County Commissioners to Write Letter to Mon Power Over Broadband Pole Issues

At the April 21^st Pocahontas County Commission meeting, there was a discussion with Mike Holstine, Amanda Smarr, and the ARC Broadband Project’s attorney, Josh Jarrell, about the “make ready” issues the project has been experiencing with Mon Power. Mike Holstine said that their construction contractor has been making good progress with the project, with it being about 70% complete, however they are facing delays completing it because despite paying Mon Power $600.000 last summer for them to make their utility’s poles ready to receive the project’s fiber, it has not done so. Holstine explained that Mon Power was supposed to have completed this by last October, but still has not. That has caused the project’s construction company to have to stop work and remove all their equipment (he referred to this as “demobilizing,) and that caused an extra charge of $63,000 to the project as well as the delays. Attorney Jarrell said that Mon Power has assured him they will reimburse that $63,000. However, Jarrell said that they are also questioning $240,000 of the money paid to the utility for the pole work, because they believe that money was spent by Mon Power to fix existing problems with their poles that had nothing to do with our project installing fiber onto them. He believes Mon Power should return $300,000 to the county project – $63,000 for the change order, plus the $240,000. There are also questions about if the poles Mon Power has said they have-made ready, have actually been made-ready.

Jarrell recommended the commissioners send a letter to Mon Power and demand payment, however Commissioner Jamie Walker said we have played with them too long, so we should file a formal complaint with the Public Service Commission’s Pole Attachment Task Force to get them to force Mon Power to both finish their make-ready work and reimburse us, or take other legal action against the utility. Citing the possibility of resolving it much quicker by simply sending the letter, Jarrell convinced the commissioners to approve sending the letter to Mon Power making the demands and giving them one week to comply, or we will take those additional steps.

In a related matter, the commissioners approved paying Draw Request #26 from the Broadband grant funds to pay two invoices, totaling $11,000 to their engineering firm, the Thompson and Litton Company.

The commissioners also had a lengthy and spirited discussion-only with Sheriff McCoy about the future of the K9 program in his department. Several citizens spoke out in disagreement with McCoy’s decision to no longer use the K9, which he says has proven ineffective in drug enforcement. McCoy said that despite the dog being bought by the commission in 2023 by a grant to be used only for drug enforcement and search and rescue, his predecessor had allowed it to be trained and used as an aggressive police K9 also, but, after his election, he put a stop to that. He said this is a personnel issue between himself, the Deputy and the dog, and his lawyers have told him not to discuss it any further than that at a commission meeting. County Resident James Norman, who is a retired police officer from Florida talked about how using a K9 in police work can save lives and can fulfill the role of being like an extra deputy. He said often, just the arrival of a K-9 prevents assaults on law enforcement officers. He said they are very effective in finding lost children and, if used often and correctly, they are very effective in locating drugs.

Buster Varner also spoke out and said the sheriff would not allow the dog to be used fully and correctly as it was trained to do, and that is why it has been ineffective, and that is also why the frustrated Deputy that was trained to handle the dog asked to be removed from that duty.

Retired DNR Officer Henry Shinaberry added that if the dog is used correctly, it is an invaluable resource to law enforcement, especially in a department as short-handed as our Sheriff’s Office is.

Also at the meeting, the commissioners:

• Approved Ben Brown, the 911 Director to hire Austin Rider as a part-time Dispatcher at $14.00 per hour, with no benefits, to start on April 25.
• Laid the FY 2026-2027 County Levy
• Approved and signed the WV Office of Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant award of $5,827.79, to be used to replace the lights in the former ARC Building to LED lights.

The commissioners then went into an executive session with Sheriff McCoy on a personnel issue.