Supervisors reorganize

    The Bedford County Board of supervisors held its organizational meeting Monday night in which members selected a chairman and vice chairman for the rest of the year.

District 2 Supervisor Chuck Neudorfer

    The supervisors follow a rotation and this year is District 2 Supervisor Chuck Neudorfer’s turn to head the board. Neudorfer was unanimously chosen as chairman and District 5 Supervisor Steve Arrington was unanimously chosen as vice chairman.
    During the meeting, the supervisors heard from Roger Elmore, representing the Montvale Rescue Squad. Elmore told the supervisors that half of the houses in the county don’t display house numbers.
    “It’s getting to be a big, big problem,” he said.
    To illustrate the seriousness of the problem, he told the supervisors about a call that he and his wife ran on recently. The call came in just a little after midnight and they had difficulty finding the house because it didn’t have a house number displayed.
    “It’s just a good thing it wasn’t a life-threatening situation,” Elmore commented.
    That’s because the effort to find this house resulted in considerable delay.
    “It took 15 minutes to answer a five-minute call,” he said.
    County Attorney Carl Boggess noted that the law requires homeowners to display house numbers. Failing to do so is a Class 4 Misde-meanor.
    The supervisors discussed how this problem should be addressed. One option, suggested by District 6 Supervisor Annie Pollard, is to send letters to homeowners who are violating this law.
    County Administrator Kathleen Guzi recommended using news media to call attention to the need for businesses and houses to be properly marked. Neudorfer suggested that the Sheriff’s Office and county fire and rescue officials could put together the information needed to do this.
    In other action:
    The Planning Commission, which is appointed by the Board of Supervisors, will see some new faces. District 6 Planning Commissioner Derrick Noell was appointed to a new six-year term, but Lewis Huff, of Hardy, will replace District 1 Planning Commissioner Rick Crockett. District 5 Planning Commissioner Steve Stevick sent Arrington a letter late last year stating that he is not seeking reappointment. Stevick cited his disagreement with the supervisors over their decision to scrap a new zoning ordinance that the Planning Commission recommended and make their own revisions to the existing zoning ordinance. District 7 Planning Commissioner Curtis Stephens has also expressed his intention to leave the Planning Commission. Stephens said that he wanted to clear the way for newly elected District 7 Supervisor Tammy Parker to choose a new planning commissioner for that district.