Supervisors conclude retreat early

By Nate Delesline III

Published: July 10, 2008

The Culpeper County Board of Supervisors canceled the second day of its planned two-day retreat, Board Chairman Bill Chase said late Thursday morning.

“Everything was completed,” said Chase, adding that no items requiring formal action came up.

Meeting at a Madison County property owned by Salem District Supervisor Tom Underwood, Chase said the retreat wrapped up around 5 p.m. Wednesday. Chase was joined by five other supervisors, County Attorney Frank Bossio and incoming County Attorney Roy Thorpe.

The supervisors began the retreat by refining their vision statement and goals. Then, the discussion shifted to strategic, long-term goals and five-year goals for the county as a whole and for all departments.

In a presentation prepared by Bossio, a recurring theme was improving overall productivity by increasing electronic record keeping. Recent department-specific accomplishments were also cited in the report. They included:

* Building — Reduced the average time to review plans from 12 days to six days for residential projects
* Emergency Services — Met the state average of having a unit en-route or on scene within six minutes 75 percent of the time
* Information Technology — implemented online access to tax information; received $250,000 of used hardware from the state
* Records management — Destroyed 5,162 pounds of unnecessary records and revised guidelines to ensure that only essential documents are kept.