The Monongalia County Volunteer Firefighter’s Association is looking to secure additional radio coverage for some of the more rural portions of the county.
During its most recent regular session, the Monongalia County Commission provided a letter in support of additional public safety frequencies.
While the commission’s letter specifically references the River Road VFD, River Road Chief Mickey Rinehart said he was simply the one who passed along the request.
“It’s not just for the River Road VFD,” Rinehart said. “There are some coverage issues, specifically out toward the Blacksville, Cassville way that the county is experiencing. It’s not just fire. It’s police and EMS, too. Pretty much what we’re trying to do is get additional frequencies to possibly cover that area.”
Rinehart said the county will work with California-based Business Radio Licensing to put together the application and locate available frequencies.
“So what we do is coordinate through them with the FCC for the ultimate authority,” he said.
In other county news, the commission made some minor changes to its rules and procedures for the coming year, including:
Official acknowledgement of the recent practice of holding a silent meditation and the Pledge of Allegiance prior to calling the meeting to order.
Reducing public comments from five minutes to three minutes, though the commissioners said the intent isn’t to prevent people from speaking.
“We’re not going to cut anybody off at a hard and fast three minutes, but that would be the time that we would hope you would be able to give us what you wish to present,” Commission President Ed Hawkins said.
Work session minutes will now include a notation indicating videos of the work sessions are available upon request.
The commission also announced Perry & Associates CPA will provide the county’s fiscal year 2019 audit.
The audit will cost the county $29,950, plus a $2,396 processing fee.
Perry & Associates has provided the county’s audits previously and was selected from four interested firms by the county’s audit committee, which is led by County Clerk Carye Blaney and includes Commissioner Sean Sikora.
TWEET @DominionPostWV
