BOARD SEEKS COUNTY WATER-PROJECT DIRECTOR

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

DATE: SATURDAY, January 23, 1993                   TAG: 9301230091
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: STEVE KARK CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: PEARISBURG                                LENGTH: Medium
BOARD SEEKS COUNTY WATER-PROJECT DIRECTOR
Earlier this week the Giles County Board of Supervisors voted in favor of hiring an engineer who, among other responsibilities yet to be determined, will oversee work at the county landfill and will become director of a Public Service Authority responsible for administering the proposed countywide water system.
Rich Creek Mayor Gary Eaton, who is also chairman of the county's PSA advisory committee, said the committee has recommended that the county hire the engineer because its members had neither the time nor the expertise to direct the day-to-day operations of the PSA.
The vote, however, was not without some controversy.
Supervisor Bobby Compton said he would not vote in favor of hiring an engineer until he knew more about how much it would cost the county. Supervisors Samuel "Ted" Timberlake and Larry Williams said that while they favored hiring an engineer, they would not agree to do so until their districts received fair representation on the advisory committee.
Currently, only one supervisor, Chairman Herbert "Hub" Brown, serves on that committee.
According to Eaton, however, the by-laws, which originally were approved by the county supervisors, provide that only one supervisor serve on the committee.
"The only criticism I've heard is right here on this board," said Compton, speaking on the representation issue. "We set it up."
"I didn't set it up," Williams responded.
"Me neither," said Timberlake.
Timberlake said he opposed setting it up that way all along, and Williams said the decision was made before he was elected to serve on the board of supervisors.
"The folks in my district are tearing into my hide about this issue," said Timberlake. "My people tell me that if they have no say in this thing, then they want no part of it."
Timberlake was elected to the Board of Supervisors to represent the county's Central District, Williams the Eastern, and Brown the Western District.
Timberlake said that since only Brown serves on the committee, both the central and the eastern districts remain unrepresented. The proposed system primarily will service the western part of the county, although that is not where most of the county's population lives, he added.
It is, however, where most of the industry in the county is located, said Glen Lyn Mayor Howard Spencer. One of the county's largest employers, Fairchild Corp., has to truck water into their plant to meet their needs, he said: "We need to work to get some of these problems solved."
Narrows Town Manager Kurt Hodgen said that the idea for the countywide system was set up to utilize existing water systems as much as possible to save money. Most of these exist in the western part of the county, he said.
"The representation is of the water systems, not of people," he said. "We could have gone our own way, but we are all looking at what is best for the county."
Eventually, Timberlake and Williams were persuaded to vote in favor of hiring the engineer, provided the by-laws of the advisory committee be changed to allow three supervisors.
Supervisors' Chairman Brown also appointed an ad hoc committee to work out qualifications for the desired applicant and to recommend how the engineer should be paid, whether county money only or sharing between the localities involved.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB