South Boston voters unseated one veteran Town Council member, made another incumbent the leading vote-getter, and put two newcomers on the governing body in municipal elections Tuesday.
It was a vigorous vote with only a handful of voters separating the top four.
Leading the ticket was incumbent William (Buddy) Wilborn, who polled 854 votes.
Newcomers Ed Owens and Thomas Raab were elected with votes of 839 and 831.
Turned aside was Josephine P. Marshall, the longest serving member of Town Council, who collected 807 votes.
The fifth candidate in the Tuesday election, Dr. Eula Payne-Williams, trailed with 450 votes.
Wilborn, Owens and Raab will begin their three-year terms on July 1.
In the other big county race, Virgilina voters went to the polls to choose a mayor and six councilmembers.
Incumbent mayor Stover Long narrowly defeated challenger Lessie R. Hughes by a 41 to 37 vote.
Hughes was a councilmember, but was running for the mayor's seat.
And on the council side, incumbents R. Michael Glasscock, Beverly S. Murray, and Thomas Keith Tuck Jr. retained their seats, while Lois Tuck Long, Sue N. Long and Hughes were replaced by newcomers Rufus Edward Chandler, Mary Helen W. Gravitt and John E. Youngk.
Murray received the most votes at 54, followed by Gravitt with 53, Youngk, 52 and Chandler and Glasscock with 45 each.
In a losing bid, L. Long had 40 followed by Kate T. Cosner with 39 and S. Long with 30.
In the Town of Halifax incumbent mayor Dennis Osborne easily outdistanced challenger A.W. (Sandy) Mosby by a total of 170 to 73.
Four councilmembers in the ward-divided town were running unopposed with David (Buddy) Guthrie receiving the most votes from his ward with 96. Jack Dunavant received 47 while Sam Thompson received 46 and Cabell Daniel 28.
In Clover the four incumbents (Shelby D. Newcomb, Roosevelt Garrett Jr., E. Ray Nichols and Leo Noblin) were running unopposed and were returned to office.
George W. Glover Jr., with 17, received the most write-in votes and was elected to the fifth seat.
At least six other Clover residents received write-in votes.
Mayor Debbie Griles, running unopposed, was returned to office.
A transportation institution with deep roots in South Boston is planning to move its Riverdale headquarters to a 54-acre site off U.S. 58 west, near the intersection of Rt. 703.
The trucking firm of R.O. Harrell, Inc. is currently located near the intersection of U.S. 58 and U.S. 501. Company President Rick Harrell has asked for a rezoning of the new tract west of Riverdale from A-1 (agricultural) to M-2 (general manufacturing).
He is also asking for a conditional use permit for the proposed project.
Jerry Lovelace, Assistant County Administrator for Planning and Zoning, asked the Halifax County Board of Supervisors Monday night to authorize public hearings for the request before the Halifax County Planning Commission and the board.
Under motion from supervisor Page Wilkerson, who represents Election District # 6 where the proposed project will be located, the board approved both hearings.
The matter will be discussed during the planning commission on May 26. At that time, the commission will receive public input from citizens and then vote on a recommendation to the board to either approve or deny the request.
The board will have the final vote on the request after a public hearing that was scheduled for the regular monthly meeting of the board on June 1.
Harrell plans to build a new terminal on the 54-acre site, which will include two buildings with a total of 18,000-square feet in size. The majority of the terminal and parking lots will be located approximately 600 feet from the highway and should not bother residents, Harrell said.
Two factors precipitated the move, Harrell pointed out, including an offer for his existing property to be purchased for development and the need to expand and consolidate his trucking firm's facilities.
A real estate investment trust (REIT) based in Jacksonville, Florida has a 120-day option to purchase the Harrell property located on the southwest corner of the U.S. 58 and U.S. 501 intersection.
REITs are pooled assets of investors, which can be either publicly traded as stocks or closely-held by a few wealthy individuals or investment firms. Many large firms which own motels, service stations, or shopping malls have spun off their real estate holdings into separately held REITs.
The purchase by the REIT of the Harrell property will also include the Exxon service station at the immediate corner, Harrell said.
"At this time, I don't know what the REIT will build on the property," Harrell said. "I just know it's one of the busiest intersections in the county."
If the rezoning takes place and the conditional use permit is granted - and if the REIT exercises its option - Harrell will move the entire trucking operation to the 54-acre site which is located 1,000 feet east of Rt. 703 (Sandy Beach Road) on the north side of U.S. 58.
Currently, part of his fleet is stored in a parking lot just east of Von's Motel, with the remainder stored at the U.S. 58/501 location.
