The
Alleghany County Board of Commissioners met in regular session on Monday, September 14, 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 present but
arrived late.

Chair
Ken Richardson called the meeting to order, led the Pledge of Allegiance and
opened the meeting with a prayer.

Chair
Ken Richardson stated that item D needs to be removed from this agenda.

Commissioner Doug
Murphy made a motion to approve the amended agenda for this September 14, 2009,
meeting.  Commissioner Milly
Richardson seconded the motion.  Vote
5:0.

AGENDA

Monday,
September 14, 2009

3:30 PM

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

Motion
on Agenda for September 14,
2009, meeting

Motion on Minutes for August 17 and 31, 2009, meetings

3:35    A.        Public
Comments—30 minutes

B.
Mary Walker

RE: Tax Appeals

C.
Chris Barrett

RE: Subdivision
Road Extension

D.
Gretchen Carico                   (Deleted)

RE:  Junkyard
Concerns

E.
Building Inspections Annual Report

F.
Emergency Management Annual Report

G.
County Business

1.      Solid Waste Release

2.      Solid Waste Plan Update Revisions

3.      E-911 Contract

4.      RBEG Grant—BDC Lease and
Budget Amendment

5.      Paramedic Job Opening

6.      Findings of Fact\Reimbursement
Resolution regarding Glade
Creek Elementary
School

7.      Other Business

8.      Closed Session—NCGS 143-318.11
(a) (3)—legal

9.      Adjourn

Commissioner Milly Richardson made a
motion to approve the minutes for the August 17 and 31, 2009, meetings.  Commissioner Randy Miller seconded the
motion.  Vote 5:0.

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

Mary Walker, Tax
Administrator, presented tax appeal letters.  She discussed the letter from Ms. Joyce
regarding a mobile home that doesn’t have any water but has electricity.

The Board of
Commissioners and Mrs. Walker discussed this request about the solid waste fee
on the mobile home, disconnecting the power and the solid waste fee being an
availability fee rather than a user fee.

Commissioner Steve
Roten made a motion to deny the request unless she wants to turn the power
off.  Chair Ken Richardson seconded
the motion.  Vote 5:0.

Mary Walker presented
a letter from Mr. Bedsaul about the solid waste fee at 1113 Tayson Road.  She stated that the property record card
shows the value of the structure is $5,200.  She said that Mr. Bedsaul says the
structure is without power and water plus is uninhabitable.  She talked about the picture of the
property that she saw.

Commissioner Milly Richardson made a motion to approve the
request of releasing the solid waste fee.
Commissioner Doug Murphy seconded
the motion.  Vote 5:0.

Mary Walker presented
a letter for late application for property tax relief.  She explained that all of the paperwork
has been turned in from the elderly exemption audit, and he does qualify.

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

Mary Walker explained
that all of the paperwork has been turned in from the elderly exemption audit
for Ms. Sheets.  She further
explained that Ms. Sheets had been sick and didn’t get her paperwork
turned in on time.

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

Chris Barrett came
before the Board to discuss a request that was approved by the Commissioners in
2005, and the conditions were to widen the road and bring them up to county
standards.  He talked about he
posted a bond for the roads.  He
further talked about he ran out of time to get the roads widen within the stated
time period.  He said that the two
property owners submitted letters consenting for the road extension.  He explained that he is asking for a 6-month
extension to get the road improvements completed.

County Manager Don Adams explained that the County has an irrevocable
letter of credit in the amount of $46,413.75, and the ordinance allows the
Board to grant the 6-month extension.
He further explained that the Board has two options; allow the extension
or build the road.

Commissioner Randy
Miller made a motion to grant the 6-month extension.  Commissioner Milly Richardson seconded
the motion.  Vote 5:0.

Randy
Blankenship, Chief Building Inspector,
presented the annual report for the Building Inspections Department.  He discussed the number of inspections, number
of permits, number of customers and phone calls daily, number of miles per
vehicle annually, worked on complaints on different subjects, working on the EMS building, and people are doing more renovations than
new construction.

