
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 13, 1991                   TAG: 9102130249
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Southwest bureau
DATELINE: INDEPENDENCE                                LENGTH: Short

EXPANSION OF SOCIAL SERVICES BOARD OK'D

Grayson County's controversial Social Services Board may be expanded from three to five members in the next few months.

All four members of the county Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to increase that body, so that it would have one member from each of the county's voting districts and one representative from the governing body.

Supervisor Robert B. Wells now represents the governing body on the existing board. The other members are Bettye-Lou Fields and Dennis Cooley.

The board fired the Social Services Department's director of 13 years, Nancy Bockes, last June. A grievance panel last month ordered Bockes reinstated effective Feb. 1.

The firing prompted a debate among the four supervisors over the possible replacement of the three members, but the matter always ended in a 2-2 deadlock.

A Galax lawyer took the Social Services Board to court Jan. 4 on charges of violating the state's Freedom of Information Act. But Circuit Judge Willis Woods dismissed the charge, saying the violations were only technical.

The Board of Supervisors will determine next month what districts are now unrepresented on the Social Services Board, and could appoint the two additional members in March or April.

In other business Tuesday, the supervisors voted to issue $409,900 in water revenue bonds for the Fairview Water Project, visited its proposed future landfill site, and toured its new industrial park.

by CNB