The Calhoun Citizens for Accountability met Thursday evening in Grantsville to continue their discussions on the many current concerns with County Government.
Is Water Expansion in our Future?
The first matter discussed was the continued effort to expand water service along every major route in Calhoun County. Luke Peters, Commissioners Craig Arthur and Matt Walker will be meeting with Delegate Roger Hanshaw in Charleston on April 6th to discuss the options that Calhoun has. Mayor Robert Petrovsky of Grantsville has also reached out to Delegate Hanshaw but has yet to hear a response. Town Recorder Judy Powell attended the last night’s meeting and stated that the joint report by the Town of Grantsville, Mt. Zion PSD and Pleasant Hill PSD had been delivered again to the Commissioners who couldn’t find the previous copies sent to them. Eric Lupardus said that Commissioner Arthur had done much of the leg work for the water project and he believed it (the project) was going to happen. Eric had heard from Senator Ben Queen that $177 Million Dollars was approved through legislation in the last week or so of session for the State of West Virginia. All of this looks promising for Calhoun’s efforts.
Cabot Station Needs Help for their Future
The Cabot Station Recycling Center is in need of financial assistance due to their annual grant funding cycle falling short of their annual expenses. There is money forthcoming in donations but they are unsure of the amount and their grant renewal is a few months away. Suggestions were made of possible other corporations that could assist them with donations. The Recycling center contributes many services for the county, including the organization of the County Clean up scheduled for April 1st with 100 volunteers slated to clean the highways of Calhoun County from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. that day.
Is there an Apology in the Future for Grantsville VFD?
The third matter of discussion was the issue between Commissioner Kevin Helmick and the Grantsville Volunteer Fire Department, when Helmick posted false information regarding funds being held by the State of West Virginia because of the audit issues. None of which was true and was confirmed when Grantsville Fire Department Officers spoke to a representative of the State Auditors Office as well as a representative from the State Fire Marshalls office.
Members of the Department were also very proud of the fact that they had purchased a Tanker that they are expecting delivery of next week. Paul Haggeman, who has helped the department with acquiring a truck previously, located and assisted the Grantsville Fire Department with making delivery arrangements after the purchase. Grantsville’s decision to purchase the Tanker Truck was due to the injector pump going out of the truck the department called “The Beast,” which was going to cost over $10,000 to repair. With the age and condition of the truck it was decided to replace it.
Eric Lupardus noted that it was an obvious attack against the Grantsville Volunteer Fire Department and requested the Grantsville members to be present at the next Commission Meeting on April 17th. He asked the members present what they wanted from the Calhoun County Commission regarding the Helmick Social Media debacle. The members said they wanted an apology, and to know the names of the three agencies that Helmick claimed gave him the false information.
Larry Whited also requested that the funds be itemized separately on the County Financial Statement as to the amount of money paid monthly to the Fire Departments and the Calhoun EMS. Another matter the group felt needed addressed was the areas of coverage for each department to be specified from the creation of the original levy, which would help the county better understand the levy allocation.
A short conversation was held on the whether or not the levy should be split from the Calhoun EMS due to the continued issues and lack of accountability required by the county for the EMS agency.
What’s the Future Look like for our Children and Grandchildren?
Attending the Citizens Group meeting was Ellie Heffernan, of the Charleston area Newspaper, The Mountain State Spotlight. She came to interview local citizens about Education and other issues of concern from a Community Watchdog perspective. She was interested in finding out how the failure of the School Levy last fall was going to effect the county. Now that COVID funding is drying up, and resources for additional funding lessens, what will that do to a community such as Calhoun that has few other resources for making the ends meet in a financially strapped organization. Michael Fitzwater, of Calhoun County Schools, who attended the meeting as well, commented that Calhoun County Schools “lives and dies off of donations.” He explained that County school funds are ear marked for specific things and cannot be spent outside of the spectrum they’re meant for. While the School recently had new scoreboards donated by Calhoun Banks and Minnie Hamilton Health System, the cost of running electric to the ballfields wasn’t included. $5,000 had to come out of the schools budget. Although people look at these things as frivolous, they are necessary to proper game coverage. Fitzwater said that when they considered the astroturf for the the football field, it wasn’t only for the football games, but it would have been a nice place for the middle school students to play on rainy days. As it stands now they play on a muddy playground.The failure of the levy means that if that should happen, the funding will need to come from donations.
Eric Lupardus brought up the increase of traffic that the County received from sporting events at the school. In his own business he could tell a difference in the number of people stopping at his store on game day.
Michael Fitzwater also explained that the auditorium was another item not in their budget to repair when lightening took out part of the sound system and lighting as well as the aging of the facility causing failures. It was questioned as to why the school’s insurance didn’t replace the system taken out by a storm, which Fitzwater stated that it wasn’t covered by the policy. A policy that he also said was through a company by the name “BRIM” insurance which the school is mandated by the state to purchase. A policy that just went up $157,000 which now comes out of the schools already tight budget.
New projects for Calhoun Middle High school is grant funding that has been applied for to replace the exterior doors and add a man trap which will be a $672,000 project and new Solar Panels that will be installed on the roof to reduce the cost of electric. That project will begin in May and be completed in 2024.
Larry Whited brought up the loss of population and school children with only 5809 county residents of which 800 are school students. When Calhoun Middle High School was built it alone had 1,100 students. Now the entire county has only 800. That decrease also decreases State funding numbers for the county system.
What Does the Future Hold for Calhoun EMS & Calhoun e911?
Calhoun EMS will lose their liability insurance in less than 60 days and will no longer be able to function as a board because of the high risk Julie Sears placed them in. More information came to light yesterday evening when Eric Lupardus received information regarding additional reasons that the EMS suspension occurred.
According to his source, Calhoun EMS could have weathered the storm of the uncertified staff and unequipped truck with the West Virginia Office of Emergency Services willingness to work with them. But the straw that broke the preverbal camels back was two fold.
#1 – Calhoun EMS did not have Workers Compensation Employment Insurance on their staff, a matter of law.
#2 – And a great matter of concern, and never mentioned in any document that the Ridgeview News received was that Calhoun EMS, under Julie Sears’ supervision, did not have the required Medical Director which must be a physician. She did evidently had a Doctor listed, but nobody told the doctor that he or she held the position.
A matter of discussion at the last Commission meeting was who exactly hired Julie Sears as EMS Director? According to Commissioner Kevin Helmick, she was the only one that applied. However, it was a matter that also came to light through Eric Lupardus’ investigation, that seven people had applied for the job that Julie Sears was hired for. But Julie Sears wasn’t one of them, or at least no application was found for her with the others. Nor was there any payroll records for Sears found.
This is why the Citizens of Calhoun County are Concerned.
There has been no answers given of any substance, no accountability demanded, and no respect for the community who only wants the very much deserved truth
Other topics of discussion that are planned for future meetings are concerns regarding the County’s Emergency Planning for Disasters and Evacuations, and the issue of elected and appointed officials not attending Calhoun County Commission Meetings or providing reports in support of their agencies.
