Showing posts with label Planning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Planning. Show all posts

Friday, February 21, 2014

Notes on Gloucester County Board of Supervisors second February meeting

Open Letter to the Citizens of Gloucester County Virginia


The Virginia Constitution was written for us to limit the government intrusion into our lives.  Have you ever read the Constitution of the United States? How about the Constitution of Virginia? How about the County Code?

"The Land of the Life Worth Living" for everyone in the county.

I was watching your second February meeting good questions.  Keep asking them.  We do not need to be expanding the county government and land holdings (NO NEW LAND.  NO NEW TAXES.  Being in DEBT $96 Million is enough).  You had good discussions throughout the meeting.  It makes the meetings longer but you are able to make informed decisions.  Mr. Orth you did a good job when the exchange got a little unprofessional in calling a 5 minute break. 

I also have to say that is the first time I have heard Mr. Wilmot look out for the county and not a special interest; please keep it up.

Again  I have a request; please take the kool aid away from Mr. Hutson if he keeps making irresponsible comments he will have a difficult time when he comes up for re-election.  This is not the board you were on last year.  If Mr Hutson were any of the other board members I would say pretend it is your money you are spending but we know the sound financial decisions you have made in the past.

Mr. Hutson I will say there was one positive you brought to the meeting about sewer connections.  It cost $50,000 when the system went in to cross Rt 17 that is a non starter for small businesses to connect to the system.  Thanks for looking out for the people of Gloucester and not just the few.

Bring back the rule of legal laws and responsible budgets and make this "The Land of the Life Worth Living" for everyone in the county.

I am not a lawyer and cannot give legal advice.  Our founding fathers used common sense and Christian scripture when establishing our founding documents. 

“For the Common Good. “

Sincerely,
Alexander James Jay


"Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics. There must be a positive passion for the public good, the public interest, honor, power and glory, established in the minds of the people, or there can be no republican government, nor any real liberty: and this public passion must be superior to all private passions." --John Adams, letter to Mercy Warren, 1776



Turn the volume up on the video itself and also on your speakers to hear everything properly.  We have spent a good amount of time watching the above video and are very impressed overall with the new board and how everything was handled.  Tough questions were in fact asked and they needed to be.  Tough decisions were put on hold for good reasons.  Nothing was put through that just got a free pass just because someone asked for it.  This was very impressive.  Even Ted Wilmot did a decent job here for a change.  There are a lot of issues with streaming this video.  It freezes about every 20 minuets at best.   We have had it freeze up after 5 minutes and it always goes back to the beginning once it freezes up.

  Hopefully the county can do something to improve these issues or we will just download them and re upload them unto YouTube for better streaming.

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Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Gloucester, VA Board of Supervisor's February 18th, 2014 Meeting Agenda Information



Gloucester, VA Board of Supervisors Meeting feb 4th, 2014 from Chuck Thompson

Here is the meeting agenda information for the Board of Supervisor's meeting for this Tuesday evening, February 18th, 2014.  This is the financial overviews part of the agenda.

Gloucester Court House Village Sub-Area Plan: 
The Board was approached by the Main Street Preservation Trust (MSPT) about additional planning for the Court House area. A Plan was developed to be an element of the County’s Comprehensive Plan and to provide the policy framework for future land use and development in the area, including land use regulations and infrastructure decisions. Staff worked closely with MSPT staff and the consultant team hired by MSPT to prepare the plan based on guidance from a County Administrator appointed Steering Committee and the input from the public through 2 public outreach meetings, stakeholder interviews, and other outreach efforts. A public hearing on the Plan was held by the Planning Commission in January who then forwarded a recommendation of adoption to the Board of Supervisors. The Board adopted the Plan as an amendment to the Comprehensive Plan on February 5, 2013. 

  Now can someone please explain the legality of the Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust in all of this?  The secret shadow government concern?  The organization that wrote off over 1.7 million dollars on just over 5 million in assets without any visible justification for doing so that we could find and reported on this site?  An organization that we will soon be asking, where is the missing money?  (Coming soon).  An organization that seems to have a great number of questions about their own legality?  Exactly how is this being allowed?


E. Decision on Memorandum of Agreement for Regional Sewer Wet Weather Management Plan - Martin M. Schlesinger - Director of Public Utilities

Just say no. No thanks no how.