R.O. Harrell, Inc. has 40 tractors and approximately 150 trailers. The trucking firm specializes in hauling fly ash, cement, and liquid resin, with major customers in the Danville and Chatham areas. The company employs 45 people, according to Harrell.
"The move to the new area would enhance safety because there is so much traffic at the intersection where our trucks come in and leave," he explained.
Turn lanes would be constructed on four sides of the highway leading to and from the new facility, he added.
"It would also be good for us to have all of our operations at one central location," Harrell said. "Especially one that is west of South Boston since we do a lot of business towards western regions."
Other issues have to be settled in addition to the permit process, including the extension of water and sewer services to the tract, officials said.
The Harrell name has been a fixture in the transportation business in the county for nearly 150 years, going back to his great-grandfather, John Love, Harrell said.
The family manufactured horse-drawn buggies in the late 19th century and early 20th century. The company sold over 4,000 buggies to the Singer Sewing Company which were used throughout the country by Singer's salesmen, according to Harrell.
Harrell's ancestors even sold buggies which were packaged in airtight containers and sent by ship to South America, Harrell said.
A fully-restored buggy built by the family operation is on display in the South Boston-Halifax County Museum of Fine Arts and History.
In later years, the family operated auto supply stores, new car dealerships, service stations, and even manufactured women's slips. But in the post-World War II era, the focus of the family business shifted towards trucking.
In 1962, Harrell's father, R.O. Harrell, moved the trucking firm to its present location from its previous location in lower South Boston.
"In much of the last 100 years of the business history of South Boston, it has been a case of businesses moving from lower South Boston to the Centerville area," Harrell reflected. "For the past century, our family businesses have been moving in the exact opposite direction."
If permits are granted and the REIT purchases the property, construction of the new terminal could begin this summer, officials said.
Employees of Halifax County will be covered by a different health insurance program after a unanimous vote Monday night by the Halifax County Board of Supervisors.
The Local Choice-Key Advantage program of Blue Cross/Blue Shield will take the place of the current Trigon program for health insurance coverage of county employees for the fiscal year from July 1, 1998 to June 30,1999. Both programs are administered by Trigon, officials explained.
The cost per employee for the Local Choice program, which is paid for by the county, is $209. That marks a decrease from the $219 rate which was paid this year, officials said.
An employee who chooses to have a spouse covered by Local Choice could do so at the same rate of $209. That spousal coverage would be paid for by the employee.
A projected 198 county employees, virtually the entire work force, will probably choose to take the coverage, according to Halifax County Administrator Dan Sleeper.
The monthly bid for the regular Trigon program was $229.28 per employee. That program lost out because their coverage was too high and their offerings were not as extensive as the Local Choice program, Sleeper said.
The board also voted on the county's overall insurance needs, which include general liability, an umbrella policy, property insurance and boiler/machine coverage.
Supervisors chose to stay with the Virginia Municipal League which had a bid of $82,782. While that bid was higher than the $77,282 bid of the Virginia Association of Counties (VACO), the county retained a $26,046 dividend from the VML which lowers this year's overall premium to $56,736, Sleeper explained.
The motion to approve the Local Choice program was made by supervisor Robbie Smart of Election District #8 and seconded by Tom West, supervisor of ED#2.
In other matters heard during Monday night's regular monthly meeting:
· Supervisor Garland Ricketts of ED#7 expressed concern about the growing rate of timber cutting throughout the county and if such efforts could have long-term negative implications for the area.
"The county should make sure we have an adequate crop of wood twenty or thirty years from now," Ricketts pointed out.
Ricketts asked for a study which would detail the number of acres being harvested for wood and how much of that land is being re-planted with trees. He also expressed concern about what type of trees are used during the re-planting process.
Sleeper also expressed concern about the increasing amount of timber cutting, noting that he was asked by state municipal agency officials to tour Southside Virginia to take photos of examples heavy cutting.
"I left my house (on Rt. 658) and had took pictures before I could get two miles away," Sleeper told the board.
Larry Layman, a forester of the Virginia Department of Forestry appeared before the board to outline how the local timber industry is evolving.
"Forest production (cutting down trees) has doubled in the last two years," Layman said. Of that amount, approximately 40-50 percent of the land undergone reforestation efforts with the planting of pine seedlings, he added.
Many of the remaining acres are used for pasture, annual crops, or other purposes. Some are left to regenerate naturally, a situation which normally allows the regrowth of hardwoods, according to Layman.
The 5,000 acre figure of annual tree harvesting represents about 1.5 percent of the county's total forest lands, he said.
Under a motion from Ricketts, seconded by supervisor Bill Abbott of ED#4, the board sent the issue to the board's Agricultural Committee which will meet with forestry and timber experts to create the study.
