red flag

Generous tip: Caller helps cops nab restaurant assault suspect | Winchester Star | winchesterstar.com 

Buffalo shooter's prior threat, hospital stay face scrutiny | AP News 

it's ironic that tarbush was arrested within a day or so of the Tops massacre in buffalo ny.

the problem is clear. despite "red flag" laws people with guns who threaten others are not being "red flagged".

PS a month or so ago I believe that I saw tarbush walking east on 277 between route 11 and i-81 (towards the waffle house). she was carrying a grocery bag and a six pack of coca cola in plastic bottles. I thought it unusual to see a pedestrian walking across the 277 bridge over i-81 (especially with all of the 277 road construction that is underway). hamilton ct. is less than a mile from the bridge.

"figures don't lie, but liars figure."

Good afternoon, Strasburgians! If you're like me, then you got your shenandoah county real estate tax bill today. It reminds me of our town of strasburg water bills--funny numbers (and I don't mean haha). For example,

• our real estate tax bill went up a whopping 22%. Talk about inflation!
• the 2022 real estate tax rate (58%) is 11% less than the 2021 real estate tax rate (69%)

wow! how can this be? if the 2022 tax rate went down 11%, then how can the tax bill be 22% more than 2021's tax bill? answer:

• our total taxable assessed value increased a double-whopping 45%--in ONE year!

does anyone really believe that the cost of government (real estate tax rate) actually went DOWN from 69% in 2021 to 58% in 2022? if your really do believe this, then I've got a bridge in Brooklyn that I'd like to sell you.

there's an old joke. One man says to another, "what's 2 + 2?" the other man replied, "what do you want it to be?"

just like the town's water bills, where we're billed on a fictitious number of gallons instead of actual gallons used, the real estate tax bill reminds me of the old Mark Twain quote--"figures don't lie, but liars figure."

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mark_twain2.JPG

attribution: public domain via wikimedia commons

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Public_domain

the next town resolution?

Strasburg council passes unity resolution | Nvdaily | nvdaily.com  

"Mayor Boies says even though this resolution isn’t law, she hopes the resolution encourages residents facing discrimination to feel comfortable talking with their elected officials."

Strasburg Town Council passes Unity resolution

good luck with that.

perhaps sherando high school's government class can draft another resolution on the purpose, duties and responsibilities of town government? 

I'm sure that they could.

can town council approve it before the november election?

what do you think? 

WHSV: "The most talked-about project among the public was Route 55 which runs through Strasburg and Front Royal."

"It’s definitely helpful for the CTB (Commonwealth Transportation Board) to hear from the public and also from local leaders. A lot of times at these public meetings we have a member of the board of supervisors, a county administrator, a town council member, that sort of thing. Sometimes it’s good to hear from folks who have requested this money,” said Ken Slack, VDOT communications specialist.

VDOT holds public hearing on future projects 

• why is "the most talked-about project" conspicuously absent from vdot's list of proposed long term plans?
• who (names) represents strasburg with vdot? 
• specifically, how is the town working with vdot to get the horrendous route 55 intersection in strasburg addressed? 
• who (names) liaisons with strasburg's representative on the CTB?
• how often (dates) have they met?
• specifically, how often do they regularly meet to discuss strasburg's transportation needs?
• have strasburg representatives suggested to front royal representatives that a coalition be formed to push for improvements to "the most talked-about project"? if not, then why not?

citizens of strasburg want to know. 

thank you, WHSV, for your report. without your report we wouldn't know. the town doesn't inform its citizens with what's going on between the town and vdot. who knows? perhaps it's because nothing is going on between town representatives and vdot on a regular or a specific project basis.

good to know--thanks, WHSV!

Poisonous Hemlock plant spotted along Strasburg Riverwalk 

HemlockFig2-1ensli5.jpg (2085×1985)

to zoom in: click on the link, then click on the photo.

a good thing?

A brighter future for Strasburg | Nvdaily | nvdaily.com 

are brighter street lights a good idea?

not according to the International Dark-Sky Association.

"Less than 100 years ago, everyone could look up and see a spectacular starry night sky. Now, millions of children across the globe will never experience the Milky Way where they live. The increased and widespread use of artificial light at night is not only impairing our view of the universe, it is adversely affecting our environment, our safety, our energy consumption and our health." 

