Thread by @tylerwwv

I was at the Marshall County Commission meeting today, it started at 9. Here’s what happened 👇1/
@FolkReporters #folkreporter

Here’s the agenda, which was not posted online in spite of commission rules 🙃 2/

It was relatively well attended, 12 people in the audience (including me). Two were from the sheriff’s office, two were from the tax office, one was a fiduciary commissioner, one worked on elections, two were from EMS, and three were presumably press. 3/

For most of the meeting the commissioners made no effort to speak up and mumbled. They whispered to themselves on four separate occasions. 4/

First, $2,000 for Youth Service Systems was approved.
“Several” accounts payable (none of them read), were approved.
11 settlements (none read) were approved.
24 exonerations approved.
A financial report from the sheriff was submitted. 5/

Sheriff’s Office requested budget revisions (I didn’t get which funds were being transferred where).
Tabled matters (this is a long one):
American Legion Post 3 request- left on the table
A funds request for a truck for Moundsville Fire Department- approved. 6/

$12,150 was approved for Limestone Presbyterian to open a warming shelter.
The clerk requested funds transfers (I didn’t get it all down) part of which was denied.
Glendale Police Department requested funds for radio maintenance- left on the table. 7/

PSD 2 made a vehicle request, it has already been covered by other funds and is no longer needed- rejected.
Funds requested for a Father Daughter Dance, event has already happened- rejected.
PSD 1 requested funds for new water meters- left on the table. 8/

Marshall County Activities Development made a funds request, funds no longer needed- rejected.
Moundsville VFD lease, no longer relevant- rejected.
Funds request from an out of county food pantry- rejected. 9/

City of Cameron requested funds (didn’t get how much) for sidewalks- left on the table.
City of Cameron requested $25,000 for a generator- left on the table.
Washington Lands Garden Club requested funds for an event, the event is over- rejected. 10/

United Way requested funds for a March Madness event, the event is over- rejected.
There were a few other tabled items I missed, they were all for events that already happened and were rejected.
End of tabled items, on to the rest of the agenda. 11/

2019 HB 2746:
This allows for the county to close inactive estates, which could help to reduce some administrative bloat.
The clerk invited a fiduciary commissioner to give his perspective on implementing the law. He says that it would make his job easier. 12/

It would make closing estates more efficient. The only drawback is the cost, which is unknown. He said that the cost would be high to start with, but would go down after backlog is cleared. He said that there are unclosed estates on his shelves dating back to the 90s. 13/

The clerk said that there are at least 790 unclosed estates. She encouraged the commission to adopt this law, said her main concerns are its cost (the legislature did not fund it), and that her office is too understaffed to handle closing estates. 14/

She said that four counties have already implemented this law. She said that the bill was “poorly written” (shocker). She said that this is being brought up now because papers about it from 2019 were found in a drawer, and that since its in code she feels that its her “duty”…15/

To bring it to the commission’s attention. When asked what would happen if they left the estates unclosed, she said possible storage issues with paperwork, and an administrative headache if someone tries to do something with the estate. 16/

The commission tabled it pending further review.
Contractor bids for the new Health Department tabled for next meeting.
Fire Hydrant Test & Flow Project:
Phase 1 of this project involves locating and testing the county’s fire hydrants. Two bids were placed. 17/

One by J&R Excavation and one by Litman Excavating.
The commission accepted Litman’s bid for $88,000 and rejected the bid from J&R. 18/

Community Development Fund request- approved.
Change order for EMS:
New ambulances ordered are a bit bigger than current ones, so the EMS building needs a 15 foot extension, at a cost of $221,000- approved. 19/

Retirees insurance policy, the proposed amendment clarifies existing rules on payment- approved. 20/

Lastly, someone working on elections (unfortunately didn’t get name, office, or title) gave an update on a grant and made a funding request. This wasn’t on the agenda because it was too recent to add. 21/

The county had applied for a grant to get e-poll books, and was approved. More counties had applied for the grant than anticipated, so the amount covered for each county was reduced. Originally the county was to pay 15% of the cost, it was changed to 50%. 22/

The additional funds needed were approved.
Also- big thanks to her for giving me background on this after the meeting. 23/

The commission adjourned at 9:56, that’s all. 24/

Side note: I wasn’t always able to get down the full cost of things (hundreds of dollars and cents), so most of the costs are rounded. 25/25

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