Blast from the past

January

Sadly, the budget surplus, according to many analysts, consists of smoke and mirrors, give that the commonwealth hasn’t yet paid back the millions it essentially borrowed from the Virginia Retirement System. This same type of funny-money accounting will be on display in the Warren Green Building at 4 p.m. on Thursday, when the board of supervisors will hold a public meeting on equipment needs facing our volunteer firefighters and rescue personnel.

February

Newspapers encompass many different people with many different skills. At the Fauquier Times-Democrat, we have a circulation department, editorial department, advertising department, an administrative office. While all the people who work in those departments keep the newspaper going, Nick Arundel was its heart and soul.

March

The sad news is that it remains entirely possible that if Catlett Farm LLC declines the deal and the supervisors proceed with their own plan, they may yet discover, with no “threat” from development, that they can’t afford to sewer Catlett after all.

April

Warrenton has a ways to go before anyone would call it “entertainment-driven,” but putting some alternative residential units just off Main Street is, we believe, an excellent start toward maintaining the town as a vibrant and desirable place to live for an increasingly large and important portion of our population.

May

All things being equal, we like our lawmakers feeling obliged to us, not the other way ‘round, and contested elections go a long way toward achieving that goal.

June

The federal government issued a plan this spring to spend $53 billion on high-speed rail over the next five years. Many Republican governors, however, balked at the federal handout, largely due to ideological, as well as logistical and funding concerns. More’s the shame, our own Gov. Bob McDonnell was among them.

July

We’re not alone in our concern that we have taken a grievously bad wrong turn somewhere along the line. Elsewhere on this page, one letter writer warns that our government is approaching third-world incompetence. Another raises the specter of a simmering revolt — the American Summer following on the heels of the Arab Spring. A third makes this excellent point: “Other nations have rebounded nicely; why don’t we learn from them?” That’s a question that has baffled us for years.

August

Whether we agree with any of these folks, incumbents or challengers, on the issues is not the point. We are delighted that they are putting themselves up for the voters’ consideration. We are going to work harder to keep our writing about their campaigns thoughtful and civil. We urge our readers to do the same.

September

But we grow weary of the assault on environmental protection under the guise that we simply can no longer afford such luxuries, that environmental protection is a job killer, that looking after our natural resources is some evil, tree-hugging political subterfuge.

October

We have never, ever, heard a Fauquier resident anticipate with glee the day that Fauquier succumbs to the development pressure that has swallowed Fairfax, Loudoun, Prince William. How we prevent that from happening at the same time that we stimulate business remains an intriguing question that supervisor candidates need to address.

November

By and large the candidates, we are happy to note, kept the whole affair pretty civil. Their supporters, well, not so much. A sign of the times, we suppose. As much as we condemn partisan rancor in Washington, we have invited it into our neighborhoods.

December

If Congress were serious about fixing a political system that becomes a little more dysfunctional by the day, it would take the opposite tack: Make accepting taxpayer funding mandatory, take private money out of the equation. Our political system is in dire straits. It is not difficult to understand the root cause of its ailments.