BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
INEZ — Martin County Fiscal Court is accepting proposals until noon Nov. 16 for commercial and residential garbage collection and disposal, as advertised in this edition of the newspaper.
Magistrates approved Judge/Executive Lon Lafferty’s request to advertise for proposals during the county’s regularly scheduled monthly meeting Thursday in the Martin County Government Center.
“We decided to try to get this early,” Lafferty said. “It will be March before we actually determine those proposals. That gives us time to look at them.”
The court also approved the judge’s appointment of members to the new Martin County Solid Waste Board.
The board terms consist of two 2-year terms, one 3-year term and two 4-year terms.
Martin County Judge/Executive Lon Lafferty said that in deciding the terms of the individual board members, he put all the names into a hat and drew them out “to make the appointments equitable for each county district.”
The appointments include:
• Deresa Ray MacDonald from District 1 for a 2-year term
• Marcie Hanson from District 3 for a 2-year term
• Dottie Horn from District 2 for a 3-year term
• Rossalene Cox from District 4 for a 4-year term
• Greg Murphy from District 5 for a 4-year term
Martin County Clerk Susie Skyle asked the court to approve a proposal of $2945 from Moon Glow Security Systems of Lowmansville for a camera system in the room where the county stores the voting machines.
Skyles explained the county had previously avoided the cost by using the camera system from the 911 office.
“The thing with 911 is the board of elections can’t come back two years from now and review the video to see if the machines have been tampered with,” Skyles said. “This system has the capacity to do eight years.”
The court approved the request.
Skyles also got the court’s approval of property tax rates of all taxing entities within the county, directing the magistrates to the documentation provided in their meeting packets.
“The tax bills will be ready Nov. 1,” added Skyles.
The clerk then requested personal donations from the elected officials. The donations would help pay help for food and drinks for the election precinct workers during their upcoming training at the senior citizens center.
“Whether they get cake, pizza, chips, or whatever, I pay for that and the cups, plates and forks,” said Skyles. “That comes out of my pocket and benefits every elected official. I’ve already hit up the sheriff and the county attorney… We’ll get that after the meeting.”
Lafferty recommended Sheila Maynard of Inez for appointment to the Martin County Public Library board of directors. The magistrates approved Maynard for a four-year term that runs through August 2027. Maynard replaces Willa Preston, whose term expired.