The Shadow
CLIFTON FORGE - A consolidation plan is coming closer to reality.
Tuesday evening, members of the Citizens’ Committee to Perfect a Consolidation Agreement, meeting at Dabney S. Lancaster Community College, voted on two more pieces of the plan as the clock toward the June 1 deadline winds down.
Members voted to create seven districts in the consolidated town or city (the decision of whether to go with a consolidated city or county form of government will be made at next week’s meeting).
A map was handed out to the committee that was originally designed by Covington when the city and Alleghany County were conducting consolidation talks.
Former Alleghany County Supervisor Mac Campbell, who attended Tuesday’s meeting as a private citizen, said the joint city/county committee had agreed on the map as presented by the city.
The map designated six districts for the consolidated government.
Members of the citizens committee first agreed they wanted to see seven representatives and then discussed whether to have six districts (and six representatives) with one representative voted at large.
After a brief discussion, the committee elected to have the consolidated government divided into seven districts (with seven representatives).
The committee also voted on the form of administration for the consolidated government.
The committee voted to maintain what is already in place in both the city or county – if the committee elects to go with a city form of government, there will be a council/manager form of administration, as the city of Covington has now; if a county, there will be a county administrator type of government, as Alleghany County currently utilizes.
The committee was originally set to decide on service districts Tuesday evening, but decided to hold off discussion on service districts until a decision on city or county government is decided next week.
If the committee elects to have a city form of government, service districts will not be necessary. If there is a county form of government, the committee can then decide on what service districts to establish.
Attorney Carter Glass IV, who is serving as legal counsel for the committee, stated that service districts can be set up after the government is established by holding a public hearing and a vote of the representative body.
Committee members also discussed joint contracts.
Glass informed the committee that if the city and county consolidates, all contracts between the city and county will go away.
Any contracts Alleghany County currently has with Clifton Forge will be taken over by the new consolidated government.
The committee asked mediator Art Mead to contact Alleghany County Administrator John Struttner and Covington City Manager John Doane to see what contracts are currently in place and report back at the next meeting.
Next Tuesday, the committee will make the decision on whether to go with a city or county form of government.
In addition, the committee will make a decision on law enforcement, constitutional officers, fire and rescue issues and existing towns.
At the conclusion of last night’s meeting, the committee went into executive session and returned without making any further decisions.
