Government

By Mike Forster
and Tom Wilmoth
news@bedfordbulletin.com

    The painful side of reversion showed itself last week, as Bedford City Parks and Recreation employees were informed that their department might cease to exist on July 1.
    While the move means that two city employees will probably lose their jobs, there is much more to it than that.

    Normally at this time of year, Delegate Lacey Putney announces his intention to run for reelection. This year is different.

    “After several weeks of consideration and deliberation, I have decided not to seek another term in the Virginia House of Delegates,” Putney wrote in a news release.

    Salem City Manager Kevin Boggess announced this week the hiring of Rosie Jordan as the city’s new finance director.

    Jordan goes to Salem from the city of Bedford, where she has been a fixture since 1994. She began her professional career here as an accountant, later became the assistant director of finance and in 2001, was named Bedford’s finance director.

    The Bedford County Planning Commission has nearly finished its comments on the board of supervisors’ proposed amendments to the county’s zoning ordinance.   
    District 2 planning commission member Jeff Burdett said that the corridor overlays requirements are fine in rural areas but too restrictive  at points where the corridor goes through developed areas. In those areas, the planning commission members want to eliminate the overlays’ additional setbacks and allow larger signs.