ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, December 21, 1995 TAG: 9512210077
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PEARISBURG
SOURCE: CLAYTON BRADDOCK SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES
You'd think the forecast would have been some warning.
There were snowplows along U.S. 460.
The temperature was dropping.
But the real storm wasn't outside - it was inside the Board of Supervisors' chambers upstairs in the Giles Administration Building.
In this county, people like their politics hot and emotional.
An overflow crowd stood jammed against the walls to give a not-so-tender goodbye to three of the outgoing board members.
Their complaints arose from longstanding issues that had been welling up among the voters for months, issues such as annexation, door-to-door garbage collection, and the hostility between some of the board members and Rick Cook, the county treasurer who won his bid for re-election.,
About 25 residents were present to criticize the board for favoring the annexation of Virginia Heights, Mason Court, Ingram Village, Lilly Fair and Fairview Acres. The Commission on Local Goverment recently sent a 60-page report on the county's annexation proposal back to the town of Pearisburg and the county for consideration. The two localities are deliberating the commission's findings.
"I served in World War II and we fought to defend democracy," said Edwin Robins, who lives in Ingram Village. "But it didn't get defended well enough when it came to annexing parts of the land around Pearisburg."
He told board members they turned their backs on the people by not listening to citizens' feelings on annexation. "You got to take care of the majority of the people," he said.
J.W. Wood, who lives in Virginia Heights, said during a lull that the citizens' basic complaint is "the town can't handle what they have now. They don't need anymore."
The county's finances were the subject of a heated debate between Larry Jay Williams, the only board member to survive November election, and outgoing Supervisor Bobby Compton.
Williams said a recent audit showed the county had a financial surplus of only $2.9 million. It was a sharp contrast to Compton's figures, which show $3.9 million. Williams revealed official audits of county finances. Compton said he had an audit at home that showed the $3.9 million figure.
"This county is better off financially than it ever has been," Compton said.
The packed audience, which generally remained quiet during the two-hour meeting, reacted with loud groans and wide grins.
Most of the future board members were present at the meeting, and they often spoke up.
During the election campaign, the incoming board members criticized the old board for a large number of executive or closed sessions. On Tuesday night, they joined in an executive session at the invitation of the old board.
Herbert "Hub" Brown, outgoing board member, disagreed with allowing the new board to attend that closed meeting by sitting out the meeting himself. He spent the hour-long session in the secretary's office.
The tempo of the meeting shifted when Ross Martin, interim county administrator, presented each member of the outgoing board with a plaque and commendation for their services.
In other business, the board approved:
A $111,950 low bid by Allen R. Neely Construction Co. to renovate an existing building to house the county's 911 communication center on Mountain Lake Avenue in Pearisburg.
A transfer for Donna Altizer, the board's secretary, to her new appointment as registrar for the Giles County.
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