The hot topic of hog farming will be high on the agenda of tonight's regular monthly meeting of the Halifax County Board of Supervisors.
County officials, however, are adamant in pointing out that such discussions will be an informational session for the board, rather than a public hearing.
The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. and will be held in the second floor public meeting room of the Mary Bethune Office Complex in Halifax.
"At last month's meeting the board directed county administration staff to prepare a report noting alternatives for management and regulation of confined animal feeding operations," explained Jerry Lovelace, Assistant County Administrator for Planning and Zoning.
"This report will address the historical background regarding the current (confined feeding) local ordinance and an overview of various regulatory frameworks used by localities in the Commonwealth," Lovelace said.
"There will also be an overview of the options generally available to address such operations, and other miscellaneous information relating to confined feeding activities," Lovelace said.
Due to the amount of material that will be covered in the report given to the board, the meeting will not have a public input session. Such input from the public will be heard in later meetings and public hearings, county officials pointed out.
Part of the hog farming presentation will be an invited appearance of Larry Land, the Director of Policy Development for the Virginia Association of Counties (VACO).
"Mr. Land will provide an overview of a survey conducted by VACO in 1997 and updated in early summer of 1998, for presentation at a recent General Assembly sub-committee studying swine operations, Lovelace pointed out.
County staff has already gathered standards that are in place in neighboring counties. They include:
Also during tonight's presentation to the board, Lovelace will outline a resolution recently passed by the Town Council of Halifax that cites state code (passed in 1950 and amended) in prohibiting any confined breeder operation to be located within five miles of a town's water supply. Halifax uses the Banister River as their water supply.
Lovelace summarized that there basically three alternatives which the board can act on concerning the establishment of a regulatory framework for confined animal feeding operations. They are:
1) Create a new zoning district (such as Industrial Agriculture, or Intensive Agriculture), specifically for confined animal feeding activities. This district would contain its own technical standards for set-backs, area requirements, etc.
2) Create multiple use Agricultural Zoning Districts. One district could be specifically for "General Agriculture" with any general farming activities including confined animal feeding allow by-right, with standard set-backs for all such uses. A second agriculture zone could be an "Agriculture-Residential" or "Rural Residential" wherein confined animal feeding could be prohibited, or confined animal feeding could be permitted with set-backs of greater separation than those for other permitted use within the district.
3) Establishment of specific technical standards (setbacks, minimum acreage, etc.) within existing A-1 zone district for confined animal feeding activities, as is currently utilized in the Halifax County Zoning Ordinance.
Four public hearings on requests that were recommended for approval last week by the Halifax County Planning Commission will take place tonight during the monthly meeting of the Halifax County Board of Supervisors.
The regular meeting begins at 7 p.m., with the first of the public hearings scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. The meeting will be held in the second floor public meeting room of the Mary Bethune Office Complex in Halifax.
Those public hearings include:
· The Halifax County Industrial Development Authority is seeking a conditional use permit for a proposed trucking terminal on 9.7028-acres of land in the Halifax County Industrial Park.
The lot is located on the south side of Rt. 939 (Fulp Industrial Road), 700 feet west of Rt. 931 (Industrial Park Road).
· An application has been made by Shamrock Investments, Inc. to re-zone a five-acre parcel of land in Centerville from A-1 (agricultural) to B-2 (business).
The company will utilize the lot to sell manufactured homes. The parcel is located on the east side of U.S. 501, 100 feet north of Rt. 654 (Greens Folly Road).
· Judith H. Bateman has requested a conditional use permit to operate a small neighborhood business on the south side of Rt. 344 (MacDonald Road), two miles east of Rt. 716 (Falkland and Dryburg roads).
The business will rent canoes, kayaks, other boats, and offer fishing supplies and crafts. The three-quarter acre parcel is in the vicinity of the Staunton River State Park.
· Mildred Henderson, Douglas Inge, and others are asking for a plat vacation of an alley that is located on the north side of Rt. 748 (Slick Rock Road), 150 feet west of Rt. 644 (Nathalie Road). The alley is 20 feet wide and 304 feet long.
