The Greenbrier County Commission meeting of June 25 closed out the 2018-2019 fiscal year with the last 18 arts and recreation grant applicants meeting the deadline to receive their funding allotments.

In other business:

• Two bids were opened and read for a mass grading project at the Sportsplex property off Brush Road. Six bids were originally in the running but four of them dropped out. Local contractor Lynch Construction came in at $3,255,411 for the project, and the bid from Kanawha Stone, Inc. of Charleston was $1,530,922. The two bids clearly show a vast cost difference, which Stafford Engineering will have to break down and review before the county can approve the job.
• Board of Education member David McClure presented a letter of agreement and the deed of a property at Maxwelton, which was approved for purchase by the county commission in December 2018. The commission’s initials to the letter completed the transfer of ownership to approve the cutting of a check for $240,000 for the approximately three-acre lot and structure. Commissioner Rose described the property as a valuable asset for various county agencies’ use. Portions could be used as storage for confiscated vehicles and file storage in a vault room. The 911 Center and the Sheriff ‘s Department will have access to a training center with a class room/meeting room, plus garage storage space.

“This property will serve the county very well,” Rose said.

It was unfortunate, however, that the tone and language of a sharply worded letter the commission received last December from an attorney representing the BOE “soured things” in the initial stages of the land purchase between the two agencies, Rose said, which brought a rebuke from Commissioner Mike McClung. But, he added, “The lot is a positive thing for the county.”

• The commission considered several board appointments and reappointments: Arts and Recreation Committee – Jason Osborn, reappointment; Bill Carneal Charitable Trust – Mary Jeanette Painter to replace J.W. Packett; Board of Zoning Appeals – Jan Holwick and Jack Tuckwiller are both reappointments; Planning Commission – Steve Clendenen – reappointment with Kevin Workman, Jeff Davis and Mike Moore as all new members; PSD#1 – Jim Bowers, reappointment; GVEDC – Tom Hughes, Matt Ford and Steve Kadle, who, with Commissioner Lowell Rose, will replace long-time members Gee Scott and Karen Lobban; Board of Health – no replacement selected at this time.
• Executive Director of Greenbrier Valley Theatre Cathey Sawyer offered a hearty “Thank you” to the county commission for their support for the arts. She announced that a play she had written, titled “Bricktop,” about the colorful life of a woman from Alderson who was an American dancer, jazz singer, vaudevillian, and self-described saloon-keeper, has been selected to be a featured performance at the National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, NC.