Entry 617 of 1039
By Think! Christiansburg On September 20, 2009 at 9:52 PM

Beyond learning the "real" opening date for the aquatic center, Council also recognized the Rec Department's  boys Ozone Baseballl team.  Coaches and team members were each provided with a resolution of appreciation signed by the Mayor.

Then a pitch for higher fees were proposed for the town's Sunset Cemetery, and presented to council for consideration by Councilman Mike Barber. Plots were recommended to increase from $700 to $800, with grave opening and closure fees going from $550 to $700 on weekdays and from $650 to $900 for weekends. All fees would have to be prepaid before burials would be allowed. Council is expected to vote on these new fees at a later meeting.

This formerly private corporation that ran the cemetery was turned over to the town, due to repeated requests made by that aging and shrinking board.  Their operational approach complied with regulations for covering maintenance costs in perpetuity -- but it is starting to sound as if the town cannot replicate that business model and needs to generate more revenue from grieving families. 

Listening to dialog about getting all payments before burial -- knowing many families rely on an insurance policy to cover these costs (and that takes time to process) -- and what financial risks this asks a funeral home to assume, suddenly it sounded like a Monty Python movie mixed with the town's Annual Clean Up. 

Questions about changes to the town's zoning ordinances relative to provisions for Floodplains Districts had some questions resolved, and were approved by unanimous vote. Councilman Brad Stipes indicated that with further research, he was comfortable the town's revised ordinance would provide more than federally mandated minimums for FEMA.  This is becoming a taxing concern in other localities, too, as seen in this newspaper article about stormwater run off in Roanoke. 

A Public Hearing was scheduled for Oct. 6 relative to rezoning property along Buffalo Drive from Agricultural to R3-Multifamily.. This property was recently included in the town's corporate limits via a friendly boundary line adjustment, with the county and is adjacent to the new Christiansburg Middle School.  Impacts to public school student enrollments are not being discussed. 

Citizens were invited to attend a "Town Hall" meeting conducted by News Channel 10 WSLS anchors Jay Warren and Karen McNew on Tuesday, September 22 at 7 pm in the municipal building. This is part of that station's series on communities in the New River Valley. The Mayor has been recruiting folks to come and say kind things about Christiansburg, so come on down.  

Another new item at this meeting was the presence of a goodly number of department heads.  Word is the Town Manager was opposed to this -- not relative to controlling access or information, rather that these salaried employees wouldn't receive extra pay for their presence beyond normal working hours (normal working hours is another sore point for some town residents).

Citizens should be seeing more about council's vision for the future of the town in a report entitled "Vision 2020" which was developed during a recent retreat. That information is expected to be posted on the town's website.

The next regular meeting of the Christiansburg Town Council is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 6 at 7:30 pm. Council's second meeting in October was previously canceled due to a Virginia Municipal League conference in Roanoke.