H. Discussion on mandatory sewer connection per County ordinance - Chris Hutson - Member, Board of Supervisors

We the people do not want this. Throw it out. Throw it out, Throw it out. Why are you going to force people to pay for something they will not use. How is this helping anyone? It is theft. Are you going to pay for not using goods and services from all local businesses? If not, then don't expect us to pay for something we do not want or will use. WE DO NOT WANT THIS. Are you getting the message. WE DO NOT WANT THIS. Let Chris Hutson pay for all the hook ups if he wants this. Hey Chris, how deep are your own pockets. (Not very deep from what we have heard. Multiple bankruptcies in that past?)


From: Meyer, John Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 9:17 AM 
To: Garton, Brenda; Board Of Supervisors 
 Cc: Warren, Darrell William 
 Subject: Agenda item for next week JJ, Brenda,

 Would like to add an item to next week's agenda. The Board should consider having the Sheriff's Department budget briefed and voted on as separate from the Administrator's budget. While having the Administrator consolidate the budgets for the Administration staff and the Sheriff saves time for the Board, and may require less effort on the part of the Sheriff, it creates an inherent conflict of interest on the part of the Administrator. To include the Administrator in the approval chain for the Sheriff Department's budget gives the Administrator fiduciary control over an organization for which she has no responsibility for or authority over. Since the Administrator does have responsibility for the other County offices, the Administrator is often forced to make choices between funding for functions that she is accountable for, and Sheriff Department functions for which the Administrator has no accountability. 

 I would suggest that the County might be better served by having the Sheriff develop and advocate for his own budget to the BOS. It would then be the responsibility of the BOS to make the appropriate tradeoffs between the Administration and Sheriff's budgets. Obviously, the other Constitutional Officers could stake a similar claim - and if they choose to have their budgets considered separately from the Administrator's, they should probably be allowed to do so. While this appears to me to be structurally and functionally "cleaner", it is also apparent that this would add an additional layer of complexity to the Board's already involved budget approval process. I think this warrants discussion at next week's BOS meeting and a decision two weeks hence.


Our Notes:  Well Done Mr Meyer.  We hope this goes through.  

D.Decision on proposed purchase of property for New Utility Facility - Martin M. Schlesinger - Director of Public Utilities

We already have the land on route 17 known as the old Page Middle school.  The county needs to spend money like drunken sailors why?  Again, Just Say No.  Several of you were just voted in because you ran on tickets of cleaning up the insanity of county spending.  Please show us that you really meant that.

Again, Mr Bazzani, please remember to turn on your microphone before you speak.  We can not hear you otherwise.  Thank you in advance.
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Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Gloucester, VA - What The Main Street Preservation Trust Wants To Waste Your Money On

We just looked over the PDF on the Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust site.  You need to see what they want to waste your money on.  It's not all bad, but it's a lot of garbage in many of the suggestions.  We did some brainstorming ourselves to see is we could come up with a plan that makes sense for Gloucester Businesses.  Yes we are aware that our recent posts have not been flattering to the business district.  We are not picking on the businesses though.  We are picking on the areas that are anti business to the local business owners.

 http://mspt.org/documents/courthouse/6-Design%20Recommendations.pdf
This is the link to a slow loading PDF file for recommendations to the Gloucester Main Street Village.  Most of the plans are horrible.

  What do we propose that we think would be better?  Glad you asked.

Get rid of all on street parking along the Gloucester Main Street Business District.  Gloucester County would need to expand and open a viable parking lot along or around the historic circle at about where the county offices are presently located. That would be parking area 2.  Parking area 1 would be at the Gloucester Main Street Center.  Widen the sidewalks along the business district to actual usable walkways.  If the Gloucester Main Street Preservation Trust and the Gloucester Main Street Association are really serious about promoting business and businesses in the area, let them invest in trolleybuses to move people around the business district at regular intervals free of charge and not at taxpayer expense.

   As long as businesses are open, the trolleybuses are running.  This is a simple plan that would expand business in the area.  Who would not want to shop in an area that is like a vacation destination?  You could actually have businesses lined up waiting to come into the area if you build something along these lines.  It works very well across the river in Yorktown.  But you have to believe that both Gloucester County government along with the Gloucester County Triad have the best interests of businesses in mind or if they are just paying lip service to the idea.

Free MP3 download.  Introversia - "Giorni" is the song for this post.  Grunge tune with a Celtic Bagpipes mixin.  Get it now.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5NJpRCvjyV8RDdGcE1leXd2QjA/edit?usp=sharing

www.cashunclaimed.com


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