At-a-glance: key votes by Accomack County Board of Supervisors on March 18

At its March 18 meeting the Accomack County Board of Supervisors approved a slate of motions and votes on routine and substantive items. Highlights:

- Ratified local state of emergency: The board ratified a local state of emergency declared for a severe winter storm on Feb. 23 and lifted Feb. 24 after the county opened warming centers and responded to outages affecting more than 10,000 customers.

- Treasurer refund threshold increased: The board approved an amendment to county code to increase the treasurer's authority to refund erroneous tax payments without board approval from $5,000 to $10,000 (the Commonwealth's maximum), to expedite refunds and reduce agenda items.

- Lease for Alcohol Safety Action Program: The board approved a no-cost lease of a room at the General District/JDR courthouse to Chesapeake Bay ASAP (Alcohol Safety Action Program) after confirming judicial approval for the arrangement.

- Denied hunting lease: The board denied soliciting bids to lease county-owned parcel 75A-6A for hunting, citing long-standing local public access and concern about nonresident leaseholders posting no-trespassing signs.

- RFP award for Food Bank facility design: The board awarded RFP No. 340 to George Miles & Burr LLC (design fee referenced at about $54,084) to support the Food Bank of Southeastern Virginia and Eastern Shore in expanding its Tasley facility; Food Bank president Christopher Tan described the organization's recent distribution volumes and priorities for safer traffic flow, volunteer space and a client-choice market model.

- Budget, bills and adjournment: The board approved a budget amendment, authorized payment of county bills and adjourned the meeting.

Votes on these items were recorded by voice vote in the meeting transcript; where tally sheets were not provided in the record the transcript reports the motions carried by voice vote.