County approves planning board ordinance, names members

The Alleghany County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a planning board ordinance and a slate of candidates for positions on the board Monday night.

A public hearing on the ordinance was held, but no one presented comments to the board. The draft ordinance authorizing the planning board appeared to be unchanged from the version presented to the commissioners for their perusal at the February mid-month meeting. Commissioner Doug Murphy expressed concern prior to the vote on the ordinance that there may be confusion in the future if a willing candidate from any township does not apply and a member from another township is appointed to fill that position. Murphy wondered if that proxy would represent the township that had an open seat or if that person would represent another at-large seat.

Taylor said anyone appointed to the planning board would represent the township in which a person could not be found to fill a seat from within.

Murphy asked, "Is everybody comfortable with that?" None of the other commissioners voiced a concern about the matter.

The nine candidates for the planning board, each of whom submitted a written application to the commissioners for consideration, were approved by a single vote following the vote on the ordinance itself. Commissioner Milly Richardson made a motion to approve the slate of members.

Commissioner J. Warren Taylor asked if those being selected had agreed to serve after being tentatively selected for the positions one week earlier by the commissioners.

County Manager Don Adams said he hadn't contacted any of them, since they had not yet officially been approved by the board. The commissioners had whittled down a list of candidates the previous Wednesday night during a meeting by submitting ballots with their suggested candidates out of the pool of applicants. A complete list of all the applicants and the votes for each is available at the

County Manager's Office as part of the public record from the earlier meeting. Meanwhile, Adams said since the planning board candidates had submitted applications, it was likely that they would be willing to serve.

They are Jerry Brooks from Cherry Lane, Bruce Cook from Cranberry, Dan Abernathy from Prathers Creek, Kenneth Brinegar from Gap Civil, Sharrel Wyatt from Whitehead, Martha Holder from Piney Creek and Michelle Bedsaul from Glade Creek. The two at-large members appointed were David Isner and Bill Caudill.

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