Floyd County Administrator Dan Campbell is leaving Southwestern Virginia to become executive of Madison County in the Shenandoah mountains area of the Old Dominion.
Campbell handed in his resignation to Floyd supervisors Tuesday in a closed session of the board and will take over in his new job on July 1. He became county administrator in Floyd in 2006 after 16 years as Galax city manager.
“No one wants to do this,” Burks Fork Supervisor Joe Turman said as he made the motion to accept Campbell’s resignation after the supervisors spent more than an hour in close session.
With a heavy heart,” said Indian Valley Supervisor Fred Gerald.
“It’s the hardest motion I’ve had to approve,” said Board chairman Case Clinger. “Madison County is very lucky to have you.”
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Madison County, created from Orange County in 1792, is slightly smaller in size (322 square miles) and population (13,308) but includes a large portion of the Shenandoah National Park and Rapidan Camp, the former Presidential retreat of Herbert Hoover.
Campbell said it was a tough decision to leave Floyd County but Madison County officials offered him the post and he felt it was a good time to move on.
Supervisors appointed assistant county administrator Terri Morris as interim administrator and will begin a search for a new county executive immediately. The new fiscal year begins on July 1 and the county board is coming off a five cent increase in real estate property assessments amid sharp budget increases primarily in public education.
During Campbell’s tenure as county executive, Floyd saw the long-dormant Branwick Center in the county’s economic development park become homes first of Volvo Truck Recycling Operation Dex and then replaced by expansion of Hollinsworth & Vose, opening of the county’s Innovation Center at the Commerce Park and development of the county’s tourism business as a visitor’s center.
“We have a job ahead of us to replace him,” Clinger said.
