Bath Supervisors Listen To Funding Requests During April Meeting

Warm Springs, VA – Ian McIlvaine, President of the Bath County Chamber of Commerce presented the board with a request for funding for 5 tourism promotion projects including renovation of the tourism gazebo on route 220, downtown Hot Springs landscaping, improving the chamber website, reprinting the visitor’s guide and signage and marketing funds for the farmers market.

Mary Hodges and Jackie Stephenson addressed the board in support of the farmers market proposal. The location has been moved to the parking lot in downtown Hot Springs. The opening date is planned for June 5. The farmer’s market proposal includes a request for $1500 for signage and marketing expenses.

The board voted unanimously to approve $3000 for the tourism gazebo renovation, $1000 for the downtown landscaping, $1500 for the farmers market signage and marketing and about $4,700 the visitors guide reprints. The 2 remaining projects will be considered for funding at a future board meeting.

Supervisors approve refurbished airpacks for Millboro

In other business, the board heard a request from Mr. Billy Grimm, president of the millboro volunteer fire department for funds to replace the department’s airpacks. The airpacks currently owned by the department are old, do not meet federal standards and therefore pose a safety hazard. Mr. Grimm has located 10 refurbished airpacks that do meet standards at a reduced cost of $1500 each, as compared with $7,000 each for new airpacks. The supervisors voted unanimously to provide $15,000 from the county reserve account for purchase of the airpacks.

Finally, the board heard from Bonnie Johnson about a small watershed grant proposal being submitted by the county to the national fish and wildlife foundation to pay for further study of the Cabin Creek flooding problem. Supervisor Carol Hardbarger reported that the residents there are in serious need of a solution to this repeated flooding. The grant would pay for a more in depth study of the situation and would lay the foundation for finding a solution to the flooding. The board approved a $7500.00 matching contribution to hire an engineer to study the problem.