Marlinton Mayor: fall festival a huge success

Marlinton, W.Va. – During Monday’s council meeting, Marlinton Mayor Joe Smith talks about Saturday’s Autumn Harvest Festival and Roadkill Cookoff.

“The Fall Festival and the Roadkill Cookoff, in my opinion, was a huge success,” he said. “The crowd was really good. The day was really nice. The highlight of the day for me was – The London Times covered it – newspaper – and they interviewed me about 3 o’clock. But, you know, when you get an international newspaper like The London Times covering, in essence, what is a small festival – it’s big for us, but nationwide, that’s a small festival – that is good.”

Smith bolsters recent anecdotal evidence of an improved economy with a report from Joel Srodes of the Rotary Club and councilmember Louise Barnisky concurs.

“The vendors made a lot of money,” Smith said. “Joel told me that he was supposed to work the pig stand thing at 12 o’clock and they was already sold out.”

“Pork rinds,” said councilmember Loretta Malcomb.

“Pork rinds, yeah, I couldn’t think what it was,” said the mayor.

“Seemed like everybody made a lot of money,” said Barnisky.

Malcomb said festival cleanup did not occur as usual.

“Generally, it’s done,” she said. “Generally, you look out on Sunday morning or even later on Saturday and you can’t tell anything’s ever happened and it’s all nice and clean. The town was a mess Sunday. It was awful. Main Street was really bad.”

The mayor explains that no group requested a special clean-up.

“It wasn’t requested, so I didn’t request anybody to come in” he said. “There was a few little things that was talked about, but just didn’t materialize.”
Malcomb asks the mayor why a town employee was cutting firewood with town equipment.

“What would the town have needed with a load of firewood?” she asked. “He went way down over the bank, down over the river bank, Thursday, I believe. I was working. Came back up with a load of firewood.”

“There was tree that blowed over during the storm,” the mayor replied. “It was just to clean it up because it was a safety hazard.”

Malcomb said she was told the town employee sold the firewood. Town Recorder Robin Mutscheller asks Smith to investigate.

“I would like to ask that you look into it, because, if he’s using a town vehicle and it’s being done on town time, and if he’s taking the firewood and selling it for personal gain, we need to know about it,” she said.

Suds and Duds laundromat and thrift shop owner Della Fleury presented a petition with dozens of signatures, requesting council take action about parking problems near her business. Smith told the business owner he would continue to work with her to resolve the issues and Fleury agreed to obtain residence information for signers of her petition.

Council approved an expenditure of $2,150 for laminate flooring for the first floor of the Municipal Building, except for the mayor’s office. Volunteer firefighters agreed to install the flooring, at no cost, if the town bought the materials. Smith said the carpet in his office is in good condition and did not need replaced.

In other business, council:
– approved a $1,500 donation to McClintic Library;
– tabled action on a donation for a Little League scoreboard until civic groups are solicited, and;
– set Halloween trick or treat hours for October 31 between 5-7 p.m.