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.