Chair Ken Richardson
and Randy Blankenship discussed the
number of inspections this year and last year.

Gerald Leftwich,
Emergency Management Coordinator, came before the Board to present his annual
report including the number/types of trainings held, number/types of speeches
presented, petroleum release responses, working with citizen complaints
regarding different NCDENR issues and number of fire inspections/explosives
material permits/fire suppression system permits issued.  He talked about the number of searches
held this year.  He further talked
about the EPLAN is online, and the resource manual is completed and updated to
NIMS standards.  He stated that all
five fire departments have had their successful 9S insurance rating.  He talked about a meeting in Asheville regarding
people with special needs and working to have the capacity to open shelters for
those people.  He further talked
about receiving one of the special needs trailer that can be used for a
shelter.  He clarified that this is
for people who need a wheelchair or other standard medical equipment.

Commissioner Steve
Roten and Gerald Leftwich talked
about the type of trailer for the special needs people.

The Board thanked
Gerald Leftwich.

County Manager Don Adams presented information regarding solid
waste fees from the tornado damage; Smith family $8,661.90, Mike and Sherry
Dawson $18.60, Derrick Galyen $342 at this time but he isn’t complete
with his house.  He explained that
there are a couple more our there that hasn’t done anything with their
property.  He talked about releasing
these fees to clear some of these accounts.

Chair Ken Richardson
and County Manager Don Adams
discussed the insurance aspect of these charges.  The County Manager
explained that these are out of pocket expenses for these people.

Commissioner Milly
Richardson made a motion to release these fees.  Commissioner Doug
Murphy seconded the motion.  Vote 5:0.

County Manager Don Adams presented information about the proposed
changes to the Solid Waste Plan.  He
explained that the State reviewed the Plan and is requesting a public hearing
for these changes.  He reviewed the
changes requested by the State regarding the sections about used oil, motor
vehicle oil filters, and recyclable rigid plastic containers.

The Board and the County Manager
discussed the recyclable rigid plastic container law.

The County Manager
continued reviewing the proposed changes; wooden pallets, household hazardous
waste and disaster response.  He
said that the public hearing is scheduled for the 21st for
consideration by the Board at that time.

County Manager Don Adams updated the Board about the E-911
contract.  He talked about the
County has received two quotes; Embarq and Wireless Communications.  He explained that the County Attorney
has the Embarq contract for review.
He reviewed the costs of the contract of $201,720.44 and $3,844.68 for
the maintenance for year one.  He
said that these costs will be covered by the E-911 fund.  He talked about the command post will be
removed from the costs covered by the E-911 fund because he is proposing to not
let that hold up the contract, and he is going to ask Gerald
Leftwich and Dispatch to find something agreeable for the
command post to the 911 board.  He
explained that the NetClock is not an allowable expense; which is $8,042 for
the equipment and first year maintenance and $585 annually after that.

Commissioner Doug Murphy and County Manager Don Adams discussed that the 911 Board considered
the NetClock to be an administrative function.

Commissioner Milly Richardson asked for a list of the members on
the 911 board.

County Manager Don Adams talked about the Southern Software portion
of the quote which has been approved by the 911 board.  He explained that he and Wendy Williams
discussed contracting directly with Southern Software rather than going through
Embarq because of already working with Southern Software.  He said he doesn’t know if he will
have the contract by the next meeting but will have it by the October 5th
meeting.  He asked if the Board has
any questions or concerns to let him know.

County Manager Don Adams presented the proposed lease agreement
with the Blue Ridge BDC regarding a van.
He reminded the Board that this is a grant through

USDA
in the amount of $30,000.  He presented budget amendment Economic
Development Fund #1 in the amount of $30,000 for the grant.  He discussed the lease agreement details
for the minivan.

