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Hood: 'County Needs to Hire Tourism Director'

Lisa Watson McCarty
Publisher

The county’s plan to generate revenue by forcing delinquent tax payers to pay their real estate and personal property taxes is paying off dividends.

“As far as economic development in
Scott County, if handled correctly
tourism would be the fastest growing
type of economic development,” said
District 3 Supervisor Danny Parks.
“Every day you can go by Bush Mill
and there people taking pictures with
an out-of-state car parked there.”

At last Wednesday’s meeting of the Scott County Board of Supervisors, County Attorney Dean Foster presented a graphic representation of payments made on delinquent taxes collected on a quarterly basis since May 4.

The county has collected $116,589.08 since John A. Rife of the law firm of Linebarger, Goggan, Blair and Sampson of Richmond was hired to handle delinquent tax collections owed more than two years. Of that total, $66,894.62 was paid directly on the delinquent tax, while penalties, interest and administrative fees accounted for $6,689.52, $27,070.47 and $15,934.47, respectively.

Rife’s firm earned $23,321.49 for their efforts – all of which was paid by the delinquent taxpayers.

Foster also explained that some properties might be sold by public auction beginning Aug. 30 as result of unpaid back taxes. The county attorney handles delinquent taxes owed for the past two years while all taxes owed between 3-20 years are referred to Rife.

“There’s a lot of history in
this county,” [Paul] Fields
commented as he named
several historical sites.
“There are a lot of things
in this county. I agree with
Chad. We need this position
and that’s where we really
need to focus.”

In other business, after a presentation by Joe Fuller of the Scott County Tourism Committee, Sixth District Supervisor Chad Hood suggested the board needed to hire a full-time tourism director.  According to Hood’s suggestion, money allocated to the county’s Economic Development Authority board is returned unspent each year and could be used to hire the new position. The supervisor explained that as of June 16, the EDA had only spent $160,000 of its budgeted $236,000-plus.

“We can create this new position without spending any new non-allocated money,” Hood remarked. “We can pull from that EDA money and create that director’s position. Tourism is one of our main objectives. I believe we can pull from that and it won’t affect EDA funds.”

Fuller added that the county’s strategic planning committee had considered the possibility during their year-plus long strategy sessions but the notion didn’t make the final plan. Some members didn’t think the county would create a new position that would require new funding.

“As far as economic development in Scott County, if handled correctly tourism would be the fastest growing type of economic development,” said District 3 Supervisor Danny Parks. “Every day you can go by Bush Mill and there people taking pictures with an out-of-state car parked there.”

District 1 Paul Fields agreed the county was blessed with potential tourism sites but hadn’t done a good job of marketing the sites.

“There’s a lot of history in this county,” Fields commented as he named several historical sites. “There are a lot of things in this county. I agree with Chad. We need this position and that’s where we really need to focus.”

It was the general consensus of the board that a director to handle tourism efforts in the county was the direction they wanted to pursue. Most wanted to wait until the county’s hotel/motel study currently being conducted by Virginia Tech was finished.

District 2 Supervisor Joe Horton said his recent visit to the Carter Fold, definitely showed him the power of tourism as he recognized very few people. As he looked around the Fold’s parking lot, out-of-state license plates far outnumbered Virginia plates.

Horton then suggested county officials discover what other localities were doing in regards to tourism development and to come up with a proposed job description.

Board Chairman Dr. David Redwine suggested that within 6 months, the hotel/motel study would be complete and proposals for a new hotel could be submitted to large chains for the possibility of opening a branch in the county.

“It’s my feeling among the board that this is a popular thing,” said Redwine. “But before you can formalize it, you have to budget it in. It’s appropriate and probably in the middle of the year, we can budget money for it.”

Redwine added that he believed local persons would like to capitalize on tourism businesses related to horse trails, fishing, hunting and more.

“We promised the public we would do this – that we would do everything we could to promote these things,” Fields remarked. “The opportunity is here and we need to go ahead and work on it and get something going.”

District 4 Supervisor Joe Herron said the potential for camp sites was another area where local residents could benefit and additional access to county rivers needed to be marked and identified.

If the board follows through on the idea, Scott County would become the first county in the area to hire their own tourism director as no other county in Southwest Virginia currently has a paid tourism director on staff. Tourism groups such as the Heart of Appalachia Tourism Authority and the Blue Ridge Travel Association have paid staff members, who work to promote regional tourism efforts.

“We need to put this as a priority,” Redwine stated. “I think we did a really good thing with litter control and this is another important item. Those are two important things and that’s what’s the county is squalling about and what you hear the most about. I think we need to quit talking about it and do it.”

Fritz Falin requested a lower speed limit on East Carter’s Valley Road because the road was becoming more like a “race track.” Ronnie Flanary from the Virginia Department of Transportation said that a speed study had to be conducted with funding for the study coming from local maintenance funds.

John Flanary also asked a portion of roadway just outside the Nickelsville town limits be vacated near his son’s business.

Flanary also reported that VDOT was beginning right-of-way acquisition in the Hackney Subdivision under the rural addition plan.

Richard Phipps was named to fill an unexpired seat on the Mountain Empire Regional Business Incubator.

The Scott County Board of Supervisors meets the first Wednesday of each month at 8:30 a.m. in the county office building. All county meetings are open to the public.

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