Police department

Why is there a petition going around to asking if we need to keep the police department?
Is the council going to disband it?

It would be stupid and irresponsible to remove our local police protection. It takes the county a long time to get down here and with the cuts that they are facing they aren't going to have the man-power.

Is this an employee issue, like last time, or is it really a budget problem?

Christmas season starting!

The parade was nice tonight, first time since I've been here that it hasn't either rained or been threatening to rain. The girls were excited and we had to follow them down to the community building and then back up the street. Of course the candy being thrown was making it harder to keep track of them. I'm not sure if any of the photos that I took will come out, but if they do I'll post them later.


Drove through town the other day and saw the remains of the old mill. So sad that it's gone. I never went in there, but it was a neat reminder of the history of the town. I hope it can be rebuilt.

Summer is over

Looks like summer has already headed south. It's very cold in the mornings and the days are getting shorter fast. Doesn't look like much has changed since we got a new town manager. I don't expect miracles, but I did expect to see some work done on the derelict buildings owned by council members, and it's still easy to spot a town employee using the town equipment to work on his own property.

In personal news: My family has undergone some changes. I'm officially a husband now after getting married at my wife's grandparents' farm in northern Virginia. We're also in the process of adopting her two nieces, who have been living with us for the past year. Life is changing and getting better.

Sorry for the absence

I've been dealing with some family medical issues and haven't had time to post. I've been reading the papers and I'm glad to see that we do have a new town manager. Let's hope he has the back bone to stand up to the council and not get the town into another lawsuit.

Budget woes?

Looks like the Brookneal Budget has some issues.
The mayor calls it a gamble.
A council member explains the surpluses and the fact we've been lied too about not being able to afford a new town manager. The vice mayor had someone write a letter for him to put in the Union Star, in which he shows how little is understood about the budget. And a local accountant explains the bigger problems of having a budget that is top heavy with administrative costs. Uhhh isn't this what got the big car dealers in trouble? Shouldn't the administrative positions cost the town less than the positions that actually keep the town going?

When is our new town manager going to be hired so this insane waste of money will stop?

Goodbye to a great community supporter

Mrs. Carolyn Lusardi has passed away. She was a stalwart member of the community and her family has done a lot for Brookneal. Her obituary can be found here:

Lusardi Obituary


I met Mrs. Lusardi at Red Hill shortly after I moved here. She was gracious in explaining the history of Patrick Henry's home, and the surrounding area, to me. Her outfit was quaint and she informed me that it, and the others worn by the re-enactors, were custom sewn.
My condolences to her family and friends for their loss. My sympathies to the Brookneal community for losing one of the great supporters of the area.

Day in the Town and Striped Bass Festival

Day in the Town was a lot of fun. Didn't look like there was as many vendors as in the past, but the weather was a lot nicer than last year. The fishing seemed good too. We saw a huge catfish in the blue live tank that looked like it could have eaten a small dog.

My fiancee's girls (she adopted her nieces last year) enjoyed the blow up playhouses and the fried bread treats. We also bought them each a dog puppet and they had fun walking them up and down the street. We saw most of the council people, including Mrs. Meisenbach with a stroller full of ferrets. That was different, at first I thought she'd had a baby. Mr. Nowlin spoke to me and teased the girls a bit, I'm not sure if he knew who I am, but he was certainly pleasant. We bought some kabobs from Chief Cousin's booth and they were really good. I wish he'd open a diner. The man selling the t-shirts helped me restock my weekend wardrobe. We also had a buffalo burger is it was awesome!

Score one for Ice

The new police dog has only been on the job a few days and he's already been instrumental in the confiscation of some drugs and firearms. This is just what our town needs to help clean it up. Approving the grant to get this dog was one of the smartest things the town council has done.
I can only hope the drug pushers are on notice and choose to go somewhere else!

Brookneal at it's best

I've enjoyed working closer to home these past weeks. Spring has brightened the region, even though the evenings are very cool and rain clouds have shadowed us.
I got a call from a friend traveling down 81 on his way to western North Carolina and he was raving about the gorgeous purple trees and various flowering shrubs. Spring and fall make me realize that this region is one of the prettiest I've ever seen. I hope the people that have lived here their whole lives appreciate the beauty and uniqueness of the area. Other states simply pale in comparision to the natural beauty we find around here. We visited the Patrick Henry Memorial recently and I can see why he called it the garden spot of Virginia.

Officer back on duty

Looks like the town council finally got their heads on straight and they've put Officer Earhart back on full duty. It's about time!

