KINGWOOD — Due to budgetary and staffing concerns, Sheriff Jim Fields told Preston County Commissioners that effectively immediately the Preston County Sheriff’s Office will no longer transport arrests to the regional jail system for any outside agencies.
“If the sheriff’s office is already conducting a transport to the regional jail and a seat is available in the transport vehicle we’ll transport the outside agency’s arrest,” he said.
However, Fields said the Sheriff’s Office Officer-in-Charge will have the final authority in accepting or denying an outside agency’s request dependent on the needs of the office.
“In fairness, we’re still going to have to do the largest majority of transfers. But it’s to a point we are going to have to cease and desist,” he said.
Fields said since the first of January the sheriff’s department has done 217 transport runs.
Fields also asked the commission to change a half-time position in his department to a full-time position, and add another full-time position.
Commissioners also approved Field’s request to hire Michelle Barlow as a tax deputy at $16.48 an hour with benefits, with a three-month probation period.
James Collins, who owns a farm in the Bruceton Mills area, asked commissioners if they would provide him some assistance with writing a proposal for a Grant Program Partnership Grant. Collins said he needs the grant funds to repair a dam his father built on his farm in 1977. A governing agency must sponsor the grant for it to be considered, Collins told commissioners the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is requiring him to lower the lake 10 feet to bring it up to state and federal specifications. Collins said he has been working on the project little by little, but the DEP wants him to show where the money is coming from to complete the project.
“They have been working with me with extensions of time, but with normal expenses on the farm and unexpected breakdowns, I’m running out of ways to pay for the project,” he said. “I’ve contacted the Army Corps of Engineers — they stated they cannot help because it is private property. I’ve contacted the local ASCS office and they said the lake is too large and out of their jurisdiction. I contacted Dams and Waterways and they said I should check into grants.gov, but everything I’ve seen there has been for the West Coast or overseas.”
Collins said he considered opening a campground at the lake to help raise money, but said most campers want to know if he has hookups for trailers, which he does not have — and which would add an additional expense. He said he also checked to see if the lake could be a source of drinking water, but was told by the town it was already getting its water from Hazelton.
“’I’m trying to find ways to come up with the money I need, but I am limited, and my time period is growing shorter,” Collins said.
Commission President Don Smith said he looked at the eligibility requirements for a Grant Program Partnership Grant and said Collins definitely qualifies for the grant. He said the commission would have to show that the dam is part of the county’s hazard mitigation plan.
Commissioner Hunter Thomas told Collins the commissioners would research the grant and asked him to come to next week’s meeting.
Dr. Lynn Housner also addressed the commission asking members to consider changing the doors in county buildings. He said there are doors that the elderly and disabled cannot open.
Housner said it’s impossible for people using a walker or manual wheelchair to use one arm to hold the door open and then try to use both arms to move the walker or wheelchair through the door.
“I’m fortunate to have a motorized wheelchair, but damage to my left shoulder has made opening doors increasingly difficult,” he said.
Housner said sidewalks on East Main Street have cracks that are bone-jarring, and the width of the sidewalks in several places do not meet ADA standards. He said repairs are needed for the length of East Main Street to the Kingwood Plaza to make Kingwood accessible. He said another problem is that van accessibility is often used by other people, explaining van accessible parking is for those who have a wheelchair ramp. Housner said more parking spaces for wheelchair vans with clearer instructions — plus space on the right side for a ramp — are needed.
In other business, commissioners are asking individuals interested in serving on the EMS Board to submit a letter and resume by Aug. 22. Board members will consist of an attorney, a business owner or an accountant, two people from the public, one paid EMS employee and one volunteer EMS member, a representative from E911, a dispatcher, the county medical director, and a non voting member of the county commission.
The next meeting of the Preston County Commission will be 9:30 am Tuesday.
