The Town of Grantsville met for their monthly meeting at the City Hall on Monday, March 6th, 2023 at 6 p.m. Attended by around 16 total, but viewed by over 500 before the nights end through Ridgeview’s live feed, there were several names of familiarity from other County and State entities that made their way into the minutes of tonight’s council meeting.
Mayor Robert Petrovsky’s discussion with City Council members began with the recent City issues with issuing Flood permits when it was discovered the original plan for Julie Sears to do it abruptly ended without prior notification. Timothy Keaton, Floodplain Management Director, stepped in and took care of the matter for the city when The 1982 Foundation needed a permit for the new pool house being built at the Wayne Underwood Field. Michael Plato, of Pine Creek, has volunteered to attend the training to become certified to issue any future floodplain permits. The second matter of discussion under this topic with the council was the need raise the cost of the floodplain permits to comparable rates in other areas, and the local building permits as well. The recommended price for future permits will be $50.00 for floodplain permits and $25.00 for standard building permits. This was voted on later in the meeting and passed unanimously. The Mayor told the council that the permits where very detailed and involved and would require considerable review before being issued. Also noted was the need to monitor building projects in the city and make sure that all projects were in compliance with the proper permits. The City will stand accountable.
The Town has recently been undergoing an audit for which the Mayor commented that he was “Extremely surprised that the audit has gone so very well, likening previous audits to a State Colonoscopy that didn’t always end well. He explained to the Council that a bank account that had been collecting the rental funds for the Gino’s and Tudors lot had been closed during a clean up of their accounts through the audit. The account should not have been separated from a subcategory already on the City’s checking account. Therefore the account was closed and all funds moved into the general funds to make it easier on the reconciliation.
Mayor Petrovsky informed the council that he was not going to make the world very happy because he was about to address B&O Taxes. He stated that he had been disappointed that the city did not have B&O Taxes because without them the City had to rely on Grants far too much. He told the Council that he would be proposing the institution of a B&O Tax in hopes of getting the ordinance read the necessary number of times to be approved by July. He is planning on considerable investigation on the matter before filing the ordinance to insure that it is fair for all concerned. He does not want the tax to be a burden on the city businesses but he said for too long the town has not been taking care of itself. “You would have thought that not having a B&O Tax would have drawn business into town,” he said, “but that was not the case.” There are specific methods of dealing with B&O Tax that he wants to look into including the tax on alcohol. With the recent opening of the Tribe, the city needs to make sure all tax money is received on such purchases. The Mayor continued by saying “If we had funding coming in as it should, we would not need to rely on Grants and wait for funding.
Another unpopular topic was addressed with regard to a necessary increase on the sewer rates in town, possibly as much as 30% over two years which will amount to about a $3.00 increase each year. “We cannot operate off of 1955 rates in Joe Biden new America,” the Mayor said. The sewer system has not been updated to any great degree since 1930. It has far out lived it’s ability to operate properly and caused the City great grief.
Under new business, Fred Hypes of Dunn engineering informed the council that a semi final walk through with David Johnson and the contractors had occurred on the water project which was nearly finished. New flooring had been added to the plant when the old flooring was discovered to be unsatisfactory. The new floor was added at a cost of $12,000.
Mr. Hypes reported that the initial funding application was filed for funding for infrastructure to replace almost 15,000 feet of line in the city, meters and other, mains, etc. The project will come in at about $5 Million dollars, but the funding applied for was only $2 Million for the beginning stages.
Jake Fraidy of the Mid Ohio Valley Regional Council presented draw downs fro the current streams of funding for the water project. Draw number 21 – covers Orders Construction, USDA Loan Interest and money to pay Dunn Engineering for a total cost of $241,207.18. Council passed a motion to pay the draw down.
Fraidy Alison presented a Change order, #8 for $12702.22 to pay the increase for the replacement of the tile at the water plant. Also passed by the City council unanimously.
Change order number 9 was approved by Council for $31,724.26 for upgrading the access road to the gas meters and solids disposal at the Water plant.
A draw down on the sewer project was requested and passed to pay Dunn Engineering and the MORVC $54,810 for engineering and administrations fees.
The stress of these projects has shown itself on through the frustration of the Mayor and the City Council as they have strived to do what’s best for the citizens of Grantsville to insure safe drinking water and the safety of city sewer but have spent more time fighting those who have the power to make a difference. The harshest battle has been with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.
Mayor Petrovsky told Fred Hypes of Dunn Engineering that he “Believes this is a personal vendetta against the citizens of Grantsville by Katheryn Emery, Director of Waste Management at the WVDEP.” He said that he had been told by WVDEP that the Town of Grantsville will not be allowed to follow through with any project because of the way previous mayors and councils had handled earlier matters. Currently throwing away $141,000 through an incomplete project that the WVDEP refuses to allow to go forward. The Mayor continued saying , “It’s as if they want our projects to fail so that we won’t have anything to work with, and they have left me no choice but to go to Roger Hanshaw.” Emery has been a stumbling block for too long.
Fred Hypes stated Kathy Emery had repeated the same threats to his agency and that the upgrades that Grantsville needs would be hard for a city the size of Parkersburg to take care of.
Mayor Petrovsky took everyone by surprise when he said that this leaves him looking to sell the system to WV American Water before the WVDEP forces them into bankruptcy.
Luke Peters told him he didn’t want to do that because the rates would be outrageous with the base rate of WV American Water starting at $68.00. The Mayor responded by saying that Kathy Emery was giving them no choice, and before he let the town suffer he’d sell it to make sure they had water. “The town is feeling the pressure,” Mayor Petrovsky said, “The alternative for the town is not good and the fines will destroy the town. It would be okay if there were earnest attempts. But we’ve not seen any reports, nobody can tell us how to make it work. Pleasant Hill is in disarray, Mt. Zion has one operator, the only one with resources is Grantsville and we’re out of options.”
The Council was as frustrated as the Mayor, feeling they too were under the threats of Kathy Emery. Chery Sturms said the people in the past made mistakes, but she (Kathy Emery) has never looked at what Bob Petrovsky has done.”
Fred Hypes continued to encourage the Mayor to reach out to Roger Hanshaw saying that there is no better resource for Grantsville to go to. Hypes said that Hanshaw was a force to be reckoned with.”
Luke Peters, a strong advocate of the consolidation who works for the MOVRVC told the council that he had identified a source that will pay for the consolidation. But Mayor Petrovsky seemed not to buy what Peters was selling, saying, “The plant is ancient and cannot be repaired. It wasn’t just the mayor of the past that caused all the issues, the DEP hasn’t had any problem telling me what’s wrong but where were they when all of this happened previously? We spent months putting a plan together and got no response. We need to see a plan.”
The City recently received a bill from Steptoe and Johnson who had worked on the sewer project for $22,000. A bill that dated back to 2020, and 2021. It seems nobody involved in this has their act together.
When ask who hadn’t provided the plan, the Mayor stated, “The Calhoun County Commission. We sent the plan to the county commission, and they did nothing. Hanshaw is where we’re at.
At the end of the day, I have to look after the interest of the town.”
The meeting wound down with a motion for Bob Bailey and Kathleen Cash to draw the names for the Ballot for the order they’ll appear in the June City Council election.
The City Budget meeting was voted for to happen on March 21st at 4 p.m.
The crowd left as the city entered into executive session and paid bills.
