Ray Blankenship to Return to County to Testify in Trial of Former DSS Director

   A transport order asking the U.S. Department of Justice to deliver former Buchanan County Board of Supervisors Chairman Stuart Ray Blankenship, who is now serving time in the federal penitentiary, to the custody of the Buchanan County Sheriff in November was filed last week in Buchanan Circuit Court.
   Special Prosecutor Christopher B. Russell sought the order signed by Judge Bob Williams, for Blankenship to be returned to the county November 20 and 21, 2006 as "a necessary witness" in the trial of former Buchanan County Social Services Director Jerry Wayne Snyder, 63, of Crockett.
   Snyder was indicted in July 2002 on two counts of embezzlement. His trial date has been continued since then, but has now been set for November of this year.
    Since that time, Blankenship has been indicted, pled guilty and was convicted in connection with the federal government's Operation Big Coon Dog case -- unrelated to the charges Snyder is facing.
    Blankenship is presently in the federal penitentiary system, assigned to Lexington FMC. He is not scheduled to be released until December 2016.
    Six witnesses previously testified for the commonwealth in a preliminary hearing prior to Synder's indictment in 2002.
    Those who testified then included Buchanan County Treasurer Bill Keen; County Administrator W.J. Caudill; then Buchanan County Board of Supervisors Chairman Ray Blankenship; Assistant DSS Director Sherina Justus; DSS Office Manager Tammy Fields; and DSS Clerk Marlene Owens.
    The defense offered no evidence at the preliminary hearing.
    Snyder was represented by Attorney Robert Galumbeck at the preliminary hearing and Galumbeck continues as his attorney.
    Snyder was indicted following a state police investigation into two checks allegedly issued on his behalf to the Virginia Retirement System in the amounts of $32,576.28 and $7,863.24 used to purchase prior service time for Snyder through the VRS system. DSS agency funds were used to make the purchases.
    At issue is whether the purchases were authorized.
     Snyder resigned as director of the agency in early August 2001, citing no reason in a one-sentence letter. The resignation came on the heels of his announced decision to retire which came as a surprise to some and within days of questions being asked publicly by this newspaper about the two VRS checks.
     The monies were returned to the county by VRS after Caudill and Keen explained the alleged circumstances surrounding the issuance of the checks and requested the VRS reimburse the county. It did so.

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VEC Job Offerings Queried By Board

   Disappointment in the number of  jobs Buchanan County has received from the location of a Virginia Employment Customer Contact Center in the county was expressed by members of the Buchanan County Board of Supervisors to its state legislators earlier this month.
   Board members expressed their concerns that the VEC project has not turned out to be what county officials indicated they were initially led to believe it would be.
   The VEC, they added, had said there was not a need to put in the number of employees originally stated to be hired at the facility.
   When the announcement was made the county had landed the customer contact center -- the first in the state -- the county was told that with it would come some 65 to 70 jobs. The county invested money in the project through a $1.04 million grant from the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority. The money was used to develop the space which houses the center at the Buchanan Information Park to VEC criteria.
   Currently, the VEC Buchanan location provides some 25 full-time jobs and 42 others are classified as part-time.
    It is apparently the designation of full-time versus part-time jobs which is the cause of concern.
    “That’s the most disappointing thing to me . . . that we’re not getting any of the numbers we were told,” Sen. Phillip Puckett said in agreeing with board concerns about jobs at the center.
    Garden Supervisor Buddy Fuller agreed, noting the county had been led to believe the office would be a satellite office and thinking such, the county had spent money to develop the space in the Buchanan Information Park, only to find its investment has not paid off.

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