No New Taxes in County Budget
Board Makes Big Cuts to Meet Shortfall

by Scotty Wampler
News Editor  
      No new county taxes are expected this year after members of the board of supervisors finalized a tentative budget proposal Tuesday.
     The balanced budget, if approved, would include a two percent across-the-board pay increase for county employees.
     The county faced a major task in trimming the upcoming 2008-09 budget by nearly $8 million after funding requests totaled over $48 million. Projected revenue for the new fiscal year is expected to be in the neighborhood of $40 million, though County Administrator W.J. Caudill told members of the board that might be "stretching it."
     The tentative 2008-09 county budget totals $40,235,260, a reduction of nearly $4.5 million from the previous fiscal year.
     Without making significant cuts to several line items and requests, a tax increase of around 88 cents would have been necessary to balance the budget. Instead, board members sliced funds from several portions of the working budget, including the school system.
     In April, the school system submitted a $9,754,205 funding request to the county, which was reduced Tuesday by $624,205. Also, a request from the Town of Grundy for $2.5 million was cut from the county's budget.

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

Town IDA to Make Third Request To Place Plaza Bridge In VDOT's Hands

by Brandon Dye
Staff Reporter
      The Grundy Industrial Development Authority will be making another attempt to place the Grundy Plaza bridge into the Virginia Department of Transportation's road system.
      During the IDA's monthly meeting last Tuesday, Grundy Town Manager James Keen presented to the IDA that he was eyeing the possibility of making another request to ask VDOT to place the bridge into its system, which is currently owned by the Town of Grundy.
      "The town [IDA] owns the bridge at the present time and it's in a good state of repair," Keen said during the meeting. "We're ready now to move that into the VDOT system."
      IDA board member and acting chairman Mark Mutter said the Grundy IDA hopes for the Grundy Plaza bridge to be accepted into the VDOT road system not only to help with the maintenance costs, but the maintenance itself.

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