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BOS Moves Closer to Cleaning Up Scott County

Lisa Watson McCarty
Publisher

County supervisors agreed during this year’s budget process that cleaning up the county was one of their priorities. And they have moved closer to that goal by voting to implement a program that assigns probationers to pick up trash along specific roads.

The new position of litter control officer has been filled and the board took action at last Wednesday’s regular monthly meeting to edge closer to introducing the Assign-a-Highway program into Scott County.

On a motion placed by District 2 Supervisor Joe Horton and seconded by District 4 Supervisor Joe Herron, the board voted unanimously to adopt a resolution to implement the program that assigns portions of highways to convicted persons under the terms of their probation.

Earlier this year, Betty Clark of Snowflake was hired as the county’s first litter control officer. She is currently completing some state requirements and is expected to begin enforcement action shortly.

Scott County Administrator John Strutner explained the next step is to request the court to prepare an order to establish the program. He added that the judges of the 30th Judicial Circuit are aware of the program and have already been implementing it in other counties in Southwest Virginia.

Supervisors also spent a portion of Wednesday’s meeting complaining once again about the Virginia Department of Transportation’s funding problems.

District 6 Supervisor Chad Hood remarked he was disappointed in the media coverage of a recent public transportation meeting in Abingdon and was disheartened by some local representatives not standing up for Southwest Virginia. He relayed some remarks made by Second District Del. Bud Phillips, who believed representatives from Southwest Virginia weren’t working together.

“Phillips said he really feels like that some Republicans and Democrats alike [in the House of Delegates] are trying to do the right thing,” Hood said. “But the majority of the Republicans and I’m not trying to make this political is where the problem lies with the transportation funding

“It’s just really disheartening to me to know that we’ve got people in the state probably from these areas that we’re talking about that aren’t doing the best of their jobs to help us out.”

Phillips called VDOT the “whipping boy” of the state because they aren’t getting adequate funding from the state, he added, and many residents blame all of the transportation problems on them. But without state funding, VDOT isn’t able to do their job.

“Back 10 to 15 years, VDOT would have crews of 50 and now they have 5 to 10 left in those crews,” Hood continued. “And now you have all this equipment sitting there not being utilized. There’s nobody there to run it… We need to get the word out. Some of the bigger politicians have the clout to push maintenance of secondary roads on counties.”

Hood said the transportation issue will return to the forefront when the General Assembly goes back into session. He complimented Strutner on preparing a statement on the state transportation funding issue that is currently online on the county’s website www.scottcountyva.com explaining the board’s position on the future of transportation in Virginia.

According to the statement, Virginia is now transferring approximately $450 million annually from road construction to support increasing statewide road maintenance requirements because current revenues are inadequate to support maintenance.

All counties are receiving less secondary road funding today than they did in 1996 with an average reduction of 36 percent in secondary road funding predicted in 2007.

The statement concludes by asking local residents to contact their state representatives and let them know their opinions on the transportation funding crisis. A copy of the statement is also available on the Scott County Virginia Star website, www.virginiastar.net.

In other business, the board gave its unanimous approval to Rex McCarty, owner of the Homeplace Mountain Farm & Museum, to pursue a pump and haul sewage system in order to build three additional log cabins on the property for nightly rental. Because the property located on Wadlow Gap Highway is not served by public water or sewer, the board must approve a local ordinance that allows property owners, as a last resort, to install a state-certified system.

Several property owners in Wise County have pump and haul systems in use. Brad Stallard, who heads the Lenowisco Health District’s environmental monitoring division, explained that Wise County has never had any problems with these systems and the county has the opportunity to make their local ordinance as lenient or restrictive as they want.

Several supervisors thought a bond was necessary to ensure the system was used only by those who absolutely needed it. District 3 Supervisor Danny Parks explained he thought a bond would give them assurance that not everyone with a septic problem would be running to get a pump and haul permit.

District 1 Paul Fields commented the construction of three rental units would be a great way to spur the county’s tourism development. I support this 100 percent because we need to get something going in this county, he added.

McCarty suggested the county outline its ordinance with high standards to make sure local residents are protected and he agreed to post a bond if necessary. He commented that if sewer was installed near his property, he would be the first one to hook up.

District 5 Supervisor Randall ‘Buck’ Kinkead said if someone is willing to spend money to build a place for visitors to stay then he was sure they wouldn’t let sewer run out all over their property.

Strutner added the county needed to set guidelines for all potential users and not just this request. We need to make sure those seeking these permit have exhausted all other remedies first, he said.

After several months of debate on whether to approve new positions and pay rates in two constitutional offices, the board finally approved the requests. In September, supervisors asked for an Attorney General opinion to see if they were legally bound to pay their portion of the fringe benefits for the treasurer’s and commonwealth’s attorney’s offices.

This month with legal opinion in hand, the board voted 6-1 to allocate the money for a new part-time attorney and a fulltime paralegal in the commonwealth’s attorney’s office and a new salary rate for the treasurer. Fields voted against both motions.

Marcus McClung, the county’s commonwealth’s attorney, asked to speak to the board during their deliberations. He said no other jurisdiction that was approved to get new positions by the state compensation board had any difficulty getting their local boards to pay their portion and he wanted to let the board know progress in his office.

He added that the new positions were added on a need basis because his office was ranked sixth out of 130 jurisdiction needing additional positions. McClung said he spoke with the county administrator and believed there was no problem.

Fields explained that the commonwealth’s attorney should have come before the board for his request and not talked to the administrator.

Both Parks and Herron explained they had no problem with McClung’s office but rather with the treasurer’s decision to increase her own salary $11,899 from salary allocated to a new part-time position.

McClung said the state comp action allowed the county to get two new positions at minimal cost to the county. But Fields took exception to McClung’s explanation.

I have a problem on behalf of county taxpayers having to pay this amount, Fields said.

Hood commented that he understood Fields’ position, especially when the county had to come up with additional money. We have to look out for the county’s best interests, he added.

McClung said he wanted to keep the lines of communication open with the board and he had worked hard on drug-related cases.

Supervisors returned Craig Seaver and added Robert Etherton to the county’s tourism committee. Mitzi Owens was selected for an unexpired position on the social services board.

Scott County E-911 Director Tim Addington presented the board with an update on the county’s Enhanced-911 project. The beginning phase of 911 is currently operational and local residents can call 911 to report emergencies.

Near the end of the meeting, supervisors went into an extended closed session to discuss personnel issues that lasted about an hour.

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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