Visitors to the colonial courthouse should start seeing changes inside the historic circle during the next few months. The Gloucester County Board of Supervisors authorized $75,000 of the county’s Tourism Reserve Fund to rehabilitate several of the historic buildings, which includes making space for an expanded visitor’s center.

The board voted unanimously to authorize the expenditure of the reserve funds during its meeting Tuesday night in the colonial courthouse.

Gloucester Parks, Recreation and Tourism director Carol Steele said that with the money that was authorized Tuesday night, the Gloucester Visitors Center will move from its cramped quarters in the Roane Building to the larger annex, which is attached to the colonial courthouse. This is the space that recently housed Gloucester’s Animal Control and Emergency Services departments; those departments have since relocated.

The annex, she said is in need of an ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act)-approved wheelchair ramp and restrooms. The building also needs HVAC repairs and relocation of some walls in order to make it suitable for the visitor’s center.

The office space upstairs, she said, will be used by tourism coordinator Hilton Snowdon, as well as the Daffodil Festival coordinator and the tourism assistant.

Steele said there have been a number of times recently when volunteers who man the visitor’s center have called in sick. The change in office space should help with this problem. “This way, if a volunteer calls in sick, Hilton can just come downstairs and keep the shop open,” she said.

The money approved Tuesday night will also go toward necessary renovations to the Roane building, which she said, currently has plaster falling on the floors.

Steele said there are also plans to rehabilitate the old jail building. Such plans include HVAC installation, jail cell restoration so visitors can see what the actual jail looked like when it was operational, restroom improvements and the addition of colonial-era reproduction furnishings.

“Gloucester’s historic buildings are treasures for our residents and tourists,” she added.

With the $75,000 expenditure of reserve funds, Steele said approximately $200,000 will be left in the account in case of emergencies or other needs that may come up.

She also said she plans on keeping costs down by using the county’s buildings and grounds employees to do much of the HVAC and wall work.

Public hearings

The board held five public hearings Tuesday night, each drawing little comment from the public.

However, one public hearing, considering an ordinance to amend the county’s animal welfare and control ordinance to add the Canton subdivision in the northern part of the county as a leash law area, drew some heated remarks from subdivision resident Scott Varner. The board voted unanimously to approve the amendment.

Varner, who is Gloucester’s director of Information Technology, said his wife and his young daughter have been accosted on several occasions by other homeowners’ dogs that were running loose in the subdivision.

“I reported (the first incident) to animal control, but I was told there was nothing they could do because Canton doesn’t have a leash law and skin wasn’t broken (on my wife’s arm),” Varner said. “I have a severe problem with waiting until something happens to do something about it … it’s illogical and irrational.”

He said he has appealed personally to homeowners to keep their dogs at bay, but those appeals have gone unheeded, he added.

Varner said he and his family are avid animal lovers, and his own animals are always either on a leash or fenced in their yard. “We’re responsible dog owners,” he said.

“I’m surprised Gloucester doesn’t have a countywide leash law for subdivisions that are paved,” he added. “I don’t want to see anyone in my family hurt, or anyone else for that matter.”

The board unanimously approved three other matters following public hearings Tuesday night: Agreeing to a lease between the county and Bay Aging, Inc., for the Senior Center and Senior Center Annex on Main Street; amending county code to remove the open green area and landscaping requirements to bring them in line with the intent of the recent changes to the zoning ordinance concerning the recently-adopted Highway Corridor Development District, and an amendment of the subdivision ordinance to comply with changes to state code.

Finally, the board made no motion to consider vacating a right-of-way agreement adjacent to 1352 Laurens Road, Gloucester Point, causing the vacation of the agreement to fail.

Planning commission appointments

Petsworth district supervisor Michael Winebarger appointed current at-large Gloucester Planning Commission member Seth Baldwin to the Petsworth District seat on the commission. This is to fill the unexpired term of Larry Dame, who resigned from the commission last month.

At-large district supervisor Ashley Chriscoe then appointed former planning commission member Kenneth Richardson to fill Baldwin’s now-vacant at-large seat.

Both appointments were unanimously approved by the supervisors.

Also, York district supervisor Phillip Bazzani notified the board of supervisors that the planning commission member representing his district missed five meetings in 2013 and several other meetings so far this year. “I asked him to tender his resignation,” Bazzani said. “I don’t have any representation of the York District on the planning commission.”

Bazzani said if the member doesn’t tender his resignation by the board of supervisors’ Oct. 21 meeting, he will appoint someone to serve out that term.

Closed meeting

Finally, following a closed meeting, supervisors directed the county attorney to submit to a consent order regarding an erroneous assessment. On June 27, the board of supervisors was served with a petition for relief, filed by SALB, LLC. The petitioner, the county assessor and the commissioner of the revenue have since agreed upon the assessed values for the SALB, LLC property.