That's County Commission Prez Fran King (seated) ready to get action.
We're not
sure if Commissioner Fran King gets any more done than someone
else but she can sure liven up a public meeting. Some have
referred to her as the Mouth of the South. There's good reason
for many nicknames... this one too.
County Clerk Connie Workman does a good job of posting meeting agendas and making them reader friendly so the public knows what's coming down the pike. A lot of the CCC business deals with estates, wills, finalizing estates and making sure administrators do their job. For the most part, they run thru each list with all "ayes". Most come and go without discussion and are pretty much ho hum stuff. We rarely give much coverage on those matters.
On August 11th, with all three Commissioners at the ready, item 9 came up. That item was dealing with accepting the last will and testament of a Dorma B Davis. Instead of running right on thru, Ms King explained: the will before them was hand written (holographic they call it) but NOT written by the deceased. An earlier will was not signed by the now deceased Ms Davis. With that explanation, County Commission did not accept either document.
Here's something. This Summer the CCC voted unanimously to double 911 monthly fees on landline phones. They did that without having any real purpose for the new funnel of $$$.
During this meeting, the elected body voted to purchase real estate from Allegheny Rural Forestlands with the purpose of building, housing, a new 911 Center. The property is near the new State Road Garage
That sounds pretty costly and certainly a major change. Fran explained, the current location is down in the valley and that makes communications limited.
Of course, that's a load of manure. Stations across the world broadcast their product even from inside caves without a problem and down in the bottom of mountain valleys. How do they do that? Glad you asked.
The industry standard is to use a Studio Transmitter Link (STL) . For us, that would mean, from the 911 Center beside the Courthouse via a STL to atop a hill and then send the digital message to the various towers and transmitters around the county. That is the industry standard, works like a charm, has for decades, and something, we guess, the Clay County Commission has not heard of. It's either that or they just want to spend a bunch of tax dollars. So, here comes a costly new building away from prying eyes and leaving behind a 10 year old facility right beside the Courthouse.
What they should have told the public includes, the current 911 Center has been flooded and is in the Flood Plain. Just another day in paradise.
Black Shirt Randy Holcomb is preparing for retirement soon. To help him out, the CCC agreed to move his retirement $$$ from the months as acting Top Badge into the Black Shirt Deputy retirement fund. The Commission said it was at no cost to the County.
When the old CDC Nutrition site moved from their Two Run location due to faulting wiring and plugged up jons, the place went vacant. Not so anymore. The Clayberry Solid Waste Authority will be given free rent to move into the Two Run location. Currently the rarely heard of CSWA rents space near the Clay County Bank on Main Street.
Fran announced a pipe dream: When they get the old nutrition site fixed up, she thinks it could also be a nice business incubator site for all the new and coming companies in County Clay.
Here comes the grand enchalada event for this article.
There are all kinds of govt run and govt paid for agencies in and around Clayberry. Many, most, do nothing more than rake in the Govt $$$ and give back nothing more than lip service while doing zip, ninguno, zilch. Fran King knows it and has watched it first hand over the years.
For this Aug 11th public meeting, reps from WorkForce WV were on hand to explain all the new stuff they plan for Clay County.
In the way of background... our Govt contracts out Workforce services so private companies can suck in the dough. The contracts are awarded every few years. As much as 15 years ago, a private company known as Ross held that contract. Back then they had a program that actually provided jobs for high school students. Those extra few dollars really made a difference for the teeny boppers. The hands on , on the job, experiences in local businesses helped a bunch too. During those days, Ross even covered the cost of Worker's Comp on the kids which was a real concern for business owners.
Those days are gone and more recently, who ever held that contract, and according to Ms King, did nothing for Clayberry.
Fran made it a point to grill the two in attendance for upwards of 10 minutes solid. The grilling came after one of the guys, a Bill Monterossi, tried to blow happy smoke for a like amount of time.
King worked em over on: they don't let anybody know thru advertising what they do; she knew of no one that had actually benefited from the WorkForce WV program; many previous program promises never happened; and how come there's only one person in the county once a week and that WorkForce WV office (CAEZ building) is locked so the public can't get in.
It was fun to watch both gentlemen squirm. She was speaking the truth as many in the peanut gallery grinned.
