Pocahontas County Receives $100,000 Pandemic Grant from the State

The Pocahontas County Commission met on Tuesday, April 21^st in a regular session at 5:30 pm. This meeting was closed to the public, but broadcast live on the commission’s Facebook page.

At the meeting, the commissioners laid the 2020-2021 Levy, setting it at $14.30.

They also announced that they have received a check from the state in the amount of one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000.} which was for the county’s West Virginia COVID-19 Pandemic County Block Grant. The Commissioners, at the suggestion of their Auditor, voted to place that money into an account until they can determine the full implications and costs of the Pandemic to the county’s first responders. They said the money must be used to support front-line first responders and must also be shared with the municipalities in the county.

They approved an agreement with the Family Resources Network (FRN) to receive the FEMA reimbursement for their Food Pantry and then distribute it to the FRN.

They approved the West Virginia Counties Risk Pool coverages for the 2020-2021 Fiscal Year.

The Commissioners held a discussion of the annual inspection agreement with Securi Tech, LLC, which that company submitted for their approval. The proposed agreement would cost Two Thousand forty-two dollars and thirty cents ($2042.30) for the annual inspection of the camera system in the Courthouse and Jail, and another two hundred, eighty-four dollars and eighty-two cents ($284.82) for the annual inspection of the camera system in the 911 Center. Securi Tech installed those systems about a year ago. The proposed agreement implied that these inspections might be required by the State Fire Marshall. The commissioners questioned the necessity of annual security camera inspections; the high cost of these inspections; and also, how the Fire Marshall would be involved with the inspection of security cameras.

They tabled any action on these inspections until at least the second meeting in May. If the meetings have been opened to the public by then, they will invite Securi Tech to explain this proposed agreement and answer their questions about it.

The commissioners approved allowing the Circuit Clerk and the Assessor to make minor in-house budget adjustments from one line-item to another within their own budgets, then ended the meeting by approving and signing off on the payment of invoices.