At town council's meeting, one begins to see why perhaps general rules for speaking during Public Hearings or Citizens Hearings have been recently established. Any heightened feelings, however, seem to fall with Town Council and administration more than from audience members.
At the Dec. 16 council meeting, a fourth Public Hearing was added for Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009, relative to the lease agreement between the town and Virginia Tech, on use of the future aquatic center.
Council member Ann Carter wanted assurance this agreement spelled out usage and payments, stating she'd like to see this document before the Public Hearing. The Town Manager indicated electronic copies of what is perceived to be the final agreement between the town and VT would be emailed to council members to review before this Public Hearing, which, if it wishes to do so, could instruct the Town Manager to execute the agreement that evening.
Other Public Hearings previously scheduled for the first council meeting in 2009 include recycling, a request by Montgomery County relative to Halmont Homes property on Reading Road for consolidation of the county's General Services Administration functions (moving from the mid-county facilities), and new town ordinance relative to "downtown parking structures" which again ties back to county plans.
At last night's meeting a Public Hearing relative to a friendly boundary line adjustment between the county and town for property located along Mud Pike, Harkrader and Buffalo Drive (adjacent to the new Christiansburg Middle School and Harkrader Sports complex), was held. The Town Manager repeatedly reassured council that any related costs for providing future town services would be covered by new real estate taxes generated by the residential development. He reminded council that some portion of state sales taxes were allocated back to the town based on population, without indicating this was tied to school enrollment numbers and currently represents about $1.5 million of the town's $34 million budget. There were questions about any impacts to schools in Christiansburg, and the developer stated the middle school's former principal was a supervisor who had worked on the project throughout the rezoning and boundary adjustment process. There were questions about the developer's proffers granted to the county, and these items were reported to be fully addressed in a related agreement between the county, town and developer and therefore council could expect these would be applied after annexation even though zoning definitions of the county and town are very different. (When approving the subdivision plat during a prior meeting for the portion of the development already located within town borders, council had sought assurance that phase was single family residential only.) The county's proffers are in the boundary adjustment agreement, and both documents are to be provided to council for comparison.
At the close of the meeting, council member Henry Showalter stated he understood the VT agreement would now be on the next agenda, detailing lease payment schedules and VT swim and dive team usage, and asked when the aquatic center business plan itself would be available. The Town Manager indicated a draft of this document was complete except for aquatic center job descriptions, noting the new director was working on these with the town's Human Resource manager. He stated council's feedback on fee structures and hours of operations would be needed, as council would "take the heat" for what citizens expected for these two items. Showalter again asked when this draft would be provided.
The Town Manager said he wasn't sure, maybe by March 1. Council member Mike Barber suggested a target date of Feb. 15, 2009 being given the highest priority by the aquatic director, who, the Town Manager reported, "hadn't been sitting on her thumbs." The Mayor asked what would be a reasonable date for council to receive this draft document and the manager again indicated March 1. Council member Ernie Wade said he wanted it before council begins focusing on next year's budget, and well before the facility opened. "I want to see what it is projected to cost and how it is expected to be paid for," he said. "That information can be provided without waiting for job descriptions. I've asked for this information for a long time, and haven't seen anything."
The Mayor summed up the conversation by saying it was not council's job to micro-manage operational functions of the town.
If town council wanted to micro-manage town administration, they would be setting the number of cases of copy paper and paper clips the town could purchase annually -- and then asking for regular reports of how much has been used so far, each month.
As noted previously, council members have been pressing for cost numbers for this facility, including fee projections, for more than three (3) years. Given a revised targeted opening date of "first quarter 2009" -- and that VT, a triathalon group and several swim clubs are already queueing up for this opening -- it seems council could be given some pertinent information without it being labeled as micro-managing.
Council member Mike Barber asked about the revisited moped regulations which are to go into effect January 1, and the Town Manager said he hadn't heard back from the town's attorney who was to do a final review of the ordinance (a different legal partner was at last night's meeting). Since the next council meeting will not be held until after Jan. 1, Mr. Barber said it appears the effective date may need to be pushed back, but received no response from the town manager or attorney.
January 6th is the twelfth day of Christmas -- Epiphany. Mark your calendars and plan to attend this meeting, as there may be several epiphanies heard. And just before we enter the season for federal, state, county and town budget planning.