Acting on the recommendation of the Landowners for Environmental and Economic Protection (LEEP), the Wilkes County Board of Commissioners approved an easement agreement which will provide for the Elba Express Pipeline construction to cross nine county roads if that construction ever begins. The easement agreement is patterned after a Warren County agreement.

"We had a recommendation from the protest group that if we would use the form that was used in Warren County, at least they would be happy that the county would be more protected than if we granted them a permit," County Attorney Charles LeGette said. Commission Chairman Sam Moore pointed out that the easement approval should mark the end of the county's dealing with this issue.

The action came at the regular April meeting of the commissioners on Thursday, April 9. All of the commissioners - Divenski Lee, Ed Geddings, John Howard, Jerry Stover, and Moore - were in attendance as were County Administrator David Tyler and LeGette.

Moore reported that he and others had met with various agencies that the county deals with and that "there is some Stimulus money out there for roads and maybe for some temporary jobs." There is still uncertainty about what the agencies are going to get and it is unknown what smaller counties like Wilkes might receive.

"It seems like a lot of it is going to larger counties," Moore commented, "but hopefully some of it will come to us a little farther down the line. We hope a lot of the resurfacing money is going to come through to help with our roads and that is something we could really benefit from."

Moore pointed out that there had been a lot of cutbacks in resurfacing funds recently and said that Stimulus funds might "help us catch up on what we have been left out of in the last few years." He said he would be reporting on any Stimulus help the county receives in the months to come.

In another matter, LeGette said that the county's building permit ordinance did not have a stated penalty for non-compliance. "Generally, our ordinances provide that violation be a misdemeanor," he said, "which is a fine of up to $1,000 and/or imprisonment up to 12 months."

He recommended that the standard misdemeanor language be added to the building permit ordinance "so it's clearly stated like it is in the rest of our ordinances."

The commissioners questioned whether they should take a blanket action to insure that all county ordinances uniformly carried the misdemeanor language but LeGette pointed out that since the various ordinances were enacted individually, any such change should also be made individually.

"I feel like if you are going to modify an ordinance, you ought to be specific as to which ordinance you're talking about," he said.

The commissioners voted to make the change in the building permit ordinance and LeGette will begin to review other county ordinances to determine if such a change is needed elsewhere.

In other business:

l Linda Echols, a recent appointee to the Mental Health Board, reported on several meeting she had attended in recent months. She said most of the discussions centered around necessary budget cuts.

l The board granted tax relief to Tony and Evelyn Wright for the years 2006 and 2007 as recommended by the Tax Assessor's Office due to a mistake in the county's system.

l Tax relief was denied for Plum Creek Timberlands, holder of a land management contract with the Guillebeau family, for one 97-acre tract that it claims should have been billed to the family rather than to Plum Creek Timberlands. "It would be easier for Plum Creek to work it out with the Guillebeau family," LeGette said.

l Tyler reported that Local Option Sales tax received for the month of January 2009 was $57,308.48, and that $88,737.62 in Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax had been received for the same month.

The next regular meeting of the Wilkes County Board of Commissioners will be held on Thursday, May 14, at 7 p.m. with a work session immediately prior beginning at 6 p.m. in the chairman's office.