Grantsville’s Town Council met for their monthly meeting in the City Building at 6 p.m. on Monday, April 3rd, 2023. All members of the council, the Mayor and Recorder were present including: Mayor Robert Petrovsky, Town Recorder Judy Powell, Council members, Dorothy McCauley, William Villers, Linda Staton and Cheryl Sturm. Luke Peters and Jake Frady of the Mid Ohio Valley Regional Council and Fred Hypes of Dunn Engineering were present to provide updates on the water and sewer projects.
Recorder Judy Powell informed the council that the budget was submitted to the Calhoun Chronicle and will be run as a class II legal for two weeks as required.
Mayor Robert Petrovsky told the council and those attending that he is still pursuing a sewer rate increase and has received the guidelines of what’s needed. He told those attending that “We cannot stop doing what we do depending on the pending consolidation.” He also noted that Grantsville cannot fund what’s necessary in 2023 using 1975 rates. The Mayor is also working to have the Tennis Court restored with new pavement, paint and fencing.
The B&O taxes that were discussed at prior meetings have now been put on hold. Mayor Petrovsky spoke with the council in Parkersburg who informed him that there is current legislation in the works that will do away with B&O tax all together, making it pointless to put effort into that project. The Mayor is still awaiting a call from Delegate Roger Hanshaw to discuss the Town’s future direction.
The Mayor commended Councilwoman Linda Staton for taking the initiative to attend a grant writing class, and Mike Plato who now holds the certification and position for approving floodplain permits for the Town of Grantsville.
Jake Frady, MOVRC presented draw down #22 to the council which requested payments for two Water Project invoices. Orders construction in the amount of $142,109.22 and another for the USDA payment in the amount of $4,300.
Fred Hypes of Dunn Engineering informed the Mayor that there is a current hold up on the completion of the water project due to issues with the telemetry and pumps that will not allow them to sign off on the project.
Mayor Petrovsky questioned Luke Peters of the MOVRC regarding the continued attempt of consolidating Grantsville with the two local Public Service Districts. The Mayor wanted further clarification as to whether or not the Grantsville would be required to add additional funding to the project for the consolidation costs citing that it would be a “deal breaker.” Peters said that it “doesn’t look like funding would be required by Grantsville.” They will however have to do a proposal to an accounting firm to know how much money will be needed for the consolidation and what the water and sewer rates will look like post consolidation. Mayor Petrovsky continued to express concern about resources (staff) being very slim. Luke Peters had no definitive answer, only stating that the appeal would be for the systems to work together to keep rates down through centralized management and understanding where the leaks are. He further stated that “The efficiency would be better by having field crews to cover all the areas necessary. You want to be able to attract good workers to stay and a feasible way to that is to combine all the systems.”
This brought to question, “where are those workers going to come from?” The State of West Virginia is currently facing a crisis mode with regards to available certified operators. Grantsville, nor the Mt. Zion and Pleasant Hill PSD’s have the funding to attract operators from other plants. Grantsville has one ready to retire and one newly certified, training of others is at a minimum of two years out before certification. The PSD’s are being run by one certified experienced operator and another that the Mayor said “Still had Similac in the corners of his mouth,” referring to the fact he didn’t even get to experience training due to the fact when he was employed by Pleasant Hill, there was no staff remaining to train him. Mayor Petrovsky said he’ll make a great operator, but he still has a lot to learn having just taken his test to be a WD operator.
Luke Peters – It could be seen as an appeal for grantsville and a request for the county to work together. Everyone comes out better if you’re all working together. In a county this size to work together and keep rates down. It’s going to cost more to do it with loans, over grants. The county wants to be able to expand into unserved areas. Centralized management and understanding where leaks are. If you look at the health of psd’s water loss is a problem and the efficiency would be better by having field crews to cover all the areas necessary. You want to be able to attract good workers to stay and a feasible way to do that is to combine all the systems. It’s easier to get together a leadership team than to build three different boards with turn over.
Councilwoman Cheryl Sturm said “I don’t know where you think you’re going to get more bodies.”
Peters suggested the Mayor speak with Claywood Park for consolidation advice.
The Mayor has plans to speak with Claywood but said, “Just putting three entities together and then think it’s going to be okay, is setting us up for failure.
Peters brought up that the Calhoun County Commission has recently taken a more active role in the consolidation process.
Mayor Petrovsky said that he would love to see a county wide PSD that the community could rely on for water. I’ll never stand in the way, but to just “wishful thinking it to be,” isn’t serious.
The Mayor also informed Luke Peters, in a friendly manner, that he had not been invited to attend the County’s meeting with Delegate Hanshaw; telling Peters, “You can’t do things like that in this little County and think I won’t find out about it.” He did tell Peter’s he’d still keep him on his Christmas card list.
A future meeting is planned with all the entities involved and discussion was made to involve the Calhoun Gilmer Career Center and encourage a Water Treatment Plant Operator Certification program for their students. With the current shortage of operators, this would allow students to be considered for good positions across the state in Water Treatment Plants.
