A home raising, Quinwood broadband, and the Meadow River Rail Trail were the focus of the Greenbrier County Commission for their late July meeting.
With a meeting space full of familiar faces, the commission considered three ongoing infrastructure projects on Wednesday, July 29.
“I just would like to thank all of our consultants who are here today,” said Commissioner Tammy Shifflett-Tincher. “You five people do a tremendous amount of work for us and it’s greatly appreciated. It goes unnoticed a lot of times by everyone but us, because we know you all do the work for us. It is greatly appreciated and needs to be well recognized.”
The first of three projects considered by the commission deals with the flood of 2016 and FEMA funds. Paula Brown, deputy director of Greenbrier County Homeland Security & Emergency Management, gave some history on the project.
“This is a 2016 elevation project — basically we’re raising houses that are in the floodway and the floodplain,” said Brown. “This is the first elevation we’ve done mostly because most of the structures we evaluated with an engineer were not structurally sound enough to elevate. We ended up at three, and two withdrawing, … because they were covered by the RISE program. … We advertised twice and no one showed up to the prebid meeting. We’ve been struggling to get this project off the ground. … That is the only bid we have.”
The only bid to consider, from Melton Construction, totaled $197,000, was preliminarily approved by the commission and will next be reviewed by Brown and emergency services.
The second is the broadband expansion project into Quinwood. The firm Thompson and Litton serve as the commission’s consultants, getting plans in shape.
“Basically where we’re at on this project is that we’ve completed all the fieldwork, collected all the pole data,” explained Craig Murphy with Thompson and Litton. “We have a preliminary set of plans reflecting that data. At this point, … there is an AEP pole attachment agreement. Once that is executed, we will be able to put the pole data in the AEP’s online system and they’ll do their macro engineering review. … We’ll use that information to update the plans and finalize everything, submit to DOH. … I anticipate going to bid sometime around October 1.”
Joined by development coordinators Keli Ratcliffe and Melissa O’Brien and Region 4 Planning and Development Council Project Assistant Amanda Smarr, Murphy’s update was celebrated by Commission President Lowell Rose.
“We appreciate you guys coming today,” Rose said. “It’ll be nice to get this project up and going, we’ve been working on it for quite some time. Quinwood, and that large area of the county out there, needs the broadband and the expansion.”
The third project is the Meadow River Rail Trail, introduced by coordinator Matt Ford saying “speaking of projects that will be good to get going”
Since the commission hired Chapman Technical Group to work on designs for the project, the firm has nearly completed plans.
“The plans you have in front of you … are 90% complete. We met and went on the rail with the plans, … through the FEMA sites, just to make sure quantities were in order. … There are some changes that need to be made,” explained Kelly Estep with Chapman Technical Group. “… The set you have does not have that bit of tweaking in there yet but we’ll be finishing that early next week for advertising. We’ll advertise for three weeks, then schedule a bid opening on September 14.”
Ford hopes that the over $1 million repair and improvement project will be complete “hopefully by 2023.”
“We’ve stayed on 2023 for about a year now, so that’s good, that’s a positive,” Tincher responded.
“I feel better about this now, more positive than the entire time I’ve been with it actually,” Ford said. “We have plans and we’re getting ready to put gravel on the ground. It’s good stuff. I’m looking forward to a walk with you on the rail trail, bring your fishing pole.”
The final three items on the agenda, dealing with construction and financing for the Greenbrier County Courthouse improvements and upgrades project, were tabled to be considered at a future meeting.
In other business:
– A total of $40,059.70 in Arts and Recreation expenses were approved in a 2-1 vote (Tincher, nay), which included $12,800 for the Greenbrier Valley Aquatic Center, $20,000 for the Meadow River Trail Team Leader, $7,000 for Greenbrier County Sportsplex inspections, and $259,70 for regional libraries.
– Two new dispatchers were hired for the Greenbrier County 911 Center.
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