By Taylor Boyd
The Patrick County Board of Supervisors set nine goals as part of its strategic plan at a July 23 retreat. The goals are to be completed before the end of the year.
Charles Hargrove, director of Virginia Student Government at the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia (UVA), facilitated the retreat.
He said the goals can be accomplished in six-months and will help with the board’s long-term goals.
“Once you get through all of this, you’ll be better for it,” he said.
The goals can be broken down into three categories: finances, board-committee relationships, and healthcare.
Finance
The board plans to create a financial policy to prepare for the upcoming fiscal year.
Clyde DeLoach, of the Blue Ridge District, said the policy will include a contingency plan and will define what an emergency point is and when the emergency funds can be used.
“We don’t want it to get as bad as it was,” Crystal Harris, of the Smith River District, added.
Denise Stirewalt, of the Peters Creek District, said another goal is to review the option of a cigarette tax. “This would raise more taxes for the county” and would raise funds for future budgets, she said.
Board-committee relationships
The board plans to do some internal housekeeping in the upcoming months and develop some standards of conduct for its employees and committees. The group also consented that a policy on the accountability and expectation of the appointed boards is needed.
Hargrove said the supervisors also wish to implement a workplace culture change. He said the change is a long time coming that County Administrator Geri Hazelwood hasn’t had time to start yet.
“Geri hasn’t had much time to be here in her role, and also there’s the business of the pandemic that’s taken a lot of time and energy on everyone’s part,” he said.
Clayton Kendrick, of the Mayo River District, said this goal should be easy to accomplish because the county now has an employee dedicated solely to human resources.
Stirewalt said the board plans to restructure the roles of some of the departments, with the Economic Development Authority (EDA) and Tourism Advisory Council (TAC) being at the forefront of that goal.
“The EDA has the mindset that they’re going to run the board of supervisors, and you’re going to do what we want you to do. That’s a struggle for me, is not feeling like we’re players on both sides of the issue,” Stirewalt said.
She added that some members of TAC are upset at the supervisors because long-term committee members were not reappointed to various boards.
Healthcare
The board’s main concern right now is improving healthcare in the county.
“We are working on telehealth to see if we can use each fire and rescue building to get people to that far that can’t go in, or are afraid to go into a doctor’s office,” Harris said.
A vital part of healthcare is approving the county’s comprehensive plan, which looks at demographics, trends, and resources, and projects what they will look like in the future. The plan will also provide information for infrastructure and other long-term projects.
Jane Fulk, of the Dan River District, said the Planning Committee and the West Piedmont Health District (WPHD) are currently working on the plan and hope to bring it before the board for a public hearing before the end of the year.
Hargrove suggested the board reenergize its plans and look for other partners to help with healthcare. “We’re going to come up with a board-approved legislative plan. So, we can share that with our state and federal partners and say, ‘these are the most important thing for Patrick County,’” he said.
Healthcare transportation is also needs to take priority, Stirewalt said.
“We can’t rely totally on the volunteers for this because not a lot of people can volunteer since they work fulltime, and we have less paid staff than what’s needed,” she said.
Stirewalt said the board could do an incentive plan to get people to volunteer or join the EMS career or restructure the department to ensure the county could have paid staff to cover what the volunteers can’t.
Hargrove said the board should also talk to neighboring counties about doing a regionalized approach to fire and EMS.
“Honestly, you sort of have to band together” since geography and distance are the biggest challenge for rural counties, he said.
In other matters, the board:
*Discussed its strengths, identified as communication between the board, staff, and administrator, and day-to-day planning. It’s one weakness was planning.
*Discussed long-term goals, including broadband, improved infrastructure, and tourism, and attracting local businesses.