Town Council Meets
June 7th 2022
Our 342
square miles of County Clay has but one municipality, the Town
of Clay. Over the last 160 years or so, much of the time, Town
leadership has been fickle at best. Sure there have been a few
good moments here and there, but all in hall, small town
leadership has been poor.
Examples include: burying rotten stuff that happened and never talking about it in public; watching financials go South meeting after meeting without raising an alarm bell and then raising rates, and putting up with employees more intent on bickering than getting their jobs done.
We've seen some improvement in the last 8 years. Tough calls have been made. Like, tossing an elected Councilperson for not adhering to residency requirements. Like, when caught using her office for personal gain, Council voted in public, off with her head and removed the person from office. When a Mayor made national attention in the Ape In High Heels social media racial embarrassment, that Mayor was forced to resign in disgrace. There's a bunch more crapola but those examples give you the color of local leadership.
Clay Town Council convened their monthly public meeting on June 7th beginning at 5:30pm. Here's a snapshot from that gathering.
The only public sewer system in the county is owned and operated by the Town. Built back in 1968, there are many problems with the small operation.
20 years ago, the Council then OK'd a newer, high tech facility. Bad things happened: they built the new plant on property they didn't own; the plant (Log Factory as we named it) was twice too big for the customer base which meant, operating costs could not be paid for by the customers; and, employees (and leadership) were less than stellar resulting in DEP fines and outlandish discharges of logs into the Elk River.
Now Council is in the process of rebuilding the Log Factory to smaller standards and you guessed it, to pay for replacing the first screwed up plant, monthly bills will be increased.
You can expect to see that vote to ram in up your know where, later this Summer.
Town coffers have $60,000 to $90,000 left from the first round of COVID handouts from the Feds. The second round has not been touched yet.
For this meeting, a rep from the county owned Swimming Pool Committee (Parks and Rec) was on hand to grab some of those COVID funds. The request was for $10K to cover part the needed $$$ for a new metal storage building, security fencing and face lift. After hearing the compelling background needs, Council voted unanimously to cough up $20K for swimming pool improvements.
Examples include: burying rotten stuff that happened and never talking about it in public; watching financials go South meeting after meeting without raising an alarm bell and then raising rates, and putting up with employees more intent on bickering than getting their jobs done.
We've seen some improvement in the last 8 years. Tough calls have been made. Like, tossing an elected Councilperson for not adhering to residency requirements. Like, when caught using her office for personal gain, Council voted in public, off with her head and removed the person from office. When a Mayor made national attention in the Ape In High Heels social media racial embarrassment, that Mayor was forced to resign in disgrace. There's a bunch more crapola but those examples give you the color of local leadership.
Clay Town Council convened their monthly public meeting on June 7th beginning at 5:30pm. Here's a snapshot from that gathering.
The only public sewer system in the county is owned and operated by the Town. Built back in 1968, there are many problems with the small operation.
20 years ago, the Council then OK'd a newer, high tech facility. Bad things happened: they built the new plant on property they didn't own; the plant (Log Factory as we named it) was twice too big for the customer base which meant, operating costs could not be paid for by the customers; and, employees (and leadership) were less than stellar resulting in DEP fines and outlandish discharges of logs into the Elk River.
Now Council is in the process of rebuilding the Log Factory to smaller standards and you guessed it, to pay for replacing the first screwed up plant, monthly bills will be increased.
You can expect to see that vote to ram in up your know where, later this Summer.
Town coffers have $60,000 to $90,000 left from the first round of COVID handouts from the Feds. The second round has not been touched yet.
For this meeting, a rep from the county owned Swimming Pool Committee (Parks and Rec) was on hand to grab some of those COVID funds. The request was for $10K to cover part the needed $$$ for a new metal storage building, security fencing and face lift. After hearing the compelling background needs, Council voted unanimously to cough up $20K for swimming pool improvements.
Site of the new community park
Last Winter
word came that funds had been found to build a new community
park on a vacant lot beside the old Chevy dealership building
on Main Street in downtown Clay. One big item on the community
park list is an outdoor splash park. The notion is to
have the place up and running this Summer and include seating,
flower gardens, a splash area and the usual park features.
That location is just across the river from ERTS State Park. Because of that, the hope is, hikers, bikers, and horseback riders will come into the Town to enjoy the new park area and then into local businesses and spend $$$.
That part about the project being fully funded, not quite so fast.
For this meeting, the request came for an additional $20K from COVID funds to handle the cost of underground plumbing for that splash pond. After much discussion, Council gave the thumbs up for a $10K donation.
Here's where you need to mark a post it note. For the first time, during this vote, for the first time, concern was raised over who will maintain the new place and what happens when something breaks.
That location is just across the river from ERTS State Park. Because of that, the hope is, hikers, bikers, and horseback riders will come into the Town to enjoy the new park area and then into local businesses and spend $$$.
That part about the project being fully funded, not quite so fast.
For this meeting, the request came for an additional $20K from COVID funds to handle the cost of underground plumbing for that splash pond. After much discussion, Council gave the thumbs up for a $10K donation.
