Bath’s Board of Supervisors (part 2) The pipeline and the EDA
For anyone who may be tired of hearing about the pipeline, you can rest assured no more news will be coming from the Bath County Board of Supervisors. Tuesday night they declared they have done all they can do, and are finished discussing it. This conclusion was reached as a result of a small glitch in procedure, when the board requested FERC to perform a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement as an addition to their letter of opposition. Not everyone is familiar with a PEIS. It is a thorough, comprehensive study of all of the proposed pipelines (not just the ACP) through this whole region of the East Coast, and an effort to determine just how necessary they are. The Bath County Board was concerned about meeting a FERC deadline for comment, and had not convened a special called meeting to agree to this addition. After a couple of requests to end their own comments, the board did decide to ratify their request with Stuart Hall dissenting.
Stuart Hall of the Williamsville District expressed his reservations.
“Madame Chair, this board went on record as opposing the project. We can’t continue to come every day, or every week, or every night with another problem to add to it. What else can you say? If you’ve opposed it, you’ve opposed it. We have no business continuing to harass whoever with these continued requests to do different things. The public, the environmentalists, landowners have every right to fight this anyway they can, but we can’t continue to do this.”
The board then addressed approving a memorandum of understanding with Family Preservation Services. This is an arrangement by which the county retains ownership of the building, does not charge rent, but FPS is responsible for all operating expenses and maintenance.
Jennifer Turner from the Covington office of Family Preservation Services, and Jason Miller, Director of Bath County Social Services, described the proposed use of the Seeds building in Millboro. The building has been unused for seven years; Turner explained that the mission of FPS is keep children and teens in their homes through mentoring and in home counseling. Jennifer Turner:
“We tagline ourselves as ‘human services without walls’; meaning that we serve our clients in their own environments. We don’t own or run hospitals, or residential facilities. We serve our clients in their homes.”
The SEEDS building will allow this area to be more locally staffed, and eventually be available for outpatient counseling. More information about Family Preservation Services, which has a variety of payment options, is available from Jason Miller at Bath County Social Services.
Finally, the Supervisors addressed appointments to Boards and Commissions. Sue Hirsh, Superintendent of County School was reappointed to the Regional Criminal Justice Board and the VASAP board. Claire Collins, Chair of the Board of Supervisors was reappointed to the Shenandoah Valley Partnership. The only position, in which eight people had expressed interest, was an at-large member of the Economic Development Authority. After Richard Bird, Valley Springs district moved to appoint Jay Trinca, Eddie Hicklin offered a substitute motion to appoint Daniel Plecker from Millboro. Richard Bird’s motion passed 4-1, so now Jay Trinca will be a member of the EDA. There will be a joint meeting, open to the public, of the Economic Development Authority, and the Board of Supervisors on July 13th, 5:30 at the Library.
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