Many Rainelle citizens might be able to rest a bit easier now that town officials have a plan for increased police patrol.
Acting Mayor Bill Bell spoke about the lack of a town police department during the regular meeting of the Rainelle Town Council on Dec. 28. He said that after doing some research, he would like to reach out to the sheriff of Greenbrier County to provide funds for deputies to patrol the town.
“We could use the same money that we were paying our officers for them to patrol the town,” Bell said. He noted that members of the sheriff’s department, as well as the state police, have already been a presence in the town and they have been doing a tremendous job.
Rainelle citizens have been complaining about an increasing homeless population, increased drug use among town residents, home break-ins and more for some time. Confidence in the town and the police department began to falter after a series of conflicts surrounding the police department and town officials took place earlier this year, causing both police officers and the elected mayor, Jason Smith, to resign from their positions.
According to council member Ron Fleshman, the town plans to rebuild the Rainelle Police Department.
In other Rainelle news, the winners of the Rainelle Christmas Decorating Contest were announced.
The first-place prize of $500 went to Wayne Welts, second place and $200 went to James Orkis, and a third-place tie with $50 each went to Annette McGuire and Gloria Bennett, according to Bell.
Prize money was donated by those at Alfredo’s restaurant in Rainelle.
Bell also explained that a government-provided bridge loan payment is coming due.
Following the 2016 floods, the loan was taken out to keep the town solvent, Bell said. While he admitted that he didn’t know all the “ins and outs” regarding the loan, he said that the amount borrowed was $300,000 and only $50,000 of that has been used. At least $2,000 in interest has been added to the loan.
“I have a couple feelers out and we are hoping that we can get this forgiven,” Bell said. “I really feel like we will.”
“They told us that when we took it out,” Fleshman added about the initial decision to approve the loan.
“When I hear the word loan, I hear the words I want paid back,” Bell noted.
After some discussion, Bell said that more information would be provided at the next council meeting. He added that should the town be required to begin payment on the loan, the town has enough financial reserves to do so.
“We should be proud of that,” Bell said.
Council also approved $103,858.76 in payment to the McClanahan Construction Company that completed work on the walking trail project.
Even though numerous issues regarding the trail have arisen since its completion, including the need for repairs caused by poor drainage and the need to check for ADA compliance, the firm did its job as specified by the engineering design plan and should be paid, Bell said.
The grant funding for the trail has already been appropriated and is in the town’s account, Bell stated.
Bell said that the problem once again started with an engineering design flaw by those at the Department of Highways.
The same engineer who completed the design on the sidewalk project completed the design for the walking trail, Bell stated.
“This was put into effect several years ago and it is just a bad design, period,” Bell said. “It’s an engineering problem and I am calling them out. They can watch this on Facebook. I am calling them out.”
“I cannot stress this enough, moving forward, we absolutely have to have somebody within this community, whether it be somebody in this room right now or somebody in our community, that knows two and two is four and fix some of these problems before they happen,” Bell commented. “It needs to be somebody who will volunteer.”
The walking trail is about one mile long with an entrance near the 18th hole on the golf course and another entrance on Route 20 at the cemetery.
Lastly, Bell asked for the residents of Rainelle to have patience with the town during snow removal.
“They are doing all they can do and they are doing it the best they can,” Bell said.
In a separate interview following the meeting, Bell said that he understood residents are continuing to have trouble hearing the live streams of the meetings on the town of Rainelle’s Facebook page. He said that he plans to reach out to someone who can help the town with IT and audio.
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