Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Letter to Bill Brown, Montgomery County Board of Supervisors

Bill Brown is the former Chief of Police for Blacksburg. He has claimed that his constituents, Blacksburg residents, are overwhelmingly in favor of repairing our death trap of a high school instead of building a new school for about 8% more cost. He is wrong- there is no data to back up his claim. This is my letter to him regarding his false claims.


Dear Mr. Brown,

I am once again on business travel and was not able to attend the joint meeting last night. I am also not able to come to tonight's meeting- I travel regularly to support my three growing businesses at the CRC which your board is doing a great deal to torpedo whenever I am away. I want to express my full support for the slight property tax increase to secure loans and build a new Blacksburg High School and Auburn High School.

I am very disappointed to hear, and hope these reports are incorrect, that you are representing that your constituency is overwhelmingly in favor of repairing the old high school. I simply can't understand how this is true, unless you produce many redacted emails from your constituents and give us access to whatever public opinion polling you have conducted. We certainly have made our polling available to you, which showed a massive majority in favor of new schools. It is bad enough that Mr. Creed seems to think we should fight against installing a proper sprinkler system and HVAC.

And as to intimidation, I would respectfully ask you not to make claims like that in the future. Our democracy requires and should encourage participation. You cannot berate the same people you claimed "did not care" when we don't show up and then turn around and accuse us of intimidating people who disagree with us when we do.

The polling we conducted showed well over 75% of Blacksburg residents supporting a new BHS and AHS. The numbers showing up at meetings represent that majority. I represent the feelings of a majority of business owners in Blacksburg who feel the same. This is a clear case of a constituency crying out to our elected leaders to tax us more so that we may all invest in a healthy county environment that produces the growth of intellectual and manufacturing businesses. I urge you all to vote yes to the increase tonight to support the building projects recommended to you by the school board.

Most Sincerely,

Doug Garnett-Deakin

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Mr. Brown also said he was on some sort of regional fire and rescue committee and that the County will be needing to replace 10 big fire trucks in the coming years...I assume this will be to rush to a repaired BHS and other District schools that have no sprinkler systems...jus sayin'