Monday, November 23rd is a special day in Montgomery County.
The Board of Supervisors has an interesting agenda, plus -- following a joint meeting with other local governments and our elected state officials, the focus will be shifting to a reassessment year, and setting the fiscal year 2010-2011 real property tax rate in a continuing cycle of significantly lower tax revenues for both state and county coffers. This means it is time to really look at belt-tightening efforts, instead of proceeding with extra spending on items that weren't in the last budget and using "rainy day" funds that are kind of buried in the county budget anyway. Both Blacksburg and the supervisors have established and published their legislative priorities and budget preparation calendars -- now only citizens of Christiansburg's need to wait to learn more about the direction our town leaders will take. Citizens can attend this meeting, beginning at 7:15 at the County Government Center.
The MCPS board will be hosting a "question and answer" meet-and-greet for their top three candidates for the superintendent's position at the same time the supervisors are meeting -- this means interested citizens will have to pick and choose which meeting to attend (and that traditional media still has more than one reporter covering these beats). Citizens can attend this meeting at CMS beginning at 7 pm; and remember, even if you have no students attending our public schools -- this decision affects all residents.
Also on Monday, the expanded public transportation provided by Blacksburg Transit will launch its new Christiansburg service, with lots of special events and incentives to "discover" these new routes. Note that the service changes include a means for residents to choose supporting either Christiansburg or Blacksburg retailers -- but that's okay. It's a wash since the state sales taxes collected by merchants come back to the county, with about 50% split three ways between the county and towns budgets.
Not sure if you have the time to engage and be involved? Keep in mind that the best way to predict the future is to help create it.