By DAVID ESPO
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - House Republicans have sidetracked legislation to curtail teen smoking at least until September, according to congressional officials, amid internal debate over whether to abandon the measure entirely.
As recently as two weeks ago, Speaker Newt Gingrich told reporters an anti-smoking bill would be passed by the time lawmakers recess Aug. 5 for a month-long break. Key lawmakers were close to agreement on proposed legislation.
But officials said that by last week, an increasing number of Republicans had become persuaded that the issue had effectively died in the Senate earlier this year, and was rapidly diminishing as an election-year concern among voters.
At the same time, they said, GOP leaders had so watered down the measure that Rep. Deborah Pryce, the Ohio Republican who has been chairing a task force charged with drafting the bill, was expressing discomfort with the product.
''A growing number of people really want to see what happens'' when they return home and hear from voters, Ms. Pryce said Friday.
As for herself, Pryce said, ''I'm going to keep pressing the issue when we return. It might not be on the political radar screen, but I think teen smoking is a problem and this Congress should take responsibility'' for legislation.
Democrats seized on the development as evidence that Republicans are beholden to the tobacco industry, which has donated millions to GOP campaigns in recent years. ''I think the tobacco companies have won the day,'' said Laura Nichols, spokeswoman for House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, D-Mo. ''They don't want to have another round of debate, and that's reflected in their (Republicans') decision not to introduce a bill and have a debate before we leave for August.''
Gingrich spokeswoman Christina Martin said the GOP leadership will ''revisit the issue when we return'' in September.
The draft GOP House bill would rely largely on expanded government regulation of tobacco manufacturing and advertising as well as a public advertising campaign and restrictions on vending machines to curb teen smoking. It includes no tax increases to drive up the cost of cigarettes, nor provisions to penalize tobacco companies that fail to meet smoking reduction targets.
Nor does it include any of the protections from lawsuit liability that the tobacco companies favor.
Several Republicans, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that among top GOP leaders, Gingrich was the strongest advocate of going ahead with the measure, and was under pressure from others to reverse course.
Earlier this year, Republicans worried that the drive by the White House and Democrats for legislation aimed at reducing teen smoking could cause them problems this fall.
But in a pitched battle on the Senate floor, a bill to raise the price of cigarettes by more than $1 a pack died when critics complained it was a ''tax and spend'' prescription for the problem of underage smoking.
Since then, numerous public opinion polls have indicated the issue does not rank high on the list of public concerns in the run-up to the election.
Rep. John Linder of Georgia, chairman of the GOP campaign committee and a participant in House leadership meetings, said he has opposed bringing a bill to the floor. ''The public generally believes ... that tobacco smoking is voluntary,'' he said.
Other Republicans take a different position.
At one meeting where the issue was discussed, Rep. Jim Greenwood, R-Pa., recalled, ''I argued that to do nothing is bad politics, because even though this issue is not Number 1 on everybody's radar screen, we'd be vulnerable to attack ads that we are too cozy with tobacco, which is not true.''
Further complicating efforts to bring legislation to the floor was a split within the Republican ranks that makes it difficult to achieve a majority. Some Republicans favor a tax increase, or penalties for tobacco companies that fail to meet preset smoking reduction guidelines. Others, from tobacco states, favor little or no government intervention. Few, if any Democrats, were viewed as likely to join in helping to pass a Republican bill following Gingrich's rejection earlier this year of a proposed bipartisan measure.
Gingrich himself has not addressed the issue recently in public.
But as long ago as last January, when Clinton called for a bill to curb teen smoking as part of his State of the Union address, the speaker said Republicans legislate on the issue.
On the day after the Senate bill died, Gingrich and Ms. Pryce called a news conference to announce that House Republicans would soon unveil a slimmed-down tobacco bill. Regarding Democrats who said in advance that the GOP bill would accomplish little, Gingrich said bitingly at the time:
''I would hope that they not be drawn into letting children become addicts because they'd rather have the issue this fall.''
The Current Issues Committee of the South Boston Town Council will meet at 6 p.m. Monday in the conference room downtown to discuss the logistics of selecting the new town manager.
The individual ultimately selected will succeed Ken McLawhon, who resigned recently to take another position elsewhere.
