Highland County Board of Supervisors June 2023 Work Session – Pt 1

June 22, 2023

The Highland County Board of Supervisors held its monthly work session on June 21.

The Board approved Highland’s participation with Bath County to pursue a regional grant for new radios for all emergency services.  Highland Sheriff Ronald Wimer reported that Bath County has been doing research on different frequency ranges that are compatible with the quiet zone at the Green Bank Observatory.  He said there was a better chance of getting funding from various sources if applications were submitted from a region.  Funding from one source is about two million dollars for each locality and other sources are being researched to provide additional funding.  The grants would provide funding for repeaters, new vehicle radios and more equipment for new frequencies.  Sheriff Wimer explained that they are going to add radio frequencies by supplementing the current frequencies with a different frequency range.  That addition should help emergency services with better communication and Sheriff Wimer said it should improve coverage with the mountains, although it doesn’t penetrate structures as well.

At the end of the meeting, the Board went into closed session to discuss the county’s solid waste disposal provider.   County Administrator Roberta Lambert explained that Highland will be losing it’s solid waste disposal company hauler on June 30 and is looking for both a temporary and a permanent replacement.  A representative from Allegheny Disposal in Green Bank, West Virginia was at the meeting to meet with the Board on contract negotiation for temporary services.  Lambert said the county is looking for a temporary provider, since the job will be put out to bid and that process takes a while.

The Board approved writing a letter of support for Botetourt County, for its application for funding for emergency supplies.  The funding will be used to purchase sheltering supplies for use in Region 6, which Highland County is part of.   If the funding is received, five sheltering trailers will be purchased and housed in the Roanoke area.  The trailers will be available for use by all localities in Region 6.

To hear more from the Highland County Board of Supervisors June work session, stay tuned to Allegheny Mountain Radio.

Story By

Bonnie Ralston

Bonnie Ralston is the Assistant Station Coordinator at WVLS and a Highland County news reporter. She began volunteering at Allegheny Mountain Radio in the fall of 2005. In 2006 she became an AMR employee and worked in Bath County for eight years as the WCHG Station Coordinator and then as the news reporter there. She began working in radio while in college and has stayed connected to radio, in one way or another, for more than thirty years. She grew up in Staunton, Virginia, while spending a lot of time on her family’s farm in Deerfield, Virginia. She enjoys spending time outside, watching old TV shows and movies and tending to her chickens.
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