Sept 22 2021
Here comes two
meetings packed full of interesting morsels of knowledge.
County Commission held a public meeting on Wed Sept 22nd beginning at 10am. A special meeting was held at 11am that morning. Commissioner Connie Kinder was not present for either gathering. She was recovering from surgery at that time. The peanut gallery had upwards of 20 taxpayers in the pews. Here are some of the highlights.
On the 22nd, that was right after the both Town of Clay raw wawa pumps broke down and the county was operating on a Boil Water Order from the Town and Clay PSD. From the Commission: one pump was down before this blow out and parts for that pump had been ordered 6 weeks prior; the 2nd pump "fried" on the 20th, Monday; the Big Otter and Clay Fire Departments worked late into the night (Tuesday) to pump water to the Clay plant to keep the storage tanks from going completely dry; the Clay tank was down to just 8 feet of the wet stuff; the Clay County PSD tank had just 6 feet available; and, a West Virginia Water Co. tanker arrived on Tuesday to provide some potable wawa for those with jugs and other containers.
Both Commissioners knew the seriousness of the BWO and how dangerous it is for fire suppression minus a ready supply of wawa.. Without the wawa available, Clayberry became a third world country. The lack of back up pump indicated the weak condition of the Town of Clay operation.
Talk turned to the number of trucks, ATVs and side by side by sides, traveling ERTS.
Commissioner King spoke on a large pull behind utility trailer that was left smack dab in the middle of the trail, cross wise, in Ivydale. She was upset that Sheriff Alan King had not responded to her request to go check out things. Alan King was present during her remarks but said nothing.
When asked, who do you contact when there are problems with ERTS, Fran replied, she has NO contact number nor has she been provided the name of the new ERT Park Superintendent. For those that don't know, for all intents and purposes, ERTS is impassable due to rocks slides, mud slides, lack of top coat, culverts clogged, trees down and deep water damage going across the surface.
There were no answers during this meeting. ERTS is a real cluster! Our tourism based future is in jeopardy.
Phillip Keith was present to make the request for matching operation funds for the Parents as Teachers school program. Keith knew the CCC was setting on COVID funds amounting to over $1.5 million. Commission Prez Fran King suggested, make your request to the Pentagon which is setting on millions of dollars of free COVID $$$.
Speaking of free $$$, the Health Dept is applying for a $2 million COVID grant. The deadline for that grant request is Nov 1st. If funded, talk is, the Clay Health Dept, wants to expand their building or build a new one. For long time readers of this newspaper, you might remember, Frank Murphy owns the trailer park right beside the Health Dept and talk was to buy the land for a kiddy park. Sale price: $250,000. Our guess, instead of park, that spot would be used for a new building.
Item #7 was accepting the resignation /retirement of Black Shirt Randy Holcomb effective Sept 30th. Ms King spoke on the many years of service beginning back in 1980 when Holcomb graduated from Clay High. Randy was on hand but did not speak up other than to say, he wouldn't really be leaving until some time in October.
The Randy Holcomb era is coming to an end.... or is it? Others have retired and then came back in some other capacity. Most recently was Black Shirt Robert Belt who returned as a Bailiff. A Bailiff is not allowed to go out and do road patrols according to the W Va State Code. Belt did and could be heard often, out doing road patrol ticket writing duties. We expect that same thing to happen with Holcomb after his retirement. Unlawful but a pretty good jig if you can get it, draw your full retirement and continue getting paid for your day job.
County Commission held a public meeting on Wed Sept 22nd beginning at 10am. A special meeting was held at 11am that morning. Commissioner Connie Kinder was not present for either gathering. She was recovering from surgery at that time. The peanut gallery had upwards of 20 taxpayers in the pews. Here are some of the highlights.
