Tim Walker
AMR Reporter
At its September 3 meeting, the Pocahontas County Commission appointed Assistant County Prosecuting Attorney Joni Nichols as interim prosecutor through December. Current prosecutor Terri Helmick (R) submitted her resignation from that office, effective September 6, 2024.
Nichols changed her political affiliation from Democrat to Republican following her loss in the spring primary election to Democrat attorney Laura Kershner. The change in party affiliation qualified Nichols for the appointment since state law requires that an appointed interim be a member of the same party as the departing elected prosecutor.
Kershner is running unopposed in the November General Election.
When the commission took up the agenda item concerning awarding and/or modification of bids for the EMS /911 project, as recommended by Commissioner John Rebinski, they took no action. Rebinski explained he wanted to wait because he does not know if the county would still be committed to paying the winning contractor’s bid in the event they cannot come up with the funds for the project. The commission did pass the second part of that agenda item – which authorizes the County Building Commission to proceed with an application for a U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) loan to build the project. He explained that he is also working on other financial resources for the project including Congressional Directed Funding, commonly referred as congressional earmarks, from U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito, which could reduce the amount of any loan.
In other matters, the commission
• voted to clarify that any previous official documents referring the hospital as “Pocahontas County Memorial Hospital,” should be interpreted as “Pocahontas Memorial Hospital (PMH),” the official name. This was necessitated by questions from the USDA regarding their existing loan with PMH.
• approved the lowest bid of $11,981.25 to install a kitchen in the Day Report Center. It was explained that this was required to operate a new program there.
• approved, after a lengthy discussion, to allow Day Report to pay each of their three employees an additional $1,600 per year, which will be paid for out of the Day Report’s grant. Jodi Zickefoose, the Day Report Director, had requested this since the commission had authorized the hiring of a new employee for Day Report at a salary that included the extra $1,600 because of his experience. Zickefoose explained this was needed to keep up the morale of the other two employees.
There were questions raised about how this would affect other county employees, and it was stipulated in the approval that this can only be paid in years Day Report has the extra money to cover the cost.
• held a discussion about the possible building of a Visitors Center/Tannery Museum in Durbin where tourists could get off the train and patronize it. It was agreed that the Durbin Town Council should be included in any serious discussion and implementation.
• appointed Donald McNeel, Bridget Shaw, Helen Clark and Mike O’Brien, Ex Officio, to the 911 Advisory Board.
