By Stephen Smoot
“We always pray for Your guidance,” stated commissioner Roger Dahmer as he opened the final Pendleton County Commission meeting of 2023 with the invocation.
Laura Brown, executive director of the Seneca Rocks Regional Development Authority, began the discussion of business with a review on county broadband expansion and projects both in the past and near future. She was joined on the phone by Jeffrey Hartley of Thrasher to discuss the technical aspects of the projects.
She shared that during the past two years preliminary routes were laid out. “We are fortunate to have been able to put together projects,” Brown stated, then briefly described progress on each. Lingo received $2.2 million with a county match of nearly $300,000. When completed the project will potentially link 220 addresses on 31.1 miles of fiber.
Brown said that the project should be farther along than it has gotten, explaining that “the power company has held up the process.” This “statewide” problem, as she put it, involves power company ownership of poles and differences over the placement of lines which must be leased.
Hartley then discussed three projects under Seneca Rocks Spruce Knob Telephone. A project extending through Brandywine and Sugar Grove is funded by an $888,000 grant with a county match of more than $26,000. It will run 18.8 miles and potentially connect 151 addresses. A project near Franklin took a $1.2 million grant with a $22,000 county match and will connect 22.7 miles and 110 addresses. Between Franklin and Upper Tract, grant funding of $1.2 million with a $32,000 county match linking 29.9 miles and 152 addresses.
He added that the SKSRT projects are “just getting started.” Brown said that Thrasher also provided valuable assistance on a connectivity project involving the school system and library.
SKSRT will submit a grant application early next year for a future project. Hartley assured the commission that they “will be very competitive.”
He then reported that the state had completed a broadband study to help guide decisions regarding a $1.2 billion grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Hartley added that counties can no longer apply for funding and grants require a 25 percent match, but said “you guys are very well positioned to maximize your opportunities.”
Next came a report on underserved areas of Pendleton County. More than 5,600 addresses are either currently “served,” or will be by active projects. Of the 882 left, careful surveys showed that 294 “are considered unserviceable, leaving 600 addresses over 271 miles in some of the most remote sections of the area. Linking all of these would cost an estimated $28 million.
Hartley then said, “You’re sitting very successful compared to a lot of other counties in your region.”
Carl Hevener, Pendleton County Commission president, added that “if it wasn’t for Jeffrey and Rick Gillespie keeping up with the pole issue, we wouldn’t be where we are.”
Next, Diana Mitchell provided an update on essential training of Pendleton 911 personnel.
“Recently, we had an opportunity to do some training for mental health,” she said. The training helped to prepare 911 telecommunicators to work with callers who may be communicating about, or experiencing, mental health problems. Pendleton County got to send Mitchell and Terry Ryan, despite the one trainee limit, because “other 911 centers didn’t send one.”
“We did scenario after scenario. I left the session just absolutely thrilled…it was some of the best training I’ve had in a long time,” Mitchell said.
Hevener then added that he and other county officials, including Gillespie, Pendleton County Emergency Services coordinator, reached out to the school system to “brainstorm” about job shadowing or other programs that might get young people interested in telecommunicator work.
Amber Nesselrodt, executive director of the Pendleton County Convention and Visitors’ Bureau, was invited to give her year-end progress report.
One of the big successes of the year for the CVB lay in working with stakeholders to create a Pendleton County Adventure Guide, the first in more than a decade. The CVB also took the lead in planning and executing the enormously successful visit of the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree. Nesselrodt furthermore reported a significant increase in hotel-motel tax collections, the best indicator of tourism success.
The CVB also won an Appalachian Forest National Heritage Area grant to support cultural promotion and started work on obtaining more attractive “Welcome to Pendleton County” signs to greet visitors warmly.
Karen Pitsenbarger, Pendleton County administrator, shared that the fuel tank for the future courthouse annex was installed. “They did a great job,” she said, adding that “it was a really great group of guys.”
She said that metal detectors for courthouse security should arrive in mid-January for installation.
Finally, the county commission signed a letter of support for Workforce West Virginia. It argues for opioid crisis related grants from the United States Department of Labor.
