Calhoun Citizens for Accountability met in the Little Courtroom on Thursday, March 2nd, 2023 lead by Businessman, Eric Lupardus with 25 people in attendance and all with questions and concerns about the community’s leadership by County officials and organizations.
The first of two concerns discussed by the group was the lack of action by the Calhoun County Commission on getting city water to local residents without it, and why the Commissioners (Hicks, Helmick and Walker) had put all of the county eggs into one basket by giving almost the entire amount of ARPA funding, 1. 2 million dollars, to further broadband when water is vital need and should have trumped the internet. A top concern with regard to 1.2 million dollar investment is the 3 million dollar return of matching funds stands at risk to be lost if the county doesn’t act quickly in relation to deadlines. Calhoun’s portion of the project, known as the middle mile won’t be completed until 2024, and Calhoun’s portion of the money has to be used by 2024. With the Commissions past history of failure to act, there is reason for concern.
Residents of the Annamoriah area have recently been attending Calhoun Commission meetings requesting that the Commission look into funding to get water into their community. A comment by Commissioner Kevin Helmick didn’t set well with the group when he told them it would likely take ten years to get it done, just as the 2 1/2 Million dollar Norman Ridge Project did. That project has been recently stalled because of an audit.
Newly elected Commissioner Craig Arthur has met on more than one occasion with Charleston officials, Delegate Roger Hanshaw and others, who have informed he, Eric Lupardus and Roger Propst that the money for water project expansion is there for the asking; the problem is, Calhoun has never ask.
Crystal Mersh, community advocate and influencer told the group that “We have to use our constitutional powers if we want to see something happen. There will never be another time in our lifetime where we’ll see this much money floating around.” Speaking of the ARPA and CARES act money that had been funneled into communities throughout the past few years.
Roger Propst noted “many counties got the funding and determined to put it into multiple projects. Our commission put it all into the broadband. More than any other county in the project, rather than distributing it through the community. We have to work on this as a community. We need to take it forward.” He spoke with regard to the Annamoriah Water Project saying that there is infrastructure money available for which the Calhoun County Commission needs to write and present a plan to the State agencies in order to be considered. Commissioner Arthur has discovered that Annamoriah has a project ready to submit. He handed that information to speaker Hanshaw and wants to do the same for other areas in the community that needs the water expanded into their area. Studies will have to be done, but the funding is there for that as well.
Propst continued to encourage the crowd saying that “People say we don’t have power, but yes we do! This money was there… we need to ask the Commissioner – where have you been? – and expect a response. Crystal Mersh added “The power that we have is pressure. Press, protest and speech. We need to show up at the Commission meetings.
Larry Whited, Retired Judge spoke in frustration when he said “We’ve asked questions from the commission and have never gotten answers.” This lead to multiple conversations about the Commissioners lack of response to their constituents, no resolutions being read, no discussion between each other during the meetings (just votes), hirings without discussion of any other applicants being considered and an obvious lack of having what we need in the community is proof the Commission is not doing a whole lot between meetings. Mr. Whited said that their failure to address these issues is malfeasance and there’s repercussion. Ridgeview’s favorite quote for the evening was when Judge Whited said “You don’t put the fox in the hen house at night and ask him to count the chickens in the morning.”
Eric Lupardus had recently spoken to a citizen who moved to Calhoun County from another State. The individual likened living here to a third world country because of many of the missing essentials. Even Roger Hanshaw said that there is no reason a major route does not have water from one end to the other, referring to Routes 5 and 16.
A recent consolidation attempt by the DEP and USDA led to controversial comments made by Katheryn Emery, Director, Division of Water and Waste Management of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. Emery stated that there would be no future funding opportunities for Calhoun unless the consolidation occurred. The question arose by Charleston officials of “Who gave Katheryn Emery that much power?”
While Calhoun does not deny having issues, each system, Pleasant Hill, Mt. Zion and Grantsville have attempted to overcome those issues with constant pressure from the WV Public Service Commission and the WV Department of Health. Delegate Hanshaw now wants to bring the Calhoun County Commission and other ‘Powers that be’ together for a meeting to resolve the issues.
The next meeting on the agenda of this community group will be the Calhoun County Commission meeting on the 13th of March. Leaders Propst and Lupardus encouraged everyone to attend and invite their neighbors. Multiple community members are planning on signing in as delegations to address the Calhoun County Commission and ask questions for which they want answers, not delays.
With regard to delays:
The next topic of discussion was the long battle over the operations of Calhoun EMS and e911. The question of an actual number for the amount of money lost by Calhoun County when 355 Ambulance Runs went un-billed by Director Julie Sears, has been a matter of contention. While it is believed that all entities want this matter behind us, it cannot be until the truth is released. There has been greater than a 60 day delay in the release of that information with multiple reasons cast out as to why:
Reason 1: We don’t have the information.
Reason 2: We have the information but it’s incomplete (see reason 1?)
Reason 3: We don’t want to lose the County’s trust (too late)
Reason 4: We fear this will cause issues with the levy passing again (so will not telling the truth)
Reason 5: People won’t believe us no matter what we tell them. (Because you’re not telling them anything)
This has been the problem since the original complaint was filed against Calhoun EMS for dereliction of duties in 2022. The County should have been immediately advised, a forensic audit should have taken place of all agencies involved and the people informed of what occurred. Instead, the community was accused of being on a witch hunt, they were the one’s stirring trouble and the problem was ignored. People grew angrier, and the Commission grew more belligerent and defensive on their actions.
This was when Calhoun Citizens for Accountability organized.
The irony of it all was, as Ridgeview was completing this article, a few Calhoun citizens were attending a Braxton County Commission meeting. At that meeting the Mark D. Burdette, program coordinator for West Virginia BusinessLink appeared to advise the Braxton Commission to withdraw their 1 Million Dollar contribution to the same Broadband project Calhoun has invested, because it was at risk for not being completed.
Wait… what? Didn’t we just say that a few paragraphs ago?
The meeting of the Calhoun Citizens for Accountability ended on this note: “It’ll be over when we say it’s over. If we can’t buy into this, we’re going to continue to look at options, even if it’s legal, until we get to the truth.”
March 13th, 2023 Calhoun County Commission meeting will begin at 9 a.m.
Please attend and please arrive early to list yourself as a delegate if you have a question for the commission. It is reported that there will be some interesting topics of conversation that will make it worthwhile of attending.