Light Pollution - International Dark-Sky Association 

Losing the Dark - Flat Screen Version - YouTube 

does town council favor brighter streetlights? or not? 

citizens of the town of strasburg (should) want to know.

public domain

sound familiar?

Chesterfield woman's water bill tops nearly $1,500: 'There's no way'  

this is what happens when one has to deal with an arrogant water works monopoly.

roll the dice!

public domain

PIDS

do you know what's wrong with government? for the answer you don't need to go further than George Washington, our first president, and see what he said about political parties. George Washington's Farewell Address Included Three Main Warnings - HISTORY  

Our first president was right. "When Americans voted according to party loyalty, rather than the common interest of the nation, Washington feared it would foster a 'spirit of revenge,' and enable the rise of 'cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men' who would 'usurp for themselves the reins of government.'" 

We see examples of the destructive influence of political parties at all levels of government: federal, state, district, county and town. Government has become a place where partisan political ideologues debate their party's ideology instead of doing the peoples' business. Governments become Political Ideology Debating Societies (PIDS). Nothing gets done--instead they play the blame game.

There's no better example of PIDS than right here in strasburg where town council failed to pass a unity resolution after Paul Rush's home was vandalized twice within the span of a few weeks. Strasburg Town Council Rejects Unity Resolution | News | dnronline.com 

therefore, I call upon the town's citizens to:

• reject those on town council who use their position to "climb the ladder" in their political party.
• prior to November's election, educate yourself. find out who's running for council and if they're a politician or someone who is truly interested in making the town better.
• consider running yourself, if your total motivation is to make strasburg better for it's current and future citizens.
• VOTE  

It's time to take our town back from the political ideologues and elect representatives who are laser focused on improving the town of strasburg for its citizens.

sweet deal

Former Strasburg mayor enters plea deal in DUI, food stamp case | Nvdaily | nvdaily.com  

are you surprised? 

score another failure in transparency. 

analogy

Imagine that you go to your friendly neighborhood gas station to get gas. You put your credit card in the pump, it's approved and you pump your gas. You press the button for a receipt and out it comes. it's for $862.45. You look at the quantity of gas and it's 198.35 gallons. What would you do?

if it was me, then I would go in and show the receipt to Joe, the manager. Suppose Joe looked at it and said: "You paid for 198.35 gallons, so you must have pumped 198.35 gallons." 

"But, Joe," you say "my car only has a 20 gallon capacity." 

Joe repeats "You paid for 198.35 gallons. You must have pumped 198.35 gallons."

What would you do? maybe call your credit card company and stop payment on the $862.45? that's probably what I'd do. 

so, how is that different from the St. Paul Lutheran Church and Child Care Center, which has received several water bills that are several times more than their normal monthly water bills? Each time the child care center tells the town that nothing changed (except for the fact that the number of children is less due to covid). Each time the town insists that the high water bills are caused by leaky toilets. Strasburg residents continue to see unusually high water bills 

months go by. the high water bills keep coming. the town continues to insist that it's leaky toilets that are causing the high water bills. Some in Strasburg continue to see high water bills, changes coming 

what would you do? if it was me, then, needless to say, I'd stop doing business with Joe. unfortunately, the child care center doesn't have a choice. the town has a monopoly on water--and, with the town's arrogance, it shows. 

utility bill wild goose chase

if you're like me, then you probably haven't ever looked deeply into your town utility bill. you just pay it each month and move on. but, with the stories from WHSV about high water bills, I decided to look into our monthly utility bill. 

The bill itself contains charges for water, sewer and garbage, meter number, previous and present meter readings (90 and 92--fictitious numbers), usage (2000--another fictitious number) and amount ($25.57 for water, $25.02 for sewer and $12.13 for garbage). There are several dates on the bill:

• billing date (02/28/2022) (appears twice)
• due date (03/20/2022) (appears twice)
• previous reading date (02/17/2022) (same as present reading date)
• present reading date (02/17/2022) (same as previous reading date)

does the same date for previous and present readings make any sense to you?

There's a message in red on the bill that reads "FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE REFERENCE THE UTILITY BILL ADJUSTMENT & WATER METER POLICY". since said policy wasn't on the bill, I went to the town's website and typed "utility bill adjustment & water meter policy" into the search block. "Invalid search" was the response. 