So where's the new funding coming from this time around? Answer: from COVID funds (CARES) and get this, no mention was made of actual offering of jobs. Instead, the $$$ will be spent on the same tired BS of wheel spinning work readiness training and paper pushing forms.
Fran wasn't off her rip yet. She eye balled them and told them of many job needs that WorkForce should be training. Stuff, like wawa operators, sewer operators, EMT classes, paramedic, CDL classes came up. She made it a point to tell em, in all her years of being in private business, not one person had come to her door from WorkForce.
She asked the two to get to work and do something good for this County.
Oh, by the way, that job program for kids, the Youth Advantage Program, it ain't coming back in any meaningful way.
A couple months back King announced, she had written and got the OK for a $25K grant from Case Equipment. The money will be used to rent heavy equipment from the grant giver. The plan is to take the equipment to Spread Park (around August 24th) and fix that place with a handicapped accessible ramp, clean out the creek on the upper end of the Park among other things, and provide the equipment manufacturer with loads of cheap publicity.
About that $1.6 million COVID grant the CCC has already received... there was no mention of holding a public hearing so taxpayers can bring project ideas to the Commissioners' attention. A rep from Senator Capito's office encouraged the elected body to take their time before spending the big loaf of money. Of course, there is little worry about that anyway.
NOTE: Years ago, back when Peter Triplett was on the Commission, a main line wawa leak sent the wet stuff gushing across Courthouse Square. The landscape brick covering was badly heaved up (and still are) and have caused several Clayonians to trip and fall. No repairs have been made to date. No one is saying where that $100,000 insurance settlement wound up
For this meeting, word came that a new insurance settlement had been reached and the brick squares will be repaired before the Apple Festival in Sept. This damage came via a driver up on the curb in front of the Courthouse damaging a bench, lights, curb and brick work.
BDA Director Mitch DeBoard, also a paid FEMA worker, was on hand to answer ERT State Park questions. That coverage will be posted over on the Everything ERTS page of the COMMUNICATOR ONLINE newspaper section. Be sure to check that out.
Finally, Jim Samples was on hand to go into secret time to discuss a personnel matter. He knows, we know, such a reason is not allowed under Open Meeting laws in this state.
We left the secret time around 11:25 am
AW
County Clerk Connie Workman does a good job of posting meeting agendas and making them reader friendly so the public knows what's coming down the pike. A lot of the CCC business deals with estates, wills, finalizing estates and making sure administrators do their job. For the most part, they run thru each list with all "ayes". Most come and go without discussion and are pretty much ho hum stuff. We rarely give much coverage on those matters.
On August 11th, with all three Commissioners at the ready, item 9 came up. That item was dealing with accepting the last will and testament of a Dorma B Davis. Instead of running right on thru, Ms King explained: the will before them was hand written (holographic they call it) but NOT written by the deceased. An earlier will was not signed by the now deceased Ms Davis. With that explanation, County Commission did not accept either document.
Here's something. This Summer the CCC voted unanimously to double 911 monthly fees on landline phones. They did that without having any real purpose for the new funnel of $$$.
During this meeting, the elected body voted to purchase real estate from Allegheny Rural Forestlands with the purpose of building, housing, a new 911 Center. The property is near the new State Road Garage
That sounds pretty costly and certainly a major change. Fran explained, the current location is down in the valley and that makes communications limited.
Of course, that's a load of manure. Stations across the world broadcast their product even from inside caves without a problem and down in the bottom of mountain valleys. How do they do that? Glad you asked.
The industry standard is to use a Studio Transmitter Link (STL) . For us, that would mean, from the 911 Center beside the Courthouse via a STL to atop a hill and then send the digital message to the various towers and transmitters around the county. That is the industry standard, works like a charm, has for decades, and something, we guess, the Clay County Commission has not heard of. It's either that or they just want to spend a bunch of tax dollars. So, here comes a costly new building away from prying eyes and leaving behind a 10 year old facility right beside the Courthouse.
What they should have told the public includes, the current 911 Center has been flooded and is in the Flood Plain. Just another day in paradise.
Black Shirt Randy Holcomb is preparing for retirement soon. To help him out, the CCC agreed to move his retirement $$$ from the months as acting Top Badge into the Black Shirt Deputy retirement fund. The Commission said it was at no cost to the County.
