This week, the Blacksburg Town Council approved the fiscal year 2019 town budget, adopting amendments to two ordinances that will increase the real estate tax rate by a penny and fees for water and solid waste and recycling services.
Despite opportunities in the months-long review and approval process, or perhaps because the process is so accessible, virtually no public comment was made.
“I had one email from a citizen, but otherwise no responses, positive or negative,” Mayor Leslie Hager-Smith said. “We have a very deliberate public process, which we draw out to make sure everyone has a chance to comment or ask questions,” she said.
The budget approval process has provided several opportunities for public comment during Tuesday town council meetings, and the entire 232-page recommended operating budget and its summary have been available online and at the library for public review.
The single-cent increase in real estate tax is slated to contribute to building a new police station and parking garage.
“And over the years, Blacksburg has been very cautious about raising taxes or rates. I think our citizens understand that their tax monies are well-managed,” Hager-Smith said. “Add to that the dire need we have for a new police station, and I think most people consider a penny increase as money well-spent.”
Hager-Smith said Blacksburg has received awards for financial reporting and distinguished budget presentation for decades.
Early in the evening, the mayor recognized May as National Bike Month and Bicycle Safety Month enumerating many economic, environmental and social benefits of bicycling, noting too that the town comprehensive plan, its bicycle master plan and climate action plan all support use of transportation policies that improve the use of bicycles, mentioning too the town’s participation in the region-wide bike-share program.
“Now therefore, be it resolved that I, Leslie Hager-Smith, mayor of the town of Blacksburg, do hereby recognize the month of May as national bike month,” the mayor said, thanking staff for the “energetic attention given to all the activities enumerated here.”
Shortly after recognizing the importance of biking in the town, Jen Million, representing the New River Valley Bicycling Association, read a statement from the group encouraging the council to “preserve and designate the alleyway that runs parallel to Main Street, between Main and Progress Streets, as an alternative transportation corridor.”
The alley runs from behind the 622 North Restaurant and Wine Bar (622 N Main St.) to the parking lot behind the Cellar Restaurant (302 N Main St.).
The destiny of the four-block alley is important to a number of stakeholders in the strategic development of the town.
Speaking for the NRVBA, which represents cyclists from Montgomery, Giles, Floyd and the City of Radford, Million listed a number of economic, social and environmental benefits that would accompany designating the small alleyway as an alternative transportation corridor.
The group envisioned not only preserving the alley as a thoroughfare, but extending it possibly to the Old Blacksburg Middle School development.
With proper planning, this alleyway could be turned into a thoroughfare used by pedestrians and cyclists to visit downtown Blacksburg without negatively affecting parking/access for businesses and residents, according to Million.
In public hearings, the council voted to approve the extension of the terms of the town’s agreement with the Montgomery Regional Solid Waste Authority.
Blacksburg, Christiansburg, Montgomery County and Virginia Tech are all members of the MRSWA.
The authority wants to extend the terms of the agreement between the authority and the regional localities and the university from the current 1995-2025 contract to 2040, according to Town Manager Marc Verniel.
All the localities are all passing agreements and all the localities are holding public hearings according to Verniel.
Blacksburg resident Doug White stood to make a public comment. Explaining that MRSWA is a transit facility, he stated that MRSWA was not consistently using manifest numbers correctly and did not appear to track waste properly.
“When we’re trying to backtrack and understand where waste systems go, it’s very important that everybody that touches and handles the waste stream validates that. I, as a contractor, if I had touched something hazardous I have to create a cradle-to-grave document,” he said.
White asked the town to check the authority’s permit numbers to assure that when the authority is transferring waste that it uses the proper tracking number.
The council unanimously approved the extension.