I then clicked on "Public Works + Utilities" under the "inside town hall" heading on the town's home page. Then I clicked on the "water and sewer rate information" block. under the "water and wastewater rate survey" heading it states: "Please see the Water and Wastewater Rate Survey prepared by Draper Aden Associates to see how Strasburg rates compare with other localities across Virginia: HERE ." The link took me to Draper Aden Associates' webpage where I requested the 2021 and 2020 Water and Waste Water reports. Each report has multiple pages of "water data" for numerous towns in Virginia--except Strasburg. ????

at this point I'm thinking that I'm on a wild goose chase--but, I continued on. 

At the bottom of the "water and sewer rate information" web page there are two hotlinks: "Water and Wastewater Rate Report" and "water bill unit calculator". when I clicked on the first I got Draper Aden Associates' 2019 report. if you're interested in out-of-date information, then you can download this report. You can click on the second hotlink too. I did--quite frankly, it raises more questions than it answers. 

• what is a "billing unit"? (answer: a fictitious number)
• why not compute the bill using actual meter readings? 
• why not show actual gallons used (present meter reading minus previous meter reading), rather than converting and rounding them into fictitious "billing units"?
• why does my utility bill show only two fictitious two-digit numbers for the meter readings? (meter readings in the sample "water bill unit calculator" chart show 6 digits--3 whole numbers and 3 digits after the decimal point.) 

and then there are questions about the dates:

• same date for both previous and present readings? needless to say, we didn't use 2,000 gallons (a fictitious number) of water in a single day!
• when was the previous meter reading (90, another fictitious number) actually read?
• when was the present meter reading (92, another fictitious number) actually read?
• what were the actual meter readings in decimals? 
• why aren't actual meter readings in decimals shown on the bill (like those shown in the "water bill unit calculator")?
• why aren't the actual gallons used shown on the bill?

by this time my head hurt with all of the errors, fictitious numbers, misinformation, contradictions, obfuscations and dead ends. 

all in all, trying to figure out our water bill was a complete waste of time--a wild goose chase. 

can you imagine doing business with a gas station that rounded up the amount of gas pumped to the next even gallon instead of showing the actual number of gallons of gas pumped in decimals? 

neither can I. strasburg's water bills don't pass the "smell test".

public domain

how safe is our water?

Some in Strasburg continue to see high water bills, changes coming   

the town says that it's leaking toilets that is causing the problems. if leaking toilets are causing huge spikes in water bills, then don't you think that the town could prove that by now? In view of the fact that some residents have contested their highly fluctuating water bills, and the town hasn't proved that defective meters or other flaws in the water or billing systems (e.g. missing or defective air release valves) are not the source of the fluctuations, then the town should reduce contested bills and immediately return payment (with interest) to customers for the unexplained peaks.

has the town placed temporary water meters (similar to those used on construction sites) on the water lines to check the permanent meters?

has the town searched the internet? 

• "Please fix this"; Norfolk residents say they're blindsided by high water bills 
• WATCH: Air trapped in pipe affects water metre reading | Northglen News 
• Air in water pipes: What is an air valve and how does it work? 
• https://burnshomeconstruction.com/sensus-water-meter-most-common-problems/ 
• Troubleshooting Common Water Meter Problems | DoItYourself.com 
• water meter accuracy testing equipment - Search 

when WHSV first reported this problem, I suggested that the town focus on their water system instead of blaming customers for spikes in their water bills (Strasburg VA underground: water bills mystery). in WHSV's followup to their story nothing has changed. the town is still blaming their customers for their high water bills. if the town is unable to solve this longstanding problem (since 2016), then how safe is our water? running water treatment and sewage treatment plants takes more smarts than figuring out what's causing huge spikes in water bills.

