Economic Development

In order for the Town of Pulaski to modernize for the future, we must start bringing in new industry that will create jobs in the town. For this to happen, the town must take better advantage of its economic development office in order to attract businesses to our community. Furthermore, the town needs to make sure that construction sites are readily available in the business parks. These sites must be ready for immediate construction including site grading, water, sewer, natural gas, and easy access. Finally, I would like to see a monthly economic development assessment given to the council and a quarterly assessment made available for the public.

Community Interaction

Right now, the community’s interaction with members of the council is generally limited to council meetings and special events. I know that people run into council members from time to time, but it is generally not planned. I propose that council members schedule a time every month or two where members of the public can meet with the council and discuss issues going on in town and the council can address citizen concerns.

Open Government

It is becoming more and more common that people do not believe or trust in any form of government and to reverse this, the town must start making more information available to residents of the Town of Pulaski. This can be achieved by posting items such as council information packs, minutes from council meetings, reports from state and federal government agencies and the town’s responses to them on the town website. These are just a few of the items that the town could make available, but it would be a good start.

Improving Community Image

How many times have you told someone that you live in Pulaski, and they reply “I’m sorry?” Our community is moving in the right direction, but we still have a lot to do. We need to address issues of blight including vacant buildings and the town’s general appearance. It is necessary that we start taking advantage of our ability to maintain a registry of vacant buildings and enforce annual safety inspections. By having these inspections, we can make sure that vacant buildings do not fall into a state of disrepair and that their appearance does not cause problems for other property owners.

Marketing the Community

As housing prices continue rise, people are starting to look at homes outside of Blacksburg, Christiansburg and even Montgomery County. This means that more and more people are looking at homes in Pulaski County. We need to make sure that people looking in the county know that the Town of Pulaski is a great town to live in and a good place to raise a family. In order to achieve this, representatives from the town and council need to meet with area realtors to find out what the town can do to get people to buy homes in the Town of Pulaski. The information gathered should be used to create a pamphlet detailing why the Town of Pulaski is a great place to live. A packet should also be prepared that can be given to new residents that explains to them important things to know about living in town (garbage collection dates, drop site locations, info on noise and other ordinances), as well as provide them with information about places to eat, shop, and have fun within the Town of Pulaski.

Fiscal Responsibility

We all already know that the economy is in bad shape, but what we do not know is what steps are being taken by the town to ensure our tax dollars are being spent wisely. We need to make sure that during the annual town budget discussions we are reevaluating all of our department budgets and contracts to ensure we are getting the most for what we pay and we need to make sure that no funds are being unnecessarily spent. In some cases, we may be underfunding a department which is as serious of a problem as overfunding others.