Tim Walker
AMR Reporter
Julia Sears, National Flood Insurance Coordinator with West Virginia Emergency Management, appeared before the Pocahontas County Commission at its July 7 meeting and explained that, as the liaison between the local government and FEMA, she needs the commission to pass an updated Flood Plain Ordinance. The need for the updated ordinance is based on the new floodplain maps, which were presented to the commission in March 2024.
Commission President John Rebinski told her he is hesitant to do that since he, and many other people in the county disagree with some areas that were added as being in a flood plain in those maps. He said that the commission, over a year ago, had sent a letter to FEMA objecting to some areas in the former Howes Leather Tannery property being included as flood plain since they have never flooded, and parts are eight to 10 feet above surrounding flood plain areas. He was upset that the commission did not receive a response to the letter.
Commissioner Jamie Walker said he had become even more upset when they received a letter telling them the maps were now official since the county had not challenged the proposed new maps. Rebinski indicated he is now hesitant to pass an ordinance based on those maps since that will imply that the county fully accepts their accuracy.
Sears responded that they have ways to fix any inaccurate areas on the maps by visiting them but the commission must first pass the suggested revised flood plain ordinance. She added that today is the deadline for the county to at least begin the process of adopting the ordinance provided to them by West Virginia Emergency Management and FEMA, and failure to at least start the process now will mean all residents and businesses in the county will lose their flood insurance, and also their disaster relief funds from flood damages. Sears also said the new maps are incredibly accurate since they use LIDAR to map the county, and that is accurate to within one inch.
Rebinski, with the other commissioners concurring, indicated that they had no choice but to pass the ordinance and trust her word that they would reexamine the areas at the tannery in Frank. Walker added that the county has spent many millions of dollars preparing to turn that tannery property onto an industrial park, but all that was wasted because most of it has now been deemed to be in a flood plain.
The commission did a first title reading of the proposed “Pocahontas County Flood Plain Ordinance,” which will buy them time to do the second reading and adopt the ordinance before the new deadline of September.
Marlinton Mayor Sam Felton told Sears that if they had been allowed to dredge the Greenbrier River near Burns Motor Freight and remove eight to 10 feet of sediment as well as sediment at the mouth of Knapps Creek where it meets the Greenbrier River, it would have prevented the damage done by nine of the last 11 floods here.
In other matters, the commission:
• Approved Payment Resolution #22 for $11,726.20 from the EPA Tannery Project.
• Approved Draw Request #28 from the Broadband Project, with the construction of that project expected to be complete by the end of this month.
• Approved increasing the allocation of the $500,000 they had set aside for the new PMH Wastewater Treatment Plant from $119,000 to $250,000. All $500,000 needs to be spent by December. They also paid Resolution #4 of that project in the amount of $53,000; conveyed the deed to that property to the Town of Marlinton, who will operate the plant; and approved the existing collection line easements.
• Took no action on the request of Leisha Cassell of BFD and of the EMS Authority to pay $800 per month rent to continue housing the county ambulance and crew at BFD’s station. Rebinski said Cass VFD will house them for free. This will be further discussed at the next EMS Authority meeting by Rebinski.
• Appointed Erica Clark Arnold and Sam Gibson to the Parks and Recreation Board, and reappointed Margaret Worth to the Library Board.
• Approved proceeding with administratively closing unprogressed estates.
• Approved the Coal Severance budget revision in the amount of $23,659.
• Approved applying for the Help America Vote Act for $69,252 for Electronic Pole Books at voting precincts.
