The Meeting:
The Grantsville Town Council met Monday, October 7th, 2024 at the City Office for their regularly scheduled meeting.
First to address the Council under Citizens Complaints was Robin Mersh of The 1982 Foundation regarding water service on the Avalon Campus. Mr. Mersh, Dennis Spaur and the Mayor have been in conversation regarding the cost responsibility of the taps, line and other issues around the Children’s center side of the Foundation’s building.
Mersh opened by thanking the Mayor for following through on the flow meter installation which was great help to the project. He then stated that, after research, he had came up with a compromise on the tap and line installation with a shorter stretch of area that would reduce the cost of this part of the project as well as address the issue of having the line in the proximity of the building to give the necessary safety issue regarding fire protection. His agreement was for the purpose of keeping the project moving and not holding up the construction which could prove quite costly for The 1982 Foundation. Mr. Mersh cited code as to his understanding of whose responsibility it was to pay for what, to which the Mayor took offense to and began citing his own sources of code. Again Mr. Mersh tried to help the Mayor understand that The 1982 Foundation “didn’t mind paying for things, but in the spirit of cooperation, and to aid in the costs for the project, he requested that the City taken into consideration the location when determining direction.
Councilwoman Cheryl Sturm asked if the retaining wall would be compromised by the digging of line to which both sides stated that it would not.
Robin again stated that he understood the Town’s issue with money, and that The 1982 Foundation wanted to cooperate, but they needed to establish an agreement as to what was needed, expressing that time was a concern and the matter was about fire suppression and cost. It was determined that The 1982 Foundation and city staff will meet to discuss the project on Tuesday, October 8th, 2024 at 1:00 p.m.
Business owner Alice Holmes asked if the rate increase was going to be addressed saying that
“Just in case people don’t understand what the position of a business owner is in the town, and the reason we cannot be a board member and vote on things like that is so I can’t come in and buy up every business on the street and then come in here and run over the town. That’s the whole purpose of saying it’s not for the business, but for the citizens to vote and make the decisions. But as far as having opinions, I pay almost $3,000 a year in property taxes in the town and I do have a right to have a voice be heard. And my concern is we have all this rhetoric, and stirring the pot and negativity about it but I don’t hear anyone coming up with any resolutions other than the town coming up with the water increase. There’s a lot of pot stirring, a lot of name calling and the only other thing that’s happening is an answer of what to do is remove the Mayor. So my question to Mr. Mersh and the people opposing is the other answers, other than fighting and getting petitions against raising the water rate. But I don’t see see anyone coming up with solutions or making constructive answers to these things. To which if anyone has had business courses that’s the route you take, you don’t tear everybody apart. You come up with a solution for it.
Since Mr. Mersh’s name was mentioned he requested a time to respond to Mrs. Holmes statements.
Mersh said “I did actually say there was a few things that could be done. I don’t dispute that there aren’t issues within the city. There actually are issues. The financial situation might well be difficult, and I’m not not disputing that. But what I said the last time is, one, be open and very clear about financials. Two is to communicate what the bigger plan was. In terms of maintenance, all kinds of leakage issues, have a plan as to what to do about it. And then maybe what would happen as a third sort of step would be that the increase might be the right thing to do. But the problem is because those other two things weren’t in place it just wasn’t clear. The other solution is it might have been a 60% emergency increase, that might have been the conclusion, but the other conclusion might have been instead of doing one hit, you take it in two hits, or three hits, another way of doing things. There are other solutions.”
The Mayor then spoke under Mayors Communications saying that “He loved the word transparency. I want to say that you (speaking to Mr. Mersh) had a Go Fund me for $100,000 for operational costs and there was nothing listed there as to what that cost was, who you were going to pay, what that money was going to be for, but give us a $100,000 for operational costs. But I’ve been doing this for three years, we’ve been fighting this battle, and when you say you want to see the project costs, A. For a big project cost it takes engineers, but that’s not even the towns problem. Our problem is operational costs. So the last water increase that we had, and when Bennet and Dobbins submitted for the rate increase, they informed me that we need a 78.5% of an increase. And I said I want to do the 60 that we did before because I don’t want to hit everyone with that. He said that will give you a shortfall, which you’ve seen in the proforma, which for some reason you all get everything from the PSC, not even because it was posted, but in advance, because there’s a big game going on or whatever. Just like having a hearing before the 30 days was up so you guys could be notified that you needed more signatures. Neither here nor there, that $30,000 is just based off the water report and operational costs and keeping the lights on and putting away the reserves for the bonds. But yet, that’s not enough for everybody, they want to see… I can put together as many projects as you’d like to see and that 60% ain’t going to cover it. It’s going to keep the lights on, just like you all do, operational costs. So it costs to buy electric, it costs to buy pumps, we have no parts, we have no trucks, we have no leak repair items on hand, we have to go get them when we need them. Thank God the county helped us with the excavator and the trailer so we can work all these at the drop of a hat rather than waiting until we can rent an excavator. But this is not good enough for you. And so at the end of the day, I’m going to say, I’m going to pursue the PSC’s assistance, and really, there’s a good chance the PSC will come back say, no, you need a 70% increase, and at which case, everybody who decided to use this for political fanfare, because really that’s what this has been, that and to keep costs down in certain areas, because we have already implemented the rate increase and have had not one customer call in to say their bill was outrageous. But all this other hoopla to stop everything and we are at 1990 rates when the whole surrounding area is way above us. We can’t repair our own things. So I’m going to let the PSC, I’m not going to jump through any more hoops about it. I’m not going to put together anything else, I submitted all the financials that were required to do the rate increase. And I’m not going to keep on jumping through hoops, ‘cause now by law I can let the PSC do all the examining. And then if they come back and say you need 78, we’ll get 78. And I’ll be fine with that. If they say I need 40, I’ll take it. It’s not going to be enough. I’m still at a shortfall of $30,000 a year at 60%. But see, the political fodder, that’s all this has been. Yeah, it has been. And I’m not going to turn it into an argument I’m just going to move onto committee reports. Because I just go through the process. That’s what we’ll do. The rest of it is just to bog the town down, bog the town down, bog the town down. You know the comments about lawyers getting spanked. No they didn’t, it’s so nefarious to me that we would even be forced to contest the petition before the 30 days was up.”
