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Government

  • Town's bill goes up by $500,000; will pass it on to customers

        January’s extreme cold temperatures tested the electric grid that transmits power to residents served by the town of Bedford electric department.
        And a bill that came in $500,000 over its normal $60,000 cost, is testing the patience of Bedford Town Council.
        It will also affect the pocketbooks of the town’s residents.

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  • Safe Surfin’ works to provide ballistic vests to law enforcement officers

        Representatives of a dozen Virginia law enforcement agencies came to the Bedford County Sheriff’s office last week to receive ballistic vests from the Safe Surfin’ Foundation.

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  • Opening new cell at landfill will cost $8M

    “I would really appreciate one budget session where we got all good news,” commented Board of Supervisors Chairman John Sharp.
        The bad news they got, Monday evening, is that the landfill will need to close the cell it is using and open a new one in 2018. It will cost an estimated $8 million, but the solid waste department has only accumulated $3.7 million in its capital fund for that purpose.
        How did that happen?

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  • Amtrak won't stop here

        Though passenger rail service will be traveling through Bedford, it's not going to stop here. Anyone wanting to travel on the expanded Amtrak rail service will have to go to a new station in Roanoke or the existing Lynchburg stop to catch a ride.
        Government officials in Bedford and Bedford County had hoped to convince officials from the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) to place a station in Bedford, but received a letter last week stating that won't happen.

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  • Cash takes position with Roanoke Co.

        When Sheldon Cash first started working for Bedford County as its solid waste coordinator in 1999, he was asked to commit to three years. The “three years” will end this week, 15 years later.

        Cash will start work this coming Monday as Roanoke County’s assistant director of general services. This Roanoke County department handles solid waste, county buildings and fleet services.

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  • PC recommends approval of special use permit for B&B

        A bed and breakfast and commercial feed lots dominated a planning commission meeting last week.
        The planning commission unanimously recommended a special use permit for a bed and breakfast that Bill and Anneliese Piatt requested. This permit will clear up a technical violation of the zoning ordinance.

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  • Chairman questions abstentions

        The Feb. 10 Board of Supervisors regular meeting marks the third time recently that District 1 Supervisor Bill Thomasson has abstained on a vote.
        At that meeting Thomasson abstained on a vote to transfer 69 acres of the former Camp 24 site to the Bedford Regional Water Authority (BRWA) for a new water treatment plant.
        That vote comes after Thomasson abstained, last month, on a vote to advertise the public hearing for the land transfer. 

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  • Council begins work on budget

    Bedford Town Council got to work this week dissecting a proposed budget from town staff that raises electric rates by 2 percent, but leaves real estate property taxes at its current rate.
        Town Manager Charles Kolakowski presented his budget to council last week and work on it was scheduled to begin in earnest by council yesterday during a work session.

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  • Fire chiefs want county to provide more money to support departments

        Bedford’s volunteer fire chiefs believe the county’s new fire department funding formula is inadequate, according to Eric Shell, Hardy’s fire chief.
        Shell, representing the county’s fire commission and backed by various fire chiefs who filled two pews in the supervisors’ meeting chamber, spoke before the county supervisors at a work session Monday night.
        Shell said the fire departments have had  flat funding for 20 years.

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  • Supervisors not ready to make a call on what school to build

        It’s been noted that Bedford County’s supervisors, with the exception of District 5 Supervisor Steve Arrington, had little to say after the school board presented three school construction options to them at a joint meeting at the end of last month. They asked for time to consider these options, and discuss them among themselves before making a decision.
        Most of them feel that there are a lot of unknowns involved in all the options, and they need time to digest the information they do have.

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