January 11, 2022/Shari Johnson
The Calhoun County Commissioners first meeting of the New Year was held January 10th, 2022 with the first order of business being the election of the new Calhoun County Commission president. Leading the meeting in absence of Commissioner Michael Hicks, who attended by phone, was Commissioner Kevin Helmick who nominated Michael Hicks for the position. Commissioner Hicks was voted in as President by Commisioners Helmick and Matt Walker who was also in attendance.
The first delegation request was that of Melissa O’Brian of Thompson and Litton and Mark Whitley from the Roane Economic Development Authority. A letter of support was needed from the Calhoun County Commission to complete an application to extend Broad Band Service in the Calhoun County area as well as six additional counties involved in the project.
The main Roane EDA multi county broadband project will provide almost 40 miles of fiber through Calhoun County. This regional project covers 287.4 miles over seven counties and is being applied for by the Roane EDA. The Calhoun County Commission committed an additional $500,000 dollars toward an expansion application which covers a 25% match requirement for the WV GigReady program and provided the letter of support needed. That amount will allow Roane EDA to complete the request for a two million dollar project. The application is due January 31, which if awarded, they’ll have two years to build out the project and have the service available to customers. CityNet will be the internet service provider for this project.
The discussion of the “County Plan” was next on the agenda, brought to the attention of Ridgeview News last week by Crystal Mersh of The 1982 Foundation. Ms. Mersh spoke to the Commissioners about her recent work with West Virginia Chamber of Commerce to actively pursue Calhoun residents who have left the area, to return and build economic opportunities back at home. She proposed that the Calhoun County Commission partner with them.
Both Commissioner Helmick and Walker mentioned their concerns for the economy and issues that are stifling community growth (housing availability, river access and flood zone challenge) but stated that their next step would be to further their work with the Calhoun County Park and the Town of Grantsville to continue working on the Dark Skies Park.
Commissioner Helmick informed Ms. Mersh that he would advise her of the next meeting of the eleven member board for the “County Plan,” where she would be welcome to attend. No commitment was made by the Commissioners to join with the 1982 Foundation and the WV Chamber of Commerce to work with their project.
Julie Sears, OES Director reported on the financial status of the Office of Emergency Service and Calhoun County EMS which will appear in a separate article.
The Calhoun County EMS and Minnie Hamilton Health Systems (MHHS) have entered into a mutual aid agreement where MHHS will make their ambulance available for critical nature calls when Calhoun EMS is unavailable. Ms. Sears stated that it’s “Not a competition between the two ambulance services, but they are a joint venture working for the best for Calhoun County.”
The Commission approved the purchase of a new truck for the Calhoun County Committee on Aging that will be used for the delivery of meals and other CCOA business. The $69,945 vehicle was made possible by a grant through ARC.
There was no appearance made by the Calhoun Wood Festival Committee, CRI, Calhoun County Park, FRN or Sheriff’s department for reporting.
Shelia Burch appeared on behalf of the Little Kanawha Area Development Corporation. She has been working with Crystal Mersh, WV DNR and area residents, opening dialogue to pursue opportunities to gain river access to the Little Kanawha River. They believe that the County is missing out on many of the tourism dollars that could come into our area with new focus on cleaning, making new access points and promoting the areas along the Little Kanawha River.
Ms. Burch has also been working with the Town of Grantsville and Mayor Bob Petrovsky on the potential of the Grantsville City Park which sits along side the Little Kanawha River. They are hoping to find funding that will create additional interest in the under utilized park.
The Commission approved the purchase of a new AWD vehicle for the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Department in the amount of $35,316 of which 55% of the cost was made possible by a grant through the USDA.
Two appointments were made for the two year terms of Ballot Commissioners: Melissa Hixon representing the Democrat Party and Angelia Clark, representing the Republican Party.
Additional reporting will be done once the minutes are made available for review.
Following the meeting there were multiple social media complaints regarding the unavailability of the Zoom Meeting access that had been posted with the agenda.
The next meeting of the Calhoun County Commission will be on Monday, February 14, 2022.
My comments are directed at the EMS services in our community. I experienced it the hard way, when my sister Gisela Gibson need medical help, she had to die before a ambulance finally came from Glenville, but she was already died before they could help her. This all was happening just minutes away from M. Hamilton which u could see from her house and also the fire department, My sister had to die because of not having proper ambulance service in Grantsville. Believe me this is not over yet. Someone has to pay for her death. They killed her. She would of been still alive if she had made it with EMS services.
All of this is exciting news!! However, their map is grossly misleading!!! There is absolutely ZERO internet available from Frontier on the Calhoun County Park side of Sycamore Road. All of us have to rely on satellite internet which is not only extremely costly, it also doesn’t work most of the time. I would gladly pay for Frontier to only work half the time, then continue to pay my $180 monthly satellite internet bill (just internet!) which limits data and still doesn’t work. So very frustrating. With all of that said, I do hope that this actually happens and at least some can have reliable service, hopefully at a reasonable price.