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Preston
County
Commission
Past
Achievements
Thelma
J. Stone Award
The
Preston
County Commission received the Thelma J. Stone Memorial Achievement Award from
State Auditor Glen B. Gainer on July 31, 2006, in
Huntington
WV
, during the 2006 County Commissioners Association Training Series. The
Thelma J. Stone Award is given annually to recognize excellence in county
government. This is the first time that the Preston County Commission has
received such an award. In 1981, the State Tax Commissioner’s Annual
Special Achievement Award for
County
Commissions
was established. Tax Commissioner Michael Caryl renamed the award in honor
of Thelma J. Stone after her death in 1985. Thelma was a treasured
employee with the State Tax Department. In July 1999, the West Virginia
State Code was changed, making the State Auditor the Chief Inspector and
Supervisor of local government offices. State Auditor Glen B. Gainer III
has continued this tradition of honoring excellence in county government.
Criteria for award selection includes compliance with laws governing actions and
conduct of county commissions, effective collective leadership exhibited by
harmonious relations by members of the county commission, innovation in office
procedures, administration, responsible fiscal conduct, cooperation with the
various departments of county government, effective communications with other
government entities, progressive personnel management policies, and a
demonstrated achievement in county government. We are extremely proud to
be a recipient of the Thelma J. Stone Award. The award endorses all of the
hard work that our office, and our county partners, have put into making Preston
County a good place to live and work”, said L. Darwin Wolfe, President
for the Preston County Commission
Preston
County
Interoperability Radio/Pager Project
The
County
Commission
in partnership with the
County
Office
of Emergency Management and area fire departments applied for $585,000 in
funding from a 2006 Federal Emergency Management Assistance to Firefighters
Grant Program for the purpose of purchasing high-band radios and pagers for
every volunteer firefighter in the county. The
project if funded will ensure that each department will be able to properly
communicate with each other and with area law enforcement and
EMS
. The
County
Commission
was the grant writer for this project.
Preston
County
Community Corrections Program
The
County
Commission
in partnership with Probation, Law Enforcement, Judicial and the Public Sector
established the Preston County Community Corrections Program (PCCP) in 2005 for
the purposes of increasing the flexibility of sentencing, community protection,
offering of rehabilitative service programs, and reduction of recidivism.
The Commission successfully wrote, provided match monies and administered
a 2005 WV Division of Criminal Justice Community Corrections Grant in the amount
of $20,500, which was used as start-up monies for the program.
In 2006, the Commission was also successful in acquiring additional
monies to assist with program operations in the amount of $50,000, through the
State Attorney General’s Office. Monies
awarded so far have been used to hire a full-time director to run the project,
provide services for project clients like (parenting and substance abuse
classes), and to equip the program with basic operating supplies.
The PCCP has served approximately thirty-eight clients since its
inception. The clients’ offenses
have covered a broad range. In 2006,
the Commission applied for $63,045 in grant funding for the project.
This application is still pending consideration.
Preston
County
—WV
Hazardous Materials Planning Grants
The
County
Commission
served as both a grant writer consultant and technical advisor for the Preston
County Office of Emergency Management and the Preston County Local Emergency
Planning Committees’ 2005 and 2006 WV Hazardous Materials Planning Grants.
Grant monies were awarded by the state through this funding source for
the following County projects: 1)
Create and implement a Shelter-In-Place Plan; 2) Develop and utilize an
Evacuation Plan for at-risk areas as needed; 3) Review, modify, and update the
existing Hazard Risk Assessment; and 4) Undertake a Commodity Flow Study.
The Shelter-In-Place and Evacuation Plan, was developed to outline
actions to be taken in response to a variety of emergencies and to assure the
coordination of the efforts of the citizens impacted upon with the relevant
emergency management, emergency communications and response organizations to be
involved. Hazard mitigation is
intended to reduce community and individual vulnerability to, as well as the
economic and emotional costs of, hazards before they occur.
Commodity Flow Studies are used to prepare for incidents by identifying
what hazardous materials are being transported near fixed facilities and/or
critical infrastructure.
Preston
County
Records Management Project
The
County
Commission
in partnership with
County
Officeholders
acquired $10,000 in funding from the 2005 WV Records Management and
Preservation Board County Records Grant Program
to provide improvements to the public records in
Preston
County
. This grant will provide for an
inventory of the county’s official records, and storage conditions, and the
development of a county records management plan.
The Commission is both the grant writer and sponsor for this project.
Preston
County
Commission/
Health Department
WV
Basic Public Health Incentives Grant Project
In
2005, the Commission in partnership with the County Health Department was
awarded funding in the amount of
$13,546 from a WV Basic Public Health Incentives Grant.
The overall goal of the project was to improve the health of
Preston
County
residents and to enable the Health Department staff to work with greater
efficiency by providing expanded services to Health Department Clients.
Monies were used to buy new exam room furnishing, to replace old and
outdated medical equipment and for architectural services to design a new and
better location for the Health Department. The
Commission provided both grant writing services and matched the project
dollar-for-dollar.
Preston
County
Commission
Homeland Security Projects
In
2004, the Preston County Commission received federal funding for the purpose of
improving homeland security measurers for the County.
The Commission’s involvement with these project included sponsoring and
administering three separate grants - $172,970 Law Enforcement Program; $30,000
Emergency Operations Center Program and $5,000 Citizens Corp Program.
This was a countywide project that impacted many multi-jurisdictional
agencies in a positive way by giving them the necessary equipment and training
needed to combat foreign and domestic terrorism.
Preston
County
Courthouse HVAC Project
In
2005, the Preston County Commission replaced the Courthouse’s 30-year old HVAC
system with an improved and more efficient one.