On the 22nd, that was right after the both Town of Clay raw wawa pumps broke down and the county was operating on a Boil Water Order from the Town and Clay PSD. From the Commission: one pump was down before this blow out and parts for that pump had been ordered 6 weeks prior; the 2nd pump "fried" on the 20th, Monday; the Big Otter and Clay Fire Departments worked late into the night (Tuesday) to pump water to the Clay plant to keep the storage tanks from going completely dry; the Clay tank was down to just 8 feet of the wet stuff; the Clay County PSD tank had just 6 feet available; and, a West Virginia Water Co. tanker arrived on Tuesday to provide some potable wawa for those with jugs and other containers.
Both Commissioners knew the seriousness of the BWO and how dangerous it is for fire suppression minus a ready supply of wawa.. Without the wawa available, Clayberry became a third world country. The lack of back up pump indicated the weak condition of the Town of Clay operation.
Talk turned to the number of trucks, ATVs and side by side by sides, traveling ERTS.
Commissioner King spoke on a large pull behind utility trailer that was left smack dab in the middle of the trail, cross wise, in Ivydale. She was upset that Sheriff Alan King had not responded to her request to go check out things. Alan King was present during her remarks but said nothing.
When asked, who do you contact when there are problems with ERTS, Fran replied, she has NO contact number nor has she been provided the name of the new ERT Park Superintendent. For those that don't know, for all intents and purposes, ERTS is impassable due to rocks slides, mud slides, lack of top coat, culverts clogged, trees down and deep water damage going across the surface.
There were no answers during this meeting. ERTS is a real cluster! Our tourism based future is in jeopardy.
Phillip Keith was present to make the request for matching operation funds for the Parents as Teachers school program. Keith knew the CCC was setting on COVID funds amounting to over $1.5 million. Commission Prez Fran King suggested, make your request to the Pentagon which is setting on millions of dollars of free COVID $$$.
Speaking of free $$$, the Health Dept is applying for a $2 million COVID grant. The deadline for that grant request is Nov 1st. If funded, talk is, the Clay Health Dept, wants to expand their building or build a new one. For long time readers of this newspaper, you might remember, Frank Murphy owns the trailer park right beside the Health Dept and talk was to buy the land for a kiddy park. Sale price: $250,000. Our guess, instead of park, that spot would be used for a new building.
Item #7 was accepting the resignation /retirement of Black Shirt Randy Holcomb effective Sept 30th. Ms King spoke on the many years of service beginning back in 1980 when Holcomb graduated from Clay High. Randy was on hand but did not speak up other than to say, he wouldn't really be leaving until some time in October.
The Randy Holcomb era is coming to an end.... or is it? Others have retired and then came back in some other capacity. Most recently was Black Shirt Robert Belt who returned as a Bailiff. A Bailiff is not allowed to go out and do road patrols according to the W Va State Code. Belt did and could be heard often, out doing road patrol ticket writing duties. We expect that same thing to happen with Holcomb after his retirement. Unlawful but a pretty good jig if you can get it, draw your full retirement and continue getting paid for your day job.
Here's a
couple pics of the backside of the CSCS building which is
up against the old Courthouse parking lot. CSCS is
claiming, wawa runoff from the County's parking lot, is
running down the hill and damaging their building.
Stephanie
Duffield, Director of CSCS, that's the old Clay
Development Corp (CDC), was on hand seeking help
with wawa run off behind the CSCS building. Duffield says
the County is responsible for the run off since it's
coming from the old Courthouse parking lot.
Fran King disputed the statement saying, a french drain was taking care of the problem. Commissioner Schoolcraft added, the run off wawa is coming from above the Courthouse parking lot.
From the Commission: submit your insurance report and see what happens.
Commissioner Fran King told the assembled, long time Health Dept employee, one time Director, and now a Physician Asst., Angela Brown, was resigning from her job.
Here's something interesting... Circuit Clerk's office employee Jill O'Brien wants the CCC to pay for her single coverage health insurance. Ain't going to happen. Both Commissioners on hand voted down the request citing, that's a Circuit Clerk budget decision.
