Pocahontas PSD Looking For New Attorney

Snowshoe, WV – The Pocahontas County Public Service District board may be getting two new attorneys in the near future. That’s just one of the considerations as they plan for the replacement of long time board attorney Tom Michael. Michael is resigning his position as the board attorney effective this August, citing an increased work load as the reason.

PSD member Tom Shipley suggested that the board may want to consider hiring two attorneys – perhaps one well versed in consent decree agreements, the other in dealing with the West Virginia Public Service Commission. Shipley says he’s contacted the PSC for advice, but had not yet heard back from them.

PSD Chairman Mark Smith points out that Tom Michael was hired thru the Region Four Planning and Development group and suggested getting a copy of their basic attorney agreement form. Smith also asked fellow board member Amon Tracy to contact Michael and ask him if he’s willing to assist in writing a job description for the position.

In other business, Shipley gave a brief summary of a recent field trip he and Tracey made to local streams in the Snowshoe area with representatives of the West Virginia Dept of Environmental Protection and the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources. He says the WV DNR will provide temperature sensors to put in several streams in the area to monitor the temp of the effluent released by current and future sewer plants. Many of the area’s native trout are very sensitive to higher temperatures. Shipley says he will write up the meeting notes from the field trip to present at a future PSD meeting.

The board approved a list of needed Capital improvements for the current PSD sewer systems. Sewer manager Lloyd Coleman will prepare the 60 day bids to advertise for the work. The board also approved a contract with Mi-Tec for the PSD website contract.

The board agreed to a liability statement holding the WV Rural Water Association harmless for any possible damage occurring as the result of an upcoming smoke test in the Snowshoe area. Affected residents will be notified ahead of time of the test. The test is needed to detect leaks and other problems in the lines.