· The board voted 7-1 on a substitute motion by West to act upon the Fire Commission's recommendations concerning response problems for rescue calls in the northern end of the county. Supervisor Dickie Abbott of ED#1 was the lone dissenter.
Abbot had earlier made a motion for the board to meet with representatives of the Brookneal and Campbell County rescue squads to iron out response calls problems and coordinate such activities with Halifax County emergency departments. That motion died from a lack of being seconded.
West made the substitute motion, stating that the Brookneal and Campbell County officials had earlier failed to attend the Fire Commission meeting when such matters were addressed.
The overall problem that transcends much of the response time problems is the widespread lack of emergency personnel, according to Sleeper.
"Nowadays, there's so many emergency courses that these volunteers are required to take, that by the time they acquire all of that expertise, it can become a career," Sleeper explained. "They can then leave (to a more urban area) where they can be paid."
Without a dissenting voice, South Boston Town Council moved quickly Monday night to divest the town of all ownership in the William M. Tuck Airport by accepting the Halifax County offer of $48,282 for the town's share.
The cost figure represents the town's investments--some one-third of local funding.
The appraised value of the airport is about $2 million.
There was no discussion on the county offer to purchase.
In another quick action, Council voted to change its regular meeting night to the second Monday in each month in order to avoid a conflict with the Board of Supervisors.
Both governing bodies have been accustomed to meeting on first Mondays.
Council received the town's $15,814,509 budget on first reading and set June 1 as the date for a public hearing on it.
The overall budget total is swelled by large capital outlay expenditures proposed in the water and sewer fund.
The total water and sewer fund is envisioned at $8,439,889.
The General Fund budget is listed at $6,444,895.
At a public hearing on a proposal to close and abandon two public alleyways in the old tobacco factory district targeted as a future CEC campus, Rodney Wilborn appeared to say he owned land adjacent to the alleyways. He asked for time and information so he can decide what to do with his property.
Town Manager Ken McLawhorn said town attorney Chandler Nelson is studying the matter, and Mayor Glen Abernathy said Council will wait until the June meeting to try to resolve the issue.
Council heard from several residents and property owners on Williams Street, who said major improvements are needed there. The governing body promised to study the requests and determine what can be done.
Council granted authorization to the administration to contract for professional engineering services for the water treatment facility, as follows:
Alum sludge treatment evaluation, contract with Hazen & Sawyer, $68,355, and raw water intake and generator, contract with Wiley & Wilson, $74,700 (EDA grant-funded project).
Council also awarded a contract for audit services to Harris, Harvey, Neal & Co. of South Boston.
A waste disposal truck owned by Halifax County which has been involved in two highway fatalities sustained heavy damage Friday morning in a third wreck.
The 1994 Ford roll-off garbage truck sustained an estimated $20,000 in damages during a single-vehicle wreck which occurred on Rt. 740, five-tenths of a mile north of Rt. 96 in the Virgilina area, police said.
William Henry Goode III, 24, of Alton was driving the vehicle when he ran off the left side of the road while exiting a curve, slid back across the road and overturned, according to the investigation.
Goode was injured in the crash and was later charged with reckless driving. A private fence owned by Chester Jones sustained an estimated $500 in damages, police said.
That 7:10 a.m. incident was investigated by Virginia State Trooper M.S. Roark Jr.
The same truck was involved in a highway fatality on U.S. 360 at the entrance to the South Boston Speedway on March 16.
The victim, Otis Taft Newcomb, 86, of South Boston, pulled his 1987 Chevrolet Chevette onto the highway and into the path of the truck which was driven by James D. Garland, 32, of South Boston.
No charges were filed in that incident. The trash truck sustained an estimated $10,000 in damages, police said.
On April 24, 1997, the same county truck was involved in a fatal crash at the intersection of Rt. 92 and Rt. 600 near Clover.
Thomas Washington Page, 28, of Glen Allen was killed instantly after a car he was driving crossed the centerline and struck the garbage truck head-on, according to the investigation.
The truck, which sustained an estimated $7,500 in damages, was driven at that time by 32-year-old Terry Lynn Stevens. No charges were filed in that incident.
County officials are currently trying to determine if the most recent damages to the truck may cause it to be sold.
A two-vehicle wreck was investigated Friday evening on Rt. 626, four-tenths of a mile south of Rt. 937, police said.
Howard Mitchell Kendrick, 74, of Nathalie was injured after he pulled his 1980 Pontiac from a private driveway into the path of an oncoming pickup truck, according to the investigation.
That 1994 Toyota pickup truck was driven by Kerwin Lee Ewell, 27, of South Boston, police said. He was not injured during the 6 p.m. crash.