The resignation is effective August 7.
Breaching the lion's den is nothing new for tobacco farmers, not since the proposed tobacco settlement between companies and attorneys general last summer threw their way of life into economic peril.
But the American Medical Association's July policy and issues meeting in Alaska was new territory, even for tobacco grower spokesman and Concerned Friends for Tobacco board member J.T. Davis.
Since local tobacco farmers first opened their doors and farms to public health officials and policy makers here last year, Davis has been taking the farmers' message to Capitol Hill, the White House and neighboring states.
It was through education and face-to-face meetings that tobacco farmers found common ground with health advocates, ultimately lobbying together on many issues in Washington, D.C. during the continuing tobacco settlement debate.
Not until this summer, however, did Davis appear with health advocates at a policy and issues meeting sponsored by the American Medical Association.
At the Alaska meeting, Davis was asked to present the farmers' side, to explain how the national tobacco policy could and would affect the American tobacco grower.
Again he explained who the American tobacco farmer was, that they have not violated public policy, and that public health cannot be promoted without economically healthy communities.
"I am determined the tobacco grower not be cut down in the political cross fire as the battle lines are drawn in this tobacco war," said Davis.
In Alaska last month, the speakers got an ovation at the end of the AMA meeting. "So I guess the point got across," said Davis.
Particularly "pleasing to my ear," said Davis, was hearing a spokesman for The Campaign For Tobacco free Kids tell doctors that "putting the American tobacco grower out of business will not keep one cigarette from being made."
Today, Davis describes the "face of tobacco land as forever changed" by the initial settlement between tobacco companies and attorneys general of ... states; the globalization of tobacco - 70 countries now produce or manufacture tobacco; growing public health concerns; the probability of an increase in the excise tax; and the necessity of protecting themselves (tobacco growers).
Two people were charged with a misdemeanor count of assault and battery of a teenager, according to the Halifax County Sheriff's Department.
Edward Dean Ballou, 21, and Katherine Marie Ballou, 25, both of South Boston were charged with the assault and battery of Richarda Easley, police said. The alleged incident occurred Thursday.
The Ballous were released on bond pending their trial in the Halifax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court on August 11.
They were arrested by Sgt. T.E. Logan and Deputy S.A. Jennings.
In other arrests:
· Brian O'Neal Lacks, 20, of Nathalie was arrested on a misdemeanor count of assault and battery of Lisa Lacks, police said.
The alleged incident occurred Thursday and he was arrested the following day by Captain L.W. Fears, Investigator C.A. Bates, and Deputy C. Ragsdale.
Lacks is currently being held in the Halifax County jail pending his trial in the Halifax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court on August 4.
· Randy Paul Tingen Jr., 25, of South Boston was arrested on a misdemeanor count of assault and battery of Mona Tingen, police said.
The alleged incident occurred Thursday and he was arrested the following day by Deputy Stanley Britton.
Tingen was released on bond pending his trial in the Halifax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court on August 11.
Maggie Bell Brandon Crawley of Turbeville Road, Alton died Thursday, July 30, 1998 at Halifax Regional Hospital at the age of 94.
Mrs. Crawley was born in Halifax County on January 22, 1904 the daughter of Robert and Dora Whitlock Brandon and was married to Walter W. Crawley Sr.
Survivors include four daughters, Anna and George Wilkins of the home, Dora and Roger Mason of Turbeville, Ida and William Robertson of Washington, DC and Willie M. Crawley of Ft. Washington, MD; seven sons, Charlie and Malinda Crawley, Joseph and Mary Crawley, all of Turbeville, Rev. Allen Crawley of Waynesboro, Walter Crawley Jr. of Lanham, MD, John and Gladys Crawley, Kelso and Sarah Crawley and George Crawley, all of Washington, DC; 26 grandchildren and 29 great-grandchildren; and one sister-in-law, Estell Watkins of Semora, NC.
Funeral services will be held today, August 3 at 1 p.m. at Dan River Bethel Baptist Church, South Boston with Rev. James L. Thomas officiating. Burial will follow in the church cemetery.
