Braxton Citizens' News, Town Meeting

Commission hears about Bigfoot Festival success

Due to the Governor’s late proclamation on Wednesday afternoon, giving state and county employees Friday off for the 4th of July holiday, the Braxton County Commission was in their chambers on Friday as they had already posted their regular monthly meeting.

Laurel Petolicchio with the West Virginia Bigfoot Festival was one of the first to speak to the commission.

She provided an update on the successful festival that had an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 guests, many of which were from out of state and even some from other countries. These numbers provide for a large economic impact on the county and the surrounding area. Petolicchio thanked Caleb and Monica Harper at Holly Gray Park for their support and hard work.

She did address some issues with lack of support from law enforcement, EMS, and dispatch at the county level for such a large event. Commission President Lisa Godwin noted she felt like there were some miscommunications and the issues with dispatch would be investigated.

Commission Melvin Gum questioned whether or not another access or exit could be made for Holly Gray Park to help address the large number of vehicles. President Godwin stated this has been discussed for years, but it has to be up to the park board and is not up to the commission.

Tiffany Prior, EMS Director, submitted a request to commissioners for the renewal of board members Randy James and Randy Conrad to an additional 3-year term on the Braxton County Emergency Ambulance Service Authority Board. Her request was approved on a motion by Commissioner Larry Clifton.

She asked the commission to table the employee change of status request until a later meeting.

Interim OES/911 Director Dale Hall was available by video conferencing and gave a brief update to the county commission. He discussed the delivery of the new county ladder truck and the recent training on that had been completed. The manufacturer will be providing training by the end of July once the truck is fully in service.

Director Hall noted the radio grant had been submitted on time. This grant will allow for all new radios for fire departments and EMS to provide better service to the county. He also discussed a grant for a study of the hazard material transports on the interstate. He stated he was still waiting on responses concerning other grants that had already been submitted.

Finally, he discussed the applicants for the custodian position at the 9-1-1 center. He will be conducting interviews soon.

Due to Governor Jim Justice declaring July 5 a state holiday, Marie Lockard with the Braxton County Testing Center was not available for the regular reports. Those were tabled until the next meeting.

Under regular business, the commission approved the probate appointments for June and the list for correction of erroneous assessments on separate motions.

Two purchase orders from the Braxton County Sheriff’s Department were approved. The purchase order for All American Uniforms was for uniforms for Harley Vest and Levi Cochran in the amount of $1,106.96. The second purchase order was for U.S. Bank for duty and practice ammo in the amount of $671.73.

Also approved on separate motions was the purchase of Konica Minolta Bizhub C300i for the commission office in the amount of $4,240.63, approval for county clerk to apply for a HAVA Grant for Election Equipment Security and the resolution for the HAVA Grant.

Invoices for county, P-cards and EMS were approved as presented. The minutes of the June 21 regular meeting, and the July 1 special meeting were also approved. The meeting was adjourned at 9:33 am. The next regular meeting is set for 9:00 am on July 19.