By Stephen Smoot
With the permission of Harrison County Commission President Susan Thomas, Commissioner Patsy Trecost opened last week’s regular meeting with a dedication to John Cooper.”
“In 1983, I was 15 years old,” Trecost remembered, then told how his father had directed him “to report to work to John Cooper at 7:30 AM.” He added that all of his siblings had at some point received the same directive.
Cooper served as parks director for Harrison County for over four decades, providing administrative direction, but also valuable input on tasks such as grant applications.
For Trecost, memories of Cooper’s influence were personal. He said “our parents knew we were safe working for Coop” and that “it’s about serving one another and that’s what he did.” Trecost then offered prayers for the Cooper family during his customary invocation. After that, attendees recited the Pledge of Allegiance.
After the opening of the meeting, Thomas recognized the South Harrison Future Farmers of America and took a photograph with four of that organization’s members. The occasion was the passage of a proclamation honoring the FFA during FFA week in Harrison County Schools and across the nation.
The proclamation stated that FFA “promotes premiere leadership, personal growth, and career success among its members.” That includes gaining skills not only in agriculture, but building knowledge of business, organization, public speaking, and social skills vital for almost any work.
Operation Firm Handshake, represented by Martin Broderick, appeared next for a funding request. “Hard to believe we’re going into our seventh year,” he said.
Thomas responded “it’s a great organization.”
They came to request, and received, $2,000 to support their work. Much of this goes into buying or otherwise obtaining heavy appliances and other needs for homeless veterans who obtain permanent residences. This includes television sets, microwave ovens, and other needs.
“Thank you!” Broderick stated.
“You got it!” Thomas replied with enthusiasm.
Michael Spatafore, directly representing the Clarksburg History Museum, but making a proposal on behalf of all historical venues and sites in the county, stated “you guys have been great in giving us money for special projects.” He then shared ideas that he stated would help develop area historical assets.
That included a director of tourism and history, a dedicated revenue stream to support all historical sites, including the Levi Shinn House and Bice-Ferguson Museum in Shinnston.
Commissioners could not respond because he used the public comment period to speak and officials may not respond to entreaties made during this part of the meeting.
After hearing from Donald Myers about his petition to dissolve the Town of West Milford (see story), Commissioner David Hinkle stepped down from his seat to speak in the public comment section of the meeting.
“Good morning. It seems to me that the Commission operates on a very strange set of rules,” he began.
He then continued by saying “Back on Jan 8, this Commission appointed me to be the representative to the Harrison County Economic Development Corporation. Today, they have put on the agenda to appoint another person for that same position.”
That individual was Michael Queen.
Hinkle speculated that either “they can’t remember who they appointed, or for some reason, they are just going to remove me.” He then resigned the appointment “that was conferred to me by this Commission on January 8, 2025 so that two Commissioners may do as they want, which is usual.”
He also resigned his individual appointment to that same body.and said that “involvement of certain people in this entity is not something I want to be involved with.”
Through the meeting, Hinkle challenged Trecost on certain and seemingly specific points, such as payroll changes. He asked, for example, “Is Mr. Trecost satisfied with the salary that these people are about to be offered,” citing a complaint by that Commissioner in an earlier meeting about low county employee salaries.
Trecost elected to not respond when pressed, then or at other times in the meeting. When Thomas called for a vote on the payroll change motion, Hinkle said “please make a note in the record . . .” and Thomas cut him off with the vote request.
Commissioners next discussed an ongoing issue with buildup of interest from payments not made on time on the county credit card. No one has determined yet which county agencies fell behind, causing interest charges to accumulate, but Thomas and Hinkle agreed that the county should go to a purchasing card system that does not allow balances to roll over from month to month.
Additionally, the proposed livestock facility needed to have a new request for proposal issued since the original RFP for the facility had been for a different property and that much had changed about the project in the meantime.
After a long discussion on Rail Trail spending (featured in another story), Commissioners opened rhetorical fire again at each other, this time over the Freedom of Information Act request made by the Commission, asking for documents from the City of Bridgeport.
Simmerman reported that he had received a large box of documents from the City of Bridgeport after a lengthy wait. At times, it takes much work and effort to fulfil FOIA requests.
Hinkle questioned Trecost about the FOIA documents received, saying “did this meet your requirements?” and brought up Trecost’s statement in a previous meeting about seeking other remedies if the City did not provide the requested information.
“Are we still seeking other remedies?” Hinkle asked. When Trecost did not reply, Hinkle said “Thank you, Mr. Trecost, for that comment. I am glad that you’re able to confirm we won’t be seeking other remedies against the City of Bridgeport.”
He then made a motion that the Commission direct Simmerman to review the documents and provide a report on their contents, then adding “evidently, the Commission thought it was important . . . I’d like to see a report on the information.”
After the motion failed in a voice vote, Hinkle directed another comment at Trecost, saying “oh! He speaks!”
Hinkle launched another broadside when the agenda came to the item of approving the appointment of Michael Queen to the Harrison County Economic Development Corporation Board, which was alluded to by Hinkle in the public comment period without naming Queen.
Hinkle made a motion to instead appoint Trecost to represent the Commission “as it should be a Commission appointment.” He added that Trecost had become “very involved” as well.
Thomas called for votes on both motions with Trecost’s prevailing and Hinkle’s voted down.
Commissioners closed out the meeting after discussing a letter of support to be written to the State Legislature to advocate for retaining Certificate of Need laws. Hinkle asked why the Commission was sharing its opinion and also why CoN laws shouldn’t be repealed.
Commissioners voted two to one to share the letter with Hinkle stating that he would opt out of signing it.