I wonder if there will be any other fall out from this fiasco?

Brookneal Officer Exonerated

The Brookneal police officer that was charged with an misdemeanor has been exonerated and all charges were dropped. The two men that testified against him had stories that didn't match and the judge deemed them " not credible".

Are we surprised? Can't say that I am. A four time convicted felon files a false report against an officer and it ends up getting thrown out.

News-Advance: Officer Cleared/



WSET: Officer charges overturned/



Are we surprised at all the hassle the town has given the officer? Can't say that I am. The "acting as a town manager" had no business handling this situation from the beginning and now a man's life has been on hold for months because of his ineptness.
The "personnel committee" the town has might as well be wearing dunce caps and rings in their noses because of the way they let the Mayor and "acting as a town manager" lead them around. They had the chance to do the right thing and they turned yellow. Now they've been proven wrong and will have to try to undo the damage they've done.

I wonder if they like their crow fried or boiled?

Illegal Meetings?

This week's Union Star brings to light the fact that the council may have been having some illegal closed sessions. This isn't the first time this has happened in this town's history, but it probably is the first time a council member stepped up and said that it needed to be fixed. I'm surprised that any council would take the position that a local attorney has more say than the Attorney General. But I'm not surprised that THIS council would take that position. After all they listened to a local attorney and ended up paying off an employee that sued the town.

I agree that a council should not be acting as a disciplinary committee for employees. This is just poor management. Why doesn't Brookneal have a human resources or employee liaison? Instead most of the employees have to go to the very people, that are making them miserable, for help.


I went to the Virginia FOIA website to see if I could find what the council member was talking about and found this: http://dls.state.va.us/foiacouncil.htm and this http://dls.state.va.us/groups/foiacouncil/ops/03/AO_17_03.htm

Quote:
This element of control did not exist between the city council and the employees hired by the city manager; therefore, the city council could not go into closed session to discuss individuals with whom it did not have an employer/employee relationship. This opinion was reiterated two years later, when the Attorney General opined that the phrase "employees of any public body" could not be narrowly construed to be synonymous with the phrase "employees of any locality."2 End Quote

Looks like she is correct in that a council is not supposed to go into closed session regarding regular employees.

So this makes me wonder WHY any council that was given the above information would still insist that it is okay to break the law, just because they want to. I also have to wonder why Mr. Jennings, Mr. Jean and Mr. Shepperd, who I had previously given credit for having brains, would go along with illegal and improper meetings? Are they making a public declaration that they are going to participate in more illegal closed sessions?

Looks like the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Not the only snow job in town

I'm glad to see that the only snowjobs that we get in this town don't come from Town Hall.
The white stuff was blowing around this afternoon in a blizzardly manner.

I'm glad that some of the council had the decency to at least restore the officer's benefits. Now they need to restore him back to duty so we can get some protection.

Sounds like our budget isn't complete.
Does anyone know if they included a salary for a new town manager?
Did they reduce the pay for the "acting as a town manager"?

My digital camera is acting up, so if anyone would like to submit photos from around Brookneal please send them to brooknealblogger@yahoo.com

Brookneal in the news again

What is up with this?

http://www.wset.com/news/stories/0209/593359.html

The man admits he wasn't paid by the contractor so he calls and tries to milk money from the officer and the town is not defending the officer?


This Evans guy admits he was threatening the officer with a mechanic's lein, even when the officer didn't owe him the money. What kind of justice is that?

Winter Arrives in Brookneal

Snow finally comes to Brookneal. These were sent to me by a reader.



The Gazebo by the Community Building

The Brookneal Community Building

The Brookneal Community Building


Brookneal is such a nice quaint little town. Hard to believe it has all these political under currents. If anyone has any photos that show the different areas of Brookneal that they'd like to post on the blog please send them to me at brooknealblogger@yahoo.com

Did I really read this?

Looked over the last two weeks' papers, and read the WSET site, and saw some things that bother me.

1) Has Brookneal really had the same auditor for 31 years? That is the most fiscally irresponsible crap that I have ever heard. IRS draft of "Good Governance Practices for 501 (C) (3) Organizations section 7. FINANCIAL AUDITS states: The auditing firm should be changed periodically (e.g. every five years) to ensure a fresh look at the financial statements.
31 years? Sounds like someone has a financial puppet on the payroll.

