Many Questions Answered by Calhoun County Commission, County Clerk and EMS

The Calhoun County Commission meeting was opened and lead by Commission President Michael Hicks, and Commissioner Kevin Helmick, with Commissioner Matt Walker on Vacation.

County Clerk Jean Simers opened the Calhoun County Commission Meeting addressing the financial protocols of her office with regard to an incident where Warren Basnett had recently ask her to receive $3,000 in Drug Fund money for deposit into her account. Sheriff Basnett, nor Tax Deputy Michelle Nicholas had handled money with regards to this account, and Chief Tax Deputy Trevia Fulks was on vacation, causing uncertainty with the deposit. Because of this, Simers felt the need to clarify how cash flow was handled between her office and the Sheriff Department.

Following the recent audit where mention was made about the number of people using one cash drawer, she noted that only her office in the courthouse was currently operating with two cash drawers, one for each employee as the auditor had directed. She noted that of the money received into her office, 92% of it was in check or money order form, with most payments being low fees for copies of deeds, birth certificates, titles, etc.

She next described the accounting practices and rundown of monthly expenses, stating that when she took over the office of Calhoun County Clerk “the records showed the County as being 2 million dollars in the red.” She now has a monthly balanced budget that balances with the money received through the Sheriff’s Department and paid out through the Calhoun County Clerk’s office. Each month the Sheriffs Department provides a financial statement of money received and what it was for to the Calhoun County Commission for review. They also receive a line item for each office in the Courthouse of expenditures and budget information. A breakdown of this information would be an extensive list, so summaries are generally given.

When ask about the money received and spent by the County Government each month, Simers said that it varied a great deal from month to month. This months receipt of money totaled $153,758.11, but the expenditures were $223,275.53 for Salaries and bills. She reported that there is currently $588,717.50 in the County’s bank account.

Simers suggested that all offices in the Calhoun Courthouse offices should give a report to the Calhoun County Commission about expenses and operation.

Chief Deputy Trevia Fulks explained that current land sales were down from tax sales and once Senate Bill 552 was “figured out by the State of West Virginia,” Calhoun would get nothing, and that money would be sent to the State,

Julie Sears, Director of OES, reported the monthly total of runs by Emergency Services and that Minnie Hamilton Health System had given Calhoun EMS mutual aid 5 times. Three new staff have been hired, but two have yet to report for EMT work, still having to pass their EMT test. They are currently running with EMS to familiarize themselves with area driving. Once hired as EMTs they will alleviate much of the overtime now plaguing the finances of Calhoun EMS.

Commissioner Michael Hicks reported that Community Resources, Inc. (CRI) has a new program to assist families in Calhoun County with automobile expense. With an approved application and using an approved garage CRI can now assist with the purchase of tires, oil changes, brakes, inspection stickers and other general maintenance. Contact CRI in Grantsville for more information.

Sheriff Warren Basnett reported that the Calhoun Sheriffs Department had recently switched to a new Home Confinement Company, Sentinel. The cost of an inmate on home confinement is now $3.50 per day, .25 cents more than the previous company, but better equipment. The bracelets work off of cell phone, GPS and home internet with the ability to break through wifi pass words to show location.

Sheilia Burch spoke to the commission regarding a request for assistance in the purchase of new software for the Mt. Zion Public Service District. After years of struggling with billing software not work, the Mt. Zion PSD is under order of the Public Service Commission to hand read all meters on their system which covers a very large area. The new software will cost $176,000, which they have applied for grant funding for, but are requesting financial support from the County as well.

Mrs. Burch, in the capacity as Director of the Little Kanawha Area Development Corp, then directed her conversation with the Commissioners to the recent closure of two businesses in Calhoun County. Amtower Auto Supply (NAPA) and The Traders Guide. She spoke with the owner of NAPA, Carolyn Amtower, who said that the current building does not meet their needs, has safety concerns and they are also having supply chain issues. Shelia will continue to work with them in hopes of locating another building and would appreciate community help if someone knows of a potential location.

On a positive business note, Minnie Hamilton has an expansion program happening that could expand their services as well as offer other business space.

