What Air Filters?
County Commission Meets
Nov 12 2020

County Commissioner Greg Fitzwater (right) is down to his last three meetings before heading into political retirement after deciding not to run again for office.
  Clay County Commission met in regular session Nov 12th in the Courthouse. All three elected leaders were on hand for the gathering as well as five or so in the peanut gallery.
    For Commission Prez Greg Fitzwater, his days in office are about kaput. With six years of service under his belt, he did not seek reelection. With the Republicrap sweep of nearly office in the state and with Fitz listed as a Demorat, he may not have made it back for another term. During the lead up to his election and during his six years, man there have been tons of everything from a Derecho, to the Great Wash Out to a Pandemic and more.
  For this meeting, they ran thru the usual estate settlements, protests, and  waivers of final settlement. Ho Hum
  The juicier stuff included pay raises for the 911 Dispatch service. Lots of discussions but there was no doubt, the dispatchers are paid pennies and are hard to replace when one heads off for greener pastures. In the end, part time dispatchers received a $1 per hour increase and full time dispatchers netted $2 per hour extra. The Director and Deputy Director received nothing new for the soup pot.
  Next up was Ambulance Service Director Bev King who was also seeking additional funds for her staff. According to the Director, it's tough to get anybody hired due to low wages and if hourly rates aren't increased, there won't be any drivers, EMTs or Paramedics left to respond to runs.
  By the way, after 17 years on the job, part timer Bev King plans to retire Jan 1st of 2021.
  Her requested increase amounts were already known to the CCC. But , after hearing the increases for the 911Dispatch service, she had second thoughts.. during the meeting she told the world, maybe she should ask for more $$$.
  The main concern of Fitzwater: Will there be enough $$$ in the pot to pay the new wages.
  Commissioner Fran King raised concerns over the large amount of over time now occurring.
  More concerns were raised over the lack of training opportunities for new EMTs. Sounded like Clay High had some training notion that went nowhere last year.
  So, how much did the Ambulance workers receive? Not a penny. That decision will come at a latter meeting
  FYI: More people voted in favor of the recent Excess Levy for some of the emergency services in the county but that amount was still not enough for the Levy to pay. In West Virginia, it takes a 60% majority to win passage. On Nov 3rd, the Levy received just 52% approval.
  Now for what we think is the most interesting part of the public meeting.
  During this 9 months of Corony bug pandemic, doesn't it seem like Courthouse leadership would do everything possible to keep the pandemic in check, to keep the Courthouse safe?
  From the peanut gallery came this question: Does the County have a schedule for replacing the HVAC air filters?
  With no answers coming, a second question was asked: Does the HVAC system have air filters?
  After the laughter slowed down, turns out, the CCC did NOT know if there are filters in the system. As for a schedule to replace filters, Nope, does not exist
  Spread Park is a real asset in this County. That roadside park is the only public place for picnics, family reunions,  restrooms, and playground. It's also an important part of the growing tourism business.
  For 20 years, Spread Park was leased from the State Road to the County Commission for use as a park. Before that, the State Road had similar roadside parks around the state. When they got out of that business, Spread PArk was the last one to bite the dust
  With the checking account dry, the place was handed over to the Business Development Authority. The BDA did do some sprucing up and maintenance but they never had a legal, signed lease for the place. Now with the BDA broke and unable to even cut the grass and weeds there, the CCC is considering taking over the Park once again.
  What's behind it? A couple months back, an out of county group, the ERTS Foundation made public, they may have an interest in operating the place (leasing it from the State Road).
  Out of county people doing something here? We can't allow that! Heck they may actually update the place, keep the restrooms clean and open, and low and behold, my lands, they may even put a working boat access launch site. We sure can't have that in the Land of Little.
  No decision made on that topic during this 38 minute public gathering.
  FYI: Heading out Peach Orchard Road, contractors are installing miles of fiber optic internet line for Frontier Tele. One guy told us, the new fiber will go clear to Widen. Not sure who will be allowed to connect to the high speed line but one thing is for sure, anything will be an improvement.
  As a hunch.... with trillions in Federal Broadband $$$ earmarked for the out back, our guess, Frontier wants to be able to say, Ah Gee Feds, we have all this new line hanging in the woods and at the ready. When those cash cow Federal grants are handed out, we're ready to hit the ground running.
  We hope that doesn't happen. It's been our experience, Frontier management has been a pee poor provider of DSL in this county and, since most of their customers pay their bills on time, they have little incentive to improve their performance.

AW