present.
Other meetings have been held between these two dates, focusing on historic preservation and sustainable development as a means of economic growth. While Christiansburg is automatically entitled to Community Development Block Grants, it has no projects queued up in the regional HOMES Consortium or other plans for eligible uses of these funds. Typically, one or two town staff members might be present at a few of these other meetings, whereas regional localities are very well represented by elected officials and staff members.
The T's have never seen a staff briefing made to Town Council about any of these initiatives, organizations, options or available resources.
If there are so many organizations and best practice examples out there and available, why isn't Town Council and administration fully engaged and aggressively tapping these resources, cultivating strategic results-based economic plans for Christiansburg?