When Christiansburg's Town Council met last night, they discussed payment of the bills as they typically do once each month.
This includes routine items which have already been paid, and authorization to release payments for other expenses. Frequently, over the last year, council members have begun to ask questions about this or that payment. Even more recently, copies of these payments have been made available to members of the public who are present.
So in one way council is affirming payments which have been made, while approving others still to be sent out. Last night's list should have been the first expenditures of the new fiscal year, which began July 1.
One item which was questioned was a payment to the Town of Blacksburg in the amount of $106,000. The Town Manager explained this was for the annual special hazardous waste clean up done jointly with the county and Blacksburg with all three localities sharing the costs. This helps keep hazardous materials out of the public landfill and so manage risk on future closure costs relative to monitoring former dumps.
One council member asked if this was the entire amount for everything, and was told it represented only Christiansburg's portion. No council members looked happy about that, with one wondering aloud if they were accepting nuclear waste.
The Assistant Town Manager jumped in and said he thought the amount was incorrect, that it should be approximately $5000 for Christiansburg's portion of the annual clean up event. The Town Manager stated he'd clarify this first thing in the morning.
So a motion to approve "payment of the bills" subject to this clarification was was made, seconded and granted by unanimous vote.
This seemed odd as one expects you either know what has been paid by contract or routine, and what's a special, unique or annual invoice. It seemed odd no staff member was present or files accessible to answer council's question right then.
The fiscal year budget did include a $106,000 payment to Blacksburg -- for public transit, but council isn't done discussing that so it's presumed those funds haven't been released yet (even though Blacksburg is proceeding with preparations to expand this service in Christiansburg).