Ever get an email from a sender you didn't know, whose own email address didn't say who they were? And the sender didn't identify themselves in the body of the letter, yet they were making assertions and asking you to forward their message to your contacts?
As one person circulating this email asked, "
Who is this clown, how did they get MY email address and why are they sending it to a bunch of people I don't even know?"Such an email is currently floating out there on the internet, originating from someone using Kipps325@aol:
"There is false information and untrue statements being sent on the internet about Town Council. The following statements are CORRECT. The Mayor is FOR sidewalks. He referred the need for a sidewalk ordinence (sic) to the C'burg Planning Commission to study and to make a recommendation to Council. The two bodies will meet March 23 to review info relative to sidewalks. FACT: No money has been lost due to not applying for grants. The Mayor does not apply for grants. That action is taken by Town Council. The Downtown Renovation project is being done with grant money as is the extension of the Huckleberry Trail. Some Federal grant money is available for low income housing. A tour of Christiansburg revealed that the town has adequate low income housing available for a town our size. Accepting large grants means having to hire a grant or project manager and create a department to oversee how funds are spent and to manage the project. Consideration will be given to applying for this kind of grant if our needs change. These are the TRUE facts."
Yep, sure appears there is indeed "false information and untrue statements being sent on the internet." This email also gives the appearance of asserting some facts without providing any data to back them up, or partial pieces of information about broader issues.
At the
Feb. 2 Town Council meeting, three of the five voting members present signaled an interest in
requiring sidewalks in new residential developments, and an expectation that such plans should come closer to providing 10% usable green space. A review of
public meeting minutes show this is not a new topic, and an
editorial restated sidewalks consistently are the most frequently requested service or public asset.
So is the sender of that email saying the minutes or editorial are false? At the most recent Town Council meeting, the Planning Commission chair came back to Council seeking clarification for the task they were given. A tentative joint meeting date of Thursday,
March 25 was discussed; yet nothing currently appears as scheduled for either March 23 or March 25 on the town's web site.
Community Development Block Grant monies have been available since the last U.S. Census, due to Christiansburg's growth. These are known as "entitlement" funds, and all it takes to access them is an application backed by a related action plan. Councilmen Stipes and Vanhoozier (serving as Council's Street Committee), pushed for Council to obtain this "free money" last year. Due to a technicality (the action plan hadn't been updated), those funds were again forfeited.
It is true grant money, with Montgomery County serving as the fiscal agent, is being sought to extend the Huckleberry Trail from the mall. This is also being supplemented with donations and fund raising by the "
Friends of the Huckleberry" and in-kind contributions from the town (in the form of employees doing some work and using town equipment). The town's Comprehensive Plan, and the
future trail map, have long documented this vision. This goal is generally known within the community, to the extent one person bequeathed a significant amount of money to support this initiative (the
Last Will and Testament is a matter of public record at the county courthouse).
Do most citizens know existing ordinances require business developments to either install a sidewalk or give the town an amount equal to what that would have cost? These funds are to be held in an escrow account and used for maintenance or pooled with other funding sources to expand and connect existing sidewalks or trails.
The Downtown Renovation project was conceptualized in 1998, encompassing Depot/Franklin, Depot/Radford, College/Hickok/Dunkley/Graham, East/West Main, Roanoke/First streets. Since then, total grant amounts available have steadily gotten smaller, while costs have shot up and the number of applicants increased. Like the concept for a community pool,
the project has now extended over a decade and completion dates remain undetermined.
So the sender of that email is a master of the obvious, restating that grant administration is beyond the scope of the Mayor's responsibilities and is a staff function. If a citizen wanted to know about Federal grant money available and inventory of low income housing in Christiansburg, where's the source data available? Certainly "
404: Not Found" on the town's website.
When was this tour conducted? How many units, in what condition, at what rental rates? Also dig a bit to find out why the
NRV PDC Homes Consortium doesn't include any Christiansburg projects, with those entitlement funds going to other jurisdictions -- somewhere, maybe readers will be able to
discern the metric which defines the difference between "low income" and "affordable" housing.
The statement that "
accepting large grants means having to hire a grant or project manager and create a department" is debatable. Many organizations, such as the public school system, do have dedicated personnel -- and they have a very successful track record in identifying and being awarded grants. Other small organizations and many local governments assign these administrative tasks to finance, purchasing or public works personnel as a routine and fairly incidental duty. It could be argued that hiring an administrator is an allowable expense for many grants, and so should have been given a higher priority than creating a new
Public Information Office (which was NOT included in the 2009-2010 budget).
These, too, are facts (true statements). Please forward this information to your friends, and encourage them to do a little research instead of taking any information at face value, without question. As we learn in grade school, cite your sources and sign your work.