New Town Planner for Town of Fincastle, Why?

The Botetourt View is reporting on the new town planner for Fincastle.  The town residents are paying for this individual but he states his goals as meeting with the county board of supervisors and working with Historic Fincastle to see what the town needs. I am sure that none of the board of supervisors or the tourism head from the county live in Fincastle.  Looking at the HFI site, I only recognize three of the listed board members as living in Fincastle, one other has deep roots but doesn't actually live in town.  The Chair appears to not be a town resident or a recent one is she is a resident.

Clearly, a town manager should have the best interest of those who pay his salary as his goal, regardless of the reasons those who hired him had to bring him to the job. 

There are two reasons the town is what it is today.

First, the town has traditionally resisted change.  The railroad wanted to locate here and the town fathers said no.  Several colleges tried to locate here...no as well.  When I moved here 20 years ago I was gung ho to change everything, after a couple of years we figured out that it was really fine the way it was.

Secondly, the town has always let folks do what they want as long as they don't impact the rights of others.  We have no review boards telling us what color we can paint our houses or if we can put siding on or put up a fence.  If we want to have a home business, that's fine as well. 

Actually I would argue that is one of the reasons Fincastle is the way it is today. Historically almost everyone had some sort of business in the home or lived in their place of business.  There are those currently in power that would like to change Fincastle into some sort of suburban subdivision, they want their section of town to strictly controlled to be only residential, single family residential in fact.  Even new subdivisions in all areas are realizing that places you live need to be mixed use...especially a small town. We need to purchase services locally and trade with our neighbors.

Finally, the town needs to focus on activities that bring the people of the town together, not tears them apart.  Secret letter writing campaigns focused on a select group, are not conducive of good neighbor relations.  If you want a position of responsibility in the town, say so, have and open an honest debate on the issues, not a secret petition or secret letter.

Let's all keep an eye on the new regime to make sure we don't see increases in taxes and costs like when Mayor Critzer raised the building permit fee for Fincastle from $15 to $300 when he first took office.  The funny thing is that the county does the work and you have to pay them as well!