The Doddridge County Commission held their regular meeting on September 1, 2020 at 9:00AM in the upstairs Courtroom. The meeting was called to order by Ronnie Travis, President, at 9:01AM with all Commissioners being present.
The minutes to their last meeting were approved as presented.
The Commissioners welcomed the attendees and moved forward after offering time for Public Comment.
Greg Cottrill presented the documents for approval, to the County Commission that will allow the Park, Health Department, Library and WVU Extension Service to place a Special Levy on the Ballot for their Levy. This election is to take place on January 16, 2021. The date of the Special Election will give the agencies time to run the Levy for a second time before the prior Levy expires.
Cottrill indicated the percentage was rolled back to lessen the impact on land owners with 90% being of the tax collected on the business owners.
It is known that “business owners” would be those who pay Class 3 and 4 taxes which would include businesses, royalty owners, out of state land owners, unused properties and others being assessed Class 3 and 4 taxed properties.
Brooke Knight-Fitzgerald was present with the Order for signature and noted she had already contacted the Auditor’s and Secretary of State’s Office for their approval.
The Commission approved the Special Levy as presented. (See separate Article titled “Special Levy Amounts”)
Bids were opened for the scanning of the records in the offices of the County Clerk and Circuit Clerk. Both only had one bid each from Compucom, Inc., with the records remaining to be scanned in the County Clerk’s Office being bid at $30,822.70 and the Circuit Clerk’s documents, along with the indexing and adding the records to the existing documents that are already on their system, bid at $119,386. Both Clerks noted the bids were under the amounts budgeted by the Commission for Fiscal Year 20/21. The Commission approved both bids.
Greg Cottrill, Doddridge County Parks, presented a letter of support from the Commission to apply for a Transportation Grant from DOH, to build a footbridge over Meathouse Fork that will connect a 1.6 mile loop trail at the DC Park. This is an 80/20 split grant with the Park being responsible for the 20% of the cost. The Commission approved his request.
The Commission approved the Armstrong Franchise agreement after not
ing it is the same as the past years’ agreement.
Under Policies and Procedures for Covid 19, by consensus, the Commissioners decided to move forward with their existing plan without changes. They were asked, why not use the State’s Metrics with the Map and seemed to want to wait and see how the opening of the schools with the added athletic events may or may not change the numbers in the county.
George Eidel Floodplain Manager indicated were no Floodplain Permits to report nor could he share the Emergency Run Report, He did indicate there had been one structure fire, the inflatable shelter for the Health Department had been picked up, there would be Free Covid Testing on September 17th, and the Governor had Declared September National Preparedness Month.
The DCAA reported the Primary Checking Balance is $124,925.89; The Fund’s balance is $325,540.52 (includes insurance payments from vehicle wrecks) and the income for August was $22,200.68.
David King, Clerk of the Works, reported the Sheriff’s Office building has had all of the HVAC repaired, Annex is moving along with meetings for the final details, the underground utilities identified, meetings with GST and State Electric for the security and network being completed. He did note the Prosecuting Attorney’s office wasn’t totally completed and the next offices to be repaired will be the Magistrate’s.
Beth Kellar, Chief Deputy Clerk, presented one State Budget Revision, moving $40,000 from Oil and gas Severance to Capital Projects to cover the new Animal Control Truck at the cost of $29,985 with the remainder covering the cost of the washer for the fire departments.
There were five Exonerations approved and two Estate Probations.
After Travis called for the bills and invoices to be paid, discussion concerning the Park Improvements took place, with Greg Cottrill. The meeting was adjourned around 9:50AM.