Pittsylvania Board of Supervisors approves safety study on U.S. 58

CHATHAM — The Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors hopes to make eastbound U.S. 58 in Ringgold a little safer for children getting on and off the school bus.

The board unanimously approved a proposal Monday night to ask the Virginia Department of Transportation to examine traffic safety from the Danville city limits on U.S. 58 to the Route 62 stoplight.

Board members also hope to see the speed limit lowered along a stretch of bus stops from 55 mph to 45 mph. Currently, the limit drops to 45 mph just west of the stoplight, after vehicles have already driven past the bus stops.

Dan River Supervisor James Snead, whose district includes the area east of Danville, wants to “try to get the state to look at this and reduce that speed.”

Snead cited a recent accident involving a transfer truck rear-ending another truck that was stopped behind a school bus.

“It could have been a major catastrophe,” he said, adding that vehicles speed by school buses picking up and dropping off children on U.S. 58.

In other matters, the Finance Committee hopes supervisors will change their November decision to cut 2009-10 budgets in each county department by 5 percent.

Instead, the committee agreed to examine the nine departments’ budgets in one combined amount and cut it by 5 percent, targeting capital outlay, vehicles, travel and training for cuts.

Slashing individual departments’ budgets would result in drastic cuts, including employee reduction in hours and possible job losses, County Administrator Dan Sleeper said Monday.

Finance Director Kim Van der Hyde said a 5 percent reduction in her department’s budget would force her to lay off an employee or lessen a worker’s hours from full time to part time. The Finance Committee agreed to take the matter to the Board of Supervisors for a vote.

“That will help me lump some people and protect them,” Sleeper said.

The county faces a budget shortfall for the 2009-10 fiscal year and has already implemented a hiring freeze.

In past years, budget proposals from individual departments were reduced by 5 percent. But this time, the budget will be cut by 5 percent compared to last year’s actual budget, Sleeper said. The reductions will apply to local funds since the county is not authorized to cut state aid, he said.

Contact John R. Crane at jcrane@registerbee.com or (434) 791-7987.