Citizen's Action Project for Town & County Gov't Transparency in Wytheville

12/05/2020

We commend the men and women of the fire department for driving around town neighborhoods with Santa and lights on. We are sure they are doing this out of the kindness in the hearts. However, the only reason their idiot fire chief and assistant chief is allowing them to provide good cheer at Christmas is because they look bad for having the fire parade and the town not allowing the Christmas parade to happen. The chief and mayor are trying to cover up their political mistakes with the town citizens. This shows how inadequate they both are at their jobs. Merry Christmas everyone. We hope you have a blessed Christmas with family and friends. Please enjoy time with family get togethers, don't allow the governor and mayor to keep you held hostage in your homes.

09/28/2020

From our understanding, the county administrator was supposed to release the air quality and soil study that was completed on the Apex Center. However, he has yet to make it public. According to an Apex employee, the center is full of mold that poses a health risk to people that are in the Apex center. The ventilation system doesn't remove fumes or filter out anything in the air. Why hasn't the test results been released because they are still holding events at the center? If someone becomes sick, a doctor determines that it's mold and you attended any event at the Apex Center, you should sue Wythe County because they know about the mold and have for many months. Citizens should be very concerned about the health risk this mold poses The county doesn't have the money to mitigate the mold problem. They would have to remove all the soil, down several feet and install new better quality and bigger air ventilation systems. The Apex center needs to be sold to some industry or manufacturing company that can afford to do that. The money from the sale should go back in the budget where it belongs. The Apex Center has been a money pit and failure from the beginning.

09/28/2020

So the Wythe County Treasurer has decided to send summons out to people who have dogs and cats that they have had rabies vaccines for from the veterinarian. The Board of Supervisors had no say in this, it's all the decision of the treasurer Lori Guynn. Citizens need to remember this during her re-election year. This is not the appropriate time for the treasurer to enforce this. Many people are still out of work because of COVID-19, some people are sick, plus personal property taxes are also due soon. If anything she should have waited to do this until 2021. This year has been a struggle for many county residents. I f the money from the dog and cat tags go to the animal shelter then this fee is understandable but for next year not this year. If the funds are only going to fill a void in the treasurer's budget then that is wrong, the money should go to the animal shelter.

09/08/2020

Please, all county residents try to attend the Board of Supervisors meeting tomorrow, September 8th at 6pm. Ask questions and voice your concerns. The air and soil quality study of the Apex center needs to be discussed. Tax payers have a right to know if the Apex center is a danger to our health and safety. Are they following federal and state codes for fire safety, air/soil quality and the Americans with Disabilities Act?

09/04/2020

We have done some research on the Apex Center because at the last Board of Supervisors meeting a local citizen spoke about his concerns with the Apex center. This gentleman has a disabled son that has heath issues and is in a wheelchair. This man stated that he has concerns about the air quality at the Apex center. He asked what the results were from the last air and soil quality study. He also.brought up the fact that it is not very handicapped accessable. He has to push his son over big gravel in the wheelchair to enter the Apex center. The county administrator completely ignored this citizens question about the air and soil study and said that the Apex center manager would get in touch with him about the handicapped entrances. So our question is, is the Apex center safe for people to attend events? During our research we have found out that it is not safe to our health. An anonymous Apex employee told us that the air and soil quality study was horrible. The ventilation system doesn't remove the dust and exhaust fumes during events. There is also huge amounts of mold and fungus in the soil. Mold and fungus that can make people sick. Why haven't citizens been told? We have the right to know if something is going to make us sick. There have been events held there with the mold and fungus in the soil and the county knows about it. To us that makes the county liable if people get sick. This employee stated that the county staff, Apex staff and the Board of Supervisors are not allowed to talk about the mold and fungus, the air quality or soil testing or anything to do with the Apex center. If this employees identity is found out we are sure they will be fired. Which is wrong. The county administrator needs to step up and tell the tax paying citizens about the Apex center issues. Also, they do not have an occupancy certificate for the Apex center or the barn, which violates state fire codes. They also have disconnected the fire sprinkler system in the barn, which also violates state fire codes. If you have a commercial building that can accommodate hundreds of people you need a sprinkler system. The Apex Center is wasting tax dollars. The county needs to come forward and tell the truth about the Apex center and the health risk it contains. Mr. Smith, Mr. Vaught, Mr. Cook and Mr. Terry need to step up and do the job you were voted in to do. All of you said the Apex center wouldn't get more money, you said you would be transparent about it and how the money/budget is used for the center. Step up and do your jobs. The Apex center is just a lawsuit waiting to happen. Does our county have enough money to pay for lawsuits if this mold and fungus damages someone's health and well-being?

