Written minutes for the Lee County Board of Supervisors’ Oct. 20 meeting were not posted as of Oct. 29. The county’s minutes page lists minutes only through Sept. 15, but its audio page carries the recording. The Lee Daily Register transcribed the 52-minute file and checked each item against the meeting agenda.
Supervisor D.D. Leonard took part by phone. Votes were by voice, and the recording has no roll calls, so the table shows only what was said aloud.
| Item | Amount said aloud | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Veterans Honor Fund, 54th annual Veterans Day dinner | $150 (group suggested about $100) | Approved |
| Repairs to convenience-center dumpsters | $17,393.46 for 42 bottoms | Approved, one abstention |
| Resolution 26-032, junkyard screening | None | Approved |
| Commonwealth’s attorney, reimbursement check | $2,117.03 | Moved and seconded; vote call unclear |
| Courthouse floor stripping and polishing | $5,250 | Approved |
| Fire-sprinkler repair quotes | $880 and $6,995 | Sent out for bids |
| Resolution 26-031, county credit cards | None | Approved |
| Five items after closed session | None | Approved |
A request to Richmond on junkyards
The vote with the longest reach was Resolution 26-032. The county administrator told the board that state law names the counties allowed to require screening around automobile junkyards, and that he had asked two state legislators’ offices for help. One office replied that it was willing to carry legislation to add Lee County, he said, and a resolution would give it something to point to.
We read the law he cited. Section 15.2-903, as posted Oct. 28, lets any locality regulate the operation of junkyards in subsection A. The screening power sits in subsection B, which names nine counties: Bedford, Campbell, Caroline, Fauquier, Rockbridge, Shenandoah, Tazewell, Warren and York. Lee is not among them. Subsection B also lets those counties apply screening to junkyards that already exist, a point the administrator raised at the meeting.
Two courthouse security quotes and one open question
Johnson Controls quoted two jobs. For the magistrate’s office, which the administrator said wants video and a buzz-in door after an incident, the quote was $5,160 plus $600 a year. For a circuit judge’s request to secure a hallway with a locked door tied to the fire alarm, it was $4,860 plus $480 a year. By our addition, that is $10,020 up front and $1,080 a year. He said money for the judge’s request is already in this year’s budget and nothing is budgeted for the magistrate’s office.
The administrator recommended approving the judge’s request and holding the magistrate’s. The board then voted to take up the Johnson Controls quotes in closed session. Afterward it approved a Johnson Controls security door in open session, and the recording does not say the price or which quote. A resident had also asked earlier about camera blind spots at the courthouse elevators and stairwells. A supervisor said the board should get a price, and the recording has no vote on cameras.
The smaller dollar votes
The dumpster quote works out to about $414 a bottom by our division. The administrator said 16 new dumpsters would cost roughly $23,000 plus freight, about $1,440 each before freight. The sprinkler quotes came from the company that inspected the courthouse and the social services building, and a supervisor noted that the same firm would be paid to fix its own findings. The board voted to put the work out for bids. The $5,250 floor job went to the firm that did the courthouse’s earlier stripping and waxing, with payment set for 15 days after completion.
The commonwealth’s attorney’s office received a $2,117.03 reimbursement check for a May conference. The administrator proposed $1,546.47 for the office’s training line and $570.56 for the general fund, which had put local money toward the trip.
What the recording does not say
After the closed session, the board approved five measures in roughly three minutes. They were a purchase of Durango vehicles for the sheriff’s office, a part-time hire, an airport land lease, a Johnson Controls door and a drug and alcohol policy for county employees. The motion on the policy mentioned random and post-accident testing. As we transcribed it, the recording gives no prices, lease terms or policy text for any of the five.
The board cited Virginia’s closed-meeting law for personnel, for investment of public funds where bargaining is involved, and for legal advice.
Seats filled, seats tabled, and three other notes
The board filled seats on the Board of Zoning Appeals, Dryden Water Authority, Lonesome Pine Office on Youth, social services board and Tourism Committee. It tabled Building Code Appeals, Heart of Appalachia and the Regional Industrial Facilities Authority. We left out appointees’ names because several are unclear on the recording.
- Community college: Mountain Empire’s president said 2,065 students are enrolled this fall, about 53 fewer than the roughly 2,108 last fall, or about 2.5% by our math. Lee County had 26 Promise students in fall 2025 and 26 in spring 2026.
- Forensic audit: The administrator said a Friday deadline, Oct. 23, applied to submitting further information, and he hoped to have the report within a week or two.
- Airport: No supervisor objected to exploring a skydiving event, pending state and federal clearances.
This account rests on the audio. The county’s written minutes, once approved and posted, will be the formal record of these votes.
