COMMUNITY CHEST’S CHILD CARE CENTER IS OPEN AND TAKING APPLICATIONS!
VRWPA WILL BE HAVING A TOWN HALL MEETING ON OCTOBER 22ND IN V.C. TO EXPLAIN WHAT THEY DO AND THE CURRENT HORSE SITUATION ON THE VIRGINIA RANGE
THE COUNTY STRATEGIC PLAN PROCESS WILL KICK OFF ON DECEMBER 3RD.
APPARENTLY, THE NEW TRI GID MANAGER REPORTS TO THE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ACCORDING TO THE JOB DESCRIPTION…..BUT NOT ACCORDING TO THE COUNTY MANAGER…HUH?
By Nicole Barde
bardeblog.com
You can find the agenda packet HERE, County Manager Austin Osborn’s summary HERE and a recording of the meeting HERE.
Not quite a record but the meeting was VERY short….about 45 minutes with very few staff updates.
The Community Chest did a “soft open” of the childcare facility with 8 of the 18 spots already filled. This is for 2- 5-year-olds.
The Comptrollers office has moved to the little house between Pipers and the Courthouse. Comptroller Hugh Gallagher reported that they are still involved with the systems transition and that they will have to rain the Auditors on its use for their upcoming audit.
County Manager, Austin Osborn, reported that they are on track for scheduling the County Strategic Plan activities. He will be asking for approval to hire Linda Ritter as the consultant to run the process. There will be a vision/mission session with the Commission on December 3rd. After that, they will schedule workshops within the community for community inputs.
Commissioner, brothel owner, TRI principal, former BLOCKCHAINS worker, aspiring hemp grower and new best friend to the city of Fernley Lance Gilman announced that the Virginia Range Wildlife Protection Association (VRWPA) will be holding a town hall meeting on October 22 at the County Conference Center (old B of A building). This is to explain what VRWPA does as an organization as well as to provide information as to what to do if you encounter an injured horse and give an overview of the Co-operative Agreement with the state for the care of the horses.
The agenda items were very procedural and all were approved.
The lease for the TRI GID was approved. They need office space out at TRI for their staff and the County has a building with space for it. The lease sum is $900 per month and the GID will be making tenant improvements in the amount of $12k. This $12k will be applied to their lease payments so they essentially have no payment for 13 months.
Austin made a point to say that this is just a standard lease and NOT IN ANY WAY an approval of a “governance involvement”
SIDENOTE- This was a straightforward item. The lease is a standard lease just as was done with NHP who also rent there. It was just a bit confusing to me when Commissioner, brothel owner, TRI principal, former BLOCKCHAINS worker, aspiring hemp grower and new best friend to the city of Fernley Lance Gilman had to recuse himself because he had a pecuniary ( financial) interest in the TRI GID.
How does a private citizen, albeit an elected official, have a private financial interest in a PUBLIC ENTITY? The GID is supposed to be a governmental entity…..isn’t it?
An item of note here is that the GID has asked the county to take over as the Board of Directors since they have trouble filling all 5 board seats. The current “board” consists of Kris Thomson ( Lance Gilman employee), Jennifer Barnes ( Lance Gilman employee) and another person who works for Lance Gilman. There have been few meetings of the GID which have been publicly noticed….I have asked to be notified and have not been. I don’t know how or where they conduct business but they don’t tell anyone.
The county is deliberating whether to take on the governance of the TRI GID and have been doing due diligence on its financials, operations, and assets.
Austin’s fervent denial of “governance involvement” is also confusing since I found this statement on the GID Executive Director job posting online which states that he/she reports to the County Commissioners:
TRI GID General Manager will be responsible for establishing an office; hiring staff; developing or improving rules, regulations, procedures, and standards; organizing and overseeing billing and finance functions; overseeing capital projects, engineering and operations functions; reporting to the Storey County Commissioners in their capacities as GID Trustees, etc.
Huh??? Has this been voted on already…..but not in a Commission meeting?