Larrowe contract extended
The Board of Supervisors at its Tuesday, September 27, 2022 meeting agreed to a five-year extension of his contract, with an annual current salary of $205,000.
The contract extension was on the consent agenda at the meeting, and there was no discussion.
Larrowe came to Botetourt from Carroll County in January 2016 with a starting salary of $147,000. He oversees a $100 million budget for Botetourt County.
Since he came to Botetourt, the county administrator has worked with the supervisors to move the county offices from Fincastle to the Botetourt Center at Greenfield, a project mostly completed by 2019.
He has also worked with the supervisors and broadband providers to bring high speed internet to all parts of the county, with the expectation that by the end of 2024, all customers of Lumos would be eligible for fiber internet.
Additionally, he has assisted in the recruitment of Munters (which opened on September 28, 2022), ELDOR, Constellation Brands, Community College Service Center, and Pratt Industries. He also assisted with expansions at ALTEC, Metalsa, Canatal Steel, Arkay Packaging and Gala Industries for total additional investments of nearly $250 million and more than 1,000 new jobs.
During the recent Covid 19 pandemic, Larrowe worked with Botetourt Fire & EMS to deliver vaccines to ensure equitable vaccine access in the “Boost Botetourt” program. Paramedics visited citizens in their home or businesses to administer vaccinations. Because of this program, Botetourt Fire & EMS not only received the 2021 Governor’s Award for EMS Agency of the Year but in 2022 were recognized by the Virginia Association of Counties with an award of excellence that will be presented during the October 25, 2022 Board of Supervisors Meeting.
Also during his tenure, he has worked with Botetourt County Schools and utilized CARES funding to purchase four buses, chrome books for all students grades 5-12, and assisted with installation of bi-polar ionization for each school to clean and sanitize the air to help keep children and school staff safer during the pandemic. Botetourt was the only county in Virginia to utilize CARES funding to serve the student population.
Larrowe helped negotiate a deal with County Waste (now known as GFL) for County Waste to close the Botetourt County Landfill with no cost to Botetourt County for the closure, saving the county $6 million in closure fees. It is estimated that the partnership with GFL will save the county over $30 million over the life of the contract.
He also is on the Board of Directors for Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge. Tourism event such as the Ironman, USA Cycling, and the Grand Fondo Bike Race have brought in tourism dollars to the county. Ironman and USA Cycling are both scheduled to return to Botetourt County again in 2023.
Larrowe earned his Master’s Degree in Adult Education from Radford University and his Bachelor’s Degree in Agricultural Education and Economics from Virginia Tech. He has also completed 21 semester hours towards his PhD at Virginia Tech with emphasis on Community and Economic Development in Career and Technical Education. He worked in Carroll County as a Virginia Cooperative Extension agent before becoming that community’s county administrator in 2005. He was there for 10 years before coming to Botetourt.
— Anita Firebaugh, Special to The Botetourt Bee