Bids to Be Opened on Rt. 680 Project

by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor  
  Bids on the long-awaited Rt. 680, Bill Young Mountain, project will be opened later this month.
  Virginia Department of Transportation Resident Engineer Conrad Hill told members of the Buchanan County Board of Supervisors last Thursday the Rt. 680 bids will be opened on October 25 and he added he hoped that construction on the road which lies between the Garden and Whitewood communities and leads to the Twin Valley schools, will begin around the first of the year.
  In other road-related discussion, Hill answered questions related to any move to consolidate or downsize VDOT operations in Buchanan County and explained the use of revenue sharing funds on various county projects.
  Knox Supervisor Pat Justus asked whether the department had any plans to shut down the Big Rock-Home Creek headquarters, adding he hoped not since just having the headquarters at Oakwood would not be sufficient enough if that was the case.
  Hill said studies are going on now related to closing and consolidation of offices, but he said no decisions had yet been made.
  "I think it will be talked about a lot in the next year," Hill said.
  Justus suggested if the county were to lose the Big Rock-Home Creek office, and have only the Oakwood office to serve the entire community, it would not be adequate due to the size of the county.
  "The snow would be melted off before they could get over there," he said of traveling from Oakwood to Home Creek or Hurley.
  North Grundy Supervisor Carroll Branham asked about Rt. 83/8 and Hill noted the road was one of the county roads on which the use of revenue sharing funds was planned.
  "We are in the situation on that project that we are trying to maximize revenue sharing and spend as much state money as we can (to build the project)," Hill said.
  He noted that there will be $13 million available in revenue sharing funds statewide, but he said getting that money for particular projects statewide will be competitive and based in part on the amount of match money counties are willing to put up for various projects.
  Hill said the Commonwealth Transportation Board will meet later this month to approve the new rules for revenue sharing funds and after that, he said counties may make applications for those funds.
  He suggested it would probably take eight months to get the project from start to ad, but he pointed out that if the county were to go ahead and make improvements to the road, using monies from the coal severance road fund, it can't back up and then make it a revenue sharing project.

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Grand Jury Issues True Bill on Noise Complaint

   A Special Grand Jury impaneled Monday to decide the merits of a petition filed by 15 citizens in the Laurel Creek area of Buchanan County regarding the noise from a fan and two compressor stations in that area found a true bill in the case and agreed the nuisance complained of does exist.
  The citizens filed a petition in Buchanan Circuit Court seeking to have a special grand jury investigate their complaint which sought the abatement of a noise nuisance resulting from the fan and compressor station at CONSOL's #10 airshaft.
  Kyle Robinson, who lives on Laurel Creek, said previously the noise from the fan and two compressor stations beside it is "unbearable."
  "We the undersigned, having been impaneled as a Special Grand Jury for the purposes of investigating a complaint of a public nuisance by reason of excessive noise at CONSOL's #10 air shaft on Laurel Creek above the Whitewood Post Office do find the nuisance complained of to exist and to be of a public nature," the Grand Jury finding reads.
  CONSOL will now be notified of the finding.
  No date for a hearing has yet been set.
  Robinson said previously the fan and compressors started up April 26 and are located with 1,200 feet of his home.
  He complained to the company about the fans and the noise and as a result, Robinson said there was an up-shoot placed and insulation put in, but he said that did not take care of the noise and he added, "it seemed to make it worse."
  In his research to find ways to address the problem, Robinson said he ran across the method to file the petition he and the others filed.
  "This noise is very, very loud at our homes," the petition reads. "It is constant, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and can be heard both inside and outside of our homes."
  It goes on to note the citizens have been told it will continue for the next 20 to 30 years.
  "We the citizens are unable to sleep at night, enjoy any outdoor or indoor activities," the petition read. "This loud noise is unbearable to everyone in this area. It has destroyed our quality of life, to which every U.S. citizen in entitled."

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