Securing council approval proved difficult, and reaching consensus impossible, the last time Mount Airy put together a budget. The hard part was that cuts had to come from somewhere lest taxes go up, and there was plenty of last minute wrangling to decide what got the axe.
So this year the council is getting a bit [...]
Archive for January, 2009
Defining government ‘waste’
Posted in Brook's Blog, Budgets and taxes, Local government on January 28, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Lifelong learning, for teachers
Posted in Brook's Blog, Schools on January 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Teacher quality and merit pay have leaped to the forefront of the national diologue on public school reform, especially with President Obama tapping noted reformist Arne Duncan to serve as secretary of education. Given that focus, it’s uplifting to see that teachers in Surry County are still pushing themselves to improve in their profession through [...]
Foxx leads charge against bailout
Posted in Brook's Blog, Federal government on January 23, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Virginia Foxx, Surry County’s representative in Congress, was thrust into the C-Span spotlight Thursday when she led almost three hours of debate on the U.S. House floor for her bill to cut off the remaining $350 billion in the bailout of the financial sector. The measure passed by a 270-155 vote, making national and even [...]
All eyes on Obama
Posted in Brook's Blog, Elections, Federal government on January 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Today’s Messenger cover story, like just about every newspaper cover story in the nation revolves around the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Looking at the election and the previous campaign through a local lens, two things stand out. The first is that Obama’s Surry County supporters were vocal and passionate, the second is that it [...]
Working without a net
Posted in Brook's Blog, Local government on January 19, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
After debating in closed session for more than an hour, the Mount Airy City Council reached unanimous agreement Thursday night not to extend City Manager Don Brookshire’s contract when it expires in April. Though the 11-page document has a number of provisions, it’s the page on severance that has at least a majority of the [...]
I am Surry County … and so can you
Posted in Brook's Blog, Tourism and recreation on January 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
With all apologies to the Stephen Colbert book title I just appropriated, that phrase could apply to the first step in the Surry tourism partnership’s branding campaign to figure out how to better market the area. Last month the partnership hired design firm Madcat Group to coordinate a brand the entire public can buy into, [...]
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