KINGWOOD — Two members of Vietnam Veterans Post 977 gave Preston commissioners an update at Tuesday’s meeting about the memorial to be placed on the courthouse lawn.
Veterans Bill Benson and Jim Savage told commissioners once the memorial is in place, it will be covered until it is dedicated May 31.
The three-piece marble memorial, which is 102 inches long and 14 inches wide, costs $19,705, with an additional cost of $3,500 for delivery and set-up. It weighs 4,899 pounds. The footer for the memorial was set a few weeks ago to allow it to cure.
In other business, County Administrator Kathy Mace said the county will resubmit some of its infrastructure projects for reconsideration.
One of the projects submitted to be resubmitted is the Town of Rowlesburg water treatment plant and sanitary sewer system upgrades. The estimated cost of the project is $11,150,000. The reason for seeking the funding for the project is because the existing WWT lagoon system is failing and there are several issues with the existing collection system. The town cannot add any new customers to the system, per Department of Environmental Protection order, until the project is completed. This prohibits business and residential growth in the town.
Other projects involve broadband, PSD 1 water treatment plant and water line upgrades, and the Town of Bruceton Mills Big Sandy Channel modification and parking lot.
The Preston County broadband project is estimated to cost $9,000,000, and would construct 308.7 miles of fiber optic broadband and two wire centers, to service 2,404 households in Preston County that are without internet service at broadband speeds.
The PSD 1 water treatment plant and water line upgrades project costs $633,000, plus soft costs. It would upgrade the existing water treatment plant, replace roughly 3,500 feet of water line, and construct an additional settling pond. The project is needed to provide more reliable water service to customers who are experiencing issues. The additional settling pond is needed because the number of customers has increased and this has caused the PSD to be out of compliance with its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit. An NPDES permit is typically a license for a facility to discharge a specified amount of a pollutant into a receiving water under certain conditions.
The Town of Bruceton Mills Big Sandy Channel modification and parking lot project is $86,000, and would consist of removing a mid-channel sediment bar to create a bankfull bench on the river’s right bank. The bankfull bench would be seeded and vegetated with a native riparian buffer to provide erosion controls and channel stability during high-water events. Construction of a parking lot (12,040 square feet) would allow for parking for people who are using the area for recreation, fishing and business. The project is needed to reduce and/or eliminate flooding in the town during high-water events.
In other business, commissioners voted to reappoint Mary Rae Benson to the Preston Health Board for a five-year term, starting July 1 and terminating June 30, 2026.
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