By Stephen Smoot
Last week’s Harrison County Commission meeting opened with the Pledge of Allegiance and an invocation from Commissioner Patsy Trecost, who prayed “Heavenly Father, all that is and all there will be is because of You, Lord.”
Business opened with the payment of invoices. Susan Thomas, Harrison County Commission President questioned the purchase of chainsaw by both maintenance and parks and recreation and was assured that both were needed for different roles.
Commissioners then addressed the question of a property declared to be a nuisance in the Shinnston area. The Commission heard from those monitoring the case that the owner had worked on cleaning up the property. They said it had “a little pile that’s close to the house and it wouldn’t take long to get that up.”
They asked that the property owner receive a 30 day extension on the deadline to clean. Commissioners approved it.
Another Shinnston property on the nuisance list received a 60 day extension due to progress made on cleaning it
Commissioners also heard a request to declare a property near Lumberport as an emergency nuisance under the international property code. “This is one of the houses that we want to take down with DEP money,” the Commission heard.
David Hinkle, Harrison County Commissioner, asked why the planning department targeted this structure and not others
Officials said that the property in question has a trailer on the lot with the back side having fallen off. The county already lists it as a nuisance, but officials “tried multiple times to get in touch with the owners, but to no avail.” Numerous individuals in the area had complained about its unsafe condition.
Laura Pysz-Laulis, Harrison County Administrator, said “Planning has done an amazing job” in identifying and removing derelict structures. She added that in many cases, “a whole bunch behind the scenes are being done by property owners,” who have cleaned up their property and come into compliance. She added about the Lumberport property that “they are ignoring us . . . it’s just abandoned.”
The bulk of discussion – and contention- centered around two agenda items. These were “Thrasher Agreement for Engineering Services for West Fork Connector Bridge” and “Consider Purchasing a Portion of Wilfong Property” to provide access to one of the proposed bridges.
Both agenda items referred to actions related to the Rail Trail. Hinkle first questioned whether or not the project connected to the agenda items would “supercede trail remediation” in a different area approved prior. He went on to state that “we’re going to build two bridges, 1,030 feet of new trail, when we haven’t even fixed what we have.”
Hinkle also questioned the need for two bridges to run the trail over, then added that “nobody seems to know what the cost is going to be.”
A representative from Thrasher explained “there are only so many access points.” He also stated that “this project has been going on since I was born” and that due to various limitations it is “impossible to keep the trail on the same side of the river.”
Patsy Trecost, Harrison County Commissioner, said that the thrust of the agenda items lay in acquiring the Wilfong property to get access to the area where the bridge would be built. “That’s all we’re doing today,” he said.
“Why would we want to do any of these things?” Hinkle responded. He then questioned why the environmental analysis on the Wilfong property had not been done and also stated that the asking price for the property – $20,000 – was likely more than the .41 acres is worth.
Pysz-Laulis stated that “Mr. Hinkle raises a good point,” and agreed that the county should negotiate the purchase price. Thomas made a motion to empower Pysz-Laulis to negotiate with the owner, Harrison Services LLC and explained it was “better if Laura (Pysz-Laulis) does it to keep the lawyers out.”
That motion passed two to one with Thomas and Trecost in support and Hinkle opposed.
Contention again bubbled to the surface shortly thereafter during a discussion of the agenda item “Execution of Real Estate Purchase Agreement & Escrow Instructions related to acquisition of parking lots located at 327 Washington Avenue.”
As Pysz-Laulis explained, approving the item represented part of the “due diligence process . . . just the next step.” Hinkle then asked his colleagues “are we going to charge the public? Are we buying it to make money?”
The parking lot was described by Thomas as being intended for the use of county employees and also the general public. Trecost suggested that Hinkle “should come up with a plan to have the lot pay for itself.”
Toward the end of the meeting, Tom Harrison from the Progressive Farm Club of Jones Run came forward with a funding request to help replace the ceiling on the Jones Run Community Building. The Farm Club owns the building and uses it for classes and meetings. It also allows other community organizations to use it and the Farm Club maintains a small honor system lending library on the property as well.
Harrison explained that the contractor estimate a cost of $4,000, but said that the Farm Club raised $2,000 and wanted to only ask for half. He also shared that the Farm Club made numerous upgrades and never needed to ask for help before.
Trecost suggested that the Commission pay the entire $4,000, reasoning on“the fact that you asked for half, most come in and ask for the whole thing.” The Farm Club, after discussion, agreed to send receipts to the Commission.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Pysz-Laulis shared that Salem EMS had to shut down and that “I talked to the emergency squad to add another truck” and that some would work more hours to cover the shortfall.
Hinkle then asked if Trecost had a plan to address the closing of Salem EMS and added “we seem to have money for rail trails.”