Highland Supervisors elect new chairman

Monterey, Va. – The Highland County Board of Supervisors has a new chairman to start the year. At their meeting last week, Lee Blagg was elected chairman and Kevin Wagner was elected vice-chairman. The Board also adopted their rules of procedure for 2013 and set the calendar of meetings for the new year. The Supervisors will continue to meet on the first Tuesday of each month and hold work sessions on the third Wednesday of each month. The County budget process will begin soon. County Administrator Roberta Lambert talks about the budget calendar.

“I have sent letters out to all County department heads and to all the other organizations and agencies that submit budget requests to the county and asked that their requests be in by February the first, which is the same time that the constitutional officers budget requests are due in to the Compensation Board,” said Ms. Lambert. “Then during the last half of February and early March, would be time for budget work sessions for going over the budget and meeting with any of the department heads or agencies, or all of them. Then the school budget is due to you by April first unless they by chance get it done any quicker than that. Then you have to have an adopted budget back to them by May first. So the County budget calendar is set up to adopt the county budget by May first,” she said.

In other business, the Supervisors will consider a rezoning application and a conditional use permit application from Michael and Kelly Botkin.

“The rezoning application is to rezone 9.15 acres from R2 to R3,” said Ms. Lambert. “It (the property) is located near the intersection of Airport Terrace Road and Caterpillar Lane. That application was reviewed by the Planning Commission on March 22nd. They sent that to the Board of Supervisors with a favorable recommendation at that time. The other application is for a conditional use permit to operate Landscape By Design and K & M Construction on that same parcel of property and that was sent to the Board with no recommendation from the Planning Commission,” she said.

The public hearing for the Botkin’s rezoning and conditional use permit applications was set for Tuesday, January 22, at 7:30 PM in the Modular Conference Center in Monterey. Work on upgrading the McDowell water system is continuing now that most of the leaks appear to have been fixed.

“We did get the $50,000 planning grant and that is in process,” said Ms. Lambert. “The Health Department has approved three potential well sites and the engineer is working on getting that test drilling set up for those potential sites. So that is moving forward. The school energy efficiency project – we are just waiting to hear from ARC (Appalachian Regional Commission) on that grant. They don’t review those until spring. Of course the stormwater management program is ongoing and will be for some time.

The McDowell Solid Waste Disposal site was completed and opened for business on December 19.

“Donnie Botkin’s Construction (Company) did a great job on it,” said Me. Lambert. “All the other contractors, the paving, and David Lightner with the electrical and the other subcontractors that worked with Mr. Botkin. Everybody did a great job. Yes, and we did luck out on the weather,” she said.

The next meeting of the Highland County Board of Supervisors will be their monthly work session scheduled for Wednesday, January 16. Their next regular meeting is Tuesday, February 5, at 7:30 PM in the Modular Conference Center in Monterey.