|
Nowlin fights to retain board seat representing Millboro
BY CHARLES GARRATT • STAFF WRITER
 | | Percy "Buzz" Nowlin |
|
HOT SPRINGS - Percy "Buzz" Nowlin has been involved with the county political system for most of his 25 years in Bath County.
He retired as superintendent of schools in 1993 after 18 years in that position. "Since 1975 (when he moved to the county), I have been trying to serve the people of Bath County. I have the experience and compassion for trying to help the people here."
Nowlin is running for his third term as supervisor. He notes that with his tenure as school superintendent, three years working in reassessment, and his two terms as supervisor, he has attended almost all supervisor meetings for the past 25 years.
The county is currently in the middle of reassessing property values. Nowlin has firsthand experience, having worked for a Salem firm for three years in the early 1990s in Highland, Bath and Alleghany counties.
Nowlin has been outspoken in support of the current reassessment. The county is losing 34 percent of the taxes it could receive from Dominion/Virginia power and other public service corporations, he notes.
"I could live with three years," Nowlin said of the reassessment schedule, but he thinks a two-year cycle would prevent the county from losing a lot of tax revenue. While he supports more frequent assessments, he believes developments like the Homestead Preserve should not increase the property values and taxes paid by ordinary homeowners in the county.
"If we don't want to end up wall-to-wall development," Nowlin said, the county must manage development. The county is 10 to 15 years "behind the fertile crescent," according to Nowlin. Growth and rapid development have happened all over the state, he said, and Bath county isn't immune.
Nowlin said most of the citizens in Bath are against commercial wind generation in the county. "I sympathize with Highland (supervisors). Wind is the only source they can conceive of to generate revenue," Nowlin said. But, he adds, "It is unimaginable to see 400-foot wind towers" in the Highlands. He believes Bath County has to do something to support green energy. As for wind, he understands the county's NIMBY (not in my back yard) stance.
A decision on what to do with the old Millboro school is still pending. Nowlin thinks the proposal presented by Spectrum Design is a win-win solution. He notes removing the asbestos and tearing down all of the buildings will cost more than the adaptive reuse proposal and the county would receive taxes from the resulting apartment buildings. Regarding development in general, Nowlin says the county should do everything it can to provide jobs and manage growth. He believes developers should pay all the cost of providing water and sewer to any development and should pay impact fees for increased loading on schools and other government services.
"If you don't manage and make the developers pay their fair share, what the county will bring in taxes on the houses will be offset by the cost incurred if they have children in schools," he said. "The developer has to pay their share."
"Wholesale development would kill Bath County as we know it," said Nowlin. He hopes the county can come together on development issues since "these issues we all see are going to affect all of us."
On the other hand, housing is a major problem in the county, particularly for the working middle class, Nowlin said. Providing affordable housing is one of the major challenges facing Bath. "That, and trying to get some jobs," he said.
Nowlin says Bath is too far from an interstate highway for any industry that relies on trucking and heavy shipping. He'd like to spur interest in using the rail lines that pass through the county. The Millboro industrial park is close to the railroad, but has no siding. "It's a chicken and egg situation to get a rail spur," Nowlin noted. Just the same, he feels rail transport will be more economical than trucking in the future.
As for the budget, Nowlin said the county must "look at needs versus wants." The supervisors should only "fund that which we have to have." Public health, water and sewer, safety and schools are the needs that the county must pay for, said Nowlin. Other items can be delayed if revenue is tight.
Nowlin believes in what he calls a "tame approach to management." He tries to get as much involved in the decision processes of government as he can. The board, he said, depends on the planning commission, industrial development authority, board of zoning appeals and other citizen panels.
Generally the board of supervisors needs to be a planner and policy maker and rely on county employees to carry out the work of implementing the plan and policies set by the board said Nowlin. "We are all part of a team," he said.
About the candidate Percy "Buzz" Nowlin, 70 Retired superintendent of schools. Move to Bath County in 1975 Masonic Lodge, secretary; Lions Club, secretary 10 years; North-South Skirmish Association, St. Luke's Episcopal Church, local selective service board
| 
)