Good evening, Floyd Forum readers! I just finished sleepily typing this recap of Tuesday morning’s Board of Supervisors meeting. Now, it’s Grey’s Anatomy and an early bedtime for me!
I hope you find this report helpful for keeping you up-to-date on the actions of Floyd County’s government. Thanks as always for reading, and feel free to send questions/comments/concerns over to me at aspinksdugan@gmail.com. Have a great night!
-Ashley
Floyd County has a new administrator, but no doses of the COVID vaccine
Effective March 1, Floyd County will have a new administrator, following the departure of Terri Morris at the end of last year. The county’s Board of Supervisors approved Dr. Linda Millsaps’ contract at its meeting Tuesday morning. (Kudos to Doug Thompson at The Floyd Press, who got the scoop on Millsaps more quickly than I could.)
Hiring a new county administrator was the first of several high-interest items the Supervisors tackled during their Feb. 9 meeting. Supervisors heard from Floyd County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. John Wheeler about reopening plans. William Newcomb, a senior program manager at Draper Aden Associates, updated the Board on the “corrective action” status of the Floyd County landfill. Floyd County Emergency Management Coordinator Kevin Sowers told Supervisors that the county is prepared to host COVID-19 vaccination clinics—if only the state had sufficient supply of doses.
Students in grades 4-12 will return to in-person learning four days a week as of Feb. 23. Wednesday will remain an all-virtual day throughout the county. The school system has been using that day for deep-cleaning of the buildings. Currently, county students in grades K-3 are already in schools four days a week. Wheeler said no significant spread of the coronavirus has been traced to the schools since they opened on Aug. 11.
Older students have been in hybrid or all-virtual learning environments up to this point. The Floyd County School Board’s decision to expand in-person learning follows a seeming mandate from Gov. Ralph Northam last week. On a call with state superintendents, Northam set an expectation that all of Virginia’s school systems would return to in-person learning by March 15—although his office acknowledged it was only an expectation, not an order. The exact strategy and timeline of the return to in-person learning is being left to the discretion of individual districts.
Wheeler told the Board of Supervisors that Floyd schools were ahead of the curve by offering some in-person opportunities from the beginning. “The loss of learning in the state is unbelievable,” Wheeler said. He recounted that only about one-third of school divisions in the state kept students entirely online this year, but those divisions serve about 70% of Virginia’s students. This is because they are some of the largest districts, in areas like Northern Virginia.
Wheeler said that situation is what led the governor to propose extending the school year into summer—to make up for those massive losses in classroom time. “A lot of that doesn’t pertain to us,” Wheeler said. Floyd County schools will offer some remediation opportunities over the summer, he explained, but “summer school is not a pandemic discussion.”
Wheeler said many Floyd County teachers have already been vaccinated, or have appointments to get shots later this month. The schools’ A/C installation project should be complete by mid-April, and schools are scheduled to release for the summer by Memorial Day, Wheeler said.
During Tuesday’s meeting, the Supervisors also revisited a popular and contentious topic, of how to improve the county’s Green Box solid waste disposal system. The discussion was prompted by a landowner in Indian Valley requesting that the county remove a Green Box from their property. District Supervisor Justin Coleman and Solid Waste Manager Sherrell Thompson are currently searching for a replacement site.
Green Boxes are placed throughout the county as receptacles where residents can dispose of trash, especially during times when the county’s Transfer Station is closed.
“When you look at the maps, it’s obvious we wanted to keep things on our major byways,” Little River District Supervisor Linda DeVito Kuchenbuch said. “In essence, we’ve taken large chunks of our county and made it difficult for them to dispose of their waste,” she continued, because there are areas of the county without Green Boxes, and far from the Transfer Station. She suggested revisiting the topic of where to place Green Boxes during a future meeting.
Landowners have historically been reluctant to host the boxes because they’re often not used properly, are surrounded by mess and can attract bears and other animals. Courthouse District Supervisor Jerry Boothe suggested it may be in the best interest of the county to purchase an acre of land specifically for the Green Boxes.
Eventually, Locust Grove District Supervisor Lauren Yoder said, Floyd should invest in “four or five county-owned super sites around the county.” He added, “People are expecting a higher level of service than driving into a muddy parking lot that has sinkholes.”
The county’s Emergency Management Coordinator Kevin Sowers stopped by the meeting to share limited information about the county’s vaccination plans. “There’s just no vaccines, and it’s unfortunate,” Sowers said. “I just urge everybody to be patient.”
Acting County Administrator Cindy Ryan said county officials and volunteers like those at the Floyd EcoVillage have done everything they can to be prepared when doses become available. They want to be ready, she said, “any given day the health department wants to come over.” Ultimately, the state’s allocation of doses each week is in turn distributed to health districts. Then, the New River Health District, for example, is responsible for distributing doses to clinics in its constituent counties.
Ryan suggested to the Board that they could hire some of the folks who staffed curbside voting to help manage vaccination clinics. The county could have these people on standby, Ryan said, and assess their staffing needs when the time comes. Earlier this week, CVS started taking appointments at locations across Virginia, although the rollout of that federal partnership was rockier than anticipated.
Ryan said Floyd pharmacies, including the Pharm House, have inquired about access to vaccines, as well. The Pharm House has the capacity to administer 75 doses of vaccine per day, Ryan said, but is currently on a long wait list for doses. “The last time I talked to (the manager), it was a six-page waiting list,” Ryan told the board.
Yoder clarified during the meeting that the county government is not taking calls for vaccination appointments. Appointments need to be made through the New River Health District. Senior citizens who don’t have access to the internet can call the Jessie Peterman Memorial Library at (540) 745-2947 for assistance making an appointment, Yoder said.
Various wells around the county’s landfill property are checked every six months for contamination with chemicals or metals, a project manager told the Board of Supervisors Tuesday. The county is also required to submit a case report to the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) every four years, to demonstrate whether water quality has improved. Such a report is due in August 2021.
The Floyd County landfill is currently in a phase of “corrective action” after contaminant levels exceeded federal standards, but is making progress toward good standing.
Newcomb, a representative from Draper Aden Associates, explained the situation to the board. The contaminants found in Floyd County’s wells, he said, are not uncommon. They include paint thinner, hand cleaner, degreasers and byproducts of light manufacturing. “There’s nothing particularly bad at this landfill compared to others,” Newcomb said.
However, heavy metals are being found during water testing. Newcomb said this is partially due to federal mandates about how to pull the water samples. “The way the regulations were written; it required ‘total concentration,’” Newcomb explained. “You can’t filter the sediment out of it.” Furthermore, he said, some metals found in the water occur naturally in Floyd County.
“There’s always potential that metals are actually from bedrock or the soil itself,” Newcomb said. “Lead’s particularly a problem…because it’s so common in manufactured materials, but also in a lot of the bedrock in Floyd County.”
Newcomb said he will offer the Board of Supervisors a more comprehensive report on the water quality data in September of this year, after the case report is filed.
Also during the Feb. 9 meeting:
The Board approved $5,000 to cover work performed by the Southeast Regional Community Assistance Project, as part of the county’s scatter-site housing rehabilitation project.
VDOT representative David Clarke offered the board an update on gravel used to treat the county’s roads following a snow or ice event. Many county residents have reported punctured tires from the gravel. “They have been looking at that; they ran the test, and it passes all of our requirements,” Clarke said. “They run it through sieves, gradation in there, angularity. It passed all of our requirements.” He said VDOT would continue to monitor the situation.
Clarke also announced the date of a public hearing on the county’s Six-Year Road Plan. It will be held April 27 at 7 p.m.
The county accepted a bid of more than $240,000 for a front-loading garbage truck. The truck will be delivered within 120 days, or by this summer.
The Board of Supervisors next meets Feb. 23 at 7 p.m.