Also, here comes another big no. Frankie West from the Prosecutor's office was seeking a pay raise. Using the same reasoning as just above, their response was No Way Jose.
Here comes the whispers folks. Shannon Johnson is the Asst Prosecutor. She too was seeking a pay increase. Up front, Fran and David started the hushed whispers. They sure didn't want the taxpayer to know what was going on. The item was tabled for now.
We think Ms Johnson is not an employee but rather, a contract laborer. If that's true, then it may be up to the Commission to give her a raise.
That does it for the regular meeting.
Here comes the Special Meeting of the CCC set for 11am on Sept 22nd. The posted agenda for the Special meeting called for hiring of Lizemore Ambulance Service EMT's, Paramedics, and drivers for use by the Clay Ambulance Service.
Just below are a couple of the letters referenced by the County Commission during this meeting.
Fran King disputed the statement saying, a french drain was taking care of the problem. Commissioner Schoolcraft added, the run off wawa is coming from above the Courthouse parking lot.
From the Commission: submit your insurance report and see what happens.
Commissioner Fran King told the assembled, long time Health Dept employee, one time Director, and now a Physician Asst., Angela Brown, was resigning from her job.
Here's something interesting... Circuit Clerk's office employee Jill O'Brien wants the CCC to pay for her single coverage health insurance. Ain't going to happen. Both Commissioners on hand voted down the request citing, that's a Circuit Clerk budget decision.
Also, here comes another big no. Frankie West from the Prosecutor's office was seeking a pay raise. Using the same reasoning as just above, their response was No Way Jose.
Here comes the whispers folks. Shannon Johnson is the Asst Prosecutor. She too was seeking a pay increase. Up front, Fran and David started the hushed whispers. They sure didn't want the taxpayer to know what was going on. The item was tabled for now.
We think Ms Johnson is not an employee but rather, a contract laborer. If that's true, then it may be up to the Commission to give her a raise.
That does it for the regular meeting.
Here comes the Special Meeting of the CCC set for 11am on Sept 22nd. The posted agenda for the Special meeting called for hiring of Lizemore Ambulance Service EMT's, Paramedics, and drivers for use by the Clay Ambulance Service.
Just below are a couple of the letters referenced by the County Commission during this meeting.
Most of you
already knew, the Lizemores Ambulance Service closed its doors
two Friday's ago, Sept 17th. The above letters document those
"on the street" stories.
Earlier this year , Christian Elliot, a volunteer with Lizemores, was sentenced to prison for sticky finger-itus of Lizemore funds. She's still in the can as of this writing. Back in the trial paperwork, it sure sounded like others in the organization should also be going to Court. That hasn't happened
For this Special meeting, CCC agreed to remove the cash strapped service from 911 Dispatch duties and to hire the Lizemore employees for the Clay Ambulance Service. The new hires will come in with no seniority and and at the Clay pay scale.
So what happened within the debt ridden emergency service provider? Randy Holcomb provided: There is no excuse for this... it was poor management... They've got problems ... It started at the top and one has already been convicted... some checks have already bounced I think...
He said something about $158,000 owed. Sorry we didn't catch that full passage but we think Lizemores has maxed out a couple or three of their credit cards in an effort to keep the doors open.
Notice the letter from Michael Morton, the new Fire Chief. What he didn't write was, the night before the doors were shuttered, the long time Fire Chief, Justin Elliot, stepped down.
Mr Elliot is the husband of Christian, the lady that's spending her night's in prison. During Courtroom action, Judge Ric Facemire mentioned that some of the ambulance funds were used to pay Ms Elliot's husband's company bills like utilities.
Back to this special meeting, Commissioner King brought up questionable operations within the troubled agency. King questioned the number of non emergency transports done by Lizemores. She said law requires them to have a "truck" available for emergencies while the transport is in progress. She added how important the Lizemores Ambulance Service is for the citizens' of this county.
