Just doing normal things yesterday, the following activities were observed.
First thing in the morning, a Christiansburg Fire Department crew was out checking natural gas lines in a residential neighborhood. The smell was actually coming from a leak at a 5000 gallon propane tank at Southern States on Roanoke Street, but was strong enough to garner a call to check out a home that uses natural gas.
Thinking of the incident in Fries, VA, where one person was killed in a related explosion, one wonders how much damage could occur if something happened to this huge gas storage tank, sitting next to the county government center and dense residential neighborhoods. Sitting next to fertilizer and a multitude of other chemicals and combustibles also sold at this store which, years ago, sat in a more isolated location on what was then the edge of town. Next to the town's stored chemicals. Perhaps the county's Emergency Services department should be educating citizens when they live adjacent to properties that have potentially hazardous uses? Then unusual events might be noticed sooner, or property insurance policies reevaluated and evacuation plans put in place? May even be good information to share with the property assessors during the next reassessments.
Further up Roanoke Street, survey crews were working at the entrance to Gateway Plaza. One could presume this might be relative to an ongoing battle which was first made public when a lawsuit was filed by the property owners and then dropped after a purported easement was found to be nonexistent. The developer wanting additional access across this neighboring property subsequently filed yet another lawsuit. No indication of which side this survey crew was working for was apparent, yet it could explain one of the contributing factors for why Montgomery County needs larger court facilities.
Along South Main in Blacksburg, a television news crew was setting up cameras to film the front of the old middle school. As school board member David Dunkenberger had suggested, the building was still being identified as school property even though he'd stated "I don't want anyone to know we have anything to do with that building."
Three years after Blacksburg and county officials were found to be quietly negotiating the future of a property they didn't own, the school board defined steps needed to declare that property as surplus. To help keep the process moving forward now, the school board will change one word of its resolution.
More than six years after this one building stopped serving as classroom space for students, county citizens should be asking whether anyone is thinking about other school buildings that are or will be vacated and taking steps to prevent a repeat of this type of situation. Groundbreaking for the new combined Elliston-Shawsville Elementary is expected next week, and brings us to where there will be three vacant school properties in that district (old middle school, and both existing elementary school buildings). Citizens should also be asking the Board of Supervisors why they had a Prices Fork Elementary site in the village and within budget, and let that deal go down the tubes, too, further delaying the surplusing of this one coveted property. And when school administrative operations will be consolidated into the county government center (vacating more public buildings).
The common thread to all three of these items is there is an impact to tax rates, public services and quality of life or safety for county and town residents present. Underlying each of these issues is land use, which is determined by zoning laws and then interpreted by the officials we trust to elect or have hired to work on behalf of our community's long-term best interests.