Kudos to WHSV for their continuing coverage of this story, as well as the Paul Rush story (Paul Rush's house was vandalized twice within a couple months in ugly incidents), the milk plant explosion, pollution alerts for the north fork of the shenandoah river, etc. Without WHSV's timely reporting it's unlikely that strasburg residents would know anything about these important news events.

election year

Strasburg councilman John Massoud not seeking re-election, plans to run for another office | Nvdaily | nvdaily.com   

business as usual? 

or is change coming? 

answer: it depends.

pay attention and vote, strasburg. 

keeper

Strasburg town manager settling into role of serving the citizens | Nvdaily | nvdaily.com  

an excellent article. 

however, one question that I would have liked to hear Coggsdale answer: 

how does the town keep its focus on serving its citizens with a town council that seems more interested in playing politics--similar to US congress?

strasburg's citizens want to know--so do citizens of the commonwealth and the USA. 

note to Coggsdale: in addition to working with shenandoah county and increased broadband capabilities, working with vdot to solve some of strasburg's more vexing problems may provide unexpected dividends.

survey

from our window this morning it appears that 90% of the people on our street have their trashcans out. obviously, they didn't get the word that the trash pickup schedule has changed. 

which only goes to prove the obvious:

• not everyone in town has facebook.
• people are not "spreading the word" like the town desires.
• not everyone has email.
• not everyone has a computer.
• it is NOT the responsibility of the town's citizens to "spread the word".
• it is the TOWN'S responsibility to provide timely information to each and every citizen of the town.

Tiny stephens city does it. LOTS of other towns provide their citizens with important information in a timely fashion. 

get with the program, town of strasburg.

chicken or pig?

there's an old story: 

Both a chicken and a pig look on at a family eating breakfast. The chicken comments how a chicken’s eggs allows it to participate (or involve) itself to help others. The pig then comments on the bacon/ham; pigs aren’t just “participating” or “involved”—they’re totally committed! 

if you're a resident of the town of strasburg, then you're committed--you live here. you want a different kind of information than that provided for those who don't live here. 

it's important for the town to feed the chickens--to try attract those who may want to live here. their taxes can help the town to grow and to provide for those who might move here. attracting tourism increases tax revenue too.

but, it's also important for the town to feed its residents too. they need a different kind of information. they need to know that the town is safe for all who live here. residents need to know that the town is providing clean, safe water and that they're being billed fairly. residents need to know in advance when trash won't be picked up on schedule. residents need timely information when there's a pollution alert for the river. residents need to know that the town is addressing safety and security issues for all of its residents.

tourists and potential businesses are "targets of opportunity". we already live here. for residents, there's a big difference between promoting the town and taking care of those who already live here. each resident of the town decides how many of those who represent and work for the town are truly committed to the welfare of those whom they represent and work for. how do you rate their performance? 

pathetic

 Strasburg Town Council denies Unity Resolution   

"Council members thanked Rush for their (?) courage to come forward and before voting (?), Boies said she wanted to remind residents that the town is a safe space despite how the vote went (?)."

so, what will people think? what do you think?

• some people will think that trespassing and vandalism of Paul Rush's home TWICE were despicable acts. some people won't.
• people will know that some people in strasburg are decent people--particularly those who helped Paul Rush remove the hateful LGBTQ slurs from his house--TWICE.
• people will know that no one(s) has been arrested for trespassing and vandalizing Paul Rush's home.
• people will know that the town council drafted a "unity resolution" and then debated it for weeks.
• people will know that the resolution didn't pass.

will people believe that the council is thankful that Paul Rush had the courage to come forward? maybe some will.

will people believe that strasburg is a safe place? maybe some will (as long as you're not different).

no one has to be "reminded" whether strasburg is a safe place or not. each person decides that for themselves. 

Strasburg Town Council Rejects Unity Resolution | News | dnronline.com 

"Ricard was first to speak on Tuesday in opposition of the resolution, saying it focused too heavily on Rush’s incidents when there have been other events."

"...there have been other events ... I just think it should be totally inclusive". so, don't pass a resolution that condemns bigotry? yeah, OK. barnyard logic.

“Human nature is something that is taught and learned, you can not change it by a piece of paper,” Cherrix said. “Us saying saying everybody be friends, hold hands, kumbaya, that’s all fine and dandy, but you can’t enforce that on everybody ... being inclusive more of one particular group than every group that we have in this town, will [divide] this town even more.”

Cherrix, Massoud, Monahan, Nicholson--more barnyard logic.

all of the bs doesn't change the facts--actions speak louder than words.

strasburg, are you satisfied with some of your "leaders"? (I'm not.)

vote them out.

