By Gary Lee Stuber
A new wrecker service is coming to Clay County with capability of off-road service and even certification and special equipment to service wrecked ATV’s. Tracy Snyder, whose business is located presently in Widen, may even open a satellite office in or near Clay. He presented documentation for his business and certifications for everything, including insurance and inspection certification from the Public Service Commission to the Clay County Commission on their first meeting of the Month of February. The Commission will look over the documents and likely approve the business at the next meeting. He is additionally seeking to be added to the 911 rotation schedule.
Melissa O’Brien also gave a presentation before the commission on the broadband update from Citynet. She relayed that they are on budget, but behind schedule, and that the delays were on permitting and public access agreements. Fish and Wildlife, Land and Stream permits are behind (needing signoffs from the federal and state government), but because it involves crossing four districts it is a little more complex. She insisted she would come back and continue to give updates to the commission, but until they get all four districts signed off, they are not allowed to start construction. Terry Martin would back her up on this a little later in his presentation. She said they should finish the match of $5 million dollars on the project, so at this point they are waiting on permit approval.
In fact, Terry was not on the agenda for the meeting, but the Commission granted him permission to present. Terry wanted to give an update on two projects. A special council has been working with the PSD to develop two new projects. One is the Ocea Morefork area up near the Big Otter Elementary School. That is a $4.6 million dollar project. Presently they are getting public user agreements, developing funding and will be submitting the application sometime in April. The second is the application for the Grassy Fork area. It is a $2.5 million dollar project strictly with the Clay County PSD. That application is due the first of March. The Commission also approved his request for payment of invoices for the Nebo Big Otter waterline extension. He said they were sixty days from getting ready to bid, so they expected early summer for field work to start. Again, Terry noted that they were waiting, just like Melissa, on permits from state and federal inspectors for crossing streams. He said because the inspectors were always in the field somewhere, it was often difficult to get an answer to a phone call and that there was usually a six to eight month wait for permitting.
In other business, the Commission, consisting of Commission President Joyce Johnson, who presided over the meeting, and Commissioners David Schoolcraft and Connie Kinder, in attendance, approved the hiring of Audry Thomas and Kayla Samples as full time Deputy Circuit Clerks. They approved the hiring of Asia Summers as Dispatcher, Teressa McKinney as EMT-B and Samuel Clark, all to the Clay Ambulance Service. They turned part time employee Marsha King into full time Tax Deputy for the Sheriff’s Department. They reappointed Sarah Bird and Josh Shamblin to the Clay County Parks and Recreation Board. They reappointed Frank Massey to the Clay County Housing Board and reappointed Gary Drake to the Clay County Deputy Sheriff’s Civil Service Commission. They resolved a number of pending Last Will and Testaments, and a Waiver of Final Settlement.
Of unfinished business they tabled, and may add it to the next agenda at the end of the month, an approval of a Lease Agreement between the Clay County Commission and the
Community Connections, Inc., DBA Clay Family Support Center. They wanted time to further look over documentation they already had in their possession, and told Donna Salsbury, representing the support center, they didn’t need anything more than they already possessed. Tyler Morris of Carol Miller’s office just wanted the Commission to know he was there representing her office and they intended to be a perpetual partaker in these meetings.
All Clay County citizens should be involved in their county government. The top of that
local structure is the County Commission. They meet twice a month on the second and fourth Monday of every month at 10 a.m. at the Clay County Courthouse on the first floor in a public meeting room just for Commission business. All are welcome at these meetings. I would especially encourage civics, history, or government class students and their teachers to attend and discuss what they learned from participation in their government. These students WILL be the future of Clay County and some could be our future leaders. Let’s teach them to get involved.
The next Clay County Commission meeting is at the Courthouse at 10 a.m. on Monday, Feb. 26.
