Tim Walker
AMR Reporter
The Pocahontas County Commission held a discussion at the April 21 meeting with Mike Holstine, Amanda Smarr and the ARC Broadband Project’s attorney, Josh Jarrell, about the “make ready” issues the project has been experiencing with Mon Power.
Holstine said their construction contractor has been making good progress with the project, with it being about 70 percent complete, however they are facing delays completing it because despite paying Mon Power $600,000 last summer to make their utility poles ready to receive the project’s fiber, it has not done so.
Holstine explained that Mon Power was supposed to have completed the work by last October. This delay caused the project’s construction company to stop work and remove all their equipment (demobilizing,) and that caused an extra charge of $63,000 to the project as well as the delays. Attorney Jarrell said that Mon Power has assured him they will reimburse the $63,000. However, Jarrell said that they are also questioning $240,000 of the money paid to the utility for the pole work, because they believe that money was spent by Mon Power to fix existing problems with their poles that had nothing to do with the county’s broadband project. He believes Mon Power should return $300,000 to the county project – $63,000 for the change order, plus the $240,000. There are also questions as to whether the poles Mon Power said they have-made ready, have actually been made-ready.
Jarrell recommended the commission send a letter to Mon Power and demand payment, however Commissioner Jamie Walker said we have played with them too long, so we should file a formal complaint with the Public Service Commission’s Pole Attachment Task Force. The formal complaint should force Mon Power to both finish their make-ready work and reimburse the county. Citing the possibility of resolving it much quicker by simply sending the letter, Jarrell convinced the commission to approve sending the letter to Mon Power making the demands and giving them one week to comply, or additional steps will be taken.
In a related matter, the commission approved paying Draw Request #26 from the Broadband grant funds to pay two invoices, totaling $11,000 to their engineering firm, the Thompson and Litton Company.
The commission also had a lengthy and spirited discussion with Sheriff Troy McCoy about the future of the K9 program in his department. Several citizens spoke out in disagreement with McCoy’s decision to no longer use the K-9, which he says has proven ineffective in drug enforcement.
The commission purchased the K-9 in 2023 with a grant. The dog was to be used for drug enforcement and search and rescue, however, his predecessor had allowed it to be trained and used as an aggressive police K-9 as well. After his election, McCoy put a stop to that. He said this is a personnel issue between himself, the deputy and the dog, and his lawyers have told him not to discuss it any further than that at a commission meeting.
In other matters, the commission
• approved a request from 911 Director Ben Brown to hire Austin Rider as a part-time dispatcher at $14 per hour, with no benefits, effective start date April 25.
• laid the FY 2026-2027 County Levy
• approved and signed the WV Office of Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant award of $5,827.79, to be used to replace the lights in the former ARC Building to LED lights.
The commission then went into an executive session with Sheriff McCoy on a personnel issue.