When the old CDC Nutrition site moved from their Two Run location due to faulting wiring and plugged up jons, the place went vacant. Not so anymore. The Clayberry Solid Waste Authority will be given free rent to move into the Two Run location. Currently the rarely heard of CSWA rents space near the Clay County Bank on Main Street.
Fran announced a pipe dream: When they get the old nutrition site fixed up, she thinks it could also be a nice business incubator site for all the new and coming companies in County Clay.
Here comes the grand enchalada event for this article.
There are all kinds of govt run and govt paid for agencies in and around Clayberry. Many, most, do nothing more than rake in the Govt $$$ and give back nothing more than lip service while doing zip, ninguno, zilch. Fran King knows it and has watched it first hand over the years.
For this Aug 11th public meeting, reps from WorkForce WV were on hand to explain all the new stuff they plan for Clay County.
In the way of background... our Govt contracts out Workforce services so private companies can suck in the dough. The contracts are awarded every few years. As much as 15 years ago, a private company known as Ross held that contract. Back then they had a program that actually provided jobs for high school students. Those extra few dollars really made a difference for the teeny boppers. The hands on , on the job, experiences in local businesses helped a bunch too. During those days, Ross even covered the cost of Worker's Comp on the kids which was a real concern for business owners.
Those days are gone and more recently, who ever held that contract, and according to Ms King, did nothing for Clayberry.
Fran made it a point to grill the two in attendance for upwards of 10 minutes solid. The grilling came after one of the guys, a Bill Monterossi, tried to blow happy smoke for a like amount of time.
King worked em over on: they don't let anybody know thru advertising what they do; she knew of no one that had actually benefited from the WorkForce WV program; many previous program promises never happened; and how come there's only one person in the county once a week and that WorkForce WV office (CAEZ building) is locked so the public can't get in.
It was fun to watch both gentlemen squirm. She was speaking the truth as many in the peanut gallery grinned.
So where's the new funding coming from this time around? Answer: from COVID funds (CARES) and get this, no mention was made of actual offering of jobs. Instead, the $$$ will be spent on the same tired BS of wheel spinning work readiness training and paper pushing forms.
Fran wasn't off her rip yet. She eye balled them and told them of many job needs that WorkForce should be training. Stuff, like wawa operators, sewer operators, EMT classes, paramedic, CDL classes came up. She made it a point to tell em, in all her years of being in private business, not one person had come to her door from WorkForce.
She asked the two to get to work and do something good for this County.
Oh, by the way, that job program for kids, the Youth Advantage Program, it ain't coming back in any meaningful way.
A couple months back King announced, she had written and got the OK for a $25K grant from Case Equipment. The money will be used to rent heavy equipment from the grant giver. The plan is to take the equipment to Spread Park (around August 24th) and fix that place with a handicapped accessible ramp, clean out the creek on the upper end of the Park among other things, and provide the equipment manufacturer with loads of cheap publicity.
About that $1.6 million COVID grant the CCC has already received... there was no mention of holding a public hearing so taxpayers can bring project ideas to the Commissioners' attention. A rep from Senator Capito's office encouraged the elected body to take their time before spending the big loaf of money. Of course, there is little worry about that anyway.
NOTE: Years ago, back when Peter Triplett was on the Commission, a main line wawa leak sent the wet stuff gushing across Courthouse Square. The landscape brick covering was badly heaved up (and still are) and have caused several Clayonians to trip and fall. No repairs have been made to date. No one is saying where that $100,000 insurance settlement wound up
For this meeting, word came that a new insurance settlement had been reached and the brick squares will be repaired before the Apple Festival in Sept. This damage came via a driver up on the curb in front of the Courthouse damaging a bench, lights, curb and brick work.
BDA Director Mitch DeBoard, also a paid FEMA worker, was on hand to answer ERT State Park questions. That coverage will be posted over on the Everything ERTS page of the COMMUNICATOR ONLINE newspaper section. Be sure to check that out.
Finally, Jim Samples was on hand to go into secret time to discuss a personnel matter. He knows, we know, such a reason is not allowed under Open Meeting laws in this state.
We left the secret time around 11:25 am
AW