Backing up Fran's remarks, maybe from Randy Holcomb: Time is everything ... that first hour...
Someone spoke out: Why not take one of Clay's ambulances over to Lizemore? In response, Fran King: We're thinking about about that now.
The meeting business was complete and the special meeting adjourned.
But But But, don't stop reading now.
As many were making their way out the door, Sheriff Alan King made a bee line up front to speak with the Franster. It started with Allen pointing his finger at Fran. With the commotion of so many leaving, we couldn't hear the entire conversation.
Putting six and two together, we think Allen was madder than a wet hen, he didn't appreciate Fran mentioning his name during the public meeting in such an uncomplimentary way, AKA, not doing his job. Many public officials don't want anything controversial to be said in public. Top Badge Allen King may be one of those with thin skin.
We could hear Fran telling Allen to put that finger away. Something was added about Fran telling a lie about giving notice of the ERTS trailer to the Sheriff.
Damn those noisy folks leaving... we think the two elected officials had it out .
It's been a tough week in the Land of Little. Between not having running wawa for the majority of the county customers and having a long standing ambulance service close its doors, and then add on top of that, the pandemic is still very strong in Clayberry, how much worse can it get?
AW end
Earlier this year , Christian Elliot, a volunteer with Lizemores, was sentenced to prison for sticky finger-itus of Lizemore funds. She's still in the can as of this writing. Back in the trial paperwork, it sure sounded like others in the organization should also be going to Court. That hasn't happened
For this Special meeting, CCC agreed to remove the cash strapped service from 911 Dispatch duties and to hire the Lizemore employees for the Clay Ambulance Service. The new hires will come in with no seniority and and at the Clay pay scale.
So what happened within the debt ridden emergency service provider? Randy Holcomb provided: There is no excuse for this... it was poor management... They've got problems ... It started at the top and one has already been convicted... some checks have already bounced I think...
He said something about $158,000 owed. Sorry we didn't catch that full passage but we think Lizemores has maxed out a couple or three of their credit cards in an effort to keep the doors open.
Notice the letter from Michael Morton, the new Fire Chief. What he didn't write was, the night before the doors were shuttered, the long time Fire Chief, Justin Elliot, stepped down.
Mr Elliot is the husband of Christian, the lady that's spending her night's in prison. During Courtroom action, Judge Ric Facemire mentioned that some of the ambulance funds were used to pay Ms Elliot's husband's company bills like utilities.
Back to this special meeting, Commissioner King brought up questionable operations within the troubled agency. King questioned the number of non emergency transports done by Lizemores. She said law requires them to have a "truck" available for emergencies while the transport is in progress. She added how important the Lizemores Ambulance Service is for the citizens' of this county.
Backing up Fran's remarks, maybe from Randy Holcomb: Time is everything ... that first hour...
Someone spoke out: Why not take one of Clay's ambulances over to Lizemore? In response, Fran King: We're thinking about about that now.
The meeting business was complete and the special meeting adjourned.
But But But, don't stop reading now.
As many were making their way out the door, Sheriff Alan King made a bee line up front to speak with the Franster. It started with Allen pointing his finger at Fran. With the commotion of so many leaving, we couldn't hear the entire conversation.
Putting six and two together, we think Allen was madder than a wet hen, he didn't appreciate Fran mentioning his name during the public meeting in such an uncomplimentary way, AKA, not doing his job. Many public officials don't want anything controversial to be said in public. Top Badge Allen King may be one of those with thin skin.
We could hear Fran telling Allen to put that finger away. Something was added about Fran telling a lie about giving notice of the ERTS trailer to the Sheriff.
Damn those noisy folks leaving... we think the two elected officials had it out .
It's been a tough week in the Land of Little. Between not having running wawa for the majority of the county customers and having a long standing ambulance service close its doors, and then add on top of that, the pandemic is still very strong in Clayberry, how much worse can it get?
AW end