Tim Walker
AMR Reporter
At the April 16 Pocahontas County Commission meeting, the commissioners voted to purchase a half-acre tract of land on Beard Heights, at a cost of $30,000.
Commission President Walt Helmick proposed this purchase because the land contains one of the two wells used by Pocahontas Memorial Hospital and others as their water supply. Helmick explained that they have been leasing that well from Sherri Bennett, and the purchase will ensure the water supply for the future. He said that, if needed, another well could be drilled there. The commission already owns a 7 1/2 acre adjoining lot which contains the second well. Each of these wells delivers about 25 gallons of water per minute. Helmick added that another well they were using in the area collapsed about 10 years ago.
The Commissioners also laid their tax Levy for the 2024-2025 Fiscal Year, which begins on July 1, 2024. The levy rates per $100 are:
• Class I: 11.850 (Currently exempt taxation)
• Class II: 23.700
• Class III: 47.400
• Class IV: 47.400
West Virginia House of Delegate member Hollis Lewis (D) addressed the commission, telling them that, in his day job, he runs First Choice Services, an organization that runs crisis hotlines such as 988 and the Quit Tobacco Hotline. He said they are now offering a new service, the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT). He explained that CIT works with mental health facilities to train law enforcement as well as other first responders in how to deal with mentally unstable persons in crisis whom they encounter on their jobs. He said they have a training session for first responders coming up soon at Snowshoe.
In other matters:
• At the request of Commissioner John Rebinski, the commission agreed to send a letter to David J Cain, who lives near the county-owned former FEMA lots in East Cass, asking him to stop mowing or doing any other maintenance on the county owned lots. Rebinski said that since one of the lots is next to the Greenbrier River, they had decided to let that lot grow out naturally, but Cain keeps mowing it even after being asked not to.
• For some reason, the County EMS Board was never officially voted into existence many years ago, as is required by the state. The commission voted to correct that mistake and make the EMS Board an official county entity. They also included in that vote that the commission retroactively approves all prior decisions made by that board. Rebinski explained that the EMS Board regulates the six EMS departments in the county, helps them promote training, coordinates their issues or concerns with the state, and assists them in acquiring equipment.
• The commission appointed Kenneth Woods and Andrew McNabb to the County Building Commission.
