ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, September 10, 1996 TAG: 9609100076
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BEDFORD
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
MEMO: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.
The Bedford County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 Monday to approve Forest-based Fauber Architects' plans for the long-delayed county courthouse renovation.
Bidding for construction on the $7million project probably will begin in January, with the project to be completed around January 1999, according to architect Ebo Fauber. Before various planning problems delayed the project, it was to have been completed by spring 1997.
``This plan seems to continue the integrity of the exterior looks of the courthouse that we have become used to as sort of a landmark and it maintains the integrity of the Circuit Court the solemnity,'' said Supervisor Dale Wheeler.
The courthouse, which was built in 1930, will be redesigned to bring the building into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, as well as to correct problems such as old plumbing and inadequate office and courtroom space.
When completed, the 23,000-square-foot renovation will add two courtrooms and a second level of parking to the courthouse. A side entrance will become the major ground-level entry and will provide easy access to a new elevator.
The renovation will also include adding an elevator and 6,000 square feet of office space to the Burks-Scott County Office Building, where the county's social services department is housed. That will allow the child protective services division of Social Services to move out of its offices in the courthouse.
The latest version of the plans for the courthouse renovation were unveiled at the last Board of Supervisors meeting two weeks ago, when Circuit Court Clerk Carol Black expressed concern after she learned that the plans called for her offices to be divided between two floors.
Black warned the supervisors that her current staff of eight employees would find it hard to maintain operations over two floors and service the public well. She asked the county to fund two new deputy clerk positions.
"I just want the public to know that without the addition of the two clerks, I would find it impossible to do the job the citizens expect and I was elected to," Black said then, noting that it would be difficult to staff positions on two floors if employees were sick or on vacation.
Monday, Circuit Judge William Sweeney told the board that he didn't want to change the design of the courthouse, but thought that Black should be given more employees, either from the state or the county, after the renovations are complete.
Though the supervisors said they couldn't speak for future boards, Dale Wheeler and Roger Cheek, among others, said they would support county funding for additional Circuit Court employees in future budgets if the state won't.
Black's staff has trouble handling the workload it has now. She said it's not uncommon for her to work 12 to 14 hour days because she has no money to pay employees for overtime.
Criminal cases in Circuit Court increased by more than 87 percent in recent years in fast-growing Bedford County. Civil cases have been up more than 20 percent.
According to state staffing requirements, Black should have three more employees, but she has not received any extra help because the General Assembly hasn't authorized any state funding for new deputy clerks this year.
Black has argued that, unlike many court clerk's offices in Virginia, which run deficits, her office returned $70,000 in excess fees to the state and county last year - more than enough for the two positions for which she asked.
In other business, the board:
*Received the end-of-year spending report for fiscal year 1995, which showed that county revenues in the general fund were 8 percent higher than budgeted, and expenditures were 8 percent lower than budgeted.
The board did, however, express concern that the county schools had overestimated their revenues by $2million, largely because the School Board asked the county to provide upfront money for grants.
The supervisors voted 5-0 Monday to start a county policy of appropriating to the county schools only the exact amount that the schools receive each fiscal year from a grant source, instead of the current policy of the county providing all the grant money upfront and sometimes waiting to be reimbursed for more than a year.
*Voted 5-0 to spend $8,000 for a part-time grant administration assistant who will oversee a $700,000 construction grant from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development. The grant will build a four-mile natural gas pipeline to the new Barr Laboratories plant in Forest.
County officials estimated that contracting for an outside grant administrator could have cost the county more than $18,000.
LENGTH: Medium: 88 linesby CNB