U.S. Census Bureau Interviewing for Temporary Census Positions in Pocahontas County

Janet Spry of the U.S. Census Bureau addressed the Pocahontas County Commission’s June 21^st meeting about temporary jobs with the Census Bureau. She said the U.S. Census Bureau will be taking applications, testing and interviewing for Clerks, Census Takers, Field Supervisors and Office Operations Supervisor for a 2018 Census Test in Pocahontas County. People interested in any of these temporary positions should call 1-888-480-1639 for an application, fill out the application and bring it to one of the following interviews:

• Wednesday 6/28 @11:00 a.m. and  a second one at 3:00 p.m. at the Hillsboro Library
• Thursday, 6/29 @ 11:00 a.m. and  4:00 p.m. at the McClintic Library in Marlinton
• Wednesday, July 5th @ 3:00 p.m. at the Durbin Library
• Thursday, July 6th @ 2:30 p.m. at the Green Bank Library
• Friday July 7th @ 1:00 p.m. at the Linwood Library”

Spry said that you will need to have an email address where you can be reached at, and that there will be a skills test along with the interview.

Margaret Worth spoke at the meeting and informed the Commissioners that she and Hallie Herold recently visited the U.S. Senate with a group of women from “Quakers for the Earth.” Their goal was to meet with and convince the members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to not appoint any new Commissioners to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission or FERC- because things are too volatile politically right now, and because they are concerned that FERC displays “too much evidence of misconduct”  in its support of pipeline construction.  Worth met with the staffs of Senators from Hawaii, Maine, Nevada and New Jersey who were sympathetic, but a Pennsylvania Senator and Senator Capito refused to have a meeting with her. Worth was not satisfied with Senator Mansion’s approach to pipelines and said that at a recent Town Hall in Princeton , Mansion said the American Economy needs fossil fuels and he is an American first and a West Virginian second when it comes to West Virginia’s natural resources. Hallie Herold also told the Commissioners that eventually Pocahontas County would be fracked because the entire state is part of the 62 billion dollar “Appalachian Petroleum Hub”.

John Leyzorek also addressed the Commissioners and asked them to reverse their support of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the eminent domain which will happen if the pipeline is built or else the Commissioners may be voted out of office as happened to the last Commissioners who supported eminent domain. Commission President Beard pointed out that the Commission’s support was for the first pipeline route proposed then rejected, not the one eventually selected to be built.

In other actions, Jimmy VanReenan delivered the Day Report monthly update to the Commissioners, and Commission Attorney Bob Martin expressed his disappointment that only forty-six Day Report participants were drug tested in May. Martin said the Judges expect that each participant be drug tested at least weekly, which with the twenty-one participants in the program in May should have been at least eighty-four drug tests, not forty-six. He would have actually preferred around a hundred especially since ten of the forty-six tests were positive for drugs. Commission President Beard supported Martin’s comments about this.

In other significant actions at this meeting, the Commissioners approved the hiring of Joe Emmerth as a full-time 911 Dispatcher.

They also approved hiring Shenda Smith as the part-time Pocahontas County Water Task Force Coordinator and agreed to allow her to use the vacant office space in the Former Shoe Factory building. Beth Little, along with other Water Task Force Board members, Dennis Egan and Josh Hardy all urged the Commissioners to make this position a full time one, but the Commissioners said the money is not in the budget this year to do that.

They approved a one year contract extension to have Global Science & Technology maintain the County’s Computer Network.

They appointed David Irvine Jr. to a two-year term as the Hillsboro Volunteer Fire Department’s representative to the Local Emergency Management Planning Committee.

Attorney Bob Martin informed the Commission that while he has been receiving ballots on behalf of the Commission regarding the proposed Snowshoe RAD, he is also getting a lot of questions and concerns about the effect a RAD would have on the Hotel-Motel Tax. Martin pointed out that the RAD would not affect those tax receipts, as only RAD owned property, such as the RAD office, is tax exempt.