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BOS to Donate Building to RADA

Lisa Watson McCarty
Publisher

County supervisors voted to unanimously donate a building in Thomas Village to a non-profit community action agency as long as state officials agree to the transfer.

During last Wednesday's meeting of the Scott County Board of Supervisors, board members agreed to donate the former Thomas Village Community Center to Rural Areas Development Association, Inc., commonly referred to as RADA. After a required public hearing set for next month's meeting and input from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development, RADA plans to renovate the facility which has been vacant for more than 10 years.

RADA has served the needs of low- to moderate- income individuals in Southwest Virginia since 1965. They serve residents of Lee, Scott and Wise Counties as well as the City of Norton. They currently have offices in the Scott County Community Services Building, which director Angela Sproles said they will continue to use.

Sproles explained the Thomas Village facility will suit the long-term needs of RADA by providing needed warehouse space. They plan to seek additional funds to renovate the building and may close their Jackson Street office.

Supervisors also revisited a decision they made last month regarding a funding request from the Crooked Road Board of Directors. At the July 3 meeting of the board, supervisors denied a motion that would fund the tourism marketing group $1,500. But this month one of the members who voted against the July funding request had a change of heart.

District 6 Supervisor Chad Hood asked the board to reconsider giving some money to the Crooked Road organization because of the amount of tourism dollars invested into Scott County by the Appalachian Regional Commission and other regional authorities. Hood calculated the county had received nearly $1 million in grant funds used at tourism venues such as the Carter Family Fold, Wilderness Road Blockhouse, Daniel Boone Wilderness Trail Association and others.

He explained that although the budget request from the Crooked Road was received well after the Feb. 28 deadline, the organization had provided marketing funds in excess of $200,000 for the county and he thought the board should fund them something.

Although Hood spoke in favor of providing money to the Crooked Road, he didn't make a motion specifying a dollar amount. District 1 Supervisor Paul Fields said the decision made last month was correct and made a motion to stay the course.

District 3 Supervisor Danny Parks agreed with Fields and seconded the motion. He said agencies wanting money from Scott County should be well aware of the budget deadline and that he didn't want someone to come in every month asking for money.

Fields' motion was denied on a 5-2 vote and then District 2 Supervisor Joe Horton repeated his motion from the July 3 meeting. Board chairman Dr. David Redwine seconded the motion which donates $1,500 to the Crooked Road from the board's contingency fund. This time the motion passed on a 5-2 vote with Fields and Parks voting no.

Redwine also stated during the course of the meeting board members would be meeting in a closed session sometime during the next 15 days to hold second interviews on candidates for the county administrator's position. He confirmed the board had received 11 applications and declined to say how many were interviewed.

In other business, the board presented Roger Bowen, who recently retired as cleaning staff, with a certificate for his 31 years of service to the county. They also appointed former assistant county administrator Barbara Edwards to a seat on the Lonesome Pine Regional Library Board.

Larry Vicars of East Carters Valley was selected to fill an unexpired seat on the Lenowisco Board of Directors. He fills the seat vacated by the late Virgil Sampson and will serve until Dec. 31, 2009.

Supervisors agreed to a job description for an animal shelter worker. The position is part-time and paid solely from grant funds. State mandates have forced the animal shelter to change their method of disposing of unwanted animals from gas to injections.

Parks questioned representatives of the Virginia Department of Transportation about a bridge replacement project on Highway 71. Ronnie Flanary of VDOT explained the contractor had moved off the project as they waited for the bridge beams expected to arrive in October.

Parks said he didn't understand why contractors didn't order the beams once they were awarded the project and it was a major inconvenience to close one lane of the bridge while no work was being done. I wouldn't begin a project until I was assured the beams were on their way or already here, he added.

Flanary said he understood Parks' concern and that the time to receive steel items had been excessive.

Bobby Marshall of Nickelsville also questioned Flanary about progress on the Moccasin Gap Interchange. Flanary explained he wasn't involved in the daily operations on that job and couldn't defend the contractor because he didn't know enough details.

He gave Marshall the phone number of the construction engineer who oversees the project for VDOT and suggested he contact him.

The board also approved a resolution of support for the Scott County Economic Development Authority's application for a Tobacco Commission grant to build the proposed Duffield Regional Technology Center in the eCorridor Park Southwest. The original version of the resolution included a paragraph about the supervisors providing $250,000 to the project, which the board eliminated from the approved draft.

Hood said he was all for progress but the board needed more information before they decided to give any county money to the project.

Horton suggested supervisors wait until the Aug. 6 meeting of Lenowisco to make a decision.

Redwine stated the board needed to be good stewards of the county's money and needed good and true justification to spend $250,000 on the project. He added they weren't completely denying the request but wanted additional information.

Ultimately the board agreed to ask EDA Director John Kilgore Jr. and Ron Flanary, executive director of Lenowisco, attend the next meeting of the board to provide more details about the project.

The Lenowisco office building was recently purchased by Holston Medical Group's One Partner division, which plans to tear down that building and the former Penn Virginia building and construct a new complex on the site.

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