Edward B. Owen of StoneyBrook, NY and formerly of Halifax County, died July 30, 1998 at the Long Island State Veterans Home at the age of 101.
Mr. Owen was born in Halifax County on November 18, 1896, the son of Millard Filmore Owen and Betty Page Stephens Owen. He was married to Carolyn Eggart Owen and was the oldest member of the Winns Creek Baptist Church. He was a veteran of World War I.
His survivors include his daughter: Virginia Owen Lea of Ronkonkoma, NY; son: Ralph Owen of Turnersville, NJ, four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held today, August 3 at the F. Daniel Maloney Funeral Home in Ronkonkoma at 9 a.m. Burial will follow in the Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn, NY. A memorial service will be held at a later date at the Winns Creek Baptist Church.
For memorials, please consider the Winns Creek Baptist Church.
Robert Henry Oakes of 1726 Norwood Ave., South Boston died July 31, 1998 at The Woodview at the age of 91.
Mr. Oakes was born in Clover on November 23, 1906 to Ormand Winfield Oakes and Anna Snead Oakes. He was married to Anna Marie Leach Oakes and was a member of the Centerville Baptist Church. He as a retired Lt. Commander with the U.S. Navy where he trained Navy Cadet Pilots.
His survivors include his wife; daughter: Carol Ann Fisher of Phoenix, AZ; sisters: Gertrude Foreman and Kathryn Warner of Sykesville, MD, and Irene Bell of Phoenix; step-daughters: Susan W. Kelley of Gaithersburg, MD, Jeannene W. Mitchell of Winchester, Velma Whitefield of West Palm Beach, FL; step-son: William Whitefield of Mt. Airy, MD; a granddaughter; seven step-grandchildren and three step-great-grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held Tuesday, August 4 at 11 a.m. at Powell Funeral Home Chapel with the Rev. Richard Saunders officiating. Burial will take place in Halifax Memorial Gardens.
The family will receive friends at Powell Funeral Home Monday from 7-8:30 p.m. and other times at his home. For memorials please consider the Centerville Baptist Church Building Fund.
Erva Delores "Dee" Jones Michelli of 652 Montrose Ave., Roanoke died July 31, 1998 at Manor Care Health Services, Bethlehem, PA at the age of 58.
Mrs. Michelli was born March 5, 1940 in Person Co., NC to Espey R. Jones Sr. and Erva Brooks Jones.
Her survivors include her daughters: Celeste W. Massie of Bethlehem, PA and Lindy Erwin of Pinehurst, NC; sons: D. Troy Williams of Virginia Beach and Marcel Michelli of Roanoke; brothers: Reginald Jones of Roxboro, NC, Donald W. and Espey R. Jones Jr. of South Boston and five grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by his brothers: Jimmy T. and F.E. "Tom" Jones.
Funeral services will be held Tuesday, August 4 at 11 a.m. at the Cavel United Methodist Church, Roxboro. Burial will take place in the Person Memorial Cemetery.
Visitation will be held at Brooks & White Funeral Home, Roxboro Monday
from 7-8:30 p.m. The family requests in lieu of flowers, memorials be made
to the American Cancer Society.
Sallie Crowder Chandler of 621 Berry Hill Road, South Boston died Tuesday, July 28, 1998 at Berry Hill Nursing Home. She was 94 years of age.
Mrs. Chandler was born February 15, 1904 in Halifax County the daughter of Willie Crowder and Signor Moorefield Crowder and was married to Walter Miller 'Pete' Chandler. She was a member of First Baptist Church, and the oldest member of American Legion Post 8 Ladies Auxiliary.
Graveside services will be held Sunday, August 2 at 2 p.m. at Oak Ridge Cemetery.
Survivors include one daughter and son-in-law, Louise Chandler Walker and L. 'Tubby' Walker of Clearwater, FL; two grandsons, Randy Walker and Charles Chandler Walker, both of Baltimore MD; one granddaughter, Nikki Walker of Baltimore, and one foster granddaughter, Linda Dixion Horvath of Richmond.
The family will receive friends at Brooks Funeral Home Saturday night from 7 until 8:30.
Those wishing to give memorials are asked to consider The American Legion, Post 8, South Boston.