Snowshoe Resort Considering New RAD Petition

Frank DeBerry of Snowshoe Mountain Resort addressed the Pocahontas County Commission during their September 20^th meeting, inviting the Commissioners to send one of their members to participate in a new committee at the resort. The new committee is being formed to consider the possibility of making another attempt at creating a Resort Area District or RAD at Snowshoe. The last effort ended when the County Commission voted the RAD petition down in July, 2015 amid complaints from Snowshoe area residents about falling property values, the possible imposition of steep RAD fees on property owners, and the lack of transparency by the Resort about the RAD proposal. DeBerry explains his purpose in coming before the Commission.

“What I’m coming for tonight is to ask the Commission to consider at least of putting one representative of the Commission to participate in ongoing discussions this fall between homeowners, between Snowshoe, between interested parties about whether or not reviving the RAD idea makes sense to do” said DeBerry. “If so, in what fashion and how to do it, and if we make that decision to move forward to be there, and involved in and be engaged in the discussions from the beginning.”

DeBerry emphasized that if a new effort at creating a RAD at snowshoe is made, this effort will try and avoid the mistakes made during the last effort by being transparent from the beginning by having the Snowshoe area home owners’ associations as well as the community involved in designing the RAD proposal. After a discussion, the Commissioners voted to send one representative to these committee meetings and would rotate among themselves who would attend these monthly meetings.

The Commissioners also approved the election officials for November’s election as recommended by the County Clerk’s Office.

There was a discussion about Civil Service Testing of Deputy Sheriff applicants. The Civil Service Board has discovered that they have never adopted rules which would establish a passing grade for the test, although it has historically used a 70% score as the passing grade. Commission Attorney Bob Martin informed the Commission that there is no passing score set in State law either, so a newly hired Deputy Sheriff’s score of 69 on the test needs to be considered passing the test. The Civil Service Board will formally establish a passing grade for future Deputy Sheriff’s tests at their next meeting on October 3^rd.

Director Glen Galloway of the Day Report Center delivered his monthly update. The Day Report Center had 16 participants in August, adding 2 participants that month while 1 participant completed the program. They conducted 7 drug screens with 2 of them being positive for the presence of illegal drugs. In August, the Day Report participants completed 150 hours of community service. The program saved the County $23,932.00 in jail costs during August.

In other actions, the Commission voted to donate an excess 2001 Jeep to the Town of Marlinton. the vehicle needs work before it can be run. It will be used by the town’s Building Inspector and by other town employees as needed.

They accepted a resignation letter from Grazia Apolinares from her position as County Water Resources Coordinator and approved a revised policy on posting the Commission Meeting Agendas so it complied with recommendations of the State Ethics Commission. These changes were cosmetic in nature, including additional detailed information but not actually changing the way things are done. They voted also to send the revised policy back to the Ethics Commission to ensure it now meets their standards.

They appointed Cyla Allison to a 4 year term on the Farmland Protection Board.

They also appointed Cindy Wilfong, Barbara Lay and Preston Cline to three year terms on the County Local Emergency Planning Committee to expire on September 30, 2019 and appointed Steve Olson to finish a vacant three year term to the Committee to expire September 30, 2018..

Bob Martin delivered his report which included his research about the Deputy Sheriff Test results discussed earlier in the meeting. It was reported that the City Council of the Town of Marlinton has voted to suspend the water billing on the county owned Former Shoe Factory until the sprinkler system there has been tested, repaired and made operational. A company will be hired to test the system at a cost of $3000.00

The meeting ended with the signing of invoices.