http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/encounter-with-a-homeless-man-touches-a-virginia-starbucks-manager/2012/06/18/gJQAxUDVlV_story.html
Local bloggers are coming to the rescue of local politics again this year in the form of the Bloggers Forum 09. Yours truly is one of several panel members participating in this event to showcase those running for Stafford and Spotsylvania VA superrvisor positions. For more info, click the banner to the right of the website, or go directly to http://www.bloggersforum09.com
As the date approaches, expect to see more info about who the panel is, what questions might be asked, and a final forum format.
save the date: Sep30th at Mountain View HS in Stafford.
Today marks a milestone of sorts. Actually it’s more of a surprise. I was checking some stats and FBurgNews.com has logged more than 4000 posts from local Fredericksburg, VA area bloggers. Way to go team!
As we grow together, I’m working on changes to the website to group blogs. You’ll all still end up in the site feed, but visitors to the website will be able to drill down to Real Estate or Photo blogs. Stay tuned!
For those of you that vote in Fredericksburg VA, here’s who you can thank for higher real estate taxes.
Councilwoman Greenlaw made the final motion to raise the rate to $0.705 of every $100. That’s almost 26% percent. It was seconded by Vice-Mayor Devine.
Councilman Kelly put forward an alternative $.68 of every $100. It was seconded by Councilman Ellis. The caveat is that the meals tax would have to go up a penny. Solley changed his mind from the first vote and supports the meals tax. This lessens the commercial real estate tax, and someone moves that to the restaurant business. However, in my case it also frees up significant money to actually go out and eat.
Just for reference – 1 penny on real estate = $340k
Meals tax increase 1% = 800k, offset somewhat by having to delay implementation August (100k). Yet another issue with council waiting until the last minute to approve budget.
Mr Kelly mentioned cuts to consider to make up the 100k – continuation of hiring freeze, limiting city manager salary (not filled at the moment).
But in the end, Solley, Greenlaw think this is a bare bones budget. So I ask it in public, why does the city maintain TWO parking decal authorities? Why do we continue to fund a money loosing VDOT express? What was the priority for outside agencies when you blanketly levy a 15% cut? Greenlaw justified this somewhat by saying that by ‘making the list’ they are priority – OK, I’ll accept that. What do we save by going to 1 day trash? What did the extra $300k get in the schools?
Devine gave a speech about all the calls she gets about people wanting extra things in the city. That’s fine, good managers have to know how to say NO. Yet in the end the city only took a 5.2% hit. FIVE-POINT-TWO PERCENT, with no clear vision about where we’re headed. Devine ‘we’re wringing our hands’.
Kelly responded with ‘we cannot be a burden on those people that depend on us’ and ‘we’re beginning to hurt people we serve’. Mr. Kelly finally got my point, some savings might be only a few dollars, but all that funding adds up!!!
In the end, it was tabled, but I BEG you to think about who is running your city and how they are voting. It does matter. Renters residential or commercial, consider that every dollar your landlord has to pay in taxes is going to come out of your pocket in higher rents.
ps, they also are considering a 14% increase in the car tax, on top of water, sewer and utility taxes approved last month.
First, a new addition. http://roadsdivergedwood.blogspot.com/ is a photographic view of Fredericksburg, with a bit of history about those places appearing in the shots.
Death of a blog, that’s what happens when things start getting out of hand when ‘friends’ take posts in a direction not intended. Of course I’m talking about the Fred Vegas Chronicles. Fredericksburg’s very own rumor blog has been taken down, probably to the delite of a few individuals. Maybe one day it will be reincarnated, but for now it’s offline.
Now get the area’s hottest news delivered direct to your Amazon Kindle! FburgNews.com tries to bring together a diverse set of blogging content, and it is now available in more formats than ever.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0029U2X8Q
Hopefully they will drop the price to make getting the local inside story more affordable.
Today we’ve added two interesting new blogs to fburgnews.com. From the guy that seems to know a lot about the underground in Fredericksburg, we have Fred Vegas Chronicles (http://Fred Vegaschronicles.blogspot.com/) and from regular storm chaser Storms R Us, we’re adding his local Fredericksburg weather blog (http://fburg-weather.blogspot.com/). Enjoy reading posts from these two exciting blogs.
Between April 3 and July 1, the Fredericksburg Arts Commission
(Arts Commission) will inventory the area’s cultural assets by conducting on-line surveys of artists, arts organizations, businesses, and patrons of the arts. The surveys are designed to compile a profile of the arts community and document specific needs.
The Arts Commission intends to use the information gathered from the surveys to create a Cultural Plan to improve arts support throughout Fredericksburg area and to create an online directory of all things arts-related in Fredericksburg.
The surveys are located at:
www.fredericksburgvaarts.org
To get the word out, the Arts Commission will distribute flyers with information on how to find and complete the surveys. If you are interested in distributing flyers at your establishment, please send an e-mail to the address listed below.
Questions/Comments
E-mail survey@fredericksburgvaarts.org
Please forward this e-mail to all friends, members, and/or organizations to ensure wide range participation.
Outdoor music has always been a favorite of mine. The summer of 2009 looks to be a breakout year for the Fredericksburg area with big names such as Toad the Wet Sprocket (and opening band Eddie From Ohio), Little Feat, even Zoso – a Led Zeppelin tribute band. The venue will be back in the celebrate va south area behind Central Park.
So far the schedule only runs through July, with a few TBAs. But it’s a start. Tickets range from $10 to $30. No word yet on how much drinks or food are going to be, but I do see it’s sponsored by Papa Johns, so be sure there will be pizza there for the family. Capital Ale House is also a sponsor, so it should be interesting to see what the adult beverage selection will be.
Got a great business idea? Maybe been the unfortunate target of a layoff? Working independently and want to expand? There are a couple of new activities going on here in the Fredericksburg area that might be a help. Business Playce is now offering a co-work environment, and SCORE is trying to get executive volunteers local. See full article at InTheBurg.
