Iron Gate, VA (Dec. 18, 2025)— On the evening of Tuesday, December 18, the town of Iron Gate held their last town council meeting of 2025 with all members present except Norvella Burrell, who was also absent for November's meeting.
The meeting kicked off with a brief presentation by Ryan Lockhart, Commercial Loan Officer for Highlands Community Bank in Covington, who discussed a line of credit that had been opened in 2019 for some trucks needed by the town. During his presentation, Lockhart noted that, while the town of Iron Gate had been faithfully and effectively paying on the loan, its terms had expired and would need to be updated.
"Currently, we have a line of credit that secures this building. It was opened on 9/11 of 2019. The line amount is around $75,000. We are in default right now because it was up for renewal in July and, of course, the authorized signers had expired," Lockhart stated. "Mayor [Kawahna] Persinger has been trying to work to provide us with financials and things so we could get the line renewed. It was a 15-year deed of trust, but a yearly renewal. So, a 12-month cycle that renewed every July." While the line of credit has been paid down, a balance of over $35,000 remains, according to Lockhart.
"Our proposition is to term it out at eight percent over a 48-month term, so in four years, this debt would go away at $871.67 per month," Lockhart stated. Additionally, to make the line of credit current, two new authorized signatures would have to put on the loan, as the previous ones were no longer in office.
Later in the meeting, council discussed the legal aspects of the loan and appointed Mayor Persinger and —as Councilwoman Jennifer Tyree worded it — future Vice -Mayor Chris Mayo as the new authorized signers.
|  | Councilman —and, likely, future Vice-Mayor — Chris Mayo will be one of the authorized signatures on the reconfigured line of credit which Iron Gate has with Highlands Community Bank.
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