The Tuesday, October 21, meeting of the Wetzel County Commission brought out strong disagreement and apparent discord over a divide within the commission. Chuck Clegg appeared before the commission stating three areas of concern he believes were improperly handled by current and past commission members. The first issue addressed was the purchase of the property known as Thistle Dew Farms, and the failure of a current commissioner and a past commissioner’s due diligence in securing all proper inspections and legal reviews. The second issue involves the directing of funding over the last seven years to the community of Hundred. The question was not whether it was proper or needed, it was a concern over whether the county distributes funding equally among all communities based on need, or if the commissioners had played favoritism towards one particular area. His concern comes amidst allocations that Hundred’s money from the commission stems from one or two commissioners showing bias towards their home community. Third, Clegg alleged that the termination of the County’s dog shelter was due to unfair bias from past grievances. After posing these three perceived abuses of due diligence and power, Mr. Clegg asked for an audit of monies given to all the towns in question for the last seven years. Clegg said there was talk in the community about asking for both commissioners to resign, but he wasn’t going to go that far.

“I want to see the commission work together for all the citizens in a fair and impartial way. With what we have now that can’t happen,” said Clegg.

He then asked for Commissioner Carla McBee’s resignation or retirement so that a fair and impartial new member could be seated.

Carie Dawson came before the commissions with concerns about the recent discharge of Shelter Director Pam Ferral. Dawson also spoke about concerns of improper behavior by an individual at the shelter. She said she had brought the issue up before to the commission and yet no actions or inquiries have been undertaken. She said both commissioners present at the meeting have failed to meet the proper leadership roles for elected officials that are supposed to represent all the citizens of the county. She directly asked for answers from Commissioners’ Nelson and McBee. They offered no answers to any of her allegations and sat quiet. Dawson spoke of the two commissioners (Kelly Nelsen and Carla McBee) being unethical in the firing of Pam Ferrell as the Director of the Animal Shelter by refusing to give a reason or answer questions as to why she was terminated. “How can we get answers? Are you two commissioners willing to have a meeting to discuss this?” Neither commissioner responded.

Speaking on behalf of commissioner McBee was Ex-Commissioner Greg Morris who recently retired from the position. He rose to defend McBee and her decisions as a commissioner. He looked over at Chuck Clegg and said he agrees there is a problem, but it isn’t with Carla.

“Chuck I totally agree with you, but you have the wrong commissioner you are attacking. As you see President Lisa Heasley is not here today and misses a bunch going on her vacations. To me, that is where the problem is. I support Carla and her decisions she makes for the better of the county,” stated Morris.

He said Heasley should be here taking care of business. She misses way too many meetings and goes on vacations or attends meetings elsewhere when she should be here.

Mary Ash, Director of the Wetzel County Committee on aging gave the commission an update on the current and past activities of the senior center. Mary explained how the committee has two sources of money for the operations of the center. She said money from grants through the federal government comes with limitations and restrictions on how it can be used. She then explained that money from the Wetzel County Commission is unregulated as to the use by the center. She explained that unrestricted money gives them the ability to make arrangements for programs that give all seniors an opportunity to participate regardless of personal limitations. She gave an example of a trip organized by the center where one individual with personal medical needs could not have gone if they used federal funds. However, local funds could be used to have needed medical equipment on hand for use in those situations. Mary and her staff expressed gratitude for the commission’s help and consideration in giving her agency access to unrestricted funding.

Mayor Chip Goff of Hundred, said he was there to speak on another subject but after listening to the allegations of favoritism towards his town, he decided to change his speech.

“I am offended by what I have heard about the favoritism towards Hundred, me and my crew work hard to make Hundred a better place, and sure I approach the commission to help, and most of the time they do. We have done a lot of good things in our small town and have many more ideas to make our community better for our citizens,” Goff said.