Tim Walker
Allegheny Mountain Radio
At the November 15 Pocahontas County Commission meeting, Commissioner Jesse Groseclose announced that the West Virginia Public Service Commission (PSC) and representatives from Frontier Communications will hold a public meeting with citizens of the county who have been experiencing problems with Frontier’s landline telephone service. The meeting will be held at the Marlinton Town Hall at noon Tuesday, December 13.
The PSC has held similar public meetings in other counties. When citizens brought their service complaints to Frontier at those meetings, the PSC tracked Frontier’s remedial actions and ensured that Frontier fixed those problems. Groseclose said that the PSC advised that only landline telephone problems can be handled at the meeting since the PSC has no jurisdiction over complaints about Frontier’s Internet service.
Groseclose said that people who are unable to attend the December 13 meeting in person, may join in through Zoom Meeting. In addition, a mailing address and an email address will be post-ed for people to send in their service complaints.
In other business, the commission identified the projects where they plan to spend the county’s approximately $1.6 million of American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds.
• $1million will go toward building a new courthouse annex.
• $276,135.18 will help meet local matches for Broadband grants, if needed.
• $35,000 to the Family Refuge Center.
• $1,500 to the Child and Youth Advocacy’s Emergency Family Fund
• $200,000 toward the Thornwood Water Project.
• $17,500 to the PMH Water Feasibility Study.
• $17,500 to the PMH Sewer Feasibility Study.
• $25,000 to the Tannery Lift Station
The commission also estimated how they intend to spend the $2,485,767.80 the county will receive from the U.S. Treasury as part of the Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund (LATCF) payments. These funds were also provided under a provision of the American Rescue Plan Act.
The county has already received the first half of the LATCF money, with the remaining to be received in 2023.
The commission plans to utilize those funds as follows:
• $500,000 toward the courthouse annex building.
• $7 million toward building a new 911/EMS building near the hospital
• $40,000 toward establishing a drug dog unit in the Sheriff’s Department, provided the Sheriff wants to do that.
• An additional amount for Broadband.
Since there are no limitations on how a county spends LATCF funds, the commission intends to keep the remaining $45,767.80 as a reserve in the county’s general fund.
The commission also:
• asked SecuriTech to provide estimates on a service contract for the county’s telephone system and estimates for upgrading their current telephone system.
• asked Commissioner John Rebinski to obtain estimates of the cost to prepare the site for the new 911/EMS building – which is the cost to level the ground and clear any trees that need to be removed.