Shelia attended a meeting regarding housing issues in the community. She recognized that the County Commission had recently done an inventory of dilapidated homes, sending letters to the owners, but stated that those letters didn’t ”have any teeth” without an ordinance. She acknowledged that people truly want to correct the problem but it’s expensive and perhaps the Commission could look into possible funding for assistance.

Crystal Mersh, President of the 1982 Foundation asked the Mrs. Burch and the Commissioners ”How do we get from hoping to doing?”

Shelia’s response was the need to get a plan in place, so that when Senate Bill 552 is figured out, we’ll be ready to show the State our need and plan to address it. The money will be extremely competitive and we have to be prepared to compete, starting with getting an ordinance in place.

The next thing addressed by Mrs. Burch was the property assessment in Calhoun County. She directed her concerns regarding low property assessments needing corrected to Jason Nettles, Assessor.

Jason responded saying that he was limited on property assessments because of State rules and regulations. A house appraisal for taxes looks much different than an assessment for real estate sales. The assessor can only assess property by the square footage of the home, basement and other structural designs, but nothing inside has any value with appraisal. Its done on a Mass appraisal scale not individually.

According to Mr. Nettles he assesses properties on site every three years and by using Google earth.

Pleasant Hill Public Service District requested and received approval of $400 to be paid by the Calhoun County Commission for half of the gravel to their water tank road.

Paul Hageman, of the Calhoun EMS Advisory Board requested assistance in paying for a new Ambulance for Calhoun EMS. The $91,000, 2016 Ambulance is far newer than the current ambulances being used which are at the least 16 years of age. The average repair budgets on the current units is $20,000 to $30,000 annually.

Mr. Hageman addressed not only the Calhoun County Commission but the community in attendance with regard to his request and the failure of the recent Levy. He stated that they were told in the beginning, in 2018, that they would need no less than 1,300 calls a year to be profitable, but they had no where near that many runs, but were still surviving. He further said that the Advisory Board knew the issue with response times and complaints against the EMS, but emphasized that they have only 6 people on staff running 24 hours each day, 7 days a week being paid $11.75 an hour, when the average rate of an EMT is $25.00/hour. He requested the county get behind the EMS.

Crystal Mersh questioned Mr. Hageman about having asked Julie Sears for data regarding runs and response times but never receiving it. She said she could not make an informed decision to help the EMS without knowing what was going on within the agency. It was also mentioned that Crystal had had the opportunity to view the information but declined. A matter that Crystal quickly refuted and Ms. Sears agreed that she had made information available for anyone to view, but not specifically to Crystal. In her closing Crystal stated that she was a citizen for the ambulance service and she’d be happy to help. But she works with and suggested that EMS should go to the people they want help from, not expect them to come to them.

Mike Plato requested that the EMS board make the levy more transparent, saying “the people have no faith in response times.”

Mr. Hageman explained that Calhoun county has 273 miles to cover with one crew. That’s all the levy covers. They’re working closer with Minnie Hamilton for mutual aid and trying to communicate better.

Commissioner Hicks made a motion to approve $45,000 to pay for half of the new ambulance. The motion passed.

Commissioner Kevin Helmick said that ”Without the White Oak Compressor Station this help wouldn’t have been possible. We couldn’t have bought them a set of tires until the station.”

Crystal Mersh then ask about the COVID money that had been given to the county. “What was it used for?” The response from the Commission and Jean Simers was that the money was used to cover EMS and Law Enforcement Salaries only. There was also funding from the Cares Act that was received from the State by reimbursement once funds were spent. Close to $500,000 in reimbursements. That funding went to pay the deputy, not the Sheriff’s salary. The levy currently only funds 1/3 of the EMS budget. During COVID, ambulance runs dropped by 50% due to people not wanting to leave their homes. All of this took a toll on County budgets.

Shelia Burch said ”This is the information that should have been made know all long. The county had questions and this is the first conversation we’ve heard about it. ”Thank you.”

The meeting continued with an approval $30,200 in funding for the Arnoldsburg Park upgrades of 2 aluminum bleachers for the ball fields, concrete and new picnic tables.

Appointments were made: