August 2010 Supervisors report

Many citizens in Northern part of Pittsylvania county have notice new signs installed by Virginia department of Transportation requesting your input on no thru-truck traffic on Blue Ridge Drive ,Prospect Road and East Hurt Road. I encourage everyone to write to Virginia Department of Transportation and express your thoughts on restricting thru tractor trailers on these roads. Please get your letters in before September 3,2010 to this address : Director of Programming and Investment Management Randy Hamilton, 4219 Campbell Ave.,Lynchburg Virginia 24501 make your voice be heard at VDOT.I was told that after the cutoff date it might be several weeks before a final decision is made on our request.

Here are some high lights from August 7,2010 Board of Supervisors meeting ,I was absent from that meeting .The Board removed $900,402 in State funds from the amended School budget and approved all other School carryovers to 2010/2011 School year budget by seven classifications and a request to change any of those totals will require Board of Supervisor action. This should create a better checks and balances of how money is moved around in School system. The Board also voted to fund $53,307 from Economic Development for Pittsylvania counties share of $600,000 to start Southside marketing plan, $200,000 will come from Governor of Virginia (state money), $200,000 from Tobacco commission and remainder from Southside counties. The Board voted to approve Regional –one contract for another year and locate a unit in Gretna area with hours from 7 am to 7 pm.

At August 17,2010 Board meeting Mr. Randy Hamilton ,Virginia Department of Transportation’s local Government Liaison for Pittsylvania county introduce Mr. Joe Barkley,III Residency Maintenance Manager ,Virginia Department of Transportation for Pittsylvania county and Halifax counties.Mr. Barkley explained how the new way of doing business with VDOT will affect you when a call is placed to VDOT. There is 1-800-367-7623 to “One Stop Call center “located in Salem Virginia (this center is for the whole state of Virginia) your request will be forwarded to a local VDOT maintenance center located nearest your home and someone will be dispatched to handle your request. I requested that they give each caller a reference Number so that your request can be tracked through the system in case for some unknown reason it got lost and you need to call again. All VDOT‘s local telephone numbers will be forward to this new 800 number.

I tried to increase the fee that the Treasures office charges for administrative fee to place a Stop order to DMV for those who fail to pay their taxes. The Pittsylvania county ordinance sets that fee at $20, the treasure has been charging $25 dollars since 2009.I tried to raise that fee to $30 to cover all expenses incurred by the treasurer’s office. Since many of these stop request are repeated offenders it only made sense to set administrative fee at $30 but 6 Board members decided to set the administrative fee back to $20 and let all taxpayers pick up the extra cost for those who don’t pay their taxes.

The Board voted 6 to 0 with Mr. Pritchett abstained to send a request to Pittsylvania county School Board to drop all fees charged for outside recreation at School facilities. The taxpayers paid for these facilities and if the School system can spend almost $1 million for storage buildings citizens should have free access to School buildings for recreation after School hours. I did ask at the Board meeting if the Board of Supervisors could take back the $600,000 given for Instruction purposes the answer was yes it can be done through a lengthy process. Is it worth it? I need more information on ratifications if this was to take place.

The Board of Supervisors voted 7 to 0 for the following: To create a new $25 fee for recordation of a list of heirs with Clerk of Circuit Court collecting this fee; tax exemption given to Northern Pittsylvania county Food center for vehicle and property; application for Justice Assistance grant $11,348;approve penalty and fees for unlawful and Illegal use of Fire Hydrants in Pittsylvania county; approved a 15’ easement to Pittsylvania county service Authority located at compactor site near Chatham Middle School; Amend Service agreement with Dewberry and Davis Phase 1 ground water well installation for $65,615;bid award for Sheriff’s department uniforms $29,762;approve carryover line item in Sheriffs budget $20,000 to create a auxiliary Deputy Sheriffs program; Not approve funding for any private day placements from the Comprehensive Plan Management Board program until an audit is completed by the State Auditors office; Gave approval to clear lot 7 Ringgold West Industrial Park; Renew Agreement with Tri-Lake Administration commission.

The Board of Supervisors did approve to create a position for Recreation director and approve Phase 1 of Pittsylvania county Recreation Board Comprehensive Master Plan which will create a county run recreation department along with a director to organize all recreation on county owned property along with developing a user agreement between the recreation department and Pittsylvania county School Board. I voted for this if we can find funds to pay for a director and Northern part of Pittsylvania County can be included in this program and not all going to Danville side of Pittsylvania County.

To get the Board of Supervisors packet or other information, you need to go to Pittsylvania County Home page www.pittgov.org; this is a tool for all citizens to use and help to keep a watchful eye on County business. Feel free to contact me by telephone (434-335-5967) please no phone calls after 9 PM or you can e-mail me at any hour marshall.ecker@pittgov.org I want to know your thoughts or ideas on issues that are important to you.