Main Street president voices support for former director

    Bedford Main Street Inc. President Kathy McGary said the charge against that organization’s former interim executive director “is going to feel very trivial” when the truth comes out.
    Last week Daniel A. Plattus, 46, was charged with one count of credit card fraud by the Bedford Police Department. Plattus had been serving as Bedford Main Street’s only full-time employee, but resigned prior to the charge being filed by police because he thought it would be in the best interest of Bedford Main Street.
    McGary said Plattus’ character is being attacked “by a very small group of people.”
    She said they looked until they could find something they felt “was wrong enough for him to have done to bring forward.”
    “The entire executive board (of Bedford Main Street) and the majority of the (entire) board are devastated that it has come to something like this,” she said. “We have been supporting him (Plattus) through this.
    “He still has a tremendous amount of support from the board,” she said.
    She said the issue amounts to a “personal vendetta” against Plattus. “He’s done a wonderful job,” McGary said.
    She said Plattus has been the primary drive behind putting the annual Centerfest event together.
    “He loves Centertown Bedford,” she said. “He’s done everything within his power to promote Bedford.”
    She said the executive committee has contacted the Virginia Main Street program to alert them to the situation and have split up duties to cover the work Plattus had been doing in his position. She said how the organization moves forward to replace Plattus will be determined, in part, by how Bedford City Council decides to fund the organization in the upcoming year.
    Currently Bedford Main Street receives $25,000 from the city that helps fund the full-time position that Plattus had held. McGary said it will take more funds than that to find someone qualified to serve as executive director.
    “We’re going to have to offer a little more money,” she said. McGary, however, said non-profits and other organizations that get local funding understand the financial bind that local governments are under.
    McGary said, as a personal friend, she will continue to support Plattus. “I know all the details,” she said, adding that she believes once he gets his chance to state his case in court “he will be exonerated.”
    She stressed that the board and Bedford Main Street organization did not seek any legal ramifications against Plattus.
    “We did not feel that what happened warranted any of this,” McGary said. “The facts are the facts. The board did not want this.”
    And the organization is ready to move ahead with its plans.
    “We are looking forward to moving forward in a positive manner and getting Main Street back on track,” McGary said.