The Calhoun County Commission met for their December regular meeting and the final meeting of President Michael Hicks who opted not to run again this term and will be replaced by newly elected Republican Craig Arthur. Michael Hick is a Democrat which now changes the dynamics of the County Commission to two Republicans (Craig Arthur and Matt Walker) and one Democrat, Kevin Helmick.
Commissioners Helmick and Walker awarded a plaque to Commissioner Hicks for his six years of service to the Calhoun County Commission.
Following the approval of November meeting minutes, delegations were allowed to speak. Robin Hughes, newly hired manager of Calhoun Homes, informed the Commissioners that she had been hired and was in the process of trying to get Calhoun Homes, a non-profit housing complex, back into a profitable status. The current state of the housing had been let go for some time by previous manager Michelle Smith, which included 3 apartments that were not rentable in their condition. Robin stated that she had three tenants waiting to move into the hud approved units but was not fiscally able to do the necessary repairs to make them livable.
Commissioner Helmick told Robin that he had “dove into this a long time ago discovering Calhoun Homes was out of compliance by the Secretary of State.” Commissioner Hicks responded by saying that all for Calhoun Homes reports have been filed for 2017-18, and they are back in compliance.
Commissioner Walker ask Robin where the money was going that she was requesting to which Robin informed him that the money would go “straight to the apartments.” She further elaborated that she had gotten quotes for the materials from Hardman’s in Grantsville.
Commissioner Helmick asked her if “all” HUD money went to her, referring to Calhoun Homes. Robin responded that it did.
When Commissioner Walker asked Robin if the apartments were owned by the Board, Shelia Burch, Director of the LKADC told the commission that Calhoun Homes was a certified non profit, owned by the Board.
Commissioner Helmick was concerned that others would follow in asking the County Commission for financial assistance if they approved Calhoun Homes request. But, Commissioner Hicks interjected that he didn’t believe it would be an issue because their non-profit status was the reason they could consider the contribution of aid. When Hicks then as for a vote, County Clerk Jean Simers said they could not vote because the issue was under delegations. A matter refuted by Commissioner Hicks to which Commissioner Walker made a motion to award Calhoun Homes, $10,259.00 for the repairs of 3 housing units which was given a second by Commissioner Helmick and all voted for.
Second to speak in delegations was Pauline Ferrell who requested that the Commission explain the hiring procedures for Courthouse staff. Commissioner Helmick replied that a position hired by the Commission was usually advertised to which Pauline ask if that made them an equal opportunity employer? Jean Simers stated that anyone could apply for a position at the courthouse.
Julie Sears, Director of E911 reported that 911 dispatched a total of 311 calls for the month of November. She also informed the Commission that she had started a new, completely free, program called Rapid SOS which had came from new CAD program. It was a more concise locator when cell phones, OnStar or Sirius FM call came in reporting accidents.
Jasons Wilson, Director of Calhoun EMS reported that the ambulances had responded to 90 Calls, 69 of which were 911 calls, 37 were transports, 8 call canceled in route, 3 DOA’s, 12 canceled runs, and 5 refused treatment. He informed the Commission that the State of West Virginia is considering a level of reimbursement for cancelled calls to offset the expenses incurred when there is no billing options. He reported that the average time on 911 calls was just over an hour and half per call and that the ambulances had accumulated 7165 total mileage.
Wilson told the Commission that they had received a grant for an EMT class that will be held at Calhoun Middle High School in February which already has 17 of the 24 openings filled. Those who attend will receive free, books, tuition, background checks, etc. which he hopes will provide new hires for Calhoun.
Wilson spoke with regards to an ambulance that the Commission had previously paid 1/2 of the cost for, saying that it would be licensed and in service within the next month and be on display at the January County Commission meeting.
A final determination was made by the West Virginia Office of Emergency Services to allow Calhoun EMS to be licensed once again following an inspection, however the best model for financial operation of the EMS had not been determined. Wilson reported that the investigation into the allegations against Calhoun EMS is now closed but he made no report on the results. Ridgeview News has reached out to the WVOES for the full report.
Paul Hagemann from the Calhoun EMS Advisory Board added “there has been progression, we now have clearance to go back in business but we are strategically looking at this.” He further added that with levy funding at approximately $400,000 plus, possibly $300,000 in additional billing the outlook of operation was good. They currently have 17 on staff, 4 of which are from Roane County. Hagemann added that two older ambulances had been sold for $18,000 which had been put into the Calhoun EMS account. He also elaborated on the reasoning for them having 17 on staff was because Calhoun EMS was paying competitive wages and Roane County had been having issues of their own. However, Roane General Hospital is now hiring and the competition for hires will once again be an issue.
