Highland Supervisors Ask State Government To Restore Spending Cuts Back To The County

Monterey, VA – The Highland County Board of Supervisors took a stand Tuesday evening asking that the Governor and the Virginia Legislature restore millions of dollars in budget cuts to counties that are included in the fiscal year 2012 through 2014 state budgets. Highland County has lost thousands of dollars of state support for several of its constitutional offices, including the Sheriff’s office, the commissioner of the revenue and the circuit court clerk over the past two years. The Supervisors passed a motion to support the resolution.

In other business, Neysa Simmers, Executive Director of the Valley Community Services Board, made a presentation to the Supervisors regarding this year’s performance contract. She says the budget for Valley Community Services is just shy of $21 million dollars.

“Of that 21 million, 11.1 goes for mental health services, 7.4 million for developmental services, and 2.4 million for substance abuse services,” says Simmers.

She says Highland’s share of the local match is $5932.00. The Supervisors voted unanimously to accept the contract from the Valley Community Services Board.

During the public comment period, Doe Hill resident Lee Blagg reported to the Supervisors that there will be an open meeting with U.S. Post Office officials on Wednesday evening at 6 PM at the Headwaters Presbyterian Church regarding the possible closing of the Headwaters post office. He asked that one or more Supervisors attend that meeting, if possible. Post Office officials are also looking at the possibility of closing the Williamsville and Doe Hill Post Offices.

The Supervisors went into closed session to discuss negotiations on a new site for the McDowell trash compactor. The next scheduled meeting of the Highland County Board of Supervisors will be a work session on Tuesday, September 20 at 7:30 PM in the Modular Conference Center in Monterey.