SouthsideCentral was at Monday night’s Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors meeting, so here comes the most comprehensive recap for you!
Tonight’s meeting starts at 7PM, but I got to Chatham way earlier than that. Since the Pittsylvania County School Board also meets on Monday night, let’s stop in and see what’s happening!
Um. Well… nothing.
Tonight’s Pittsylvania County School Board meeting is a closed session for a disciplinary hearing and that’s it. Oh well, I bet this is the first photo of a Pittsylvania County School Board meeting that you’ve seen in a very long time. Anyway, let’s head over to the courthouse and get ready for the Board of Supervisors meeting.
The Finance committee had a meeting at 5:30PM, but I’ll be straight up with you and tell you that I couldn’t find the meeting room where it was going on. The signage isn’t very good and I wasn’t sure which building was the Captain Martin building. Oh well. I do know where the full board is going to meet, so that’s the next destination.
It’s now 6:10 PM and absolutely nothing is set up for the Board of Supervisors meeting that starts in 50 minutes. The two Pittsylvania County deputies assigned for security get all the chairs in position and the name plates in position. That’s definitely not in their job responsibilities. Heh. The guy who does the video of the meetings arrives after me and is told that nobody has set the sound system up.
We’re almost ready to go, thanks to the Pittsylvania County deputies.
The amazing Rebecca Flippen is next to arrive and with a few phone calls, county staff arrive to get everything ready. Yes, Rebecca Flippen gets things done.
Let’s get the sound gear out of the storeroom.
Wouldn’t this be a nice place to sit when the board goes into a closed session so that you can hide and still hear everything? Oh, that’s never happened before, has it? Hee hee.
Come on now. Even if you have to pay by the letter, let’s get Clarance Monday his title of “County Administrator” on his name plate.
Rebecca Flippen tells Clarence Monday what to do tonight. Not really, but I bet she could!
Here’s your agendas for tonight and the form to sign up for the dramatically worded “Hearing Of The Citizens”.
Elton Blackstock assures me that there are only brownies in the brown paper bag that he has brought in with him. The record shall indicate that he did not take a drink from the bag during the meeting. Heh.
Everybody pitches in and the sound system is ready to go right at 7PM. Let’s get started! Everybody is here tonight and we start with the roll call, the moment of silence and the Pledge of Allegiance. Chairman Jessie Barksdale adds a board appointment item to the agenda and it’s time for the “Hearing of the Citizens”. Jimmy Wilkerson is up first and he asks the board to consider reducing the personal property tax rate on motorhomes/RV’s.
Jimmy Wilkerson is at the podium.
Next, Richard Shumate is up. He does a quick prayer and then continues where he left off last month about the county having vehicles in storage that could be used for county business purposes.
Let us pray. Legally.
Shumate seems to always think that his three-minute time limit will run out but he’s over and done before the one-minute yellow light comes on.
He’s still in the green.
That’s it for the public comment section. Next, the consent agenda passes. That’s the approval of the minutes and the official ratification of the state of emergency that was declared for the recent snowstorm.
We move to a proclamation for Black History Month. Chairman Jessie Barksdale comes down to the floor and is joined by Pittsylvania County NAACP president Willie Fitzgerald. Barksdale makes some short remarks and gives the proclamation to Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald then makes a short speech reminding everybody that the Pittsylvania County NAACP is not restricted to black people only. I liked that.
Jessie Barksdale gives Willie Fitzgerald the Black History Month proclamation.
We move to the business part of the meeting and we don’t really have that much on the agenda. The board approves some financial account housekeeping transfers, then the discussion moves to the proposed animal shelter. County Administrator Clarence Monday tells the board that they can approve the contract with Dominion 7 for the full design, bidding process, award and construction administration for the new version of the animal shelter. The new version shaves about $2 million from the original proposal. Jerry Hagerman says that he’d like to see this $270,459 expense be done in-house with county staff. Other board members ask some question and Otis Hawker takes the podium to explain things.
Otis Explains It All.
Hawker explains that this is a very good price for the services to be rendered and that the county just doesn’t have the staff that can do all of this in-house. He finishes his presentation by dropping his book on the podium with style. Boom!
And that’s the way to end your presentation!
Other supervisors say they’re good with the proposal. After all of that, Jerry Hagerman joins the other board members and the resolution passes 7-0.
We finish the business section with the appointment of Hank Davis to the Tri-County Lake Administrative Commission for a one-year term. Tim Barber says that Hank loves fishing, so he’ll be perfect for that board. We move to the around the horn section, and Ron Scearce talks about the upcoming “Friends of the NRA” banquet. No closed session tonight, so we’re done! Let’s wrap it up with a little bonus content…
John Crane wasn’t here tonight, but the Register & Bee’s Trevor Metcalfe filled in for him.
The attendance was light tonight, but we had the important people in the audience. Vincent Shorter, Henry Hurt & Kate Berger… HELLO!
And that’s it. Thanks for reading the most comprehensive recap of Monday’s Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors meeting… and you’ll only find it here on SouthsideCentral!
Anyone from the Star-Tribune there?