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July 9, 1998
Members attending: Kathy Fox, Eric Sheffield, Shannon Spencer
1. Treasurer's Report: As of July 9, there was $378.94 in the Rockbridge
Green's bank account. We have paid the second half-year levy to the Greens
of Virginia (GOV)
2. We are on the web site of the Blue Ridge Environmental Network, which
keeps a list of environmental organizations. We agreed to pay BREN $20 in
annual dues to maintain our place on that list.
3. Eric noted that he is interested in having Hats made for the Greens to
sell. We approved $150 for having the hats made if we can come up with a
good design that we like. Eric will contact printers & Elise regarding
graphic; Shannon will contact a graphic designer regarding a graphic as
well.
4. Community Festival: The following people are signed up to sit at the
Community Festival on August 29, booth B43. Please remember that we
would like to have two people for each time!
9-11 Eric Sheffield, 11-1 Karen Ahnemann, 1-3 Kathy Fox, 3-4:30 ??
We still need two people between 3-4:30pm and we need a second person for
all other times.
5. State Newsletter is coming out on August 15th. Anyone who would be
willing to help stuff envelopes for the mailing of the newsletter on August
15th at 7pm should contact Eric at 261-4306.
6. Sarah Raz put together the Rockbridge Greens Newsletter for July 1998.
7. A House meeting was tentatively set up for Common Ground on July 23rd.
8. Kathy and Eric reported on conversations that they had had with local
residents.
9. Shannon will print out and filter through the suggestions for
Rockbridge County's future that came out of the November 14-15th meeting of
the Visioning Group.
10. Rockbridge Platform: We decided to begin drafting the platform at our
monthly meetings while continuing the process of individual conversations
and house meetings.
The following suggested planks were preliminarily approved in concept. The
wording will be changed in most cases and final approval will be by a vote
of the entire Rockbridge Greens membership.
1. Encourage farmers markets, community supported agriculture, and other
efforts to bring locally grown food to Rockbridge residents.
2. We oppose restrictions which have the affect of applying only to
low-cost housing. We will seek low-cost housing which provides a more
energy-efficient, longer lasting alternative to mobile homes.
3. County taxes should be structured so that all residents pay as equal a
percentage of their income as possible.
4. County government should be run as democratically as possible. Citizen
input should be encouraged and respected at all stages and levels of
governing. The Board of Supervisors should support any effort to have a
referendum placed on the ballot, regardless of their personal views on the
question. The Board of Supervisors should respect the results of any
advisory referendum. Closed meetings should be kept to an absolute minimum
and the proceedings of those meetings should be made public as soon as
feasible.
5. There are serious problems at Rockbridge County High School. We intend
to find out why so many students don't want to attend and so many parents
want to send their children elsewhere.
6. We oppose the local sales tax on food (not restaurants).
7. Recycling should include more plastics and make an effort to get
businesses involved.
9. We need to preserve our rural quality. We need to preserve woodland.
10. We will encourage a diverse economy to provide meaningful, living-wage
employment opportunities for our children who wish to remain in the area.
11. We will support domestic violence prevention and specifically the
efforts of Project Horizon.
12. We need to prevent the increased flooding caused by development. More
needs to be done to prevent erosion.
13. The negative impacts of developments on ridgetops must be stopped.
14. Minorities should be better represented in County government.
15. We support increased recreational opportunities for all Rockbridge
residents and acknowledge a special need for teens and seniors.
16. The county should be more involved in developing adequate housing
opportunities for its low-income residents.
17. The County should have an aggressive, voluntary program to purchase
and accept donations of conservation easements.
18. Planning must be a top priority. We must plan for a Rockbridge that
not only meets our current needs, but will provide our great-grandchildren
with the same quality of life that we enjoy. We support the immediate
addition of at least two staff persons to the County planning office. We
should encourage cluster development and require all developments to submit
at least one plan showing this option.
19. All taxes on the books need to be collected in an aggressive
even-handed manner in order to ensure fairness to all tax-payers.
20. We support community elementary schools and will seek to eliminate the
need for classroom trailers.
21. We will cooperate with the city governments to reduce unnecessary
duplication of infrastructure and administration wherever possible.
22. Feedlots shouldn't be next to streams.
24. We will encourage peer mediation in our schools
26. We will seek to ensure that housing and agricultural land remain
affordable for Rockbridge residents by discouraging speculation and
absentee ownership.
28. Support small family farms.
29. The citizens of Rockbridge should not have to pay increased taxes to
cover the costs associated with new residential development- including
roads, schools, water, sewer, emergency services, waste disposal, law
enforcement, etc.
30. Write a Night Sky Ordinance to protect against light pollution at night.
31. Determine job skills that are required by local businesses and meet
them through training/retraining programs and coordination of programs
32. Support locally-owned businesses
33. Tax real estate sales and use proceeds to purchase conservation
easements
WE DECIDED THAT THE FOLLOWING SUGGESTIONS NEED MORE
CONSIDERATION:
34. We will seek ways to encourage more diversity in our agricultural
production.
8. There should be more citizen and local government input into the
operations of VDOT.
35. Encourage telecommuting.
23. For more than 100 years the population of the Rockbridge area has been
essentially stable. Our population is an integral component of the rural
and small town quality of life that we seek to preserve. Therefore we will
support policies that encourage a stable population.
36. We will oppose any curricula which teaches our schoolchildren to use
violence as a means for resolving disputes.
25. No more stop lights.
27. We support the volunteer fire departments and rescue squads and will
respect democratically made decisions of their representative
organizations.
37. All additions to infrastructure should be initiated by the Planning
Commission.
Rockbridge Greens
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