Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 24, 1992 TAG: 9203240009
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Once a month, the prominent landowners of the community would ride into the county seat. They would work from morning until night, actively conducting the business of the county.
And after taking care of their governmental chores, they would return to tending their farms.
But times have changed. Finding a farmer in some Virginia counties is next to impossible. So the boards have become a cross-section of business persons, professionals and anyone else who wants to serve.
The once-a-month, all-day meeting has become a casualty of the hectic pace of modern life. Many hold their meetings in the evening and some have two or three - or even four - scheduled meetings every month.
And then there is Floyd County.
The Board of Supervisors in the county with one traffic light and no divided highways is a throwback to olden days.
Four of the five supervisors are farmers.
If you call Chairman Howard Dickerson in season, his answering machine advises callers as to the status of the strawberries he sells. His family has had a farm in the county for seven generations.
Former Chairman William Whitlock raises dairy cattle. He was first elected to the board in 1967 and was elected to his sixth term last November.
Vice Chairman David Ingram has a beef cattle operation and his family operates a farm store. Edsel Duncan, a lifelong county resident, also has a cattle ranch.
Only Jerry Boothe does not farm for a living; he's a carpenter.
The board regularly meets just once a month. The meetings begin at 8:30 in the morning and generally last until dinner time - or beyond. So far this year, its been 8 or 9 at night when the supervisors finally finish.
Of course, with the workload the board faces, it often has to meet more than once a month. Since their regular meeting last Monday, the supervisors held informal discussions with the School Board last Tuesday and will do so again tonight. And the boards's first budget work session is scheduled for Friday night.
But the Board of Supervisors still retains its hands-on approach to government.
At its meeting last week, the board had to decide whether a house it owned could be renovated for use as offices.
First, the board discussed the problem. Then, during a break during the afternoon portion of the meeting, the supervisors piled into two cars and drove from the courthouse to the property the county owns about a mile away.
They walked around the building. They went inside. And Boothe even went into the attic to inspect potential problems with the roof.
That's what makes the Floyd County Board of Supervisors different - and often interesting. It may sometimes spend as much time discussing a $170 auto repair bill as it does debating how to spend thousands.
But that's what boards of supervisors were supposed to be about when the state set them up. They were to reflect what the citizens knew about and cared about. And in Floyd County, where farming is a way of life for many and fixing things rather than replacing them is often a necessity, the board still does that.
***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on March 25, 1992.
Because of a production error, the wrong label was put on a Reporter's Notebook column by M.J. Dougherty in Tuesday's New River Current.
Memo: CORRECTION