UACP Completes First Term; Looks Ahead

by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor
       With the first semester of the University of Appalachia College of Pharmacy now complete, university officials are looking forward to the completion of the first year and start of the second year.
       Currently, UACP is processing more than 800 applications for next school year’s class, working toward a March 1, 2006 student application deadline.
         Dean Larry Foss said the university recently completed its first term with a class of 69 students, 30 of whom achieved grade point averages of 3.5 or better on a 4.0 scale.
        "We had a successful first term," Foss said. "I’m really impressed with the learning students have completed. The success of the fall semester is a great credit to the students. They have done a lot of learning in a system they’re not used to."
        Additionally, he said, students had worked with administrators to help make the system better and he credited faculty members for their hard work to make the program a success.
        Foss noted there are nine faculty members currently teaching at the school which operates a three-year program leading to the doctor of pharmacy.
       UACP Board of Trustees Chairman Frank Kilgore noted the university is conducting a nationwide search for top administrative positions and clinical faculty.
       In the meantime, renovations are continuing at the former Garden school campus to renovate the facility for use by UACP students beginning in August.

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Residents Query Housing Project
Some For, Some Against Whitewood Low Income Units

        (Editor’s Note: The Buchanan County Board of Supervisors meeting was held Monday, the day before North Grundy Supervisor Joe Keene died in a tragic wreck. Remarks by Keene quoted in this story were made at that meeting.)

         Petitions for and petitions against a proposed low income housing project at the former Whitewood Elementary School building were presented to members of the Buchanan County Board of Supervisors, Monday.
        A group of people from the community were present for the meeting and asked questions about the project which People Inc. Director Rob Goldsmith first mentioned to the board in January.
         A similar project in the Keen Mountain Camp was also planned at that time, but after residents banded together to oppose it, the project was scrapped and Goldsmith said it would not be built at Keen Mountain.
         North Grundy Supervisor Joe Keene, who is a member of the People Inc. board of directors, told residents Monday it was his understanding based on conversations with another that the Whitewood project had also been scrapped.
        However, in a brief telephone interview Tuesday, Goldsmith indicated the Whitewood project remains a viable project at present.
        "It stands where it did," Goldsmith said, noting that the project is currently contingent upon the ability of its proposed tenant base to receive rental assistance vouchers and upon the support of the project by the people in the Whitewood community and the board of supervisors.
         At Monday’s meeting, citizens present asked that the board and People Inc. consider holding a meeting in the Whitewood community to further explain the project.
        Board members directed Buchanan County Economic Development Director Craig Horn, who also serves as the housing authority director in Buchanan County, to set up the meeting.
         At press time, a date for the meeting had not yet been set.
        Clark Horn approached the board at Monday’s meeting to request that the project be stopped.
       He presented board members with a petition containing signatures in opposition. He did not state how many signatures were on the petition.

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Terra Tech to Be Retained for Poplar Gap Gym Design

by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor
        (Editor’s Note: The Buchanan County Board of Supervisors meeting was held Monday, the day before North Grundy Supervisor Joe Keene died in a tragic wreck. Remarks by Keene quoted in this story were made at that meeting.)

        The construction of a new gymnasium at Poplar Gap and potentially two other locations as well became the topic of discussion Monday during a meeting of the Buchanan County Board of Supervisors.
         Board members agreed to ask Terra Tech Engineering, which the county has on retainer, to design plans for construction of the gym at Poplar Gap. Those same plans, they indicated could be used for other gym projects in the future.
         South Grundy Chairman Roger Rife brought up the issue, noting he was tired of waiting for plans on the gym to be drawn up through the county mapping office.
         "When we agreed to sell the Vansant school property, we agreed to tear down the gym and replace a gym," Rife said, noting that agreement had been made last June or July.
         Since then, he said the new Food City had been built on site and had been opened for almost three months. At the same time, he noted, the gym project has never even started.
         "I haven’t even been able to secure a plan for the gym to be built," Rife said.
Rocklick Supervisor David Ratliff noted that when Food City agreed to take the Vansant property, they had even agreed to pay a little more toward the construction of the replacement gym.
        "Two gyms," Knox Supervisor Pat Justus corrected, making reference to a comment about building a gym at Hurley as well.
        "I have been real patient," Rife said. "I know there are other things more important than a gym, but at some point, we did assure the people we would replace the gym."
          As discussion of the motion began, board members talked about a design specifically for a gym at Poplar Gap and at the old D.A. Justus property in the Knox district.
          North Grundy Supervisor Joe Keene said he wanted one for Enoch’s Branch as well.
           Rife noted one design was needed which could be applied to other sites.

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