Rebinski Vents Frustrations with Solid Waste Authority

At the June 2^nd Pocahontas County Commission Meeting, Commission President John Rebinski signed up as a hear caller to address the public. He said that although the Commission has no authority over the Pocahontas County Solid Waste Authority (SWA,) which answers to the WV Public Service Commission, they had come to the commission seeking financial support three times.

1. The first time, Rebinski said, was to ask for help finding a new location for a Green Box site near Durbin. And the commission provided them a free site at the former Howes Tannery site.
2. The second time was when they needed money for the purchase of the county landfill site, which the SWA had been leasing, and the commission used $155,000 in unused COVID funds to buy the site for the SWA. He said the SWA is now complaining that the commission placed a restriction on the deed whereby the SWA could not use Eminent Domain to seize adjourning land to expand the landfill. Rebinski said the SWA had plenty of opportunity to object to that deed restriction, but did not do so.
3. The third time occurred when the SWA asked the commission to pay them $300,000 for operation expenses. Rebinski said that while the funds were not available for that, they did offer money to help needy families on a case-by-case basis, who could not afford the projected higher Green Box fees, but the SWA, upset that they would not get their $300,000, opposed that idea.

Rebinski also mentioned that when he attempted to attend the March 19^th SWA meeting to see if there was anyway the commission could assist them, SWA Chairman Dave Henderson told Rebinski to leave the meeting. Rebinski added that when the commission saw they had a future crisis coming with providing ambulance service, they headed off that crisis and planned ahead to deal successfully with it, unlike the SWA who did not plan ahead to avoid their looming crisis (the landfill filling up and closing.) He said “the Solid Waste Authority’s problems are of their own making.”

There were several other hear callers who addressed the commission.

• Jedi Hill, the Director of Mountain Quest, told the commissioners that the Green Bank Observatory is in serious danger of losing, or having seriously reduced, its federal funding and asked the commissioners to explore ways to help them.
• Marcy Crabtree, who moved here from Tennessee to escape the electromagnetic radiation, expressed concerns with increased WIFI near the observatory, and the radiation producing Smart Meters that Mon Power is installing in residences.
• Norman Phillips, who said he just moved here from Charlotte, NC and is at the meeting just to learn about the community.
• Linda Davis, who said she will not be able to afford the higher Green Box fees, and she only produces one bag of trash a month.

Phil Wiseman the Local Veterans Employment Representative for Workforce, WV made a presentation. He said he works with employers to encourage them to hire veterans, and runs a state job database for veterans.

Rebinski also asked his fellow commissioners to move money from the Occupancy Tax Contingency Fund to the Ambulance Fund for future needs. They took no action on this.

Additionally, the commissioners approved the following:

• Resolution #3 for the PMH Wastewater Relocation Project, paying $9,237 from the County’s allocation to pay legal fees.
• Sheriff McCoy’s request to donate $2,500 for the Sheriff Association’s Youth Leadership Academy, which will be held at Glenville State in July and will teach youths, including some from Pocahontas County, about drug and alcohol abuse, violence prevention, responsibility and good citizenship.
• Two budget amendment revisions for the ARC Broadband Project, and approved Draw Request #27 from that project in the amount of $5,400 for engineering invoices.
• Advertising for a part-time employee at the Animal shelter.
• Transferring part-time EMT Dillon White to a full-time position at the Ambulance Service.
• SHARC Director Charles Evans request for $29,000 in Title III money for Wildland Fire and Search and Rescue programs.
• Publication of a “notice to bid” for a utility tractor for Courthouse grounds maintenance.
• Renewal the MindEase contract for Day Report for$30,000, to teach classes.
• General County Budget and in-house budget revisions.
• Certification of the Assessor’s 2026 Personal Property and Land Books.
• The WVCORP Workers compensation/Insurance Proposal for this coming fiscal year at an estimated cost of $200,712, for Workers Compensation, Vehicle, and other insurances.

It should be noted that in a previous story about the May 5^th Commission meeting, we said Commissioner Thane Ryder said he had been at the Green Bank firehouse meeting about solid waste. That was our error, Ryder was not at that meeting and was referring to another solid Waste meeting.