Highland Supervisors Discuss Roof Repairs

Monterey, VA – The Highland County Board of Supervisors opened the sealed bids for repair work on the courthouse roof at Tuesday evening’s meeting. Bids were received from Dennis Kincaid, Bridgestone Construction and Metzler Brothers Construction. Because of the complexity and length of those bids, the Board chose to delay action until it is able to review the bids at length during next Tuesday’s work session.

The Board wants to study the bids and confirm that each one meets all the requirements. Just one bid was received on the courthouse roof gutter work. It was from Metzler Brothers Construction. The Board chose to also review that bid in detail at its work session next week.

Kathy Belcher, Interim Executive Director for Valley Community Services Board in Staunton, presented the new performance contract to the Supervisors. She is requesting a match of $5,932 from the county. Her organization currently has 37 clients in Highland county that receive services for the mentally handicapped, mental health and substance abuse.

Highland resident Marty Leach serves on the board of this group and is working to coordinate their work in Highland county. The Supervisors approved acceptance of the performance contract.

Mike Henry of the Virginia Department of Transportation Lexington Residency reported to the supervisors on county roads and projects. Road crews have completed patching and line painting on several county roads and have finished the overlay on route 250 east of Monterey. Mr. Henry describes the current status of the Route 612 Bullpasture River ford project.

“That project’s been submitted the environmental section for review” says Henry. “We have asked the environmental folks to make that review as quickly as possible. The plan is to put in a cable-connected articulating concrete block mat that will just lay in the bottom of the river and provide a more stable surface to run on.”

He says he feels they have a good plan and will get started as soon as they get approval from the environmental section. Mr. Henry goes on to talk about a request from the Supervisors a few months ago to consider a guard rail on route 250 east of Monterey above Mr. Jessie’s house.

“We had a guardrail engineers from Staunton take a look at that and at this present time they cannot support putting a rail up there” says Henry. “There logic is that there are many other locations in and around the immediate area that are more severe than that location that need rail more. They have to prioritize where they put their rail based on the funding that they have.”

Supervisor Rexrode asked that VDOT staff come to Monterey and meet with the Supervisors at the site to discuss this further. His contention is that there may be more dangerous sites on 250 that lack guard rail but few, if any, have a house just downslope from the road and in the path of any vehicle that would leave the roadway at that location.

County Administrator Roberta Lambert says the Registrar and Electoral Board are requesting the purchase of some equipment needed for county elections. She says the Virginia State Board of Elections will no longer print election poll books for localities. The Registar and Electoral Board are asking for a printer capable of printing the books for each election. They are also asking for a backup computer for the office that will also be used by the Electoral Board.

The Supervisors tabled action on this request until more information can be obtained.

In other business the Supervisors approved several appointments to county boards and commissions. Tony Stinnett was reappointed to the Planning Commission. Doug Siron, Jerry Moats, Sharon Sponaugle, Jim Whitelaw and Ronald Wimer were appointed to the Local Emergency Planning Committee. Denise Simmons was appointed to the Recreation Commission.