Director Wilson spoke again to inform the commission as a matter of transparency, there had been two times during the month of November that there was no ambulance available for runs. The calls were covered by mutual aid of neighboring counties which Calhoun has done multiple times in return when other counties needed covered. Wilson noted that it was not fiscally possible to add an ambulance when an abundance of calls come in at one time. Another complaint that had been spoken of in the county was an issue with a transfer to another hospital taking 3 days. This was due to the fact that the hospital the patient was going to would not accept the transfer. There was no issue with the ambulance service. Wilson said “100% of Minnie’s runs are reviewed by quality assurance staff in Charleston. If they have an issue with a run they call Minnie Hamilton. Very, very few times have we got something back with a care issue. I won’t say there has not been things done wrong. But they’ve all been minor,:Wilson said.
In closing Wilson ask the citizens and Commission to contact the Legislature and ask them to fund the WV EMS Training Fund which would make $30 million dollars available in grant funds for training and equipment of Emergency Services.
Commissioner Matt Walker spoke on behalf of the Calhoun Family Resource Network reporting that the Mobile pantry ill bet the pool site on January 20th, 2023, and that 163 people benefited from angel tree project for Christmas.
Shelia Burch reported for the Little Kanawha Area Development Corp. on a recent Business Summit held at the Little Kanawha Bus Service Conference Room where 12 small business participated listening to speakers from WVU, Glenville State College and Calhoun Banks. Shelia pointed out that fraud in Calhoun is a concern. Counterfeit funds are received at Calhoun Banks daily. Small businesses are impacted every day.
Matt Walker ask Shelia about the new Chamber of Commerce that was beginning in Calhoun to which she informed him that they (the Chamber) had just got their FEIN number and will work to get their 501c6 designation.
Shelia Burch also spoke with regards to the Mt. Zion and Pleasant Hill PSD requests for funding of new meters in the amount of $174,000 for Mt. Zion, and $355,691.92 for Pleasant Hill. Commissioner Helmick made a motion to approve those costs which was seconded by Matt Walker, with all in favor. Mt. Zion, Pleasant Hill and the Commissioners will meet on January 3, 2023 at 4 p.m. in the Little Courtroom to discuss the ongoing consolidation of the water companies.
Anita West, member of the Upper West Fork Park Board updated the County Commission on the status of a flood wall the park was considering and working with the WV Natural Resource Conservation District. Attending with her were District members Mike Nichols, Dan Elliott, and Dale Cunningham. Dan Elliott informed the Commissioner that they had revised the plan. Originally the plan was to build a wall to stop park flooding by building the wall, the new plan is to expand the channel. The original channel had built up with silt which will be cleaned to give the water a straight flow, they’ll also do riprap the channel. The new quote is for $89,125.00 which is a a great savings to the park and the county according to Mr. Elliott.
Matt Walker asked if this process is going to fix the problem for a while or have to have continued maintenance.
Mike Nichols answered saying that they’ll have to continue taking silt out which would be done for the actual cost of man and machine hours. The park has applied for a 75/25 grant through Land and Stream and the Commission will follow up on it once any funding has been awarded to see what else needs done. Nichols also wanted the Commission to consider the liability risks for the County with regards to flooding and the location of the Fire Department placing volunteers in harms way.
The Upper West Fork Park has also worked to provide toys and fruit baskets for area families as well as 7 angels from the Angel tree. On Saturday, December 17 they’ll give away 350 gifts made possible by the Greenbrier program at 1:00 p.m. at the park. They’ll give out fruit baskets to Senior Citizens on Thursday. Matt Walker made a motion for the Calhoun County Commission to donate $2,500 toward their effort, Helmick made the second and all were in favor.
Kevin Helmick requested that the Calhoun County Commission send a letter to Verizon requesting the installation of a cell tower on the property of Mickey Moore in the Chloe area. They had previously made a lease agreement with them but without follow through. He suggested that a letter regarding the high demand in the area for service be addressed as well as that in the Broomstick area which has also been surveyed. Helmick made the motion to send letter to Verizon, seconded by Matt Walker, motion passed.
