The Patrick County Board of Supervisors held a budget review session on Thursday, March 4 on the 2010-2011 Annual Budget
A public comment period was held and most comments were in support of restoring the budget for Advance Life Support (ALS) training expense. Various individuals came to make an appeal to go forward with training 14 persons to receive their ALS certification. At this point with a largely volunteer rescue personnel we are short of enough personnel with these qualifications. After a lengthy discussion by board members they voted unanimously to restore $65,000 budget for this training.
They also voted unanimously to restore the $5400 in the budget for the "First Alert System". This emergency alert system will be Internet (web) based and will operate very much like the Honeywell system used by Patrick County Schools. It will be extremely valuable when instances come up with lost or missing persons plus when emergencies arise within a certain neighborhood and residents need to be alerted by telephone.
They voted to eliminate $1500 budget allocation to the Blue Ridge Heritage Project by a 3-2 vote with Karl Weiss and Crystal Harris voting no.
They voted to reduce the Library budget allocation by $5000 with a 3-2 vote with Karl Weiss and Crystal Harris voting no.
The Caring Hearts Free Clinic budget allocation was raised from $6400 to $15,000 with a 4-1 vote and Crystal Harris voting no.
They voted to reduce the Tourism Budget allocation to the Chamber of Commerce to $5000. This is a reduction of $13000, compared to 2009-2010 budget. The vote was 3-2, with Lock Boyce and Roger Hayden voting no. While Lock Boyce and Roger Hayden questioned the $34,000 Tourism marketing budget and the value of the Tourism Advisory Commitee, they were not able to sway other board members to change it.
Lock Boyce made a motion to cut the $4400 fireworks budget by $2000. The motion was lost for lack of a second. His contention was that business contributions could possibly make up the difference.
The Soil and Water budget allocation was reduced to $5000 by a 3-2 vote, with Karl Weiss and Crystal Harris voting no.
Considerable discussion centered around the $15800 budget allocation to the Patrick Henry Community College. This amount reflects a $2000 reduction from the 2009-2010 budget. This budget was questioned in light of the operational cost of the Community Building being carried largely by the County that includes, utilities, maintenance and staffing. No motions were made to change the budget.
Reported by Tom Bishop
