The Alleghany County Board of Commissioners met in
regular session on Tuesday, January 20, 2009, at 3:30pm in the Board Meeting
Room of the County Administration Building, 348 South Main Street, Sparta,
North Carolina.

Present:
Chair Ken Richardson, Vice-Chair Randy Miller, Commissioner Doug Murphy,
Commissioner Milly Richardson, Commissioner Steve Roten, County Manager Don
Adams and Clerk to the Board Karen Evans.
County Attorney Donna Shumate was absent.

Chair Ken Richardson called the meeting to order.

Commissioner Doug Murphy led the Pledge of Allegiance
and opened the meeting with a prayer.

Chair Ken Richardson stated that items D and E needs
to be rescheduled.

Commissioner Randy Miller made a motion to approve
the amended agenda for this January 20, 2009, meeting.  Commissioner Doug Murphy seconded the
motion.  Vote 5:0.

AGENDA

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

3:30 PM

3:30                Meeting
Called To Order, Pledge of Allegiance and Prayer

Motion
on Agenda for January 20, 2009, meeting

Motion
on Minutes for January 5 and January 7, 2009, meetings

Motion
on December Tax Releases & Refunds

3:35    A.        Public
Comments—30 minutes

B.
Public
Hearing

RE:  PARTF Grant—Fields

C.
Linda Edwards

RE:  EMS
Bill

D.
Red Cross
Annual Report                          (deleted)

E.
Council on
Aging Annual Report             (deleted)

F.
Wilkes
Community College Annual Report

G.
County
Business

1.
EDTAP Budget
Amendment

2.
Planning Budget
Amendment

3.
Planning Board
Appointments

4.
Transfer
Facility Disposal Contract

5.
Subcommittee
Updates

a.
County Salaries

b.
School
Facilities

6.
Other Business

7.
Adjourn

Commissioner
Milly Richardson made a motion to approve the minutes for the January 5 and
January 7, 2009, meetings.   Commissioner Doug Murphy seconded the
motion.  Vote 5:0.

Chair
Ken Richardson opened the public comments’ portion of the meeting.  He asked for public comments.  None were received.  He closed the public comments portion of
the meeting.

Commissioner
Milly Richardson made a motion to approve the real refunds and releases for December.  Commissioner Doug Murphy seconded the
motion.  Vote 5:0.

Commissioner
Randy Miller made a motion to approve the auto refunds and releases for December.  Commissioner Doug Murphy seconded the
motion.  Vote 5:0.

David
Evans, Recreation Director, presented a PowerPoint presentation regarding the
PARTF grant for the open space park located across the road from Andrews
Trucking.  He explained the need for
the facilities and the multiple uses of the area.

Commissioner
Milly Richardson stated that this sounds like a great plan and utilization of
the area.

Chair
Ken Richardson opened the public hearing at 3:40pm regarding the PARTF grant.  He asked for public comments.

Tommy
Andrews stated that David Evans did a good job explaining everything.  He talked about 12 years ago he came
before the Board, and they Board helped him get the property for Andrews
Trucking.  He further talked about
times have changed, and the guys that are leasing the property need more
space.  He explained that they would
use the area for parking.  He stated
his appreciation for what the Board has done for them.  He reiterated that David Evans did a
good job explaining the use of the property.

Dr.
Jeff Cox, Superintendent, stated that from the school system’s standpoint
that they like seeing their fields used but there are many that are strained because
of the multiple uses by the school system and the recreation programs.  He explained that they support the PARTF
grant, and this is a good utilization of taxpayers’ money from their
point of view.

Commissioner
Doug Murphy and Dr. Cox discussed the closing of the street between the fields
that connects to Sparta Elementary School.

Chair
Ken Richardson asked for additional public comments.  None were received.  He closed the public hearing at 3:58pm
and reconvened the regular meeting.

Chair
Ken Richardson declared a brief recess at 3:59pm.

Linda
Edwards, EMS Administrative Supervisor, came before the Board to discuss a
letter from the Law Offices of Christopher May on behalf of his client about
reducing the EMS bill because this person has not been able to return to work,
has no health insurance, has not been approved for Medicaid or Medicare and has
no income coming into the household because her husband died in the accident
that created this bill.  She
explained that the second page in the letter shows what is outstanding from the
July 15, 2006, accident including Alleghany County’s bill of $1,120, and
he is asking for a 25% reduction.
She further explained that this hasn’t been done since she has
been with EMS.  She talked about a
case in 1994 and that situation where the Commissioners did forgive a portion
of the bill.

Chair
Ken Richardson talked about he would have a hard time looking at this one and
not looking at all of the other bills.

Commissioner
Doug Murphy and Linda Edwards discussed this is a difference of $280.

Commissioner
Steve Roten and Linda Edwards discussed her conversation with the attorney and
whether they would pay anything if no reduction is given.

Commissioner
Steve Roten made a motion to not entertain the reduction.  Commissioner Milly Richardson seconded
the motion.  Vote 5:0.

County
Manager Don Adams asked Linda Edwards to get with the County Attorney to
contact this law office about payment and to utilize the insurance company.

Jayne
Phipps-Boger with Wilkes Community College (WCC) thanked the Board for their
support.  She reviewed an
information packet that was provided to the Board.  She talked about a security door that
they have just installed.  She
explained that they are trying to maintain security at the campus.  She reviewed the number of new students,
number of degree-seeking students and the number of other students that are
attending WCC.  She talked about the
number of high school students being dually enrolled this semester.  She further talked about they are presenting
several different tracks instead of random classes.  She listed the corroborative efforts of
the College.  She talked about the
continuing education classes primarily the fiber optic certification program that
is drawing people from Ohio and Georgia for this class.  She thanked Benita Hampton for working
on this certification program.  She
talked about a record number of people are attending small business classes.  She said that they have started the NC
REAL program through the high school.

