Tim Walker
AMR Reporter
The primary discussion at the March 5 Pocahontas County Commission meeting was about the long-term future of trash collection and disposal once the current landfill reaches capacity – estimated to be in about 2.5 years.
There were several members of the Pocahontas County Solid Waste Authority present at the meeting, including Authority’s Chair- man Ed. Riley, member David McLaughlin, and, of course, member Jamie Walker, who is also a county commissioner.
Riley began the discussion by explaining that even though the current landfill will not be filled for 2.5 years or so, that amount of time will be needed to plan for and implement an alternative to disposing of trash in the county’s own landfill.
He explained that the most logical and practical solution is to purchase the landfill, which is now leased, and to build a sophisticated transfer station on that site. Basically, a transfer station is a building an area where trash collected from all over the county can be centrally placed, and then easily loaded into over-the-road trucks and be transported to a nearby county’s landfill. The landfill property can also accommodate the current recycling of tires and white goods – such as washers, dryers and refrigerators.
Riley and Mary Clendenen explained that purchasing the landfill, weigh station building and implementing the transfer station and operating it will cost more than the Solid Waste Authority can possibly handle on its own, so outside funding will be an absolute necessity. Without significant financial help from the county commission, any attempt to implement a transfer station would likely fail, even if they drastically raised the fees to the public. Worse yet, if the fees were raised sufficiently to accomplish the change, many people may find it so unaffordable that they may start dumping trash throughout our beautiful county.
Commission President Walt Helmick agreed that that having a filthy county will not only ruin the quality of life for residents, but would also discourage people from coming here to live or visit.
Clendenen said the estimated cost of closing and capping the landfill and building the transfer station to be $3,450,000. Even with the $2,688,058 available in their escrow accounts which were created to be used to pay those expenses, the authority will still be short by $761,942 for those start-up expenses.
Clendenen said the estimated cost to operate the transfer station and the green boxes will be about $1,273,000 per year. Those costs include operating the transfer station and green boxes, transporting the trash, paying the tipping fees at another landfill, personnel costs, the annual post closure expenses for the current landfill and possible loan interest. Those annual operating expenses will exceed their annual revenues by about $478,000 per year.
Solid waste authority member David McLaughlin commented that the Authority will need to purchase the current landfill as soon as possible to get moving forward with the new program since there is no better place in the county to put a transfer station.
Jacob Meck added that the solid waste authority will need to merge the jobs performed by both employees and their equipment to cut down costs as much as possible in order to make the new system work efficiently. He called it “combining assets.”
Helmick said that the top three commission priorities are healthcare, waste disposal and economic development, so the commission should help out with these new waste management costs. He also said the commission is getting close to a decision on buying the current landfill for the solid waste management authority to use.
At the meeting, the commission also discussed what to do with the various items that have been left inside the former Howes Tannery office building in Frank. Those items include books left there by the Pocahontas County Libraries; exercise equipment rumored to have been left behind when the Sheriff’s Office closed its office there many years ago, a number of employee time clocks and various other items.
Jason Bauserman asked the commission to consider donating the time clocks to the Upper Pocahontas Coun-ty Cooperative (UPCC), however the commission said that any items in the building for which an owner could not be determined, are county property, so would need to be sold at public auction.
Commissioner John Rebinski said he checked with the Sheriff’s Department about the exercise equipment in the building and was told they have no idea who owns that equipment.
Helmick said that a public auction needs to be held, but he was unsure if that should be held at the office building or on the steps of the courthouse. Helmick volunteered to be the auctioneer at no charge to the county.
Helmick said this should be done quickly because the decision of what to do with the building needs to be made soon.
Here is some background on that: The commission has been seriously considering demolishing that building as part of a site clean-up and eventual economic development project there. At the February 6th commission meeting, Jason Bauserman and Jimmy Harmon of the UPCC asked the commission to hold off on demolishing the office building. JoAnn Gilardi presented a petition to the commissioners at that meeting which had been signed by 196 people, many of whom were former Howes Tannery employees. The petition asked the commissioners to not demolish the building because the UPCC was looking to find a viable business to operate in it, possibly as a leather tanning museum. The commission said the UPCC already had about three years to find a sustainable business for the building which would generate enough money to repair and profitably operate in the building. At that February meeting, the commission gave the UPCC until April to present a workable business plan.
At this week’s meeting, Bauserman told the commission that the UPCC has been holding meetings and hoped to present a workable business plan at the April 2 commission meeting.
The commission voted to hold an auction of the contents of the old office building, with Rebinski agreeing to do a walk-through of the office building with Bauserman to identify just what items in the building have value that could be auctioned.
The commission also approved a new Holiday Policy for dispatchers employed at the 911 Center. Under this new policy, dispatchers who are required to work on county holidays will no longer have the option of receiving time and a half pay. Instead, they will receive their normal 8 hours pay, plus an additional day and half off work. However, they must use that time off before the end of the month in which the holiday occurred, with the exception for the two holidays which occur during the month of June. (West Virginia Day and Juneteenth Day.) The policy says employees working either or both of those two June holidays will be paid time and a half but won’t have the option of taking the day and a half off in June because of scheduling difficulties during that busy vacation month.
In other matters, the commission:
• Agreed to provide a letter of support for Erica Marks’ application for a U.S. Forest Service designation of her 500-acre property as a Community Forest. This means the community can access and enjoy her property as if it were part of the Mon Forest.
• Heard a sales pitch from Adam Dixon for the county to utilize the Certified Payments app to pay their county bills on the county website.
• Approved the hiring of Leisha Cassell as a part-time Paramedic for the County Ambulance Service at $18 per hour starting immediately on an as needed basis.