“Lord, we thank you for your blessings and your guidance,” prayed Roger Dahmer, commissioner, to open the initial meeting of October. Carl Hevener, Pendleton County Commission president, led attendees in the Pledge of Allegiance and the meeting opened.
Hevener shared first that “I’d like to thank everybody for the successful event last Friday.” Karen Pitsenbarger, county administrator, echoed the sentiment, saying, “It went well. We had a good turnout and nice weather.” Dahmer stated that his unofficial headcount topped 60 in attendance to recognize about 25 years of work to get the structure completed.
During the proceedings, the Pendleton County Commission approved transfer of the community building to ownership by Franklin Volunteer Fire Department. At Dahmer’s urging, they voted to require FVFD to continue providing operational space for Pendleton County Emergency Rescue. The commission also declined to add a clause that would require FVFD to turn the property back over to the county commission if they ever chose to stop using it for their needs.
Lois Carr was recognized to speak on behalf of the Potomac Valley Conservation District. She and Charlotte Hoover had come in the previous meeting to propose that Pendleton County pass a nonbinding resolution opposing data center and solar panel construction, as well as extension of transmission lines through the state. These resolutions are public statements and have no force in law.
She stated that transmission lines did not bother her personally so long as they followed mountains instead of farmland rich valleys, but “my biggest opposition is to projects that will affect farmland and the water supply.” She went on to add that “data center use of water is very concerning.” Later in the meeting, she posed the question of how residents could farm or even garden if droughts and significant water use affected supplies adversely.
Hevener stated that “I haven’t heard anybody proposing any data center” for Pendleton County. He later stated that he also saw no solar projects slated for the area either and stated that they needed to go on building roofs and to cover parking lots.
He then added that he had studied another proposed resolution from Betsy Orndoff-Sayers, mayor of Wardensville and candidate for West Virginia House of Delegates. He stated that “our ancestors had to put in electric power lines through here once upon a time” and that “power lines have to go through somewhere.” Also, Hevener shared that it did not take much to talk planners out of a proposal to run lines near the North Fork Valley scenic attractions.
Furthermore, he explained that if power supplies become constrained due to lack of both power production and transmission line capacity, that it won’t be the cities that have to suffer when power needs to be allocated in peak period shortages. “Are we setting ourselves up for trouble down the road by opposing needed infrastructure upgrades?” he asked.
Hevener then discussed the data center in operation near Petersburg for more than a decade, stating that it uses little water and is expanding its purview to serve state agencies for record-keeping purposes.
Concluding his statement, Hevener said, “I have concerns for the economic future of this county” and “we need the tax base.” He described how Clearway, the operating company of wind farms in Mineral and Grant counties, started off by paying $600,000 per year in county taxes in Grant. Now those rates have climbed by 2025 to $2.1 million. He then echoed concerns shared in previous meetings by Mike Alt, training officer of Pendleton County Emergency Rescue, that at some point the county may have to establish a paid professional fire and EMS service with dwindling participation and aging affecting the volunteer services.
Expanding the tax base, he explained, would take more of the burden off of individual citizen taxpayers if that had to come to pass. Hevener added that passing opposition resolutions could turn away vital economic development and said “we’ve got to protect the future.”
Dahmer added that “all three of us have some sort of agriculture background. Nobody at this table wants to hurt agriculture. It’s the economic backbone of the county. Nobody at this table is doing anything to hurt the farming community.”
Carr then brought another piece of PVCD business to the commission. The county commission regularly provides a $10,000 operations and maintenance contribution to the PVCD to assist with small watershed flood control dam maintenance.
With the West Virginia Conservation Agency assuming that role going forward, such directed contributions would by law pass to the state. Carr requested that the commission put in the memo of the support check that it would be used for agriculture enhancement programs and youth conservation education. Commissioners agreed to do so.
The commission also had to void the initial agreement of support. Carr assured the commission that PVCD would provide a full accounting of monies spent. Commissioners responded by saying they trusted PVCD but also appreciated the offer of transparency.
She gave an example of using funds to cover the cost of bringing the soil education trainer that came to Trout Fest two years ago.
Rick Gillespie, Pendleton County Emergency Services coordinator, informed the commissioners that he had received a grant from the federal government to pay for license reading cameras. Gillespie stated that he had applied for the grant prior to the public outcry over Flock camera abuse. Those cameras have advanced functions that use artificial intelligence to perform more functions with the information gathered. Gillespie stated that they would not purchase those types of cameras.
That said, he urged that the commissioners reflect on the law enforcement value of the devices versus the fact that a large section of the public has negative opinions on them. Gillespie said the commissioners should decide yes or no on them rather than just installing the devices. They agreed to examine the issue before the next commission meeting.
Commissioners also approved use of qualified juniors and seniors in West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner’s program to both increase the number of poll workers while giving young people practical experience in the workings of democracy. They had the option to pay students less, but chose to compensate all poll workers the same.
