Open letter to Marlinton Town Council
Dear fellow council members;
My vocal objections and explanation fell short last [Monday] night, I’m sure.
Sam, I heard you when you said you’d been working on this for years.
I appreciate that, but for many of us on Town Council now, this is our first introduction to the issue and educating us to the actual and implied objectives may foster much more support.
1. Can these two ordinances not be combined? I have read both ordinances but think at this time it is premature for us to take any action or have any discussion on the particulars in light of several things, which I have identified below. An appointed committee could review this entire process and ordinance and come back to Town Council with their well-researched recommendations. If we’re not careful, we’ll end up with a situation much like the Rental Compliance ordinances where the ordinance was passed and it has taken three years to develop an implementation process.
2. First and foremost, the public needs to be at the table on this issue – at committee, discussions, work groups, and certainly at Town Council meetings.
3. Components that need to be addressed before new ordinances are implemented should include: identifying what the long term goal is and then developing a strategy to meet that goal which could include community education, implementation by trained and knowledgeable staff, identifying tools for implementation, enforcement – who will carry out the actual work to obtain compliance or move cases through legal system.
4. Would individual time frames be set for each building or would it be when the property is found or when a citizen concern is received? Lots of questions to be asked/answered on the actual ordinance.
5. When do we reassess the program and make modification?
6. How does WVU Law Clinic and our recent MOU fit into this overall plan?
7. How does this action fit into the Comprehensive Plan? What does the plan say about this subject?
8. Do we have an inventory of such identified buildings in Town? Do we even know the actual number of properties (and owners) this would affect or is this based on random drive-bys?
Each of us has an obligation, and indeed a duty, to question and examine how any action on our part may affect our citizens. Only after that, can we make informed decisions that we can defend and support down the road.
Kind regards,
Gail Hyer
Marlinton Town
Councilmember
Dear Editor;
When we breathe, we create a vapor trail of microscopic water droplets. If we talk, the vapor trail goes out in front further. When we cough, a lot further.
If we are infected with coronavirus, the vapor trail droplets will be loaded with coronavirus.
Many who are infected never feel sick, and yet their breath is loaded with coronavirus.
The most common way people get COVID 19 is by breathing this vapor trail left by another.
If we wear a mask, the vapor trail collects on the mask material rather than going into the air around us.
This is how a mask protects us. It is for the protection of others, not ourselves.
Not wearing a mask means not respecting the rights of others to stay coronavirus free. Really.
Everybody get on board the mask train!
Frank Gifford
Hillsboro
