Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 25, 1995 TAG: 9510250042
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Long
The Board of Supervisors approved the addition of language Monday night stating that employees cannot personally accept gifts of significant value, "but may accept gifts or contributions that will be used to the benefit of the public in a county office." The county administrator or board chairman must approve any such gift.
Under the existing policy, employees are subject to disciplinary action for accepting gifts or gratuities of value from anyone doing business with the county or operating under county codes and ordinances.
Supervisor Bruce Fariss suggested that the policy be further altered to put a dollar value on what gifts can and cannot be accepted by employees. The policy now allows items such as calendars or a pen or pencil advertising something to be accepted as a courtesy, "but only if the employee has not requested the item. The overriding factors shall be that the gift is accepted as a courtesy, has no value to the employee, is not requested to the employee and is in no way related to 'special treatment' for the giver. Any gift should be discouraged when possible."
Chairman Jerry White said such issues are not always simple. A company could provide air transportation for someone on county business, for example, which is technically a gift but which would benefit the county rather than the employee, he said.
In Wythe County this year, a group of citizens sought the removal of two members of the Board of Supervisors who favored a private prison in the county. The group accused the supervisors of accepting a gift of air transportation from the prison company after the supervisors had been flown to a Texas community to gauge the effect of a private prison there. Two different circuit judges ruled that neither supervisor abused his office by the act.
Supervisor Mason Vaughan said he had never had a problem deciding about gifts in his 16 years on the board. Nobody ever offered him one, he said.
Virginia Gas Co. is planning an 80-mile natural gas pipeline between Saltville and Radford, which would roughly parallel an East Tennessee Natural Gas Co. line serving Marion, Wytheville, Pulaski, Dublin and Radford.
The existing line was built in the 1960s and is serving as many customers as its capacity allows. The availability of a new natural gas source would allow industries in Smyth, Wythe and Pulaski counties to expand operations and provide natural gas for potential new industry.
The supervisors passed a resolution asking the State Corporation Commission to approve Virginia Gas Co.'s application to build and operate the new line.
Bob Cook, a Dublin resident, asked the board to consider controls on barking dogs like the one with which he is all too familiar in the Orchard Hills subdivision.
The county currently has no ordinance that would enforce quieting barking dogs that are a nuisance. County officials doubted the wisdom of enacting such controls county-wide, particularly without adding people to the animal control staff.
A leash law for areas zoned as residential is to be considered in the future. When that happens, barking controls could be reviewed as well. Meanwhile, barking dogs will have to be handled as a civil nuisance matter.
White said dog control laws generally seem to target the animal and, whenever new laws are adopted, they should target the owner instead.
Resident Kenton Bird wants to establish a public-access shooting range in the county, but several supervisors were concerned about liability in case of an accident.
The county administrator suggested as alternatives allowing public access to the county sheriff's range at the old Cloyd Mountain landfill or to a range at the Army Reserve Center, through a firearms safety and use course at New River Community College. The board will ask college officials to consider the feasibility of that idea.
Is the bridge across Neck Creek on Highland Road a historic structure or not? Jean Evans told the board she has been unable to find out, but the answer might affect the property she owns with her husband, Jerry, as well as the property of some of their neighbors.
The Department of Transportation plans to build a new bridge over the creek and leave the existing one in place as a historic structure. The Evanses want the existing bridge demolished and a new one built at the same spot. A bridge at a different site will involve some private property losses.
Jean Evans has spent considerable time and effort trying to track down the historical nature of the existing bridge. She told the supervisors she found that the structure is a Luten bridge, significant because of its design, but that there are other Luten bridges in this part of the state. In any case, she said, no one has definitely stated that the bridge is a historical structure. It may be eligible for listing in the Register of Historic Places, she said, but eligibility and attainment are two different things.
She asked the board to consider the replacement project carefully before complying with the Transportation Department plan.
by CNB