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A lesson learned —
the hard way
Twice during recent weeks and months, opponents of highway projects have surfaced at the last minute and attempted to block them.
In one case, it is a major upgrading of a primary highway; in the other, the widening and resurfacing of a country lane. The two projects have little in common.
The opposition, however, does. Both are case studies of what happens when people don’t pay attention to what is happening in local government until something which affects them comes along. It’s unfortunate, but it is a phenomenon which those who watch government at work see all the time.
It’s easy to argue that “I don’t like going to meetings,” or “I don’t have time to sit through all those boring hearings.” Well, those who sit through a lot of meetings will probably agree that there are more exciting things to do — but few more important. Those meetings are where local policies and regulations are formulated and enacted into law.
Very little of the deliberations takes place behind closed doors. Any decisions which are reached in those executive sessions must be affirmed in open session afterwards. That’s the law. The people who represent us lay their opinions out in front of anyone sitting in the audience — and they’re often taken to task for it.
The Rt. 211 project has been discussed in open meetings for more than 20 years. The county’s Board of Supervisors has sent representatives to the annual hearing in Culpeper for a number of years to express its support for the project. Those facts have been reported in this newspaper — often on the front page.
The Rt. 630 project was included in the VDOT six-year secondary road plan after residents along the road requested the work at the department’s yearly secondary road hearing held each spring at the Courthouse in Washington. That hearing, too, is advertised in the newspaper, and open to the public. Anyone with requests, or complaints, is welcome to attend.
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