Oversight Committee

Monday night the Scottsville Town Council appointed George Goodwin to the Town’s “new” Enhancement Oversight Committee; he replaces Jim Brown. Although the Town established this committee at the beginning of the Streetscape Project, the universal observation is that it was a rubber stamp for whatever was placed before the committee and the minutes of its few meetings reflects that little was discussed.

Reports about the newly defined committee first meeting is in sharp contrast to its early incarnation. Barry Grove was elected chairman of the group having been nominated by the outspoken Sallie Massie over a suggestion that the Mayor chair the meetings. I have spoken individually with several committee members who all are pledging that the errors made during past projects will not be repeated for future projects and true oversight will be exercised with attention to detail.

I applaud this group for stepping up to the plate to insure that future projects will live up to their promise.

Flag Lowering

The flags flying from Town Hall have been lowered for an in-determinant time. It seems that the deterioration of the wooden structure to which the flag mount was attached was beginning to crumble due to rot. While the Town has been focusing efforts on enhancing the street scape and on the condition of buildings owned privately in the Historic District, they have let their very own building deteriorate.

There has been at least one repair job on the columns and railings above the entrance to Town Hall since it was build a decade or so ago. Ironically, the Town has recently been contemplating the construction of yet another roofed entrance at the back side of Town Hall without given any consideration of the condition to the front. Rumors have it, that design work for this new construction is being done by the same architect who may also be providing design work for the Farmer’s Market.

Although, the rotting condition of the railings and columns are very visible, there is no visible line item in the Town’s budget to fix anything. In fact it was a member of the general public who pointed out the problem to the Town.

Deadline Update

As Gomer Pyle would say, “surprise, suprise, suprise!”

At tonight’s meeting of the governing body of the Town of Scottsville, Council Member Jim Hogan announced that there is a new deadline for the removal of overhead utilities and the installation of the new street lights. The new date has been placed at the end of February, an additional two weeks beyond what the Mayor was quoted as saying only six days ago in the Daily Progress. It seems these deadlines refer only refer to the illumination of the new lights. No deadlines have been given for additional sidewalk patches and repairs  once the utility poles have been taken down.

Part of the latest delay is due in part to Embarq’s delays. It seems that some conduit pipes that were installed as part of a cost overrun project, were rejected by the the telephone giant. It seems that no one consulted with the phone company as to how these conduits should have been installed. Because of this “screw-up” by the design firm of Volkert & Associates, Valley Street had to once again be dug up. This design flaw was supposedly inspected at a cost of $70 an hour to the Town and is part of a $20,000 cost overrun bill to the Town.

“Shazam!”

Sorry Folks

I am sorry for the long delay in making another post. I had this great idea of sharing with you a listing of past Scottsville businesses in a story about the frequent turnover in businesses and their ownership in our small town. I planned on creating a wiki page so that everyone could contribute information and hopefully fill in the blanks. As with many of my projects, I underestimated the scope of my simple list. I have been consulting with three other learned people in Scottsville and we have each concluded that our memories are not what they once were. In our defense, I should state the number of businesses has been more numerous that even I recall even though I have witnessed them coming and going in Scottsville since the late seventies.

Another factor in my delay in making a post is an issue that I have had to address with the Scottsville Town Council. Parking spaces are at a premium in downtown Scottsville and instead of creating more parking, the Public Safety Committee, under the guidance of the Mayor, is seeking to eliminate parking which will adversely effect one of my rental properties. I promise to speak more on this issue later.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year friends and visitors. My resolution for 2008 is to provide insight and truth about the happenings in Scottsville.

Too often the populace, friends and businesses of Scottsville get half truths or a dizzying spin on the truth. Time and again some members of the governing body of the Town of Scottsville tell the public that they have “had very positive feedback from key members of the community” or they have “heard from members of the community” when pushing their agenda. Never in all my years living here have I heard actual names. Who are the key members of the community I wonder? Am I not a key member? Are not you a key member? We only have 550 or so members in the actual Town community and I would have thought with such a small number each and every one of these 550 people should be thought of as “key members”.

What section of the local populace do these “key members” represent? No one has ever polled my opinion in an official capacity? Have you ever been polled? I do not know everyone in Town, but I know a fairshare and none have ever been asked their opinion. However, many have offered it and yet their comments never gain the accreditation that the “key members” receive.

I hope that through this forum some of you may become enlightened about the truth in this Town. I also hope that some of you may contribute to this effort. As I write this I can already hear the naysayers condemning my efforts as they have done for years. They are the same people who want all the world to think this is some sort of Utopia. I could even name these individuals, but I will defer in the event that they will see the truth for themselves.

The truth shall set us free.