Commissioners Authorize Day Report to Do Drug Screens for Private Businesses

At the October 20^th meeting of the Pocahontas County Commission, Jodi Zickefoose, the Day Report Director, asked the commissioners to authorize Day Report to offer a new service, specifically to allow Day Report to offer pre-employment drug screening of prospective employees of private businesses, if the business requests it and are willing to pay Day Report to conduct those drug tests. She said they would charge the business $50.00 to do an instant drug screen, and $85.00 to do a lab-confirmed drug screen. The commissioners discussed this, and Commissioner Ryder commented that there are currently no other resources in the county that offer drug testing of perspective employees to screen them for illegal drug use. He then made a motion to authorize Day Report to offer this as a service to area businesses. That motion passed unanimously.

Andrew McAfee, the Board President of Safe Home LLC, a non-profit organization based in Green Bank, made a presentation about the tracking dangers posed by many common electronic devices that most people are in constant contact with. A few of the things he referred to include: smart thermostats; wi-fi routers; Alexis and Siri computer AI assistants; smart electric meters, smart watches, and even medical devices such as some implants and insulin pumps. His lists would include almost any sophisticated electronic device. He said our personal and location information is being sent to large corporations by these devices, which track us.

McAffee asked the commission to consider adopting an ordinance to create a means to report suspected surveillance. He provided a sample ordinance for the commissioners to forward to the County Prosecutor for her review. According to the Safe Home LLC’s website, their mission is to “address the unique human needs of its members by creating non-toxic low EMF housing, streamlining the relocation process, developing employment opportunities, fostering meaningful connections, and preserving the Radio Quiet Zone through education, awareness, and legislative action.” The commissioners said they would forward the proposed ordinance to the County Prosecutor, but needed to do a lot more research before seriously considering such an ordinance.

The commissioners also opened and awarded the bid for providing heating oil for the courthouse and jail for the upcoming year. It was awarded to the only bidder, Woodford Oil, at a price determined by the Rack Price plus 20 cents per gallon. Today’s price would be almost $5.34 per gallon -actually it was $5.33.99 cents per gallon.

They also approved the Environmental Review for the Thornwood Water Extension Project, and approved Resolutions 12 for that project, which was to pay $7,897.97 for three invoices, one of which was for the endangered bumble bee report, noting that the bubble bee is no longer holding up the project.

The commissioners approved the following regarding the ARC Broadband Project: A substantial completion certificate; an Inspection Report; and a time extension request.

Be sure to listen to the second part of our story concerning the October 20^th Pocahontas County Commission meeting in which the Sheriff makes a startling statement, and we report on additional actions at the meeting.