Supervisors hear county department heads’ year-end reports

By MIKE WILLIAMS

Patriot Publishing

Last week’s monthly meeting of the Pulaski County Board of Supervisors featured a light agenda to allow for nearly two hours of presentations by county department heads on the achievements of each of their departments during 2024.

“This is one of my favorite annual occurrences – the End of Year Report,” commented County Administrator Jonathan Sweet.

Since becoming county administrator, each year Sweet has started off each new calendar year by recounting the accomplishments of the county’s departments over the past year.  This year, however, Sweet turned to his leadership team to make the presentation.

“This will allow you [supervisors] to hear directly from our exceptional staff who professionally lead their respective departments and work hard to advance our goals, serve citizens and ultimately elevate Pulaski County to a next-level rural community,” Sweet said.

Before turning to his department heads, Sweet congratulated the board of what he called their “larger 2024 milestones,” including:

• Creation of Pulaski County’s first-ever career Fire Department, and for elevating public safety and first-response

“This investment has already helped to save lives and save

personal property – Thank you,” Sweet said.

– Secondly being a leader with Opioid Abatement, and for taking a unique and strategic approach with OAA funding by creating the first­ of-its-kind local “Office of Prevention and Recovery” that works collaboratively and holistically to prioritize drug, suicide and addiction prevention as a means of saving  lives and changing legacies of all ages of citizens of Pulaski County.

– Thirdly, negotiating and receiving the largest private contribution in the history of Pulaski County, and essentially one of the largest private gifts ever received by a locality in Southwestern Virginia – The Pulaski County Motorsports Park & Event Center, and the Historic Calfee Park.

“The Board of Supervisor’s sports tourism and entertainment vision helped promulgate this gift and we appreciate David Hagan and Shelor Motor Mile for recognizing the board’s vision and the potential Pulaski County has to expand upon sports visitation and the consumer spending and community benefits that accompany it,” Sweet said.

• Fourthly, carefully crafting and

successfully establishing one of the first Sports Tourism & Entertainment Authorities in Virginia.

“I believe that the

Sports Authority is equally as monumental as the establishment of other County Authorities such as the PSA and the EDA, and we trust this new political subdivision will help facilitate your sports, tourism and entertainment  vision and make Pulaski County one of the premier sports tourism and entertainment destinations in all of the Commonwealth,” he said.

“Lastly, I want to thank the Board for being a strong example of local government leadership in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, beyond physically responding to disasters, the Board showed how you can meaningfully respond to our citizens’ needs through actions such as the waiving of building permit fees for affected residents, the deferment of Personal Property Tax payment deadlines, and the hands-on interactions with our federal and state legislators to ensure our citizens received the maximum federal and state assistance they deserve.”

Following Sweet’s remarks, Assistant County Administrator Anthony Akers and 17 county department heads gave their individual reports on their department’s achievements for the year.

You can view all of the presentations by visiting our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/PatriotPublishing/

To close out the year-end reports, Sweet looked to the future.

“I would like to take one more moment, and look ‘forward’ with you to 2025. Normally we adopt a Budget Theme and embed that theme within our annual Budget Mission. This year we are going to look to do things just a little different and announce a unifying theme for 2025 that is literally connected in multiple ways to each of our departments, and will advance the Board’s 40-by-30 goal, and will be at the center of the lion’s share of all our efforts throughout 2025,” Sweet stated.

“Considering what we have slated for this year by way of numerous announcements, groundbreakings, and ribbon cuttings, it makes good sense for the County to embrace this proposed theme – …From an array of Economic Development project announcements, to the prevention and recovery hub project at the end of Cougar Trail, to the completion of the County Administration Building renovation project, the Randolph Park Pool House reconstruction project, the Pulaski Middle School, the Claremont Elementary School and the Dublin Middle School Residential Redevelopment Projects, to the start of numerous Smart-Scale construction projects, to dog parks and pickle ball installations, to the Old Red Carpet Inn Convenience Center project, to various and numerous county facilitated residential development projects, and to potentially even include a long-awaited indoor recreation facility, so it is my pleasure to announce and declare with excitement, that the Year 2025 will be known as Pulaski County’s ‘Year of THE Project(s),’” Sweet said.

During their end-of-meeting comments, each of the supervisors congratulated the department heads and their staffs for the work they had done.

“I liked hearing the department heads give the reports,” said Chairman Laura Walters. “Thanks for an awesome year. You and your departments deserve all the credit.”

While there were many notable highlights in the presentations, one by Public Safety Director Shawn Hite was especially noteworthy.

Hite began his presentation by asking for a moment of silence for one of his department’s members, EMT1 Meredith Lee Smith who passed away earlier this month from cancer. She had been a member of the department since 2021.

Also at the meeting, supervisors recognized Tina King, the now-retired Executive Director of the New River Valley Agency on Aging after 42 years of service.