Roof funds spark budget debate

Two supervisors, one resident cite fairness

By Amy Boucher

 

      INDEPENDENCE – While Grayson County residents will be pleased to learn that the county’s proposed $21.1 million budget means no increases in taxes or fees, one of the smaller line items is generating the biggest controversy.

The section of the budget devoted to the expenses of the Board of Supervisors includes $8,300 for materials to replace the roof on the Flat Ridge Community Center. This was added at the request of Wilson District Supervisor Glen “Eddie” Rosenbaum, whose home is in Flat Ridge, and he defended the expenditure at a recent budget workshop, saying, “Flat Ridge don’t have anything.” The labor will be donated.

Several community organizations similarly lease old school buildings from the county. The agreements require that the lessor maintain the property.

Supervisors Kenneth Belton and Brenda Sutherland said at the budget session that giving the money to the Flat Ridge Community Center was unfair to the other community groups, such as Elk Creek Fire Department, which replaced the roof on the old Elk Creek School, and Fires Fire and Rescue, which replaced windows at the old Providence School.

Goodwill Grange has maintained a school building at Grant for more than 25 years.

Indeed, the one speaker at a public hearing Thursday night on the 2015 fiscal year budget agreed. Karen Hollifield of Comers Rock thanked the supervisors for creating a balanced budget with no tax increase, and then asked that Comers Rock Community Center also get $8,300. “I’m sure we need a new roof.”

Hollifield said that the community puts on plays and dinner theaters at the center to raise maintenance funds, “large and complicated projects,” because the lease requires that the community maintain the building.

While the overall county budget is up only 2.2 percent, the Board of Supervisors’ $58,600 portion is up a much higher percentage. Detailed final budget figures were not available Friday from the county administrator’s office, which said they could be obtained Tuesday. In an earlier draft of the budget, the supervisors’ outlay totaled about $63,606, up 8.5 percent from this year. This included Rosenbaum’s additions of the Flat Ridge roofing materials and a $5,000 annual coyote bounty fund.

(As of Thursday night, the county has spent $460 for 16 coyote carcasses.)

County Administrator Jonathan Sweet said the goals the supervisors set for the budget included ensuring that it balanced; maintaining a healthy fund balance; retiring debt; and delivering the current core services without raising taxes or fees. The spending plan maintains a 10 percent operational reserve, gives fire and rescue squads the same amount they received this year, gives the school system $75,000 more than the amount required by the state, and pays off three bonds totaling $741,600. This will save the county $352,000 in interest, Sweet said.

The real estate tax rate remains at 49 cents per $100 of assessed value. Other tax rates remain the same, including: personal property, $1.75; machinery and tools, $1.75, and merchants’ capital, $6.70, all per $100 of assessed value.

The supervisors plan to adopt the budget at a June 25 meeting, which starts at 5:30 p.m.

Recycling pays

Grayson cashes in -- more than $40,000 worth

By Amy Boucher

 

      INDEPENDENCE – Recycling is paying off for Grayson County and the dividends are on the rise, according to a report from the Public Works Department aired by County Administrator Jonathan Sweet on Thursday night.

Income from sales of recyclables rose from $32,000 in 2012 to $40,700 in 2013, and the increased poundage meant that Grayson avoided paying $17,600 in tipping fees at the landfill, up 22 percent over the $8,700 saved in 2012.

Recycling of steel more than doubled in 2013, from 7,055 pounds to 17,199 pounds.

By far the biggest sector of Grayson’s recyclables market is cardboard, both in pounds and in income. Graysonites recycled nearly 400,000 pounds of cardboard last year, which sold for almost $30,000.

This was followed, weight-wise, by paper and magazines, at 212,000 pounds, bringing in only $3,707.

The biggest overall increase was in recycled plastics, at 74,400 pounds, up 414 percent from 2012. Plastic brought in $4,500.

Sweet said Grayson’s ability to warehouse recyclables means that the county can wait for a good price, and he praised the Public Works Department for handling the massive increase in recycling.

Wilson District Supervisor Glen “Eddie” Rosenbaum asked Sweet how much the county is getting per pound for steel and aluminum.

Sweet said the price varies and he did not have the particular figures at hand.

“I’ve got some connections that might help the county,” Rosenbaum said.

“We’ll be happy to look at opportunities,” Sweet said.

“You’re talking beaucoups of space saved at the landfill,” said Supervisors’ Chairman John Brewer.

In other action, the board:

* reappointed Larry Osborne and Joe Killon to the Industrial Development Authority.

* appointed Tony Isom and Kimberly Coleman to the Community Policy Managemtn Team.

* postponed an appointment to the Workforce Investment Board because Sweet has not yet found a suitable candidate.

* declared a 1994 GMC Jimmy surplus, so that it can be sold.

* learned that the county’s workman’s compensation insurance rate rose 32 percent, in part because a deputy was shot while on duty last year.

* learned that Fries is featured in the Charlotte edition of The Angler, a free fishing periodical.

* heard from Edgar DeHart, who asked that Grayson repeal a 2004 resolution that made the county a “fence out” locality. This means that property owners are required to fence animals out of their land, which means they have to share the cost of boundary fences with neighbors. DeHart said he only learned of the policy in 2013. “I bet there’s not a person in this room that can tell me what their responsibilities are as to fencing,” he said.

“Our property rights have been compromised with this policy.” DeHart asked that Grayson have a policy neither of “fence in” or “fence out.” State law allows localities to choose.

* authorized the chairman and vice chairman to sign documents for economic development projects.

* agreed to interest-only payments, deferring principal payments, from Quinton Fitness in association with a loan through the Virginia Small Business Financing Authority.