Commissioner Randy Miller
made a motion to approve budget amendment Economic Development Fund #1 in the
amount of $30,000.  Commissioner Doug Murphy seconded the motion.  Vote 5:0.

Commissioner Randy
Miller made a motion to approve the lease agreement between Alleghany County
and Blue Ridge BDC.  Commissioner Doug Murphy seconded the motion.  Vote 5:0.

County Manager Don Adams talked about there is a full time job
opening for a paramedic.  He
explained that this is at a grade 64, starting salary of $27,694.27.  He reminded the Board of the current
policy when there are job openings.

Chair Ken Richardson
and County Manager Don Adams
discussed how this position is being currently covered.

Commissioner Steve
Roten made a motion to allow the County
Manager to advertise and fill
the position.  Commissioner Doug Murphy seconded the motion.  Vote 5:0.

County Manager Don Adams presented a resolution supporting an
application to the Local Government Commission for its approval of school
financing arrangements for the County.  He explained that he has been working
with Bob Jessup who is working with BB&T about QSCB funds.  He talked about the timeline of the 0%
interest loans, and the requirement of having them issued by December 31, 2009.  He explained that the Board of Education
is waiting on final word from DPI about the monies.  He continued talking about the timeline
and the steps that will be required including a public hearing at a later date.
He reiterated that this is the first
step to move forward.

Commissioner Milly Richardson made a motion to approve the
resolution.  Commissioner Randy
Miller seconded the motion.  Vote
5:0.

County Manager Don Adams talked about a form that is required by
USDA for the training facility.  He
explained that this document needs to be signed before proceeding to discuss
the conditions at the next meeting.
He further explained that the letter of conditions is the last step.

County Manager Don Adams updated the Board about the EMS building including he held a pre-construction meeting
with the metal bids’ portion due on September 25 and the interior bids’
portion due October 2.  He presented
a timeline to the Board about how the low bidders will meet with the insurance
company prior to the bid being awarded.
He talked about awarding the metal bids on October 5 and awarding the
interior bid on October 19.  He
informed the Board that asbestos has been found in the tile, and he held
another meeting regarding that.  He
talked about by mid October to be moving forward on the building.  He further talked about having the
contractors put in an alternate in the metal bid because of the size of the
vehicles and the size of the doors.
He explained that the doors need to be larger doors and redoing some of
the structural beams to allow for more room for the vehicles.

The Board of
Commissioners and County Manager Don Adams
discussed the height and width of the doors versus the size of the
vehicles.

County Manager Don Adams discussed a request about the Marine Band
coming.  He reminded everyone that they
will be performing in a parade on September 26 and having a concert later that
evening.  He explained that a request
has been made by the sesquicentennial committee to have fireworks after the
concert.  He further explained that $500
as been committed from Skyline Telephone, Blue Ridge Electric and the Town, and
they are requesting $500 from the County.

The Board stated that
they didn’t have a problem with that.

Commissioner Milly Richardson
talked about her birthday is tomorrow along with Bud Marion and Tom Smith.  She further talked about proclaiming tomorrow
to be Bud/Tom/Milly day.

Commissioner Milly
Richardson made a motion to enter into closed session at 4:38pm under NCGS 143-318.11 (a) (3)—legal.  Commissioner Randy Miller seconded the
motion.  Vote 5:0.

Chair Ken Richardson
left the meeting at 4:58pm.

County Attorney Donna Shumate arrived at 5:10pm.

Commissioner Milly Richardson made a motion to adjourn closed
session at 5:26pm and
reconvene the regular meeting.  Commissioner
Doug Murphy seconded the
motion.  Vote 4:0.

Vice-Chair Randy
Miller stated that no decisions were made during closed session.

Being
no further business, Commissioner Milly
Richardson made a motion to adjourn at 5:28pm.
Commissioner Doug Murphy seconded
the motion.  Vote 4:0.

Respectfully
submitted,

Karen Evans

Clerk to the Board

Attest:

Ken Richardson

Chairman