Wise County, Va., supervisors hold 'emergency' meeting to approve power plant support

WISE, Va. – Members of the Wise County Board of Supervisors decided Friday morning that their failure to approve a resolution of support for a proposed $1.8 billion coal-fired power plant Thursday night created an emergency that only a special-called meeting on Friday evening would remedy.

Residents who attended the meeting – even those who received unprecedented individual notice from county officials a few hours before the 7 p.m. session – didn’t call the situation an emergency. They had other words for the hastily held meeting and the board’s unanimous action to approve a resolution in support of Dominion Virginia Power’s proposed plant near St. Paul.

Larry Bush called it a betrayal.

"You betrayed the people of Wise County," an angry Bush said as he stormed out of the meeting. "I ask every one of you to resign."

Bush later said he would attend all board meetings and ask the supervisors to resign at every meeting.

Kathy Selvage put her comments in a written statement she passed out to reporters.

"What occurred here tonight is not in the public interest or good," she said in the statement. "This is merely an end-run around public participation."

Diana Withen said the board wanted to shut out public comments with the special meeting.

The public was told at the start of the meeting that the only matter open for discussion was the support resolution, and the public could watch but not comment since residents had a chance to do so at Thursday’s meeting.

Some residents and reporters asked county officials and the county attorney if the Friday meeting was legal.

County Attorney Karen Mullins said it was legal because it was considered an emergency situation since scheduling matters and the legislative session gave the board little time to act before its February meeting. The supervisors were only required to notify the media, not the public, she said.

The supervisors went beyond legal requirements and called or tried to call all the people who spoke for or against the plant at Thursday’s meeting, the attorney said.

Supervisor Virginia Meador asked the attorney to explain to her, and to others, why the meeting was considered an emergency. Mullins responded because of timing and scheduling concerns.

"This would qualify as an emergency," the lawyer said. "We are in compliance with every requirement and have gone beyond that."

The supervisors were poised Thursday night to reaffirm the board’s support for the power plant, saying it would create jobs and economic prosperity. After about an hour of public comments – most in opposition to the plant but some in favor – none of the supervisors made a motion to approve the resolution when Chairman Bob Adkins called for a vote.

"No one should construe that failure of the Board of Supervisors to enact a draft support resolution for the proposed Dominion Power Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center suggests in any manner that Wise County is not fully supportive and committed to this project," Adkins said at the start of Friday’s meeting.

Adkins said there were some "unresolved issues in the draft resolution" that some board members thought needed more reflection before adopting it.

The board has shown its full support for the power plant even before the county was tapped as the site for the facility. A bill in the 2004 General Assembly called for a coal-fired plant to be built somewhere in Southwest Virginia. Wise County was one of several counties in the region that hoped to get the plant for the revenues the facility would generate.

Some county officials and a handful of supervisors traveled to Richmond earlier this week to speak in favor of the plant during a State Corporation Commission hearing that eventually will determine if Dominion receives a permit to build it.

Dominion officials who met with the Bristol Herald Courier’s editorial board on Friday said the company picked up the tab for 24 supporters who stayed in $99 hotel rooms. Dominion also paid for a meal.

Adkins was asked by the Herald Courier before Friday’s meeting if Dominion paid for hotel rooms of county officials who attended the SCC hearing.

"They reserved the rooms for us," he said. "We paid our own way up."

He said the tab "may or may not be picked up by the county administrator," but those who attended paid for their own meals and expenses.

When told Dominion officials said earlier in the day the company paid for a catered meal, Adkins replied, "We had a nice supper."

When told Dominion officials also said they paid for the rooms, Adkins said it probably happened if the company said so. He said the hotel accepted the county’s credit card when he checked into his room. The board chairman said the receipt he received when he checked out had a zero balance.

Adkins said he and County Administrator Skip Skinner, Industrial Development Authority Chairman Bill Hunsaker and Economic Development Director Carl Snodgrass traveled to Richmond to represent the county. Supervisor J.H. Rivers was also at the hearing, but he was already in Richmond for a training session that newly elected supervisors must attend to orient them to their new office, Adkins said.

"These people with Dominion are absolutely the nicest people I’ve been associated with," Adkins said. "They have never even hinted at doing anything shady."

When asked if Dominion pressured the board to hold the special called meeting, Adkins said no.

"They had questions and concerns that we didn’t get the resolution passed," he said.

Adkins said county officials explained the resolution was not really in its final form on Thursday, which was the primary reason for the delay.

He said the resolution presented Thursday was a draft resolution, and it was basically edited to its final form for Friday’s meeting with no changes in meaning or intent.

Local and regional environmentalists also traveled to Richmond to speak against the plant and the grassroots-organizations footed hotel bills and transportation costs for anyone who wanted to attend the SCC hearing. The groups ran a newspaper advertisement offering to pay the room and transportation costs. The environmental folks had to buy their own food.

Selvage, a member of Southern Appalachia Mountain Stewards, said about 20 people accepted the groups’ offer. Some took the lodging while some only accepted the offer for transportation, she said.

Wise Energy for Virginia, the coalition of environmental groups formed to fight the power plant, paid the costs, she said. The rooms were $85 per night.

Environmentalists are concerned that emissions from the coal-fired plant will harm residents and they worry that strip mining will increase in the region since the plant, by law, must burn Virginia coal.

Those in favor of the plant say coal will be mined in the region until it is depleted, with or without the plant as a prime consumer of the mineral.

kstill@bristolnews.com | (276) 679-1338