By Taylor Boyd
Electric and telephone services were among the concerns raised at the July 27 meeting of the Patrick County Board of Supervisors.
Jamie Clark expressed his frustrations with the provider’s response to his report of a power outage.
Appalachian Power Co. (APCo), a subsidiary of American Electric Power Co., Inc. (AEP), is a service provider in Patrick County.
Clark said that his was one of seven outages reported to the company at the time, and that no changes had been made throughout the night to the company’s outage listing even though the company’s website is monitored at all times and updated every 15 minutes. He said that his power was restored after more than 12 hours and numerous phone calls to the company.
Clark attributed the cause of the issue he had with the company to what he called a one-line crew. He said that in the past, the company typically had two fine crews which were able to solve issues in a timely manner.
Fewer line teams also contribute to the slow progress of repairs by the telephone provider in the county, Clark said.
CenturyLink is the primary telephone service provider.
Clark said only one person covers repair issues throughout the county and that person, he said is prohibited from working overtime.
Thomas Merritt, from the Mayo District, also said that having one person responsible for those repairs in the county has caused many issues.
“This is the one repairman in our county has been to my house twice to fix it. I’ve met another CenturyLink repairman who’s working extra time from the Martinsville area to come over to here to work because the ones that’s here is so overloaded, he can’t keep up with the tickets,” Merritt said.
The company also provides internet access to a large portion of the county, which prompts many concerns related to students attending virtual classes, according to Merritt, who added issues have already affected his family’s academic capabilities.
“When the end of the year came, my daughter, we had” Internet service “drop a number of times during her testing period, which affected her final grade of the year this past year,” he said.
Merritt said he is concerned a similar or other incident may happen to other students, and he fears their academic success may be hindered as well. He also wondered if sufficient internet access will influence parents’ decisions on whether to homeschool their children or support the virtual learning concept.
County officials said they have been hearing a number of similar concerns and encourage anyone with an issue to contact their supervisor or the county administration office.
In other matters, the board:
*Heard a report from Geri Hazelwood, interim county administrator, who said that the county has received a $10,000 grant from the Virginia Tourism Cooperation Wanderlove Recovery Grant Program. This grant is designed to help Patrick County promote tourism to the area, which plays a large role in the economy of the county and the commonwealth. Hazelwood said that visitors to Patrick County, “spent over 29 million in 2018, supporting 282 tourism related employees, and contributing $835,106 in local tax revenue.”
She also emphasized that the grant comes only from the lodging tax and has the sole purpose of being used to better market the county for visitors. Tax dollars will never and have never been used to market the county.
The supervisors’ next meeting will be held on Aug. 17 at 6 p.m.