According to Commissioner Helmick several people from the Fire Departments were wanting audits done, although the specific departments were not mentioned. Helmick said that anyone who receives levy money should be subject to an audit and recommended that all three fire departments receive audits this coming year of 2023. Shelia Burch asked who was going to pay for those audits because they are very expensive, to which Helmick said “that will be an issue discussed later.” Jason Wilson responded by saying that his organization also received levy money and should be included, but said if the county is requesting it, they should have to pay for it. Helmick again said it would be discussed later. Hagemann spoke up and said it should include all levy recipients. A matter Helmick had obviously not considered. It was also mentioned that the library was a levy money recipient. Helmick made the motion, it was seconded by Matt Walker, with all in favor of a mandated audit of levy money recipients.
A motion by Matt Walker was made to receive and accept an audit of the Calhoun Magistrate Court.
A final decision was made on the drug dog trained and used by former Deputy C.J. Myers. With his current employment for the City of Spencer, there is now a mutual aid agreement for both Calhoun and Roane to have access to the dog when needed. A Motion by Matt Walker to accept the agreement was made, seconded by Helmick, motion passed.
At this point in the meeting, without explanation, Commissioner outgoing Commissioner Hicks excused himself for the remainder of the meeting.
Commissioners Helmick and Walker spoke with Sheriff Warren Basnett about the status of his vehicle purchase. Jenkins Ford said the new vehicles will be available between December 2022 and January 2023. Commissioner Walker stated that he would follow up with Jenkins’ to see what came with the vehicle with regard to equipment. Sheriff Basnett had told the Commission that the vehicles came bare of any police equipment but they wanted to make sure they weren’t duplicating purchases. The Sheriff had requested that additional funding for lights, cage, push bars, dividers, console and sirens in the amount of $14,763.04 and radios in the amount of $13,000 being priced by Joe Tanner. Another radio quote had not yet been received from a Morgantown supplier. The Commission continued to table that decision with Helmick saying “It’s hard to approve money for vehicles that we haven’t received.” He also told him that he could use money from his budget for those purchases if he wanted to go ahead and make the purchases.
Basnett later told Ridgeview News that he only has $17,000 remaining in his budget that could be used for purchasing car and radio equipment, not the almost $28,000 requested.
Circuit Clerk Sheila Garretson requested the hiring Samantha Hicks as a deputy for her office which Helmick made the motion for, Walker made the second and both commissioners were in favor.
Michelle Nichols gave Sheriff Warren Basnett a letter of resignation to be effective December 23, 2022 and Sheriff Basnett made a request for the approval of hiring Melissa Falls as a replacement. Both were approved by the Commission.
Pauline Ferrell once again questioned their hiring procedures which Commissioner Walker responded to by telling her that elected officials can hire who they desire and the Sheriff wanted Melissa Falls hired because it would be an easy transition, as Falls was a former employee. Pauline asked if they had a hiring procedure in writing to which Helmick responded that they had an employee handbook but the State Code overrules it so it wasn’t worth the paper it was written on. Walker added that the County Commission only has control over the budgets, not hires. A copy of the handbook was requested by both Ferrell and Crystal Mersh, although Assessor Jason Nettles has his own hand book for his staff and office.
Julie Sears, requested the Commission approve Holiday pay for E911 dispatchers working the holidays of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day which the Commission voted on and approved.
As the Commission began to address financial matters, Crystal Mersh brought up a 2 million dollar difference from the October and November reports stating that she was having trouble seeing where that money went. She also addressed the fact that the monthly records didn’t reconcile and there were errors still on the report that were not explained. Only noted as errors by asterisks.
County Clerk Jean Simers said the $2 million dollar discrepancy was from the tax clearing account.
Retired Judge Larry Whited spoke saying “I’ve been critical in the past and still do not understand why the reports show errors and they are without explanation. There should be a notation of what the errors are and future readers of those documents will not understand.”
Matt Walker said that he had planned to ask why, and had a note placed on his copy of the report.
Crystal continued saying that the totals don’t reconcile across the bottom of the report.
When entering the figures into excel, the first column under “beginning balance” shows a diifferent total than on the county’s report.
Following the attention brought to the report, Commissioner Matt Walker determined that it should be tabled and unsigned until the matter was corrected saying that the Sheriff is the treasurer and should have to answer as to why this is happening.
An issue that has not been addressed by the County Commission is “why these reports have been signed for months with errors and entered into the official records,” as Judge Whited pointed out.
The next Calhoun County Commission Meeting will be January 9th, 2023 at 9 a.m.
