Pocahontas County Nine-One-One Director Stepping Down This Year

Marlinton, WV – Pocahontas County 9-1-1 Director Bill McLaughlin will retire from his position later this year. The announcement followed an hour plus long executive session during the County Commission meeting Tuesday. The Commissioners, McLaughlin, and 9-1-1 employees discussed personnel matters in the 9-1-1 office during the closed door meeting.

McLaughlin has worked for the county since 1986, with the last six years in the 9-1-1 office. He was due to retire in October, but had submitted a letter of resignation to the Commission late last week. He will assist the Pocahontas County Commission in preparing a job description for his position and in training his replacement.

He says he’s grateful for his time serving the people of Pocahontas County. His only regret – that he won’t be able to see the completion of the 9-1-1 mapping and addressing project.

Animal Welfare Contract Going Out To Bid

In other business, the Commissioners discussed at length the proposed animal welfare contract for the 2011-2012 fiscal year. Commission President David Fleming will incorporate the ideas and suggestions into a final bid advertisement that will run in the Pocahontas Times for two weeks. The Commission may have to extend the current contract with the Pocahontas County Humane Society if they do not award a new contract by June 30th.

ORU Getting Laptops

The One Room University will be getting some refurbished laptops for student use. The Commission approved an expenditure of $5000.00 to purchase 20 laptops for the ORU. Pocahontas County Coordinator Jay Miller explains how it will work.

“The policy that we’re going to try is that any student who registers for six or more hours would be entitled to a laptop for use as a student with a $100.00 deposit” says Miller. “And they could keep it as long as they’re in school.”

Miller says the machines are recycled laptops from Mission West Virginia. He says they expect to offer two development level classes this summer in the ORU classroom on the second floor of City National Bank in Marlinton.

Farmland Protection Board Updates Commission On Activities

The Commissioners heard an update on the activities of the Pocahontas County Farmland Protection Board. So far, they’ve obtained protection easements on a total of 1,454 acres of farmland in Pocahontas County, and will host the quarterly state farmland protection association meeting in Cass this July.

They also asked the Commission to consider adding the FPB administrative assistant to the Commission payroll for bookkeeping and insurance purposes. As there are still some legal questions to be answered concerning this request, it was tabled until the next Commission meeting.

The Commission approved the following:

To allow William Swecker to submit a draft for the final phase of the East Fork Industrial Remediation Project to the USDA and the WV DEP for approval to put the project out to bid

Appointed Barbara Shaw and Franklin Murphy to the Dramas, Fairs, and Festivals Board

And changed the meal allowance policy for all contracted employees who work for the Commission – these employees must now pay for meals out of their personal funds and submit a bill to the Commission for reimbursement.

Story By

Heather Niday

Heather is our Program Director and Traffic Manager. She started with Allegheny Mountain Radio as a volunteer deejay. She then joined the AMR staff in February of 2007. Heather grew up in the Richmond, Virginia, area and now lives in Arbovale, West Virginia with her husband Chuck. Heather is a wonderful flute player, and choir director for Arbovale UMC. You can hear Heather along with Chuck on Tuesday nights from 6 to 8pm as they host two hours of jazz on Something Different.

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