Garden Area Resident Requests County Adopt Noise Ordinance

by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor
      The need for the county to adopt a noise ordinance was suggested Monday during a meeting of the Buchanan County Board of Supervisors.
        Mike Osborne approached the board to request an ordinance be drafted. He noted he lived in the Garden District and he said the noise to which he specifically was referring had to do with that created by gas well drilling rigs.
        "I have one at my bedroom window now and one on the other end of my house," Osborne said.
         "Today it’s my window and tomorrow, it may be yours," Osborne said.
He asked the board to consider drafting an ordinance "to try to help the people."
         Osborne said he had been to everyone he was aware of in power to ask that something be done, but so far had not had any success.
         "I don’t know what route to go next," Osborne said.
       Garden Supervisor Buddy Fuller told Osborne he wasn’t the first to complain and he added not only is it the drilling rigs which make noise, but exhaust fans from mine ventilation shafts as well.
        "Nothing has ever been passed to alleviate the problem," he said.
      Fuller noted federal regulations seem to be tailored more toward businesses and less toward residents.
        Fuller suggested the best route to go would be to have County Attorney Mickey McGlothlin draw up an ordinance for the board to consider. He added it was his understanding the town was in the process of developing a noise ordinance and he suggested perhaps that could be used as a model for the county ordinance.
        Osborne noted the drilling rig to which he was referring was less than 300 feet from his bedroom window and he said another was near his daughter’s home.
        "You can only go just so many days without sleep and you know how you function," Osborne said.
       "We need some help," Osborne added. "It may not help me, but it may help someone else down the road."
         The board agreed to consult with McGlothlin on the issue.
        In other business, board members approved issuing a check in the amount of $1.5 million to the Buchanan County Industrial Development Authority. The monies fulfill a pledge the board made previously to the University of Appalachia College of Pharmacy.

For more of the story, see the print edition of the Mountaineer, on sale at newsstands now.  For more information on how to subscribe to the Mountaineer, call 276-935-2123 today.

 2007 School Budget Presented to Supervisors
Request Up $3.5 Million in State, Local Funding

by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor
        A $34.79 million fiscal year 2007 school operating budget was presented to the Buchanan County Board of Supervisors, Monday.
       Superintendent Tommy P. Justus made the presentation to the board, asking that the board provide some $8.4 million in local funds for the school budget -- the minimum amount required by state law for the coming year.
       In explaining the school budget, Justus noted that overall the budget request is up some $3.5 million.
        The increases, he said, reflect an additional $1.7 million in anticipated state revenues and an additional $1.3 million due to changes in the county’s composite index.
         The composite index, which the state uses to define a locality’s ability to pay, went up from .2788 to .3205, which Justus said means that where the county had been expected to pay 28 cents of every dollar spent in the school system, it is now expected to pay a little more than 32 cents of every dollar spent.
         "The bottom line is that the budget has a pretty sizeable increase of about $3.5 million," Justus said.
        Last year, the local revenue amount required by the state was $6.2 million, although Justus noted the county had actually funded education to the tune of some $7 million.
        "The new requirement, by code, is $8.4 million," Justus said. "That’s a huge increase."
         He noted that the budget was developed using estimated state figures due to the current impasse on the state budget.
        "You’ve probably been keeping up with the General Assembly," Justus said. "There is a stalemate as far as the budget is concerned."
       However, Justus noted the impasse is apparently not related to the education portion of the state budget.
       "The education piece of the state budget doesn’t appear to be too controversial," Justus said. "I think once the transportation section is resolved, the rest will be taken care of pretty quickly."
        However, he said it could be up in the summer some time before the school system knew exactly what it could count on from the state.
        In developing the 2006-2007 school budget proposal, Justus said the school system had used budget proposals submitted by the governor.
        Any adjustments to be made if something slightly different is passed, Justus said, would be insignificant in comparison to the figures he was asking for Monday.

For more of the story, see the print edition of the Mountaineer, on sale at newsstands now.  For more information on how to subscribe to the Mountaineer, call 276-935-2123 today.