Area Legislators Gather For Breakfast Q&A Session

by Scotty Wampler
Staff Reporter
   Local lawmakers aren't fond of VDOT's cost-cutting plan to consolidate many of its maintenance facilities, citing concerns about snow removal in the area's mountainous terrain.
  In Abingdon last Thursday while participating in the Southwest Virginia Legislative Breakfast and Q&A session at the Higher Education Center on the campus of Virginia Highlands Community College, two state senators and three delegates shared similar thoughts on the plan that intends to convert the Big Rock VDOT facility in Buchanan County into an unstaffed storage area.
  "It's getting to the point where VDOT is about as lean as it can get," said Del. Clarence "Bud" Phillips (D-2nd District), adding he has spoken to a number of local VDOT employees. "They don't believe they can give as good of service in areas where consolidation will occur."
  The main concern among the legislators on the five-man panel was that of the mountainous terrain that must be fought during inclement winter weather.
  "I just don't think [the plan] meets the mark in this neck of the woods," said State Sen. William Wampler (R-Bristol). "It's a much different game when you have that kind of weather."
  State Sen. Philip Puckett (D-Lebanon), also in attendance, said he and several other area legislators have asked state Secretary of Transportation Pierce R. Homer to take a closer look at the hardship VDOT's plan would create for the process of snow removal in Southwest Virginia.
  "If you look at the closures, they're all disproportionately down in this area," said Del. Terry Kilgore (R-1st District).
  Kilgore said it's obvious the plan would eliminate timely road maintenance during snowy weather, equating to the problem of more school days missed due to snowy or icy road conditions.
  "That's basically what's going to happen," he said.
  Locally, plans currently call for the Oakwood and Deskins facilities to be used as the area's primary VDOT facilities, with the Big Rock facility, which employs 12 people, being retained for chemical storage only. The department has not yet announced how current employees will be reassigned at the local or state level. The current 335 maintenance facilities statewide will be consolidated to 244 by July 1, 2008, with most major changes in crew deployment not set to begin until spring.
  The panel took several additional questions from the audience during the event, including what the major issue facing the Virginia General Assembly might be in the next session.
  Overwhelmingly, the panel agreed transportation remains the biggest issue facing the assembly, although the consensus was no real ground will be made anytime soon.

County Tax Tickets Mailed; Deadline Is January 5, 2007

by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor  
   Buchanan County tax tickets for 2006 were mailed out earlier this month, giving residents two months advance notice they are due.
   County real estate, personal property and merchants capital taxes are due January 5, 2007.
  The Buchanan County Board of Supervisors changed the tax due date for 2006 to January, instead of December, in action taken in earlier discussions on the date taxes are due.
  Historically, the board had changed the due date on an annual basis from December to January.
  Residents paying after the January 5 deadline will be subject to a 5 percent penalty  and 10 percent interest beginning January 6, 2007.
  Tax rates are $1.95 per $100 assessed value for personal property; 49 cents per $100 assessed value for real estate; and $2 per $100 assessed value for merchant's capital.
  Anyone who has not yet received a tax ticket or who has questions about them may call Treasurer Bill Keene at 935-6551. For questions related to the value of the real estate or personal property, Commissioner of Revenue Victor Breeding may be reached at 935-6541.

State Sends Out Local School Division Report Card
Student Achievement, Attendance Among Factors Measured

by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor
  (Editor’s Note: This is the first installment in a series looking at the school report card findings issued by the Virginia Department of Education for schools in Buchanan County and statewide. This week’s installment looks at the overall Buchanan school division report. Future installments will examine high school and elementary results in Buchanan County.)
  The report cards are in and the results were released Monday night during a meeting of the Buchanan County School Board.
  The Virginia Department of Education recently released the reports not only for the school division, but for individual schools statewide as well.
  Superintendent Tommy P. Justus presented school board members with the report, noting there is a lot of useful information contained in them which gives school board members, as well as parents and others looking at them, an overview of the Buchanan school division’s progress.
  Student achievement, school safety, attendance and graduation information is among the information found in the reports.
  “The purpose of the school report card,” Justus said, “ís to keep parents and the public informed of the progress in our schools.”
  He noted that one of the achievements Buchanan County had to be proud of was the fact that all of its schools met federal No Child Left Behind Act Adequate Yearly Progress benchmarks for 2005-2006. The fact that all 10 schools in the school division achieved the benchmark, Justus said, put the Buchanan division in an elite group statewide. Only 25 school divisions in the state saw all of their schools achieve AYP.
  “That’s a biggie for us, or for anyone for that matter,” Justus said.
  He noted he and other administrators had spent a lot of time in the past week and a half checking the state report against local school division data. Some discrepancies were found and those have been reported to the DOE, he said.
  He noted one misleading factor in the state reports is in the counting of awards of advanced diplomas. The state report lists zero in some instances, when in fact some were awarded. The reason for the discrepancy, Justus said, is that the state looks at 10 or less as too small to count and therefore doesn’t record it. In a school with a small enrollment, which has a small graduating class, however, he said the number can be significant.
  “Overall, we’re pleased with the report cards,” Justus said.
  He urged anyone with questions to call him, Pat Fletcher, Sherry Fletcher or Testing Coordinator Linda Duty.
  The school division summary released showed that Buchanan County has an overall population of 3,436 students for 2006-2007, down from 3,500 in 2005-2006 and down from 3,570 in 2004-2005.

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