2) Some group of idiots, reading only handed out literature, decided biosolids are safe? No research, no hard studies, just handouts and they decided it's a good idea to dump sewage on land we get our food from? They even admit their ignorance in the real science of sludge, but still go one record declaring it is safe.

3) Nine months to get a utilities plan on a building that costs the town money to maintain? I'm annoyed that it's taken that long, but not surprised considering the council has dragged out hiring a new town manager for 2 years. Nine months seems like the speed of light compared to how they usually do things.

4) If Campbell County is going to be cutting deputy jobs then will we still have the police protection we need? We've only got three officers to cover this town. I've heard that several of the council want to dropped getting the police dog, even though it was purchased with grant money. So then we'd have even less protection if the county loses officers.

5) Pittsylvania County had a land fill leak. Campbell County and Lynchburg have landfill issues. Who wants to bet me that we will eventually have a landfill right outside of the Brookneal town limits? We are the lower end of the county and get treated like it. Since the county supervisors see nothing wrong with dumping sludge all over the place it isn't unlikely that we''l have trash dumped down here too.

6) CVCC is closing the local branch. This is a shame, wish it wasn't so.

I have a question for the readers: Why do the town limits stop before they reach four of the biggest local businesses? How much tax money is Brookneal losing by not having town limits that go out to Foster Fuels? Why has no effort been made to extend town limits past these businesses? Don't they use town services? Town water?

This Week's Paper

I thought the paper this week was very good. The coverage has certainly improved and more issues are being brought out.

I read the article that interviewed the mayor with a lot of interest. Here's what I find strange. You can tell from reading the article that she knows about the problems. She talks about the issues facing the town, and if you didn't know the past history you'd think she was on the ball.
But her actions don't show this. You'd think that after all the dispute and problems they've had about the town manager issue she'd be jumping on the train to get a new one, just to relieve herself of the poor press. Yet, you can tell there is a reluctance there, and it's not about the money, it's about the person she wants to keep in place.

I can't see money as an issue because she had no problem wasting town funds on endless legal bills in order to engage in a personal vendetta against a town employee. She has no issue with the waste of allowing a town vehicle to be used for personal use. I have seen the Town of Brookneal truck in Lynchburg, South Boston, on the road to Charlotte Court House, Rustburg, and Alta Vista. It's possible some of these trips could be town related, except they happen on weekends. We've lost valuable water plant employees, again because of poor management.
Why keep this conflict going on in the town office? To do so is the height of poor management of the town.

A few months ago there was a flurry of meetings, headed by the Development Chair Mr. Nowlin, that were supposed to address a town maintenance code. What happened with this? We have no code, we still have trash, eyesore buildings and slum lords. Why can't the council accomplish something? Things get started and never get finished. It's like they pretend they care, and then when the community looks away they drop it, because they really don't want changes.

I thought this quote was particularly a slap in the face to the intelligence of the residents:

"However, the town never gives up hope of industries returning because "We have the best workforce there is and Brookneal is a great place to live and raise a family. But we are certainly going to have to look for new revenue and bringing jobs to our community."


If we have the best workforce and Brookneal is so great then why do we get treated like we don't matter? Why are town funds squandered on things that don't benefit the community? Was it really worth it to waste the money on legal fees to go after someone you didn't like? Is it worth it to waste our tax dollars to keep one of your overpaid flunkies in place? Is it worth it to try to attract industries here when the first look that visiting executives get of our town is a burned out and boarded up building on the main road in, shantys in disrepair by the river crossing, and junk left out by the road? The visible aspects of this community reflect on the "workforce". All of us suffer because a few bad apples aren't brought into line with proper zoning ordinances.
Why would any white collar industry even look at this town, as they are in other regions? If they looked just at the main roads they'd think we didn't have any pride in anything. The the five years since I moved here the town has really gone down hill. It can't be blamed on past administrations, because the employee issues, reckless waste of money and ignoring of the blight can be attributed to the current administration.


I can't decide if I'm glad to know that she can speak about the issues, or angry because she knows about them and continues to ignore them for her own personal reasons.

Taking the high road

A recent visitor here made the statement that our council members should lower their legal and moral standards in order to be "friends" with other council members.

They also stated that council members that post here could be perceived as "talking out of school" even though all information that has been posted here has been public knowledge.

So tell me your views. Should our council members ignore illegal and unethical behavior by other council members in the spirit of being friendly?

Do you think council members posting here is a good thing or would you rather get information as the media and town office decide to ladle it out?*


* I want to note that the Union Star has shown a marked improvement and I'm very pleased with their coverage of town issues.