Damages to the Pontiac were estimated at $2,500, while damages to the Toyota were estimated at $4,000, according to the investigation.
Kendrick was charged with failure to yield right-of-way. The incident was investigated by Virginia State Trooper G.M. Gilliam.
A Halifax woman has been arrested on four felony counts of credit card fraud, according to Lt. R.J. Scott of the Virginia State Police.
Yvette Marie Williams, 24, was charged with two counts of credit card fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit credit card fraud, said Lt. Scott, who is based in Appomattox.
Williams' arrest occurred after an extensive investigation by the state police's Bureau of Criminal Investigations, with assistance from the Halifax County Sheriff's Department, the Town of Halifax Police Department, and local state police.
She allegedly used two stolen credit card numbers to purchase a set of custom wheels from the Halifax Tire Company in Halifax on or about March 5, according to the investigation.
The set of wheels were valued at $800. Williams allegedly made two separate payments of $400 each which is the basis of the four charges, VSP Special Agent Larry Bishop explained.
One of the credit card numbers was from a victim in Indiana and the other was from a victim in West Virginia, he added.
The ongoing investigation could lead to more charges and more arrests, officials added.
Williams was released on bond pending her preliminary hearing in the Halifax County General District Court on May 20.
Thelma Williamson Wilson, 77, of Clarksville died Friday, April 24, 1998 at Halifax Regional Hospital.
Mrs. Wilson was born in Mecklenburg County and was a member of Bluestone Baptist Church. She was married to James Wesley Wilson.
Funeral services were held Sunday, April 26 at Watkins Cooper-Lyon Funeral Home Chapel with Rev. David Maynard officiating. Burial followed at Union Chapel Baptist Church.
Survivors of Mrs. Wilson include a daughter, Margaret W. Murray of Orange
Park, FL two sisters, Emma Glasscock of Clarksville and Virgie Elliott of
Virgilina; one brother, Harry Williamson of North East, MD; one grandson,
Allen Keith Rice of Fairburn, GA.
Vivian Puckett Jones of Richmond, formerly of South Boston, died Sunday, May 3, 1998 at her home.
Mrs. Jones was born in Campbell County on November 1, 1922 and was 75 years of age. She was the daughter of William Puckett and Gladys Puckett Polly and was married to J. Walter Jones Jr.
Survivors include four daughters, Elinor J. Pyles and Melanie J. Rubeck, both of Richmond, Anne J. Wood of Wilmington, NC and Pamela S. Jones of Durham, NC; one son, W. Martin Jones of South Boston; six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
Funeral services for Mrs. Jones will be held today, May 6 at 2 p.m. at
Powell Funeral Home chapel with Rev. Russell Lee conducting the service.
There will be a private burial service later.
Margaret Watts Carter, formerly of South Boston, died Monday, May 4, 1998 at Community Memorial Healthcenter, South Hill.
Mrs. Carter was born in Halifax County on May 11, 1911 and was 86 years of age. She was the daughter of James Richard Watts and Bertha Vaughan Watts and was married to George Harry Carter. She was a member of Main Street United Methodist Church.
Survivors include one daughter, Mrs. Therman Cole of South Hill; one son, George H. Carter Jr. of Grafton; four sisters, Bertha W. Davis of Richmond, Cecelia W. Wilmoth of Scottsburg, Elizabeth W. Cole of South Boston and Lena W. Snead of Newport News; one brother, Harvey Watts of South Boston; three grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
Funeral services for Mrs. Carter will be held today, May 6 at 2 p.m. at Main Street United Methodist Church with Revs. George Gravitt and A. Howell Franklin conducting the service. Burial will take place in Floral Hills Memory Gardens.
Fletcher Nevell Daniel Sr. of 3165 Ball Park Loop, Halifax died Saturday, May 2 at Halifax Regional Hospital at the age of 60.
Mr. Daniel was born in Halifax County on July 4, 1937 the son of Hillary Jackson Daniel and Fannie Lee Richardson Daniel and was married to Virginia Coleman Daniel. He was a member of New Bethel Baptist Church.
Survivors include his wife; one son, Fletcher N. Daniel Jr. of Nathalie; one step-son, Kelvin D. Coleman of Ringgold; six grandchildren; two sisters, Janie Lovelace of Halifax and Hilda Davis of Vernon Hill; three brothers, Akra Daniel, John Daniel and Clifton Daniel, all of Halifax.
Funeral services for Mr. Daniel will be held Friday, May 8 at 2 p.m. at New Bethel Baptist Church with Rev. Michael Terry officiating. Burial will follow in the church cemetery.
The family will receive friends at the home.