DALEVILLE -- The Botetourt County Board of Supervisors has hired a Salem-based law firm to represent the county on a part-time basis for the next two years.

Starting June 1, Elizabeth Dillon, a lawyer with the firm Guynn, Memmer & Dillon, will represent the county in legal matters regarding land-use regulations, taxation and other routine matters that local governments face.

Dillon will work 20 hours a week for the county under an agreement approved Tuesday by the supervisors at their monthly board meeting at the Greenfield Education and Training Center.

The supervisors agreed to pay nearly $99,000 a year for Dillon's services through June 1, 2010. Other lawyers from Dillon's firm also may serve the county as needed from time to time.

The annual fee is close to double the $56,000 the county was paying William Heartwell. He had served the county for 28 years before stepping down in March to focus more on his private practice in Fincastle.

Dillon is a former assistant city attorney for Roanoke whose firm represents a number of small local governments in the Roanoke and New River valleys, including Vinton, Buchanan, Christiansburg, Radford, Covington and Alleghany County. It was among five lawyers or law firms who had bid to replace Heartwell.

In other news during Tuesday's meeting, Botetourt County Administrator Jerry Burgess outlined some changes to be made at the Greenfield facility to improve the function of board meetings. A new sound system with wireless microphones will be installed, and the row of tables that supervisors sit at during meetings will soon be placed on a raised surface for better visibility, Burgess said.

The changes are part of making the meeting area at the educational facility off U.S. 220 the permanent meeting place for the supervisors and the Botetourt County Planning Commission.

Both boards had met for years in the old courthouse in Fincastle. That facility is undergoing a $490,000 renovation.

When it reopens next month, it will house offices for county administration staff and the county's planning department.