Commissioners See Full Agenda

By Ron Fitzwater

The Ashe County Board of Commissioners held their first meeting for April with a full agenda that included a request for a deck construction variance for property along the New River.

Following opening procedures and approval of board minutes from March 16, 2009, the board heard updates from several organizations.

Co-chairs Grier Hurley and Holly Hall gave the annual Community Child Protection Team (CCPT) report. Hurley said that the team had been working hard to provide services to youth in the county and that they had been doing a lot of "brain-storming" with various agencies to find ways to improve those services.

"One of the things we are hoping to do is provide more domestic violence training in the community," he said.
"Another is to find and answer to the need for a level four treatment facility in the area; a level four facility is a lock-down facility that provides 24-hour staff. Unfortunately, the closest two facilities are in Virginia and Tennessee."

Cabot Hamilton and Donna Pollard, Wilkes Community College intern to the chamber, presented an update from the Ashe County Chamber of Commerce. Hamilton reminded the board that when he first appeared before them he told them that he intended to put the Chamber on a path to cooperation with the county and was happy to report that that mission was going very well.

Information on the Chamber including upcoming events can be found by clicking www.ashechamber.com.

Lucian Jordan, fundraising chair for the Ashe County Middle School Pool Fund, updated the commissioners on the group's current status.

"We appreciate the fact that you all see the need for this pool to be reopened because there are children in this county who cannot swim," he said.

Jordan said that he had been met with nothing but positive feedback, fundraising efforts were going very well and that "to date, we have raised approximately $30,000 in pledges and money" through various events.

The goal for the group is to have the pool serviceable and open by August 2009 so that children who have no other means for swimming instruction and to that end Jordan asked for a firm commitment from the board to assist in the project through a memorandum of understanding that the board of education will physically maintain the pool and that the funding be provided by the board of commissioners through the board of education's annual budget request.

A motion was made by Richard Blackburn that the board accept the memorandum of understanding and passed unanimously.

Jane Banks appeared before the board to request that the members approve individuals for the Home and Community Care Block Grant Committee. The committee decides who the providers will be and how much money goes into each service provided under the grant. The commissioners approved the board to continue with no changes.

The board includes two Commissioners, Richard Blackburn and Larry Rhodes, as well as County Manager Dan McMillan, County Transportation Director Sue Thompson, Director Ashe County Health Department, Debbie Edwards and several others.

Commissioners then heard from Ashe resident Glen Shelton who came requesting, on behalf of his unnamed clients, a variance to the floodplain ordinance to accommodate their desire to build a deck on their New River property.

"I am here because this is the only option left to me after several weeks of working with the building and planning department."

Shelton said that he had tried to work with the county planning department and that he was in disagreement with the ordinance that was prohibiting him from building the deck in question. County planner Zach Edwardson said he sympathized with Shelton but had to issue a stop work order on the deck because it violated the floodplain ordinance and that construction in the floodplain could, as had been found in other cases, jeopardize flood insurance rates and availability in the county.

The commissioners were, for the most part, sympathetic with Shelton's problem but sided with Edwardson's assessment. Commissioner Gerald Price was for granting the ordinance based on his feelings about too much governmental control in people's private lives, but a motion put forth to permit the variance failed due to lack of a second.

Shelton was told that if a survey report or some sort of official documentation that building the deck would pose no danger to properties downstream could be provided to the board, they would revisit the request. Shelton said he would present the request to his clients.

In other business the board heard the first presentation for appointments to the Long Term Care Community Advisory Committee and passed a resolution for disposal of surplus county property.