Pocahontas County 9-1-1 Mapping And Addressing Project Gets New Coordinator

Marlinton, WV – Unhappy with the progress being made on the 9-1-1 mapping and addressing project, the Pocahontas County Commission approved a contract with Doug McKenzie at their meeting Tuesday. Pocahontas 911 Director Shawn Dunbrack talks about the change in coordinators.

“As you’re aware we haven’t been happy with the performance of Matt Taylor who’s previously been doing this job,” says Dunbrack. “So I sought out some input from other counties. Mr. McKenzie was one of the most recommended persons that I came up with and he’s already done a good bit of preliminary work with the county getting things ready.”

While former project coordinator Matt Taylor has spent several years on the project, McKenzie says he hopes to wrap up the project in just a few months.

“With the weather we’ve got, probably three months, but I’d like to have a window of six months just to be sure the other shoe doesn’t drop’; you know how that goes,” says McKenzie. “If it continues as it’s going, three months is plenty to finish it off. So the plan is to finish through Marlinton, hit Buckeye and Hillsboro and then move north and finish Cass and Green Bank.”

The contract is for $87,260.00 and covers three phases of work; naming all county roads, converting addresses to the 911 standard, and merging the information with the Frontier telephone system as well as the state data for all counties. Once his work is done, he will submit the information to the US Post office for their part of the project.

Dunbrack also asked the Commission for a letter of request to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank.

“The observatory has a radio quiet zone; they are waiving the ability for us to have a transmitter at Snowshoe that transmits out so we can alert people like Buster [Varner] at Durbin, all the various fire departments, talk to the Sheriff; different things like that,” says Dunbrack.

Dunbrack says the transmitter is in the 155 megahertz range and they periodically renew this agreement with the NRAO. The Commissioners approved the letter of request.

In other business, the Commissioner approved putting $5000.00 back into the overtime line item for the Sheriff’s dept budget. Sheriff David Jonese says because he had less money in his overtime budget and being short staffed since October 2011, he’s gone through his overtime funds faster than he anticipated.

The Commissioners also heard updates on the One Room University project and Community Corrections. Both projects are doing well; the ORU idea may be expanding into Monroe County later this year.

A bid to remove the boiler room building and the metal in the waste treatment plant at the East Fork Industrial Park was awarded to Elkins Metal Recycling who submitted the highest bid at $4000.00. Varner Construction had offered the Commission $2600.00 to do the work. George Arrington was the other bidder at $1500.00.

The Commissioners had a lively discussion about the benefits and disadvantages of using GPS directions in the county, and whether appropriate road signage is recommended. They agreed they need more information and will take up the discussion once more at a future meeting.

They also approved on a 2 to 1 vote to pay Kevin Shaw $14,500.00 for needed renovations/upgrades to the former chair lift entry/exit at the courthouse. Commissioner Jamie Walker voted in opposition to the motion.