Commissioner
Milly Richardson talked about the college is continuing to do an excellent job
and is touching a lot of lives.

Commissioner
Doug Murphy and Jayne Phipps-Boger talked about high school students that are
dually enrolled.

County
Manager Don Adams reminded the Board that the PARTF grant is due February
2.  He said that the Board needs to
decide whether or not to pursue this grant opportunity.  He talked about the amount of the
project is $264,525 with the County portion being $130,763.  He talked about fundraising a portion of
the money and possibly using a portion of the town’s greenway planning
money since the greenway is proposed to be in that area.

Commissioner
Milly Richardson made a motion to approve submitting the grant application.  Commissioner Doug Murphy seconded the
motion.  Vote 5:0.

County
Manager Don Adams presented budget amendment General Fund #24 in the amount of
$27,999 for a transportation grant.
He explained that the grant is $10,774 for EDTAP, $16,629 for RGP and $596
for Work First for use in the transportation program.

Commissioner
Milly Richardson made a motion to approve budget amendment General Fund #24 in
the amount of $27,999.  Commissioner
Randy Miller seconded the motion.
Vote 5:0.

County
Manager Don Adams presented budget amendment General Fund #25 in the amount of
$8,674 for the road guarantee of the subdivision road installation that was
discussed recently the Kathy Murphy.
He stated that the guarantee was provided by a check.  He explained that this budget amendment
would be putting money in place for the County to pay the money back once the
road has been constructed or once the County has to build the road if the
business does not.

Commissioner
Doug Murphy made a motion to approve budget amendment General Fund #25 in the
amount of $8,674.  Commissioner
Milly Richardson seconded the motion.
Vote 5:0.

County
Manager Don Adams presented information regarding the Planning Board.  He talked about reappointing or
appointing Planning Board members.
He further talked about the information provided to the Commissioners
including the list of the current Planning Board and options available to the
Board.  He talked about conversations
with the Planning Board about the nine-member board being a large board and issues
they run into.  He further talked
about taking the board to seven representatives with having one representative
from each fire district with two at-large members.  He reviewed the process to reduce the board
to seven members including the wording change.  He said that Kathy Murphy had
conversations with the Planning Board members today, and they don’t have
an issue with making the Board a seven-member board.

Commissioner
Milly Richardson stated that if the Planning Board is happy with seven then she
has no problem.  Commissioner Randy
Miller and Commissioner Doug Murphy agreed.

Chair
Ken Richardson asked the Board if the consensus of the Board is to have a public
hearing and move forward.

Commissioner
Randy Miller made a motion to appoint Jason Williams and Jeffrey Wyatt to the
Planning Board.  Commissioner Milly
Richardson seconded the motion.
Vote 5:0.

The
Board and the County Manager discussed the timing of the public hearing and
agreed to have the public hearing at the first meeting in March.

County
Manager Don Adams presented the transportation disposal contract.  He explained the current contract,
letter from Republic offering to extend the contract for one year and the fuel
surcharge being changed.  He
explained that the County currently goes to Concord landfill which was owned by
BFI then Allied now Republic, and the reasons why transportation is to Concord.  He talked about now one company owns the
majority of existing landfills; Republic.
He further talked about there may be some opportunities to work with
other county landfills but their charge at the scale rate is higher than our
current rate.  He said there may be
one county that could be a potential.  He reiterated that there is an offer on the
table from Republic to extend the contract for one year with a CPI
increase.  He reviewed the current
costs.  He reminded the Board that
the new fuel surcharge will not end at $3.50 as the previous contract did.  He talked about the lack of competition.  He further talked about the current
contract runs out in April, and if a contract is made with other counties that
it won’t be a month or two process.

Commissioner
Milly Richardson made a motion to approve the extension and give the County
Manager the authority to pursue other avenues.  Commissioner Doug Murphy seconded the
motion.  Vote 5:0.

County
Manager Don Adams talked about the subcommittee report on county salaries.  He said that the Board has a budget
planning session at the end of February. He asked does the Board wish to make
this part of that discussion or schedule a special meeting.

Chair
Ken Richardson asked if anyone has any problems with having it during the
budget meeting.

The
Board stated they didn’t have any problems with that.

Chair
Ken Richardson talked about this is an important issue that needs to be worked
into the budget discussions.

County
Manager Don Adams presented information about the school facilities planning
update.  He explained that the Board
has the information that was presented at the last planning meeting; Alleghany
County Schools Facility Needs.  He
further explained the general discussion of this meeting, and the group asked
the Board of Education to go back and prioritize their needs with a dollar
amount.  He said that will be the topic
of discussion at their next meeting.

Chair
Ken Richardson asked does the Board have any problem to have this discussion at
the budget planning session.

Commissioner
Doug Murphy stated that this is a pressing matter, and it is important.  Commissioner Randy Miller agreed.

Being
no further business, Commissioner Milly Richardson made a motion to adjourn the
meeting at 4:40pm.  Commissioner
Randy Miller seconded the motion. Vote 5:0.

Respectfully Submitted,

Karen Evans

Clerk to the Board

Attest:

Ken Richardson

Chairman