I’ve been living now in Beallsville for a couple of weeks and I must say I am saddened when driving through Town on my way home from work. We lived in Poolesville for much of my adult life and I was involved in either the PTSA, the Jaycees, church work or Town government affairs in some capacity for most of that time. It used to be that my life was driven in part by evening meetings at the Town hall or the school or with some other volunteer group. I almost feel like I’m cheating in some way not to have meetings scheduled in the evening any longer.
I will begin to go to Town meetings to cover events but I thought it would be better to give the new Town Commissioner who took my place a bit of a breather before I showed up again. Poolesville is the heart of our area and living in Beallsville now I am coming to appreciate that even more. Ralph Hitchens has a nice piece on the local ballet and its production of “A Christmas Carol” demonstrating once again how active our community is. It remains important to me to stay involved and what may now be an important role is to make the blog a place where more ideas and suggestions for improving the Town are vetted. I urge all of you to submit such suggestions. The Town budget is now being prepared for next year and it is the main policy mechanism driving Town government activities. I will be covering the budget discussions and I’m sure it will spur some good discussions.
LINK
December 20, 2011 at 10:31 am
Link, of course you should stay involved! After all, Beallsville is to Poolesville what Montgomery County is to DC, right?
December 20, 2011 at 12:47 pm
Instead of you picking the topics why don’t you let the readers (whatever readers there are) pick the topics?
December 20, 2011 at 3:05 pm
We actually see several hundred readers on some days. I write about topics to stimulate debate. I do so because no one suggests topics. If you have a topic and want to open up an issue, offer it up with an initial post. I would welcome it and it would hopefully stimulate a lot of discussion.
December 21, 2011 at 4:47 pm
I enjoy reading your blog and I check in almost everyday. I think the topics you bring up are always interesting and thought provoking. If one change could be made to the blog I would request that the comments section be loosely moderated and instantly updated. I think opening up the comments section will open the doors wider for more discussion, sure you might get some screwball comments here and there but overall I think the input volume would increase.
December 22, 2011 at 12:04 am
Another comment. Your blog is awesome looking on the iPad!! The pictures look great and the format is laid out in a cool tile pattern.
December 22, 2011 at 4:18 pm
thanks Link, I am still trying to figure out where the bathrooms are!
Brice
December 26, 2011 at 11:34 pm
The reason that more people don’t read or comment is because of how slowly things move. Sometimes it takes three days for a comment to be approved. Why is there an approval requirement in the first place?
The Frederick Post, Washington Post, Gazette, and every other news site that I know of does not require approval of comments and things seem to work fine.
Wake up and welcome to 2012.
December 30, 2011 at 1:02 am
Anon – Perhaps there are more screwballs in Poolesville and they can’t be trusted with a keyboard. HA!
December 30, 2011 at 11:24 am
Part of the issue with quick posts in responses was the software which I’ve worked out now. Part of it was simply time due to commissioner duties, church activities and three new grand kids. But many of those issues are now solve. We do have minimal rules about posts. Basically anything can be posted unless it has swear words or is simply a personal attack. We do get posts with swear words believe it or not. Send a post on an issue you care about.
December 31, 2011 at 12:11 am
Link, is Jerusalem Rd. within town city limits? I’m concerned about the bridge in between the polo fields and Tama in the Woods. It looks to be crumbling and am wondering to whom to report this concern. Thx!
January 1, 2012 at 2:53 pm
No, the road is for the most part the boundary for the town and the road is maintained by the county. However, even in the case of roads not maintained or within the town limits, the commissioners do care about and push for improvements in all roads that serve the town. I’d let Wade Yost, the town manager, know about your concern.