Town Of Marlinton Will Continue Contract With State Police For Protection

Marlinton, WV – Marlinton Town Council voted to leave the town police department vacant and continue its current contract with the West Virginia State Police. State troopers have been patrolling the town 24-hours per week since the town’s police officer went to work with the county Sheriff’s Department.Councilman Joe Smith shared the Police Committee’s recommendations with his fellow council members:

“We recommend not to staff the Marlinton Police Department again.”

Smith said the committee recommended continuing its contract with the West Virginia State Police until the start of the new fiscal year. The committee also wants to encourage the State Police to issue citations for violations of town ordinances. Additionally, Smith said the committee wants the mayor to exercise his legal authority to issue citations for domestic violations, such as abandoned cars and unkempt lots.

Smith said the committee would also like to continue having a town judge to rule on violations of town ordinance and traffic tickets, but that the pay scale would be restructured. Council approved the committee’s recommendations unanimously and voted to extend its contract with the State Police.

Council voted against a separate motion by police committee member Norris Long to decommission the police cruiser and make it available for the mayor’s use by a vote of 2-to-4.

Council also approved providing matching funds for a marketing program being spearheaded by Gail Hyer, Darren Jackson and other members of the town’s business community. Operating as GoMarlinton, the group is working on an advertising campaign and a website highlighting the town’s amenities and tourism-related businesses, as well as attractions in the Marlinton area. The group is seeking a $10,000 grant from the West Virginia tourism office to fund the marketing efforts. While the match required is $2,500, members of the business community have already pledged more than $2,000 of the match, meaning the town would only have to put forward $465. The town would also be the fiscal agent for the grant. Hyer described the group’s focus.

“What we want to focus on is the positive things. The first meeting we had, the agreement was that our job is not to fix anything. There’s wonderful, delightful things going on in this town. There always has been. But there’s certainly some new upcoming things, thinks like the mural project and the wellness center and the railroad depot being rebuilt. But there are also things that have always been here, and we have a set of good businesses here.”

Town Recorder Robin Muttscheler was enthusiastic about the project.

“I’d like to commend everyone that worked on this project. I think it’s wonderful that people care enough about the time of Marlinton to volunteer their time to do it. I think you’ve worked hard for it. And I would like to make a motion that the town participate with the GoMarlinton project and be the fiscal agent subject to approval from the state auditor’s office, to make sure that we can participate like this.”

Council unanimously approved Muttscheler’s motion and designated councilman David Zorn as town hall’s liaison with the GoMarlinton group.

In other business, council –
Approved a $33,000 drawdown request for the stormwater project
Decided to wait to see if the county includes the CodeRED emergency notification system in its budget before pursing the system for the town
Lowered the cap on discretionary purchases by the mayor’s office from $10,000 to $1,000
Approved the first reading of the new flood plain ordinance
And heard an update from Molly Must about the mural project
Marlinton Town Council’s next regularly scheduled meeting is April 14 at 7:00 at the Municipal Building.

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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