The Preston County Courthouse HVAC Project was a year-long endeavor that
cost a little over $600,000. The
project was badly needed as many areas of the Courthouse received no air in
summer months and no heat in winter months.
Before the new system was installed, the temperature in the Courtroom
actually measured over 90 degrees in summer months.
Moreover, many areas of the Courthouse had leaky pipes from the old
system which often dripped on the desks and sometimes heads of county employees.
The Commission received an $80,000 grant from the WV Courthouse
Facilities Improvement Authority Fund Program and a $3,000 grant from the WV
Budget Digest to assist with project costs.
The air quality in the Courthouse has been greatly improved by this
project.
Preston
County
Farmland Protection Program
In June 2004, the Preston
County Commission authorized the establishment of the Preston County Farmland
Protection Program and Board. The
Program was adopted by the Commission to provide persons and opportunity to
voluntarily protect agricultural land in
Preston
County
by the voluntary placement of conservation easements on farmland.
As part of the program, the County began collecting an additional tax on
the privilege of transferring real property.
Monies from this tax are to be used in furtherance of the program.
The Farmland Protection Programs established by counties and the state
set uniform standards and guidelines for the eligibility of properties and the
ranking criteria utilized to prioritize funds allocation to purchase
conservation easements, or to pay associated costs for the purchased or donated
easements. The guidelines
established by the various programs outline the methods of farmland protection
available to prospective participating property owners, and the procedures to be
followed in applying for program consideration.
Electronic
Voting Machines for
Preston
County
The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) mandated states to
purchase one handicap-accessible voting machine per precinct and to replace the
punch-card and lever voting systems by January 1, 2006.
In 2005, the State provided the County with thirty-seven free “touch
screen electronic voting machines” to comply with HAVA.
In order to have one uniform system for voting the
County
Commission
opted to change from a paper ballot method of voting to an all electronic
voting system. As a result, the
County ordered and received eighty-five additional electronic voting machines
for distribution among the county precincts.
The total cost for purchasing the additional machines is $263,500.
The County was only responsible for paying $88,000 for the entire
project. The Commission is very
excited about this project and feels that it will make a positive impact upon
the way
Preston
County
citizens take part in the electoral process.
Preston
County Commission’s County Internet Site
In 2005, the Preston County Commission entered
Cyberspace with the advent of the Preston County Commission’s County Internet
Site. The site was created and is
maintained by the Commission’s Computer Support Technician.
It may be found online at http://www.prestoncountywv.org.
The site is a valuable resource to the County as it contains all of
the latest information about
County
Government
and its sister agencies. Information
like county ordinances, meeting agendas, the County Visioning Survey may all be
found on the site with just a click of the button.
Preston
County
Visioning Committee
In 2005, the Preston County Chamber of Commerce
initiated a countywide visioning process in an attempt to allow Preston County
Citizens and business owners a chance to plan for and to make steps to ensure a
bright future for the county. This
process involved the creation of a local Visioning Committee made up of citizens
from across
Preston
County
including members of the Preston County Commission.
The Commission also provided funding in furtherance of the project.
So far, the Committee has randomly surveyed 1000 county residents to find
out their concerns and opinions as they relate to the County.
Those results may be found online at the Commission’s Internet Site at http://www.prestoncountywv.org.
The data that was collected was then used to create subcommittees to
further identify needs and the necessary steps to achieve those outcomes.
The Commission is a proud sponsor of this project.
Preston
County
Courthouse and Annex Project
In
2004, the Preston County Commission purchased the old WesBanco building in
Kingwood for the purpose of developing a Courthouse Annex.
The Commission plans to move all non-court related offices from the
Courthouse to the proposed
Annex
Building
. The Courthouse would then only
house courtrooms and court related offices.
This project will save the County $72,000 a year in rent and will also
afford the Commission the ability to make the court system more secure.
Presently, Preston County Courts are housed in three different locations
which often prove problematic when providing security measures.
The Commission is working with the State Supreme Court of Appeals on
acquiring permission to move the courts. The
Courthouse stands now is overcrowded and not user friendly.
The addition of the
Annex
Building
will allow county offices to deal with future growth and will improve their
ability to work with the public. Housing
Urban Development monies awarded through the efforts of the Honorable
Congressman Alan B. Mollohan will be utilized to adapt the
Annex
Building
for county office use. Both the
Courthouse and the Annex are listed as contributing properties on the National
Register of Historic Places. The
Commission is working with an architect to design the adaptive reuse of both
buildings.
Preston
County
Animal
Shelter
The
Preston County Animal Shelter
program is a warm and fuzzy success story. Since 2004, the shelter has
quadrupled in size to over 4000 square feet. During this time the area
citizens have recognized the animal control and adoption program as a success
and have responded with their generosity, One resident animal lover liked
what he saw in the animal shelter and left more than one hundred thousand
dollars in his will. This money along with grants and commission funding
is making
Preston
shelter one of the best in the tri-state area. Thank you to the Wayne Fortney
family. Co-operation between the Sheriff’s department, the
Prosecutor’s office and the Commission has resulted in two major animal abuse
cases in the last several months, with the most recent seeing the confiscation
of more than 160 sick and starving animals from a local so called “rescue”
operation. Our animal control officer, JoDeen Johnnie, began working for
the county in June of 2005 and has been instrumental in the shelter success.
A
Preston County Animal Shelter
Advisory Committee was appointed in 2005 and has since written a comprehensive
policy manual for adoptions and volunteers. All animals available for
adoption are listed on petfinder.com and adoption of homeless pets is up by over
500%. Everyone wins with this happy ending.
But,
its really only the beginning. If you would like more information on
helping with the shelter, please call 329-3461.
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