Soooo….we're gettin' a lot of email about the abortion clinic zoning amendment. Most of it is in support of the amendment but I'm sure we'll hear from the other side soon enough. The meeting on the 10th is shaping up to be epic. I might wear shorts so that I'm comfy! Hopefully the Mayor will schedule the vote after citizens time so that everyone can be heard. If you want to email instead the address is councilmayor@manassasva.gov. I promise to read whatever it is you send although if it's a crazy wandering screed accusing me of taking bribes from the abortion clinic I probably won't reply. Not that I've received that email or anything. As of the last meeting we've already spent $20k on this issue and that does not include staff time. I'm sure it'll be around $30k by the time we're done. Twice that if you counted staff time. Amazing we can find money in the budget for this but not parks & rec, redevelopment or economic development. We're the only locality in NoVa that has none of these things. Yay Us!
It is also unfortunate that we're frittering time away on this (it's going to get done either way) as the next meeting is where our new City Manager is going to present his first budget. That's a big deal. We'll see what he has come up
Teeth!
On the policy front, I think the new parking districts are set to get done in a month or two. There will be plenty of people who are unhappy but it needs to happen. The number of cars licensed in Manassas grew 8% last year. We didn't add that many houses so….the homeowners in Point of Woods have complained and the Council really hasn't done anything on a policy front about it. Let's hope the Manager gets this done right and soon. It isn't going to win me any friends but we need to do it.
Looks like the Manassas GOP is going to have a primary instead of a convention. That'll be a first. At least for me. I like conventions from the standpoint of being able to hear from all of the candidates. I don't like that people start floor fights over junk that just delays things so the less zealous just get sick of it and leave – games really. That part I don't care for. I really didn't like giving my fist speech at a convention. My legs were shaking so bad I thought for sure everyone could see! Second time wasn't as trying and when I ran for Mayor it wasn't bad at all. This time there will be none of that. The filing deadline hasn't been decided but it's got to be pretty soon – next month or so. I haven't heard from anyone if they're running or not. I've had a fair number of people ask me to consider running again but I'm undecided at this point.
I had a root canal this week. In talking with others, I was prepared for a pretty horrific experience. Essentially surgery with no anesthesia. Blood shooting everywhere. Pain. Agony. It really wasn't that bad. Not that laying in a dentists chair for an hour with a dental dam clipped over your yap is any fun but it certainly wasn't that bad either. I wouldn't volunteer for it but if I needed another one it wouldn't be the end of the world. I am getting tired of being able to chew on only one side of my mouth but that'll get better once I get the crown put on.
Happy weekend.
