Virginia now has one fewer town after 27 citizens of Glen Lyn voted Tuesday to dissolve its charter and become an unincorporated community of Giles County.
Only six Glen Lyn citizens voted against the referendum that asked: “Shall the charter for the Town of Glen Lyn be annulled and repealed?”
“The last mayor?” mused mayor and town manager Howard Spencer, who voted in favor of annulling the charter and, by extension, himself out of a job. “I hadn’t thought too much about it.”
His first reaction was to lament his neighbors’ apathy that resulted in fewer than half the town’s 67 registered voters showing up at the town office to vote.
The few services currently provided by the town to its 95 residents — mostly sewer and maintenance of the town park — will be assumed by Giles County. The county is already providing water service, police protection through the sheriff’s department, and fire service after the Glen Lyn Volunteer Fire Department was shut down in October due to undisclosed allegations against some of its members.
A new nonprofit organization called Glen Lyn Commons will fund street lights, snow plowing and median mowing.
“I just wanted to be nothing more than a public servant,” said Spencer, who has served as mayor for more than 40 years. “I’ve done my best for the town, and we’ll continue to live here and still be part of the community as long as the Lord lets us live.”
One responsibility that Giles County will not assume is any liability associated with six federal indictments currently filed against Spencer for alleged violations of the U.S. Clean Water Act. According to charges brought in 2023 by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Roanoke, the 84-year-old mayor ordered employees of the town’s wastewater treatment plant on three occasions “to illegally discharge raw sewage into the East River, a tributary of the New River.”
Spencer has pleaded not guilty, and the case remains open.
“We had these conversations with our attorney and was told there would not be any liability that would transfer to the county,” said county administrator Chris McKlarney.
One of the six who voted against the referendum now stands as the last name ever to appear on a ballot for Glen Lyn mayor.
Billy Meadows, Jr., 42, ran unopposed on Nov. 5 as Spencer had declined to run for reelection, but he lost 11 to 17 to write-in candidate and town councilman Roger Whitt.
“I’m not happy about it,” said Meadows about the referendum. “I think a lot of the problems is that there’s been too much bad going on and people are holding on to who is going to be in office and who is going to be on council, and they’re afraid nothing is going to change.”
The sheriff’s office already takes up to 20 minutes to get to Glen Lyn, Meadows says, and he worries that other services will receive similar short shrift.
“It sucks,” he said. “I hate it for the citizens. I really wanted to show what I could do to make life better, but there’s nothing I can do now. With the town shutting down, me not getting voted in for mayor, all I can do is me helping everybody I can.”
Glen Lyn’s decline began in 2015 when a coal-fired plant — built in 1919 and responsible for many of the town’s jobs and residents as well as $230,000 in tax revenue or one-quarter of its budget — was shuttered by Appalachian Power.
According to virginiaplaces.org, Glen Lyn will be the fourth town in Virginia history to dissolve its charter, joining Clover in Halifax County (1995), Castlewood in Russell County (1997), and St. Charles in Lee County (2022).
McKlarney says he anticipates Glen Lyn’s reversion to unincorporated status will take place in January.
“Our job will be to provide continuity of service to the citizens and make the transition as seamless as possible,” said McKlarney. “They built some really nice amenities and it’s our hope to continue operating them and making improvements to them for all citizens.”
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