Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 16, 1993 TAG: 9306160046
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
A public hearing is scheduled for July 26.
But the supervisors at Monday night's meeting rejected another proposed change in the law that would have treated large animals, such as cattle, the same as dogs. The proposal would have allowed large animals to be impounded if they were found running at large.
The supervisors also decided against seeking a change in the county's zoning law to require horse and pony owners to have at least two acres of land before they could keep one animal and an additional acre for each additional animal.
The board, by a 4-3 vote, agreed to hold a hearing on the proposal to loosen the county's dog leash law. Chairman Ira Long was the tie-breaker. Supervisors Henry Jablonski, Nick Rush and Jim Moore voted against the proposal.
Under the current law, dogs are forbidden to run loose in the county at any time. The proposed change would allow dogs to run loose when taking part in a supervised training, field trials or hunting.
Chief Animal Control Officer Kelly Walters - himself a hunting-dog owner - asked the board to consider the changes at a meeting in May. He said he gets complaints regularly from hunters because they are not allowed to exercise their dogs.
But Jablonski said Monday that no one had ever called him asking for a change. To the contrary, Jablonski read from letters whose authors suggested that allowing dogs to run loose would cause harm to nesting birds and would encourage excessive breeding, leading to an increase in wild dogs in the county.
"Why change something that seems to be working?" Jablonski asked.
Some board members also worried that the change would allow dogs to run loose on land without the landowner's permission.
County Attorney Roy Thorpe said the state's trespass laws still would apply to the dogs and Supervisor Larry Linkous, who supported the change, said state hunting laws require hunters to get permission of landowners.
If land is posted against trespassing, state law requires a hunter to have written permission of the owner before hunting on it. However, if a hunter goes onto another's property simply to retrieve his dogs, state law allows it regardless of whether the land is posted. But the hunter cannot drive his vehicle or carry weapons onto the posted property.
In other business, the board authorized County Administrator Betty Thomas to sign a $27,000 contract with Fitts, Lazaron & Associates of Virginia Beach for the initial design of a new Blacksburg area branch library.
The contract calls for the company to have a completed preliminary design for the library by Aug. 19, including exterior drawings and budget estimates for the branch's construction.
The board also will maintain an option to use the firm to do the final design on the building should county voters approve a bond referendum to pay for its construction.
Additionally, the supervisors:
Approved giving the United Way organiztions in the New River Valley $4,932 as the local match for a grant that will be used to conduct a survey of the human service needs in the valley.
Authorized Virginia Mountain Housing to apply for a $25,000 grant to pay for planning of a low- and moderate-income housing project on 30-acres on Merrimac Road.
Formally appropriated the county's $66.9 million budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
Approved spending $61,420 from next year's contingency fund for four new patrol cars for the Sheriff's Office. The state Compensation Board has given Sheriff Ken Phipps the OK to hire four new deputies next year but Phipps does not have cars for them to drive.
Supervisor Jim Moore was surprised to learn that each county patrol deputy is issued a car to drive just as he is issued a sidearm.
"That is phenomenal," Moore said.
by CNB