Good evening, folks! I’m finally delivering some coverage of yesterday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, the only regularly-scheduled meeting of December. (Although it’s very likely the Board will need at least one special called meeting this month, since it’s yet to spend all the county’s CARES Act funding.)
It was a good long meeting yesterday morning—it began at 8:30 a.m. and I left after the Board went into a closed session to discuss pending litigation, among other topics, around noon.
I hope you enjoy this story. I really appreciate everyone’s continued interest in this project, which gives me the opportunity to stay connected with Floyd County and keep reporting in the NRV. This weekend, I’ll have coverage of the Winter Farmers Market in Floyd, which launches Saturday. I may have another feature prior to that—folks have been difficult to reach this week! Keep your eyes peeled.
-Ashley
‘I just want people to know we are here.’
Supervisors allocate CARES funding to support food distribution as many go hungry
Yesterday marked the very last of what were probably hundreds of government meetings attended by County Administrator Terri Morris. Morris will retire at the end of the month after a nearly four-decade career with Floyd County, including the last five years as administrator. Several people offered their congratulations to Morris during Tuesday’s meeting of the Board of Supervisors, including Town of Floyd Mayor Will Griffin, who stopped by during the public comment period.
Assistant County Administrator Cindy Ryan was appointed interim administrator effective Jan. 1, 2021, to which Morris responded, “Congratulations—and condolences.”
Morris’ last regularly-scheduled meeting was a busy one, as Supervisors discussed the county’s recent audit results; updates on the Floyd Growth Center; legislative recommendations for the 2021 session of the General Assembly; allocations of its remaining CARES Act funding and of course, the ensured continuity of government during the COVID-19 emergency.
The Board’s final item for discussion before going into closed session was the setback ordinance. After a lot of debate, (I think) the Board settled on requiring new structures to be 35 feet back from the edge of roadways “as constructed.” It was a complicated discussion, which I’m going to clarify with a couple supervisors and then cover in more detail pending the outcome of the county’s update to its subdivision ordinance, which has its own setback requirements.
It wasn’t all policy minutiae and business-as-usual at the meeting, though. The meeting became emotional during Supervisors’ discussion of how to allocate the county’s remaining CARES Act funding. In sum, Floyd County received about $2.75 million in federal support for extra expenses incurred due to COVID-19. Like many localities across the country, the county has struggled to spend all its money, which expires Dec. 31. Any unused money must be returned to the federal government. Unclear guidelines and a very tight timeline have both been obstacles to spending the money efficiently and effectively.
So far, the county has used its funding to support local businesses, provide PPE to county employees, update technology at the county administration building for live-streamed meetings and upgrade the water system to allow PSA employees to minimize contact with others. As of Tuesday morning, the county had about $560,000 left to spend, and Supervisors switched their focus to helping individuals, rather than businesses.
Following Floyd Town Council’s lead, Morris proposed that the county fund hazard pay for both first responders and the county’s solid waste employees. In the past, County Attorney Steve Durbin had advised the Board that the latter expenditure may not qualify for CARES funding. The county also couldn’t get clear guidance from the auditor, Morris said. “The auditor can’t tell us not to do it,” she said. The Council approved hazard pay for all town employees, including public works, at its last meeting. Mayor Griffin justified the expense by saying the worst that could happen is that an audit reveals the spending is unapproved, and then the Town is on the hook for the payment. Griffin said the public works employees work hard and face a lot of risk in their jobs due to coronavirus, so potentially having to repay the hazard money was a risk he was willing to take.
Locust Grove District Supervisor Lauren Yoder echoed the sentiment with respect to the county’s solid waste employees. “That’s really the risk we’re taking—we’d have to take (the money) out of contingency if it doesn’t go through and to me…that’s fine,” Yoder said. The board approved $225,000 in hazard pay to cover solid waste employees from March-December 2020 and EMS and Sheriff’s deputies from September-December 2020 (the latter group was already paid for the first six months of the pandemic.)
Little River District Supervisor Linda DeVito Kuchenbuch raised concerns about how many folks are hungry in the county in the wake of COVID-19. People are really struggling economically, she said, and many people in Floyd are too proud to ask for help that they desperately need. “It’s not just food insecurity,” Kuchenbuch said. “People are hungry right now. We need to figure out a way to feed people and help them with their heating and electricity.” The City of Radford recently allocated CARES money for a similar purpose.
