Bath Board of Supervisors First Meeting of 2020

January 16, 2020

The Bath County Board of Supervisors met for their first meeting of the year on January 14th at the courthouse in Warm Springs. This was the first meeting with the 3 new elected members- Lee Fry for the Valley Springs district, Roy Burns for Warm Springs, and Shelton Burns for Williamsville, along with the two previous members Eddie Hicklin and Ron Shifflett.

The board had to have an organizational meeting where Ron Shifflett nominated Eddie Hicklin as chairman and Fry nominated Roy Burns as Vice-chair, these both passed 5-0. The board also decided to keep the meetings on the second Tuesday of each month at 6pm.

County Attorney, Michael Lockaby, conducted training for the board members on the VA Freedom of Information Act and noted that all elected officials must attend FOIA training at least every 2 years.

For public comment, 6 citizens spoke. Susan Plecker said she wants a new industrial noise ordinance regarding Speyside. Charles Hamilton asked that the board see what they can do about putting a handicap spot back in front of the pharmacy downtown. Reggie Cross asked the board to look into getting some noise barriers due to Speyside’s noise. Another citizen asked the board to look into the county’s current health insurance policy. Bruce McWilliams shared that Speyside has created a lot of jobs for the area, and is concerned about other businesses that may want to locate in the county not feeling welcomed. Marty Plecker, Susan Plecker’s husband, asked the new board to consider the situation and try to work with Speyside on the noise issue.

Shelton Burns was appointed to the Department of Social Services, Roy Burns was appointed as emergency manager, and Lee Fry will serve on the Bath/Highland Broadband Authority for a term ending in 2021.

For the consent agenda, Roy Burns made a motion to approve actions A, B, and C which was the payment of this month’s invoices, transfer and appropriation requests if needed, and correspondence to monthly reports. Last on the consent agenda was the Census 2020 Presentation and Review Complete Count Committee Resolution. The board will discuss the resolution further next month.

For the last public comment, Marty Plecker shared his concern with Speyside again and Marty Robinson shared his concern about the roads in Bath County, sharing that they need work.

For the board comment, Ron Shifflett, Shelton Burns, Roy Burns, and Lee Fry thanked the citizens for giving them the opportunity to represent them. Roy Burns and Lee Fry said they have both received complaints about a lack of parking when citizens visit the courthouse to conduct businesses and asked employees to consider parking in the lower lot. Eddie Hicklin said that Speyside has exceeded the performance goals set when the firm was located in Bath in 2016 and that more than 40 jobs have been created. He also urged the new board to be transparent and wants people to have the correct information.

The Bath County Board of Supervisors meets every second Tuesday of the month at 6pm at the courthouse. The next meeting will be February 11th.

For AMR News, I’m Abby Dufour