PS it's small wonder that the town doesn't communicate more with its citizens. What town would want meetings like strasburg's broadcast?

water bills mystery

 Strasburg residents continue to see unusually high water bills  

I guess that I just don't understand.

I can understand consistent water bills when there's nothing unusual going on. I can understand a jump in the water bill if you're replanting your lawn. but what I don't understand is when water bills make huge jumps when nothing unusual is happening on the customer side. fluctuating water bills have been going on with some customers for years? blaming highly fluctuating water bills on customer leaks just doesn't make sense to me. if customer leaks were causing the problems, then water bills would remain high until the leaks are fixed.

Kim Painter makes an excellent point. 12,000 gallons one month to 32,000 gallons another after enrollment at St. Paul Lutheran Church and Child Care Center went from 70 children to 11. other residents also complain about "high monthly fluctuations". these fluctuations don't sound like water leaks to me. it just doesn't make sense. 

maybe the town should focus more on themselves and answer some obvious questions first:

• how often are water meters read? 
• are they being read correctly?
• has the town checked the suspect water meters? 
• are they operating correctly? 
• is the water line that connects the public water main to the house, business or other private customer leaking?

rather than insisting that customer leaks are the cause, maybe the town should think the problems through. blaming longstanding "dramatic increases and monthly fluctuations" on customer leaks just doesn't make sense. it's not rocket science. it doesn't take years to find out what's causing the water bill anomalies and to fix what needs fixing.

citizens of the town of strasburg,

what's wrong with this picture? (I'm not just talking about water bills.)

I started this "strasburg underground" blog nearly two years ago because of my frustration with the town's lack of communication with its citizens, misinformation and failures to address obvious problems. you know the story--that things were messed up at town hall with the previous administration shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

I encourage you to browse through this blog's posts from the beginning. are things still messed up at town hall? you bet they are!

Tell your friends and neighbors about "strasburg underground". the only way that things in strasburg will get unmessed up is if the citizens of this town demand from the mayor and town council that town hall gets unmessed up. 

I'm not running for office. I'm retired. I'm in the fourth quarter of my life. before I retired I spent many hours in meetings that accomplished little or nothing. I have no desire to do so now. 

there's a BIG difference between politics and life. politics is a game where both sides throw rocks at each other, both sides lie and there's no accountability. life is not a game. truth matters. disease, poverty, crime, greed, incompetence, injustice, etc. are real and people get hurt. no one person or group of people has all of the answers. in life actions speak louder than words. 

this is our town. I encourage those who want to tackle fixing town hall to do so. we will all be grateful for your service.

God bless you, the USA and the citizens of the town of strasburg.

PE retired

WTH

on 11/24 we mailed the second installment for our 2021 taxes to the town. 

on 12/6 we got the check back in the mail. 

we checked with the bank and even checked our credit card account. as we suspected, both confirmed that we had not paid the second installment for our 2021 town taxes--which was now overdue. 

we called the town. they said that they'd look into it and call us back. 

it turns out that, due to a clerical error, someone else's tax payment was credited to our account. 

the people that we talked to at the town were very nice. we were told to mail our check back to the town and we wouldn't be charged the late fee. 

alas, it seems to happen a lot--nice people--but, WTH. 

questions

it's been only a few months since the contractor completed the east king street improvements project. the top of the new freestanding post, that contains the pedestrian crossing activation button(s) (located at the northeast corner of east king street and massunutten street), is busted. the top of the post hangs precariously by a figurative thread. 

1. what happened? (it appears that maybe a vehicle with an oversized load, or a vehicle towing a trailer with an oversized load, or a tractor-trailer truck failing to stay in the roadway while making the right turn, may have hit it.)
2. why was the new pedestrian crossing post located unprotected at the curb?
3. why are there three different types of pedestrian crossing button post/poles at the ends of the two contiguous crosswalks?
4. how much will the repair/replacement cost?
5. who pays? (I suspect that the answer is "we will".)
6. how many more times will this newest of the three pedestrian crossing post/poles be struck and damaged? (especially considering the fact that it's already been hit after being in place for only a few months.)
7. who pays each time a post/pole is struck? (see question number 5) 
8. is anybody home at town hall? (it seems like nobody is.)