U.S. Attorney Keynotes ASL Founders Day Event

by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor
        U.S. Attorney John Brownlee was the keynote speaker Friday as the Appalachian School of Law marked its Founders Day.
        Three winners of the Appalachian Service Award were named and a Lifetime Service Award was presented during the afternoon festivities (see related stories, page 1b).
         ASL President Lu Ellsworth welcomed guests to the luncheon noting that ASL’s beginnings hailed back to 1984 when Joe Wolfe first began thinking about a law school for Southwest Virginia.
        After commencement exercises next month, he said, ASL will have some 470 alumni.
          ASL Board of Trustees Chairman Nick Persin told those in attendance that he was both proud and happy to have the law school located in Buchanan County. He called Wolfe the "instigator of the entire project," and he extended his thanks to Wolfe for all of Wolfe’s hard work.
          He also credited the Buchanan County Board of Supervisors for having the foresight to realize what a positive thing the school could be for Buchanan County.
He said the law school has made great strides with bar passage rates going up, a dedicated staff, a strategic location and increasing applicant interest.
           Brownlee spoke to those gathered for the luncheon about the importance of the work the men and women who work in the U.S. Department of Justice do every day.
          He said his appreciation for ASL went back several years to a time when he and Margaret Lawton, who later taught at ASL, worked together as federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C.
          Brownlee said this spring marked his ninth year in the U.S. Department of Justice and being a prosecutor, he said, is all he ever wanted to do.
           "I wanted to do good for a living for the greatest nation," Brownlee said.
          He described a typical day for him, noting they all start out with meeting with agents and assistant U.S. attorneys.
           He called them all men and women "of the highest integrity."
          He talked briefly about the Operation Big Coon Dog scandal in Buchanan County and the role of federal prosecutors in bringing the bid rigging and bribery scheme which existed to light.

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Del. Terry Kilgore Named to New UA Post

        Terry Kilgore, state delegate from Southwest Virginia, has been named dean of institutional advancement for the University of Appalachia.
         Kilgore is currently serving his seventh term as delegate of Virginia's First District, which includes Scott, Lee and portions of Wise and Washington Counties. Throughout his political career, Kilgore has placed emphasis upon education, health care and economic development within far Southwest Virginia. During his tenture and with his avid support, the Pharmacy Connect program that originated in Southwest Virginia was implemented to provide prescription medicines to low-income seniors. Kilgore has also supported annual increases to both educational funding and new jobs throughout the region.

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Additional Road Policy Revisions Examined
Application, Public Hearing Process Suggested

by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor
        With two specific road requests brought before the board Monday and a growing list of now 25 roads planned for work in the coal road plan for which no rights of way can be located, members of the Buchanan County Board of Supervisors again agreed changes are needed to a county road policy.
         A committee appointed to look at the policy last month also agreed changes were necessary, but the scope of those changes and specific language relating to them has not yet been decided.
        At Monday’s meeting, County Attorney Mickey McGlothlin indicated he was working on a new draft, however, he said it would likely be several weeks before that draft was ready for review.
         In the meantime, he suggested that if board members had specific thoughts on what ought to be included in the policy, he wanted to hear them.
        "I’ve had several thoughts and think the policy needs more revisions than what have previously been proposed," McGlothlin said.
          He said he thought the policy should establish minimum standards for roads to be taken into the county system and he said there ought to be some certification that roads being considered are in compliance with the policy.
         "The one thing that is lacking is procedure," said North Grundy Supervisor Carroll Branham. "There should be guidelines to decide."
          McGlothlin suggested one avenue the board might want to consider would be for residents wishing to have a road taken into the system to file an application. From there, he said, a public hearing could be held and at that public hearing, he said, the applicant could be asked to explain why he or she thought the road applied for should be a public road and how it would serve the public.
          South Grundy Chairman Roger Rife noted that in order to move forward with the policy, board members would need to acknowledge, "what happened in the past has happened, but we’ve got to look to the future. We can’t look to the future until we get a policy."
           Branham agreed a policy needed to be developed and then followed.
           The bottom line, Rife said, is that roads on which right of way problems are now known to exist will have be corrected.

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