To the citizens of Madison County: We have just completed three days of workshop meetings, reviewing county revenues and expenditures in order to prepare a proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2011. Very soon we will publish a notice of the proposed budget and a proposed real estate tax rate, which will be the subject of a 7:30 p.m. March 29 public hearing. We will not vote on a final budget and tax rate for FY2011 until April 13.

Madison County is perhaps puny in population, but colossal in caring. That was demonstrated Sunday when an overflow crowd packed Haywood’s Mount Carmel Baptist Church for a special Haiti-relief concert that organizers say raised $2,100. The money will go to aid the Caribbean island nation’s Jan. 12 earthquake victims through the University of Virginia Nursing Students Without Borders program.

Freezing winter atmospheric temperatures, even though slightly warmer than in the past, cause much of that evaporated moisture to dump back on us in the form of snow. Therefore, as long as we have winters, planet warming will actually cause more intense blizzards.

Down here, 90 miles south of D.C., we are about to triple our average total seasonal snowfall of 12 to 24 inches. With even more snow this week, this is a good time to talk about global warming.

There is much discussion these days about global warming. That is as it should be, but it is unfortunate that the issue of climate change and its effects on the planet and our lives (and especially the lives of our children and grandchildren) is so often used as an emotional political wedge to divide us. This is a complicated issue, and the facts are often lost, muddied and even ignored, as self-interested politicians and partisan talk show hosts fan the flames to generate votes and boost ratings.

(The Copenhagen Global Warming Conference) is over and, thankfully, what a bust (except for a huge carbon footprint)!  Even the (mainstream media) couldn’t spin a win out of this non-event! My question to you true believers out there is this: How much new data or how much falsified data will it take to shake your faith, take off the blinders and open your minds to even the remote possibility of several less “fatal” alternative climate scenarios such as natural (non man-made) fluctuations or that dire predictions of global catastrophe and our ability to avoid it may be exaggerated?

Unemployment is staying high. Do you think that there should be a new, second stimulus package if the economy doesn’t improve soon?

What are you doing for Halloween? In every context in our country, that seems like a pretty easy question. Every context, that is, except church. You see in church, we have kicked this thing around for years and debated back and forth over what a church should do with Halloween.

With less than a month to go before the Nov. 3 general election, it’s time to again call attention to The Eagle’s longstanding policy concerning letters to the editor that explicitly support or attack a political candidate. As our letters’ guidelines that appear regularly state, we won’t publish such letters in the two issues right before the election. This means your last opportunity to get a letter backing or criticizing a candidate published is in this coming week’s edition, the one that comes out on Oct. 15.

Thumbs up to the Madison County Library’s Children’s Book Festival this past Saturday. Sure, the youngsters enjoyed seeing the magician’s impressive tricks or taking a ride on the Madison County Sheriff’s Office’s barrel train. But the 150 Madison County children that attended were able to choose from 2,000 brand new free books to take home to keep. These were all donated by patrons of the library.

This refers to the recent Eagle story regarding the National Park Service’s proposed new parking lots on Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC) land at Old Rag. Despite written requests, the service has refused to reveal the design of its proposed new parking lots, and where they would be located. Although it acknowledges that there are protected wetlands at the site, it also refuses to reveal just where the wetlands are. Nor has it made the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers report on the subject available to the public.

With the recent death of Michael Jackson, a lot of attention has been refocused on his music. What is your favorite Michael Jackson or Jackson Five song? Do you think he deserves the same lofty American musical icon status given to Elvis, Frank Sinatra and others?

Any recipes for grits will be appreciated. And could someone please enlighten me about Virginia white lightning?

In the spring of 1977, [Julia Williams] drove a banana-colored Datsun up the driveway of Grymes Memorial School to her appointment with Headmaster Joseph Y. Rowe. She was applying for the first grade position and had years of teaching experience, along with a master’s degree to recommend her.

In looking back through the years – either recently or years back – describe your best or most interesting Fourth of July experience.

What do you plan to do after graduation? (The question was asked to Madison County High School seniors earlier this month.)

Welcome class of 2009, teachers, administrators, parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins and friends. I think that I can say for the most of us seniors that today is certainly a day of celebration and we thank you for sharing it with us. Over the last four years, we have all had our share of high school drama, tardies, and, of course, the inevitable arguments with “the parentals.”

A roving vessel is making its rounds on a mission to help make at least a small corner of the world a better place. Misbehaving “pirates” improperly board it, halting it from making any further progress. A stand-off of sorts ensues and the vessel remains out of service. This sounds something like last month’s Maersk Alabama drama in which pirates operating on the high seas off the coast of Somalia boarded the large container ship as it was en route to delivering, among other things, relief supplies. But we’re actually talking here about Madison County’s mobile recycling trailer and events that took place in Banco, not Mogadishu.

I am writing this letter to voice my disappointment and the disappointment of Board of Directors of the Madison Chamber of Commerce on the “non vote” on April 2, 2009, by the Town Council for the proposed zoning text amendment dealing with mixed use zoning in the Town of Madison.

With the downturn in the economy causing workplaces to cut back and cut corners, resulting in more and more people losing jobs, many people – particularly people in their middle or late middle age – have been forced to rethink their entire job history and to re-inventory what gifts and graces they bring to the next place where they will work.

April is National Poetry Month. The inspiration came from the successful 1956 celebration of Black History Month (February), Women’s History Month (March) and based on studies of booksellers, teachers and Liberians, April seems to be the appropriate time during the year to give attention toward the art of poetry and encourage poetry readers.

We have crossed over that secular “holiday” of Tax Day. We may have even seen or participated in a TEA party recently. Money has been on our minds this week, even this week after the great celebration of Easter. It certainly has been on our minds this year as we have seen great sums lost by just about everyone, and we have had great sums proposed and passed as stimulation to our economy and for our governments upcoming budget.