Haysi council approves routine business, hears rescue squad plea and municipal building update

Haysi — The Haysi Town Council met Feb. 4, 2025, at Haysi Town Hall and unanimously approved the meeting agenda, the Jan. 14 minutes and the town's financial report.

During public comment, Haysi Rescue Squad Captain Terry Bartley said the squad handled 48 calls during the reporting period, including two overdoses, and described staffing and equipment: "the rescue squad was in the best shape it's been in three years," he said. Bartley told the council Dickenson County Behavioral Health Department is supplying Narcan, that the squad has three trucks (one still being stocked) and that staffing currently includes three drivers and two emergency medical technicians, with a possible paramedic joining soon. He asked the council to consider assisting with the squad's electric bill; the council agreed to add that request to the March agenda.

The council approved the January 14 meeting minutes on a motion by Council Member William “Billy” Counts, seconded by Council Member Debbie Wood. Clerk Amanda Perrigan presented a corrected financial statement for January and itemized expenditures; Council Member Counts moved and Council Member Susan Tiller seconded approval of the financial report, which passed unanimously.

Police Chief James R. Stanley delivered the department's monthly report, saying the department logged "ninety hours worked, three-hundred-seventeen miles driven, and seventeen calls," including two traffic stops. Chief Stanley noted Officer Jerry Fuller will begin working three to four days a month and discussed vehicle rotation and maintenance; he and Captain Bartley thanked Adam Barton for snow-removal assistance.

Mayor Larry D. Yates updated the council on local projects: a groundbreaking ceremony took place last week for the new municipal building, and the building's retaining wall has been completed. Clerk Perrigan is working on an interim compliance review for the Russell Fork Trail Center Project, and the mayor said he is preparing an economic resiliency grant application for a future funding round. Yates also said the Climate Resiliency Building Project "may not happen under the new White House administration," and reported that Dickenson County is working on water and sewer infrastructure related to projects on the site.

The mayor reported recent local business developments — Fleming Detail has closed and the Pizza Factory experienced a water leak that damaged one building — and said several properties owned by Teddy and Sheila Bailey are slated for demolition as part of a Section 202 project; ownership of affected parcels is expected to transfer to Dickenson County and demolition would proceed only as allowed by flood plain ordinances overseen by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the mayor said.

With no further business, a motion to adjourn by Council Member Counts, seconded by Vice Mayor Michael Harris, carried unanimously and the meeting was closed.