Here's where you need to mark a post it note. For the first time, during this vote, for the first time, concern was raised over who will maintain the new place and what happens when something breaks.
Mayor Josh Shamblin at work
Up above we
mentioned some shortcomings of Council leadership over the
last few decades. Here's one more.
Council has a way of stumbling when it comes to employee relations. There is always bickering in the ranks over who makes what and, some person got a raise so I want one. We heard one Mayor complain, the worst part about this job is dealing with the employees.
Most of us know, employee wages have NOTHING to do with what somebody else makes. Not a darn thang! Trying to appease an employee because someone else got a nickel more on the dollar... shirt on em!
Hunter Sizemore worked as a street maintenance guy until one week ago when he up and quit. His job was to sweep the streets, pick up the normal trash and litter, and weed whack the place.
Did you know the Town has a street sweeper machine that rarely (if ever) gets used? They do.
During this hiring process, two candidates were interviewed by the Mayor. One was the brother of a town employee and the other was related to a former Councilperson. After discussing the problems with having family members working side by side, decision was made to hire Jeremiah Holcomb at $9 per hour for street sweeping and weed whacking duties.
And.... some members of Council have wanted a police department and a Municipal Court to help raise new $$$ for the hamlet. Thinking enough people had spoken out against that folly, we thought those plans and been set aside.
Wrong!
Town Council is negotiating with Top Badge Allen King to secure a used County cruiser fully equiped with all the bells and whistles for the Town. Nonchalantly, as if everybody knew what was going on, Councilperson Barry Peyton brought the cruiser up.
We can't think of anything more likely to kill tourism than an out of control Badge and a Boss Hog as Judge racking in ticket $$$ left and right. That's exactly what happened in Summersville and Gauley Bridge. The latter has never recovered from the evilness.
It's going to happen readers unless you get on the horn and talk with the elected leaders.
Council voted during this meeting to hire a part time Town Manager to run the whole shebang. After interviewing only two applicants, Mayor Shamblin recommended hiring a Carli Caldwell. After discussion, Ms Caldwell will start out with starvation wages of $12 / hour.
McDonalds starts new hamburger flippers out at $15 / hour plus offers a signing bonus.
Talk about a cluster!!! There are Town workers making North of $19 per hour. So those folks are going to take orders from a part timer? Get reprimanded by a person that shows up just 20 or 25 hours per week?
We don't know Ms Caldwell but can't help but think, that lady is doomed from the start.
Town Manager positions are tough jobs. In the best of circumstances, the Manager says one thing and then the affected employee goes running to an elected leader crying Boo Who Who. Time will tell of course but this has all the markings of a cluster.
Before you start yelling, all you do is complain.... this time around, they came real close to a success
AW
Council has a way of stumbling when it comes to employee relations. There is always bickering in the ranks over who makes what and, some person got a raise so I want one. We heard one Mayor complain, the worst part about this job is dealing with the employees.
Most of us know, employee wages have NOTHING to do with what somebody else makes. Not a darn thang! Trying to appease an employee because someone else got a nickel more on the dollar... shirt on em!
Hunter Sizemore worked as a street maintenance guy until one week ago when he up and quit. His job was to sweep the streets, pick up the normal trash and litter, and weed whack the place.
Did you know the Town has a street sweeper machine that rarely (if ever) gets used? They do.
During this hiring process, two candidates were interviewed by the Mayor. One was the brother of a town employee and the other was related to a former Councilperson. After discussing the problems with having family members working side by side, decision was made to hire Jeremiah Holcomb at $9 per hour for street sweeping and weed whacking duties.
And.... some members of Council have wanted a police department and a Municipal Court to help raise new $$$ for the hamlet. Thinking enough people had spoken out against that folly, we thought those plans and been set aside.
Wrong!
Town Council is negotiating with Top Badge Allen King to secure a used County cruiser fully equiped with all the bells and whistles for the Town. Nonchalantly, as if everybody knew what was going on, Councilperson Barry Peyton brought the cruiser up.
We can't think of anything more likely to kill tourism than an out of control Badge and a Boss Hog as Judge racking in ticket $$$ left and right. That's exactly what happened in Summersville and Gauley Bridge. The latter has never recovered from the evilness.
It's going to happen readers unless you get on the horn and talk with the elected leaders.
Council voted during this meeting to hire a part time Town Manager to run the whole shebang. After interviewing only two applicants, Mayor Shamblin recommended hiring a Carli Caldwell. After discussion, Ms Caldwell will start out with starvation wages of $12 / hour.
McDonalds starts new hamburger flippers out at $15 / hour plus offers a signing bonus.
Talk about a cluster!!! There are Town workers making North of $19 per hour. So those folks are going to take orders from a part timer? Get reprimanded by a person that shows up just 20 or 25 hours per week?
We don't know Ms Caldwell but can't help but think, that lady is doomed from the start.
Town Manager positions are tough jobs. In the best of circumstances, the Manager says one thing and then the affected employee goes running to an elected leader crying Boo Who Who. Time will tell of course but this has all the markings of a cluster.
Before you start yelling, all you do is complain.... this time around, they came real close to a success
AW