09/03/2020

We thank Mr. Terry for the update.

COVID 19 Update 9/3/2020

09/03/2020

The admins of this page took a break from Facebook because of work travel requirements, training, health issues and life in general. We will be sharing some of things we have found out about with the county and town over the last few months. We will be posting more often now and keep the community aware of local government issues and transparency. If we p**s some people off within the local governments, so be it. Our 1st Amendment rights are more important than your little feelings. 🇺🇸

09/03/2020

Town residents should be prepared to pay higher taxes in January to fund the fire and rescue department. To ask council members they will tell you that everything is fine when in actuality it's not. The fire and rescue department is struggling financially. The chief has tried to have council charge all citizens $250 a year for rescue service. A resident should not have to pay for a service that they may or may not use. Also, he wanted to bill homeowners insurance $500 for all fire alarms, smoke reports, etc. Insurance companies will not be happy about that and the resident won't be happy when their premiums rise. This chief is not much of a fire chief(we have researched and investigated), he is a paramedic and mainly has experience as an EMS chief. He thought taking over the rescue squad would be great and financially beneficial. Not here! If the mayor and council would have hired locally for a fire chief that actually knows the people in this community they might have found out that most people here are low income and may or may not have insurance. If they do have insurance then they can't afford anything over what their insurance covers. There were three local citizens that were more qualified, educated and had more experience then the chief they hired and the assistant chief. Those three were not even given interviews because the mayor and council refused to hire a local person. If the chief and council would not have disbanded the volunteer fire department and kept the experienced and certified volunteer firefighters they wouldn't need a huge budget. The rescue could have been a paid full-time service but not the fire department. This community fought for Joel Hash to be Police Chief, which he deserved. He started at the bottom and rose to the top. He is trained and educated. He is respected by adults and children. Mr. Hash is great man and deserved to be chief. The community was warned during the election about the mayor and certain council members. Maybe the community should have fought harder to keep your volunteer fire department that had trained, certified and many with over ten years experience as firefighters. Now the department hired many new certified firefighters and if they have experience it's not many years. We thank all EMTs, paramedics and firefighters that work at WFD and respect them. It's not their fault that taxes will rise to fund the department. It's their job and their income. It's the mayor's, council's and the chief's fault that taxes rise.

11/06/2019

Many people are complaining about the sheriff's election, Dunagan winning. This list of wrong doings was published on Facebook last week. Our issue with this is, if you say you love this county and things need to change so you list a bunch of accusations but not proof and evidence to support those accusations. If you truly want change and have evidence to support this why haven't you went to the State Justice Department in Richmond and ask for a special investigation and special prosecutor? If you don't have proof/evidence to support this list of wrong doings then you are just being slanderous and don't truly want change for the citizens of this county. Yes, a leader should lead by example, he should be physically fit, wear a uniform and actually work with his deputies on patrol, investigations, etc. and Carner was most likely the best choice unfortunately all voters didn't see it that way. If you truly think this department is crooked and has no ethics then take it to Richmond and do something about it. If you don't have evidence/proof then move on and stop bitching.

11/06/2019

We would like to congratulate Mr. Terry, Mr. Cook and Mr. Smith on winning the elections for the Board Of Supervisors. New people, with new ideas is what this county has needed for several years. Hopefully these newly elected county officials will keep their promises and stop wasting tax money on the expo center. Also we hope they will be transparent with meetings and stop the long history of meeting behind closed doors to decide what to do with our tax dollars. Even committees should have open meetings, in town and county government. Congratulations guys we feel that after this election our county has a brighter future.

10/31/2019

There is a write in candidate for the School Board, in the Ft. Chiswell district. Please consider writing in Mr. Cannoy on the ballot next week when you cast your vote. We need change in this county.

10/31/2019

Congratulations to Mr. Kirby on his retirement. He has been a great asset to the fire department and the community.