The Mayor then said the the WVPSC said that The 1982 Foundation called them every day. To which Robin Mersh responded that they did not. The Mayor again stated that the PSC said that Robin, and Eric Lupardus, had called them every day.
Eric Lupardus then informed the Mayor that “Before you go on with your political stuff, I spoke to them one time. They called me three times. There’s your answer.”
Councilwoman Rissa Staples asked Mr. Lupardus why the WVPSC would call him. To which Mr. Lupardus answered, “because his name was listed on it (the complaint) but now it’s not listed on it. And just to be clear things up, the only reason I was involved was because there are elderly people who were not able to send the petition in and they asked me if I could do that. So I done that for them.”
The Mayors response was “That’s neither here nor there, we’ll just follow through with the PSC’s guidelines and I’ll do what I’m required to do but I’m going to put a little more ‘owness’ on the PSC.” He then commented that when this was just citizens they didn’t have this problem and that it was disgusting what is happening in this community and it’s sad, and that he “can’t wait until November 6th, when the election is over, and without saying any names he is of the opinion that this town could be lost on November 6th. This county could be lost.”
Under committee reports, Councilwoman Cheryl Strums said that “They try to raise money all the time. They raise money for the park but at times other parts of the city has to borrow money from the park to pay the electric bill or whatever.” She stated that the people in the town are very generous and the recent auction brought proceeds in the amount of $3,521.23.
Madison Harris of the Mid Ohio Valley Regional Council presented one last document to finalize the Rainbow Hotel demolition project.
This was followed by the paying of bills and the presentation of finances to the council. At which time Ridgeview News left.
The Commentary:
As publisher, I reported the vast majority of that meeting verbatim because I want the readers to understand how things transpired and Judge for themselves the context of the statements. If you’d like to hear the attitudes of the parties, feel free to listen to the entire meeting on Ridgeview’s Facebook page, as the live video is there.
I want to provide you my opinion, for which I pay to do by the costs of this publication.
If you listen to video, you’ll note that The 1982 Foundation not once, were anything but kind and polite. The only agenda they were following was taking care of their very successful business. The Mayors commentary throughout the meeting suggesting that anyone opposing him had a political agenda was a narrative derived from the fact that Town residents and business owners dared question the management of the Town of Grantsville as if it were unwarranted. It was not only warranted, they have time and time again refused to provide transparency regarding meeting coverage and community awareness that a meeting was even going to occur. Their finances have not been presented to the public for acknowledgement that the town was in such dire shape, but rather the Mayor has spent his time throwing every other previous Mayor under the bus for it being their fault, never taking any accountability upon himself. It’s a broken record, skipping in place. And speaking of a broken record, here’s mine: And yet, under his management he lost two highly qualified and skilled water plant operators due to his failure to pay them the wages they deserved and requiring a 7 day work week and then complaining about their overtime, until they were paid none, thus one retiring and the other leaving the position to return to EMS.
But (as I understand it) they now pay their new operator a higher wage and require less responsibility than was required of the former two. Putting more responsibility on lesser paid employees. Yes, thats me being snarky. But you know the Mayor said that the Ridgeview was nothing more than a blog, so there’s blog material. As for the expenditures, the WVPSC investigators should probably examine the expenditures of the Town of Grantsville.
As for Mr. Lupardus. I’ve known Eric Lupardus for years. He has not changed. Before his running for office he was involved in local politics by attending meetings and making himself aware of what his government leaders were doing. When he discovered the level of ineptness in our government he stepped into the race to make a difference. While the Mayor would like you to believe Eric has no vested interest in Grantsville, he has neglected to mention that the Lupardus family owns businesses, one of which is in Grantsville.
As for Business ownership limiting the ability of involvement with City Government, that is ludicrous. Who better has a reason to be involved in City Government than a business who employs our residents and their very survival depends on how local government handles business. When a $10 Million dollar Grantsville investor is labeled by the Mayor and other political leaders as a ‘troublemaker’, Houston, the problem isn’t with the business, it’s with the Government.
As for the Facebook rhetoric: I will agree that things are said that should not be said. But there are things that would have never been known were it not for the fact that social media has allowed the residents of Calhoun County to see how our local governments have operated “behind the scenes.” And it’s not been good.