With $333,000 in CARES funding remaining after the hazard payments, Kuchenbuch suggested allocating a full $300,000 to purchasing food for distribution. Courthouse District Supervisor Jerry Boothe pointed out two things: first, the county could simply allocate more money to the Department of Social Services or New River Community Action, both of which already work to get food into the hands of needy people and pay overdue electric bills. Boothe also said many food pantries in the area lack sufficient cold storage (a problem also faced by the county overall), and they wouldn’t have the capacity to store much fresh food. He suggested funding freezers in addition to the food. Even if the expense isn’t ultimately approved for CARES money, Boothe said, “I wouldn’t be above paying for (freezers) out of contingencies. We’re talking about feeding people.”
Yoder said he didn’t think his fellow Supervisors understood how much food—meat, vegetables or canned goods—$300,000 could buy. He suggested being more conservative with the amount allocated, and also said he’s well-connected to producers throughout the county. (Yoder is a farmer, but was very clear that he wouldn’t want to profit personally from his proposed food distribution plan.) Yoder said it would be a “win-win” if the county could figure out how to source food from local growers and then redistribute it to people in need. Then, he said, struggling farmers would benefit as well as hungry people. Morris said she would move forward with trying to implement that plan.
“There are so many that aren’t comfortable asking (for help),” Kuchenbuch said. “I just want people to know that we are here thinking about this b/c we don’t want people to be hungry or cold.”
Community & Economic Development Director Lydeana Martin offered updates on the construction of Building 1 at the Floyd Growth Center at Tuesday’s meeting. I already covered much of what Martin shared in this story about the last EDA meeting, but she did add some details about the project and its timeline Tuesday.
Martin said she is hoping that all required documents for the project, which is being funded by the U.S. EDA, will be submitted next week. Site work at the Growth Center will begin in spring 2021, she said, and construction is slated to start in October of next year. That’s “if nothing goes wrong,” Martin’s PowerPoint caveated in large capital letters. Final reimbursement requests for the project are due by Oct. 2022, Martin said.
Martin also discussed securing water and sewer access at Building 1. She explained that back when the Commerce Center was constructed, the county government contributed $192,000 to help the Public Service Authority meet a match requirement for a water system extension grant. Essentially, Martin said, the county had pre-paid for 10 additional connections to the town-county water system. She requested the Board approve use of one of those connections for Building 1, which they did. It saved $8,000 in the Growth Center’s project budget.
Kuchenbuch pointed out during the discussion, though, that the county isn’t entirely sure how many of these pre-paid connections have actually been used. She said the county needs a better “paper trail” to track them.
The Supervisors approved an ordinance (following a public hearing at which nobody spoke) to continue emergency procedures in response to COVID-19 for six months. Although, as Yoder pointed out, the Board can rescind the ordinance and go back to business-as-normal earlier than that, if they deem that it’s safe to do so. A vaccine for coronavirus is expected to be widely available by early spring. County Attorney Steve Durbin said for the sake of transparency, “As soon as it’s safe to do so, I would recommend you go back to absolutely normal practice.”
The Board also finalized its legislative recommendations for the 2021 session of the General Assembly. You can read more here—I covered the discussion at the November meeting. (I also got feedback from a reader at the time that I didn’t cover the issue of qualified immunity in a balanced way, and I think that was fair. The arguments in favor of maintaining qualified immunity for LEOs are well-covered in my past article. Many people, however, do think that such policies are harmful and give LEOs too much latitude to commit abuse. You can read more about arguments against QI here and here.)
While Indian Valley District Supervisor Justin Coleman’s suggestion that the Board include guidance about protecting the 2nd Amendment wasn’t initially included in the list, it was agreed to by consensus and added Tuesday. Yoder suggested the final language, a simple recommendation that the Assembly not infringe on the right to bear arms with any of its new legislation.
Finally, Scott Wickham with Robinson, Farmer, Cox and Associates, offered Supervisors a debrief on the county’s recent audit. On the whole, Wickham gave a very positive report on the audit and the county’s relative budgetary position. Supervisors, especially Yoder, raised some concerns about the ratio of the county’s unassigned funds to its overall operating budget. The amount of unassigned funds is only 18% of the county’s total operating expenses, which is on the low end of what auditors recommend. Twenty-22% would be a healthier place for the budget.
Wickham conceded that the percentage is lower than it has been in the past couple years. However, he pointed out, it’s much higher than average when you take a wider-angle view. In 2011, the same value was at only 7%, he said. Ryan pointed out that in many ways, the 18% figure represents successful implementation of what has always been the Board’s long-term plan. Supervisors aimed to build up the county’s accounts so that they could ultimately spend a lot of money on new projects. And that’s what they’ve done, including the recent $14.5 million investment in the high school’s new Collaboration & Career Development Center.