Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 10, 1990 TAG: 9005100280
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B7 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER SOUTHWEST BUREAU
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Following a public hearing at which only one person spoke, the board approved an increase in utility taxes from 14 percent to 20 percent on telephone, electric and gas bills for the coming year.
Real estate and mobile home taxes - now 54 cents per $100 of assessed property value - will be 66 cents, and personal property and machinery and tools taxes will go from $1.75 to $1.87. The county will start the next fiscal year with $200,000 left from the current year as a reserve fund.
Two funding requests for next year were denied. The board turned down a $2,670 request from the Southwest Virginia Emergency Medical System and one for $10,000 for the Family Resource Center, a regional abused-spouse refuge based in Wytheville.
The supervisors took no action on a request for $61,720 for the Rural Retreat Lake Authority. It approved $5,000 for Crossroads Shelter, an organization providing shelter for the homeless, and will have 80 percent of that reimbursed by the state.
The county agreed to join the Mount Rogers Development Partnership, an organization set up to market localities in the Mount Rogers Planning District to industry, but approved only 50 cents per resident as its share of the funding. The other localities pay $1 per resident.
Supervisor Charlotte Naber questioned whether the partnership would accept Wythe on that basis. "We don't know till we try," said Chairman Robert Williams. The motion to attempt to join at half-price passed 5-2, with Naber and Vice Chairman R.T. DuPuis voting against it.
Williams wanted to reduce county water rates, which were increased last month to try to put the system on a sound enough basis to repay the Farmers Home Administration loan which created it. He said he had gotten complaints from residents who insisted they could not pay the higher rates.
A committee was named to study the rate structure and make a recommendation at the board's June 12 meeting, following a 7 p.m. public hearing.
Treasurer Walter S. Crockett said he would take distress warrants against delinquent taxpayers who have had two judgments filed against them in past years and still have not paid. The distress warrants will allow the sheriff's office to seize vehicles to sell for the taxes.
The board took no action on a request by Gary M. Gearheart, sales representative with Atkins Sign Co. of Bluefield, W.Va., to have an independent engineering study made on the stability of a sign erected at the Factory Merchants outlet mall near Fort Chiswell.
"We are happy with the sign," said Phil Tobleman, a Factory Merchants representative. The sign was approved by a registered engineer when it was erected, and has been rechecked by that engineer to confirm its soundness.
by CNB