RONCEVERTE W.Va. (WVDN) – The Ronceverte City Council held its monthly meeting at City Hall on Monday, April 7.
Every audience chair was full of attendees eager to hear the latest comings and goings in the town.
The meeting lasted a little more than an hour with a smooth ride for the first 40 minutes, but over the last 20 minutes or so, emotions got a little heated.
Some important topics discussed are listed as follows:
The minutes from the March 2025 meeting were approved.
Ordinance 2025-02 update, which is a recommendation for the termination or hiring of a police chief of Ronceverte. It would allow the City Council to make important decisions and give the City Council the power to appoint or terminate. The Council panel approved 7-0.
No wastewater related business or water related business on the evening.
According to Mayor Deena Pack, the city was approached by American Water about purchasing the water and wastewater systems. “No agreements have been made, but the city has taken that under advisement,” Pack said. Nothing can be decided without a City Council vote
Ronceverte is making an offer to buy property involved in the stormwater project owned by Heath and Nikki Bennett. Offer and acceptance from the Bennetts for a little over $100,000. Council approved the resolution.
New business discussion about the Family Refuge Center’s request to hold a bucket drive on August 4, 5 and 6 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Chief Hopkins has no issue with those dates, so it will wait on approval.
The Ronceverte Cheer League requests to use the concession stand. The city is entering into a lease agreement with the cheer league that could be open for the football and baseball season. They would like to operate in the summer as well with popsicles and things like that because of the splash pad and island activity. The motion was approved by the Council.
A request for approval for a reimbursement letter to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department. A former officer in Ronceverte took a position with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department, and Monroe agreed to reimburse funds from the officer’s contract agreement. Funds from Monroe County have not been received yet, as agreed upon when he left. A letter was approved for Pack to send to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department.
The finance department had a meeting and approved a budget provision for 2025-02, which takes money from the contingency fund and adds it to the police department. The police department has been low on officers, which has caused more overtime pay. A total of $27,500 from the contingency fund was added to the police fund. It would wait on approval from a state auditor.
Reports:
Police Dept – On Friday, some of the Council attended DARE graduation at Ronceverte Elementary.
Council Member Comments:
Mark Trent – Make it Shine weekend was great. A lot less trash than normal. There were good people. He also talked about the funding to fix the bridge in town that has been down for years.
Scott Vogelsong – slowly but surely, referring to progress in the town.
Ashley Guet – talked with Parks and Rec, and Disc golf will hopefully be up and running by Memorial Day. Mini golf and a batting cage in the works. Funding for the boat ramp will take 60-90 days.
Leah Smith – mentioned about 25 people or so came out for the Make it Shine weekend
Pack – Pickleball courts are moving forward. Where parking would be, the city has to review drainage and the way storm water is set up to make sure everything is set up to work correctly. Hoping to break ground on courts in the next couple of months. Waiting on final approvals to come through according to Pack.
A Meet the Candidates and Mayoral and Council Forum by The West Virginia Daily News at the fire department on April 29. The WVDN will stream live on their Facebook.
Pack on the announcement of acquiring the train depot: 3-year project. Made some inroads through Senator Capito’s office with CSX. CSX advised not to discuss with the public until an agreement was reached. They now have a principal agreement. Everything is waiting for review and approval. Reportedly, it wouldn’t have happened without Shelly Moore Capito’s office, and they have pledged to continue to work together. Smith praised Pack for her efforts.
The community egg hunt registration starts at noon on April 19; 11,000 eggs will be hidden around the area.
City Administrator Pam Mentz called Lee Dean of the state election office, who talked over speaker phone about a write-in candidate and if they are supposed to be listed on the ballot. If there’s space on the ballot, voters can write a name in. Even if not a space, they can still write in. A write-in candidate must have filed to have the write-in vote counted for them and would have had to file by whatever the deadline was. The city is to post a list on the door of the polling place of official write-in candidates and on the ballot folder. — Lee Dean from the state election office.
The next meeting is May 5 at 7 p.m.
Citizen comments:
Crystal with the Ronceverte River Festival talked briefly and said a Friday announcement for the Saturday night concert will be made this Friday. She stated that it is a nationally known artist as a hint. The festival will be June 13 and 14.
Steve Shafer wanted to know where a line of credit the city received had been used, how much it was for, and whether it had been paid back. He then noted rumors that accuse a City Council Member of not living within Ronceverte city limits and wanted the member to show proof of electric or gas bills for the past three months. The member explicitly denies any validity to these rumors and stresses that she lives in a house in Ronceverte.
Eric Mercer said the Pledge of Allegiance should be said before every meeting because it’s an official government setting and should be done to honor the veterans. Also, he questioned why Ronceverte allegedly cannot afford to pay the water for Lewisburg. Mercer also wanted an apology from the council member to Shafer, who he said was “just asking a simple question.”
“You are an elected official, and you are to respect the people of Ronceverte, period. You don’t raise your voice to people, and you should give him a simple apology for your attitude,” Mercer said to the Council.
Council Member Smith then discussed why she was frustrated, noting that the citizen comment portion of the meeting is for comments, and they have said that multiple times.
“These are meetings of the City Council. We’re conducting business,” Smith said.
“This is the agenda, and this is the stuff we have to get through. These are the items on the agenda. This isn’t a public hearing. This isn’t a time for a question-and-answer session for every question you might have as a citizen. And it’s great that people have questions, but this isn’t the opportunity to do that necessarily. Granted, we try to answer questions when it’s appropriate because we aren’t hiding anything,” Smith said.
