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

DATE: TUESDAY, March 26, 1991                   TAG: 9103260352
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: BEDFORD/FRANKLIN 
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FRANKLIN MAY STOP PANEL'S FREE DINNERS

The Recreation Commission members now discuss business over dinner at a steak house - with taxpayers picking up the tab.

The monthly bill at Jerry's Steak House averages $120 for seven commission members, staff and anyone else who has been put on the agenda.

But the free meals would end in July under the 1991-92 budget proposal by County Administrator Richard Huff II.

Huff said the Recreation Commission's dinner-meeting format is costly and distracting.

"It strikes me as awfully difficult to have a business discussion in the restaurant," Huff said Monday at a budget workshop with the Franklin County Board of Supervisors.

But some supervisors defended the dinner meetings, saying a free sirloin steak is a nice way for the county to reward unpaid commission members.

"It's the only thing they get for their service," said Gus Forry, Rocky Mount District supervisor, who called the roughly $1,400 item a "picayune" issue in the county's proposed $38.3 million spending plan.

Wayne Angell, Blackwater District supervisor, suggested scrapping the dinner meetings and converting some of the money into a cash stipend similar to those paid to most county boards and commissions.

The Board of Supervisors tabled the issue until a later meeting.

In another budget matter, the board voted unanimously to end the county's annual $1,500 contribution to the Smith Mountain Lake 4-H Center's capital-fund drive.

Not even a framed citation from 4-H Center Director Wayne C. Garst thanking the county for its past financial support could persuade board members to change their minds.

Supervisors were concerned that none of 21 other jurisdictions served by the 4-H Center contributes to the capital campaign or operating expenses.

The board, however, voted to contribute $1,600 to the center's operating budget.

In another issue, the board voted 4-3 to reject a motion by Gills Creek District Supervisor Charles Ellis to hire another employee for the Building Department staff.