Mold in Ronceverte City Hall, the water infrastructure project, and the damaged “Wild Life” mural were addressed by the Ronceverte City Council on Monday, February 7.
Ronceverte Mayor Deena Pack said mold in City Hall has caused concern.
“Last week, a couple of issues arose, and out of an abundance of caution, we had some folks come into City Hall and do some testing,” she said. “Some mold was discovered in the built-in certain parts of the building that require remediation … Mold is something that we take very seriously and, and once it’s gone, we don’t want it to come back. We’ll update everyone as we can.”
The building will be closed as a result.
“We are closing the City Hall [Tuesday, February 8] through Friday, [February 11], so that it can be taken care of immediately,” Pack said. “We will provide more updates as reports come in and as we make sure that the issue is resolved.”
City Administrator Pam Mentz noted services would still be available.
“We’re going to be checking our messages here at City Hall,” said Mentz. “Somebody can leave a message for us; we’ll be checking in from different locations. [We also check] Facebook Messenger. There will be no water cut off during this time period that we’re closed. For turn-ons and so forth, [residents] can just call me or [use] Facebook Messenger. We’ll make sure to get it to the rest of the staff, who is working.”
The building repairs have already started.
“They’re going to start the remediation [Tuesday], and everybody will be out of City Hall,” Mentz explained. “We have a problem with the back room of my bathroom, there’s water coming up under it. [A worker] is doing that separately, he actually went through the floor to see where the water’s coming in. That’s pretty much where we’re at so, hopefully, by Friday, we’ll have everything, remediated and done.”
In other business:
– Mentz also noted “Deena and I were able to go to the Municipal League Conference in Charleston a couple of weeks ago. We made some good contacts and got some good information about … a bill that’s coming up in the legislature this session regarding ways to help municipalities like us better deal with abandoned and dilapidated properties. We’re hoping that comes through. … We also were able to meet with Delegate Longanacre and Senator Woodrum. They were both really interested in helping our city with various aspects of what we’ve got going on right now.”
– After a question from Councilmember Tanya Hazelwood on the house fire behind City Hall last month, Mentz noted “I’m not sure what we’re going to do. It’s kind of what we have with … the dilapidated [buildings]. We’re in the process of seeing what funding is out there. T… We’ll probably go right along with the other ones. It was a complete loss there, and it does need to be taken down. It was an abandoned project that someone was sleeping in.”
– E.L. Robinson Engineer Bob Hazelwood explained that, as of January 21, the contractors for the Ronceverte water system work are “about 87% complete. That time they have basically completed the West End tank. … We’ll put it online. Here in the last two weeks, they’ve been getting quite a few number of meters worked on, and we’re getting close to [finishing that]. After that, we’ll be working on [reconnections] to the existing system, so we can start abandoning more of the old waterlines. … The work up at the Squirrel Hill flow control building is the remaining item [on Contract Three]. … I think [a contractor is] scheduled now to come in on February 14 to get it to start getting the radio telemetry work installed and operating.”
– The Community Development Block Grant Performance Report was approved to be signed by Pack. Lesley Taylor, Senior Project Specialist for Region IV, explained “we are required to submit a final performance report that shows where all funds were expended. It also shows where the city has been audited during the grant period. It goes on to talk about … what accomplishments were made and the impact of the activity of each item that was completed, as well as the number of low- and moderate-income beneficiaries that were affected by the project.”
– Pack was authorized to sign a letter of understanding for the $8.8 million grant for Ronceverte through the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. This grant was announced by Governor Jim Justice in November 2021.
– Council approved a citizen participation plan resolution, relating to the above projects. After a question from Councilmember Kathy King, Taylor explained the plan is “the council and mayor just encouraging citizens to participate and giving them an opportunity to participate. As long as you’re having public meetings in which the general public can attend, [council is] meeting this requirement.”
– “Now we’ll move to the resolution formalizing a fair housing program for the city of Ronceverte,” Pack said, just before council passed the resolution. “By participating in the federal community development program, the city of Ronceverte has pledged to ensure and support fair housing practices.”
– After the “Wild Life” Mural on Main Street was damaged in a traffic accident, Hazelwood noted that Matt Ford of the Meadow River Valley reached out to find a new home for it. Hazelwood again noted “I don’t see it being repaired or fixable at this point on our end.”
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