County Supervisors vote to install speed cameras at schools; OK another Opioid settlement

Katie Boyle, Deputy Director of the Virginia Association of Counties (VACO), presents an achievement award to Pulaski County for its Sensory Emergency Kit initiative. (William Paine/Patriot Publishing)

By WILLIAM PAINE

Patriot Publishing

After hearing several presentations and some public comment, the Pulaski County Board of Supervisors voted to pass four resolutions at their September meeting.

The first resolution allows speed cameras to be installed in right of ways maintained by VDOT at every public school in the county. The cameras will be installed and operated by Blue Line Solutions, which will monitor traffic on roads accessing each school. If the camera catches a motorist speeding in school zones, a fine will be issued to the driver by Blue Line Solutions.

But, according to Pulaski County Attorney Tim Kirtner, this fine will not affect the driver’s insurance or be counted as points against the driver’s license.

However, according to Pulaski County Administrator Jonathan Sweet, if this civil fine is contested in court and the litigant loses the case, points could potentially be taken off the driver’s license and cause an increase in their car insurance rates.

Blue Line Solutions will be working with the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office on this project.

On the suggestion of County Attorney Kirtner, the supervisors voted to join in the settlement of opioid related claims against eight pharmaceutical companies. The county was one of many that hired outside council to litigate this lawsuit and will be amongst those localities profiting from the settlement. This is the second opioid related lawsuit which will presumably add to county coffers.

County leaders voted to schedule a public hearing at their next meeting on Oct. 27 regarding the proposed prohibition of large truck traffic on Old Giles Road (Route 746) in Dublin to Route 100 (Cleburne Blvd).

Through-trucks would be prohibited from accessing the 1.18 mile stretch of Old Giles Road, but would instead be directed to use the on/off ramps on Route 100 (Cleburne Blvd.), which adds about a half-mile to the trucker’s route.

On another traffic related issue, the supervisors voted to close a mile of the Wilderness Road in Newbern for the Newbern Fall Festival, which is set to take place on the weekend of Oct. 11-12.

Heather Huff, who lives on Madison Street in Fairlawn spoke to the supervisors about another traffic related issue during the Citizen Comment period of Monday’s meeting.

“I have reached out to VDOT and the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department in regards to speeding on our road,” said Huff. “My family and I moved to Fairlawn in 2021 and ever since we’ve moved in, we’ve dealt with people speeding down our road.”

Madison Street is a dead-end road that borders the Smith Farm on the New River.

“Law enforcement said they would run patrols, which they have not and they’re part of the problem,” said Huff. “Not just Pulaski County, state, Montgomery County, Town of Christiansburg, Town of Blacksburg … all the ones who come down and train.”

The supervisors agreed to investigate the matter.

Katie Boyle, Deputy Director of the Virginia Association of Counties (VACO), began the presentations with an achievement award for the County of Pulaski.

“We were founded in 1934 and our mission is to serve and support your efforts as county officials,” said Boyle. “This is Pulaski’s 5^th win … and I’m extremely pleased to be here to present an achievement award for the sensory emergency kit initiative.”

Mike Garnett, Assistant Chief for EMS Pulaski County Public Safety came to the podium noting that Pulaski County is one of the first rural communities to employe this program.

“Neurodivergent kits are placed in all the ambulances and these kits actually house materials and items for us to be able to better work with anybody that’s going through a neurodivergent situation or some sort of sensory deficit using stress relief distractors,” Garnett explained. “These kits were designed for children but can be used for elderly, especially dementia cases. They really help our providers to be able to better assess the patient and communicate with them and overcome any deficits they may have.”

Sarah Alderman, Project Coordinator for Pulaski On Main (POM) gave the supervisors an update of recent activities. Organizing Tuesday afternoon’s Marketplace at the Pulaski Train Depot is POM’s biggest responsibility. Alderman said that over 30 vendors participated in the Marketplace, which generated over $30,000 in revenue. She also noted that about one-third of the vendors were county residents and that POM helped some of those vendors attain business licenses.

POM also hosts the summer Music and Merchants event, which according to Alderman, increased in attendance over last year by 1,000 visitors. Alderman emphasized how POM’s social media presence on Facebook has increased dramatically and how this has helped bring more awareness to their programming.

Alderman finished by noting that Pulaski on Main was able to advance into the Mobilizing Main Street tier with Virginia Main Street. Benefits of this include board training and the possibility for increased grant funding.

John Crockett, Pulaski County’s Community Development Project Manager, updated the supervisors on a Community Development Block Grant proposal initiated by the Wilderness Road Regional Museum (WRRM) in conjunction with the New River Valley Regional Commission. The WRRM is requesting a $75,000 Community Development Block Grant to match an earlier grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission. Together, these two grants would provide $150,000 total for the museum to develop the planning documents, assessments, and studies needed to guide future repairs, renovations, preservation of historic structures and master planning for the development of a website and interactive mapping for public engagement.

Pulaski County will act as the Fiscal Agent for the museum’s CDBG planning grant under the direction of Crockett.

John Ross, President of the Fine Arts Center for the New River Valley, introduced the FAC’s new Executive Director Brandon Phillips. Ross and Phillips thanked the supervisors for their support of the Rhythm by the Rails event. This year’s Rhythm by the Rails event featured several musical acts, artist demonstrations, children’s activities and saw upwards of 800 attendees throughout the day.

David Clark of VDOT informed board members about offramp construction that will be affecting interstate 81 for several weeks to come.

Construction on Southbound I-81 at exit 94 will result in the closure of that offramp for at least two weeks.

This work had been planned several months in advance but a second ramp closure on northbound I-81 at exit 89 is necessary because of emergency bridge repairs. The northbound bridge crossing Route 11 at Exit 89 will be undergoing critical repair work which will prohibit north bound interstate traffic from accessing the offramp leading to Route 11 over Draper Mountain into Pulaski.

Additionally, travelers heading south on Route 11 from Pulaski will not be able to access I-81 northbound from exit 89 as it too, utilizes the northbound bridge.

Northbound interstate traffic can still access Route 100 Southbound from exit 89, as it does not cross the bridge. Northbound traffic on Route 100 may also access northbound I-81 with no impediment.