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TazCo Cuts Middle School Sports and more


Ryan4VT
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15 minutes ago, sixcat said:

I won't go too much into detail but my company pays a higher amount in taxes for an office in Galax than it does for an office in Abingdon.  The out-of-whack tax strategy in Galax is the key factor in Lowe's closing it's Galax store and building a new one a few yards up the street in Carroll County!  Taxes are a double edged sward.  You can go overboard and price yourself out if your'e not careful, which Galax seems intent on doing.  

After reading that article, I never knew Virginia was the only state where independent city's were separate entities than the county where they are located.  It stands to reason, if so many of Virginia's independent city's are struggling to survive, why is this still a "thing"?

In an ideal world, cities would be the major economic hubs while counties would be the rural/residential areas.  The city/county division allows cities to have full autonomy over decision making and policies, which presumably would keep greater control of the cities’ resources in the cities (and improve the quality of life there not at expense of the County).  There's a bunch of little idiosyncratic differences that I won’t bore this Board with.

 

Until the population explosion in NOVA, the system had pretty well worked for its intended purpose.  Now, the system’s breaking down.

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4 hours ago, 99Bama said:

That is an interesting article. It does seem as if we are in a perfect storm of disaster on this end of the state. 

As far as Tazewell county goes, I wonder where we rank across the state for personal property taxes. I think after this last increase we are .60 per $100 accessed. I may be incorrect on that. I'm sure I may be looking at this wrong but it seems raising the property taxes "this time" is somewhat of a short sighted answer to the problem. In Bluefield, Va we have two elementary schools that are probably 1.5 miles apart. Dudley being a k-2nd and Graham Intermediate 3rd-5th. Both Richlands/Cedar Bluff and Tazewell/North Tazewell are somewhat similar in distance between each other but they are all to my knowledge k-5. I dont see the benefits of the having the two schools in Bluefield Va set up the way they are. I'm afraid we have some more tough decisions to be made in the very near future.

That’s why Dudley and NTES will be on the chopping blocks next summer along with the Voc Center 

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I can’t go on record as much in this realm, but I will say that if the School Board closes TCCTC, it will be the worst mistake that body has ever made.  We have a population here that is PERFECT for vocational training, and taking that away would be utterly devastating, to put it very kindly.  We don’t have the demographics to be a white-collar job mill.  We have the demographics for practical training, and it saddens me to see just how much it’s already been placed on the back-burner.

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13 hours ago, 99Bama said:

I will be stunned if Dudley is on the chopping block. Maybe the other two but not Dudley.

I didn’t mean Dudley, I meant to say Abbs Valley. Sorry! Because those will probably go to Dudley!

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22 minutes ago, Bulldogs52 said:

I didn’t mean Dudley, I meant to say Abbs Valley. Sorry! Because those will probably go to Dudley!

Very possible. I'd hate to see kids k-5 be on a bus for that long of a ride but I'm sure they would do that before they would bus kids from Dudley to Abbs Valley. Lol. I would have rather seen them close Dudley or Graham Intermediate and sent those kids to Springville. Unless there have been changes the last time I was at Dudley there wasnt enough room to whip a cat much less house that many students and helicopter parents. 

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On 7/2/2018 at 2:05 PM, sixcat said:

 

After reading that article, I never knew Virginia was the only state where independent city's were separate entities than the county where they are located.  It stands to reason, if so many of Virginia's independent city's are struggling to survive, why is this still a "thing"?

There are very few instances where being an independent city is an advantage.   Perhaps if you had a town where the citizens were remarkably more affluent and educated than the surrounding county residents. 

And no, Abingdon, I'm not talking about you.

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15 hours ago, 99Bama said:

Very possible. I'd hate to see kids k-5 be on a bus for that long of a ride but I'm sure they would do that before they would bus kids from Dudley to Abbs Valley. Lol. I would have rather seen them close Dudley or Graham Intermediate and sent those kids to Springville. Unless there have been changes the last time I was at Dudley there wasnt enough room to whip a cat much less house that many students and helicopter parents. 

Heard Springville was going to be used for either school board or county offices. I agree, would have made more sense to close Dudley and use Springville building. It's much nicer and room to expand.

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On 7/2/2018 at 10:58 PM, UVAObserver said:

I can’t go on record as much in this realm, but I will say that if the School Board closes TCCTC, it will be the worst mistake that body has ever made.  We have a population here that is PERFECT for vocational training, and taking that away would be utterly devastating, to put it very kindly.  We don’t have the demographics to be a white-collar job mill.  We have the demographics for practical training, and it saddens me to see just how much it’s already been placed on the back-burner.

Absolutely worst mistake, your post is on point!!! We actually need vocational training beginning earlier than 11th grade. Middle school would be ideal. 

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I work in the welding industry as a quality manager and know for a fact that nation wide there is a shortage of hands on workers.  In our computer technical world, our young people are not being taught to work hands on, except with their hands on a computer or smart phone.  In the SWVA area, we are experiencing shortages on qualified welders and metal fabricators, also general laborers, equipment operators, carpenters, electricians, and so on.  Closing the Vo-Tech would be a mistake in my opinion and the work force would suffer for it, causing the hands on laborers that are here to migrate to other areas for employment.  Everyone in our area cannot work in the service industry, someone has to supply the need for the service, and usually in an industrial country, that is the hard working hands on people.  In my opinion The Board of Trustees need to concern themselves with acquiring more industry into the county.

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On 7/4/2018 at 12:02 AM, Gridiron60 said:

Absolutely worst mistake, your post is on point!!! We actually need vocational training beginning earlier than 11th grade. Middle school would be ideal. 

All Vocational schools are Federal and State money . All the salaries are funded by state and federal, no local money. The only thing county is on hook for is the upkeep and utilities. Would be crazy to close it. The school should be generating money through their programs. Greenhouses, carpentry all are big money makers!

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