By Stephen Smoot
Commissioner Roger Dahmer’s opening invocation thanked God for “another day to serve You.”
Shortly after, commissioners heard from Mike Alt, Pendleton County Emergency Rescue training officer, who offered positive and negative news. First, he discussed the powerful impact of the pay incentive program passed by the West Virginia State Legislature.
The program’s design allows for money to go to county emergency services, ideally to help augment the salaries and compensation of first responders. Volunteer services see a bump in the stipends provided to responders on every call. Pendleton County responders often see their services required for six to eight hours or more on calls
“We’re really coming along with this incentive pay,” Alt stated, sharing that the response time on calls had dropped from approximately 45 minutes in January down to about a half an hour currently.
Commissioners also heard that, while Pendleton County operates the incentive as designed, other counties do not. Some have opted to simply give the extra funds out as lump sum bonuses to avoid the extra paperwork involved in distributing incentives per call. Commissioners questioned whether or not that practice in other areas would meet state approval, but reaffirmed their commitment to executing the program as designed.
The only challenge faced by Pendleton County in this area lies in the fact that emergency services has fallen behind pace in using the money. As with many government programs, if the money is not spent, the county runs the risk of receiving less in the future. The commissioners, Alt, and Rick Gillespie, Pendleton County Emergency Service coordinator, discussed ways to use the money in other incentivizing ways.
Alt then shared the potential bad news from a bill currently making its way through the United States Congress. SB 1514, Alt explained, “could put us all out of business.” The proposed legislation would extend strict regulations under the aegis of Occupational Safety and Health Administration. It would impose costs to pay for unnecessary rules and regulations that volunteer emergency services cannot cover.
He urged everyone to take advantage of the 45-day public comment period to share with the federal government that they cannot impose yet another wrongheaded regulation that will hurt people and organizations at the local level.
Gillespie also shared an emergency services issue with the commission, this time involving communications. He shared that his office would apply for an Appalachian Regional Commission grant to help fund Pendleton County’s share of a proposed study. Alongside (possibly) Pocahontas County and Bath and Highland counties in Virginia, each county would provide $30,000 to fund a study aimed at enhancing emergency communication interoperability.
Interoperability becomes an issue when different county emergency services have to coordinate, such as during the wildfires.
He explained that the Virginia counties had definitely committed, Pocahontas had not, and that all had until June 30 “to fish or cut bait” on being a part of it. Carl Hevener, Pendleton County Commission president, offered that “I think we ought to do it.” commissioners voted to approve Gillespie’s request.
Karen Pitsenbarger, Pendleton County administrator, told the commission that she sent the required feasibility study to the US Department of Agriculture as part of the process to secure a loan to pay for construction of the courthouse annex. She said that the study revealed “the county is in great shape” and that it would apply for a loan amount just under $3 million. That includes enough to cover any changes or unexpected costs that may occur.
Commissioners also approved a five-year term for Paula Waggy on the Pendleton County Library board.
