Page County, Va., to an outsider, this place is filled with people you see in tv movies. Folks sitting on their front porch after a hard day of work, town folks catching a glance and speaking hello to a stranger. Kids riding their bicycles or skateboards where they not supposed to, but the law says nothing until someone complains. Life seems simple here. There isn’t the hustle and bustle of the city, sirens not going off at all hours of the night, there may be a few hotrodders going up and down the road, but nothing to serious. Kids are hanging out in the parking lots until they are runned off and you will see all kings of folks walking in their town, either to lose weight and get some exercise or just to take a walk and to talk with the passerbys. Unless you live here, you do not know how those that are elected to run the county really are. Basically, what goes wrong with the county is the citizens fault. We are the ones that voted those to run the county. But when the job is not up to par, we also have the right to have them removed. Project Clover is the latest scandal to hit Page County. It is getting bigger than the Danny Presgraves’ scandal with the sheriff’s dept. Ever since I can remember, there is always some sort of “stupidity” that the Page County BoS ends up doing.

I remember as far back as to when the county lost $200,000 in a “illegal” investment scheme. The scheme was legal to regular people, but illegal for localities because at the time, it was not on a list of approved investment ventures. I am sure the thinking was to make money in a hurry. Good idea. The kicker is that the county for several weeks tried, unknown to the citizens, to reduced the school budget $200, 000 to cover the lose. Boneheaded move especially when most of the elected memebers just ran on the “better education” platform to get elected. I was told recently that  there was a candidate that got elected because he promised to abolish the building codes. No more comment on the way of thinking on this one, this one can speak for itself and I can only imagine.

The new schools discussion went on from the time I was  in school until two new schools were built. One school idea kept getting shot down because mostly it was “I don’t want my kind going to school with your kind” mentality. Finally we have two new high schools which probably came 10 years too late. The recent contraversy surrounding that was that the county needs a county administrator building and they would not have the avaliable space at their current location unless the building they are in is demolish, but it can’t be because if the county vacats the premises, it will be reverted back to the school. So now they are still operating out of a nearly condemned building. Do you feel the love there?

Then there is the scandal where at one time, the BoS had went to a lot of “retreats” to “discuss county issues”.

Probably the most memorable scandal, and you cannot miss it if you are traveling west bound 211 from Luray is the Battle Creek landfill. The sale job tactics the county used was phenominal. Actually, it was not a bad idea. The county could had actually profited from it. Instead, the county was scammed by Tellurian that eventually sold out and went bankrupt and left the county with tremendous amout of violations and fines.

You would think that the county would had learned from that. They may have. Perhaps that is the reason why now, the BoS has itself in a middle of another scandal, Project Clover. This one was quite, under the radar. The plan was to build a business park. The idea was prepared by the Page County EDA and the county was to back them. The only problem is, that a very small amout of the residents knew of such plan. What is causing the ruckus is that no citizens were asked about the area the EDA plans to buy with taxpayers money, and there were no vote on using the taxpayers money. Instead, the money was “shifted” to the EDA. All was quiet until the story broke on a local blog website. Now the EDA and the BoS is on its heels in trying to explain what is going on, but documentation recorded by the county states otherwise. Building a business park is not a bad idea. Other options needs to be discussed and there are folks in this county that does know how this works. Working together is the only solution to getting this done.

Perhaos the BoS is staring to realize that the citizens are starting to “arm” themselves with information and know that they may no longer be able to pull the wool over our eyes. If the citizens in the future show up like they have been in the past few months, whether to applause or criticize the efforts of our elected officials, then Page County can be fixed. The only thing is, politics is politics. A candidate will almost always run on a platform the majority wants to here just to get elected.

To be more honest, to have a fruitful government, those that are elected needs to put in more time and effort. In order for that to be done, they need more pay. In my opinion, if the BoS was paid a yearly salary, then they would find more time to commit than to wait at the last minute to make a decision. Then a better community could be formed.