Humor, Hiring Head Hunters & Flood Failures

THUMBS UP TO:

Church’s humor over car accident

Gethsemane Baptist Church along Old Airport Road in Bristol, Va. is taking a recent Saturday car accident in stride. After a car smashed several neighbors’ mailboxes, a fence and butted into the corner of the church, leaders reorganized about worship services. “Ouch, my side hurts,” the church’s marquee reads. Services are being held at the Virginia High School auditorium while the church is being repaired.
No doubt the damage to the church was alarming, but members have taken it in stride and good humor. We wish them good luck and speedy repairs.

Agreement to hire search firm

We are pleased to see Bristol,  Va., City Council (finally) come to unanimous agreement to hire a search firm to coordinate the search for the next city manager.
After meeting in closed session on Tuesday, City Council agreed to interview three search firms next week. City Manager Bill Dennison announced in July that he plans to retire at the end of the year.
We urged Council to agree to a search firm in a July 19 editorial, noting then that Dennison’s desired retirement date was only five months away. Now, nearly seven weeks later, time is slipping away from the city. On Tuesday, members were told that even once they decide on a search firm, the process could easily take 90 days. But as we approach the end of the year, candidates will be less likely to want to relocate around the holidays.
While we give Council a thumbs up for agreeing to a professional search, and budgeting up to $25,000 for the work, we fear failure to already decide on a firm means this search process could easily move into spring 2010.
We want the best person possible, but we also want to see Council increase its urgency in getting started.

THUMBS DOWN TO:

Failure to protect the public

It is clear that failure to heed warnings regarding erosion and sediment control contributed to the Wyndale neighborhood flooding last week.
Between the two storms that flooded the community, Washington County officials were twice told they needed to shore up erosion and sediment controls at an industrial park expansion nearby.
An engineer hired to monitor the project wrote in an Aug. 13 memo that the controls could not withstand a flash flood.
And a Virginia storm water specialist, who inspected the work, said in an Aug. 17 report that the county should revisit its construction practices to prevent future flooding.
By the time the second storm flooded the Wyndale neighborhood, both were recommending that the county stop all work on the project until better control measures were in place.
For the residents who suffered through two rounds of flooding, there is no excuse. Officials did not follow the advice of the professionals they hired and who warned them flooding was likely, if not imminent.
Citizens whose property was damaged deserve an accounting for this arrogance.