KINGWOOD — Preston Commissioners approved the purchase Monday of .69 acre of land near a communications tower on Caddell Mountain.
Frazee Resource Management offered the land to the county for $1,500, Preston Emergency Management/911 Director Duane Hamilton told commissioners.
“We’re pretty well land locked now in the fact that we have nowhere to expand if we would need to add a tower or do anything on top of the mountain,” Hamilton said.
The purchase will nearly double the area the county owns now at the site, he said. The agreement calls for the county to pay for the legal work for the sale.
“The tower we have on Caddell is extremely overloaded,” Hamilton said, so the land is needed.
Commissioners Dave Price, Don Smith and Samantha Stone voted unanimously to allow Hamilton to proceed with the acquisition, using money from 911/OEM budgets.
Once the county owns the land, Hamilton said, it will be cleared of brush.
Also Monday, commissioners:
— voted 3-0 to allow each sheriff’s deputy to convert up to 10 vacation and compensatory days not used by Dec. 31 to sick days. Vacation and comp days are lost at the end of the calendar year, but sick days can be carried into the new year.
Chief Deputy P.A. Pritt said deputies haven’t been able to use their leave days because the department is shorthanded. Two deputies are on military leave, two are on medical leave and there have been retirements, Pritt said.
Smith said it sounds like a good use of resources and people. The approval applies only to this year.
–approved the hiring of Jennifer Dawn Bracken as a utility officer in the sheriff’s department. Bracken started Monday at a salary of $12 per hour. She filled a vacancy left by retirement.
–approved the only bid for the Sept. 14 electronic recycling event. Infinite Electronics Recycling of Weirton bid $4,600 flat charge plus a per pound rate for the electronics recycled. The county has a $14,500 grant to cover the event.
