Early voting by mail will now be the convenient method available to the residents of Ronceverte after an ordinance was passed on second reading at the Monday night Ronceverte City council meeting.

Early election voting for Ronceverte residents are to be conducted only by mail or by drop off at City Hall. No longer will City Hall be open for voters to cast their early votes in the period ahead of election day.

Mayor David Smith said the change will save the city as much as $4,000 per election. During the past two elections, he said, there were only about 10 people who opted to vote early in Ronceverte. Early voting is permitted for approximately 10 days before election day, meaning the city must have employees on hand to process the ballots during those days. “Some days only one person would come in to cast their vote.”

In other business:

• City Administrator Reba Mohler said the installation of time clock software will simplify numerous in- house procedures for city operations. Employees often work from one department to another, which can make tracking which department the worker is drawing earning from. The council approved the plan to purchase the software for the city operations.
• Grant consultant Doug Hylton said the Ronceverte Main Street office has applied for upgrades to the community garden at Island Park with plans to build two high tunnels. Other grant projects and funding in the works, Hylton said, include cleaning up the brown fields at the Lewisburg Wholesale building, a railroad bridge project, and planning grants for sidewalks and the brick wall behind the Martin & Jones building. A FEMA grant filled in the hole in the pavement, created by the June flood, in front of the Tri-County Produce building on Frankford Road.
• A presentation detailing the work being done along the Greenbrier River to remove flood related blockages of debris and trash is ongoing as a result of a grant that will also benefit Rainelle, Rupert and White Sulphur Springs. Additional crew members are needed and anyone interested is invited to call City Hall for more information.
• Dunn Engineering consultant Eric Hartwell once again updated the council with his monthly report on the progress of the new waste water treatment plant. All of the big equipment has been assembled on site, he said. A crane will install much of it within the large cylindrical concrete containers, after which the roofs will be set in place. Hartwell said the main treatment processing will begin on schedule by April of this year.
• Police Chief J.R. Byer said the long-defunct and dilapidated movie theater building on Main Street has been declared unsafe. He is starting criminal processing of the owners of the building.
• The municipal election calendar has been set for June 6, Mahler said, in which the mayor’s seat and two council seats will be up for re-election.