Grant consultant Doug Hylton presented two reports at the Monday evening meeting of the Ronceverte City Council, beginning with planning grants through the Department of Highways (DOH) to replace and repair Main Street’s sidewalks and retaining walls on the hill section from Cedar Street to Spruce Street.
Also part of the planning and design work under contract with Chapman Engineering is the retaining wall beneath Main Street, which rises behind Martin and Jones hardware store. That wall is sinking. Both retaining walls are “very concerning,” Hylton said, as, over the years, water seeping through the many layers of roadway pavement has created gaps in the wall supports. A second DOH grant will cover the sidewalk work from Spruce Street to Walnut Street and on to Greenbrier Avenue.
On another project, Hylton said the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is making $45 million available to the 12 West Virginia counties affected by last year’s flooding in a meeting attended by mayors from flood-affected Greenbrier County municipalities of Alderson, Ronceverte, Rainelle, Lewisburg and White Sulphur Springs. Categories for using the funds as potential projects under consideration range from housing to water line replacements to bridge construction to the removal of blight. The funds will be available after Jan. 1, 2018, Hylton said, and communities are urged to look at what projects they can get “shovel ready” to apply for the funding. Projects with opportunities for job creation can add incentive for consideration.
Hylton suggested Ronceverte consider the Lewisburg Wholesale building as an option for the funds to overhaul and renovate since it has already undergone an environmental review. He said the funds are also approved for projects not directly related to the flood event, such as the replacement of aged water tanks.
In other business:
- At the request of the Greenbrier County Commission, and with approval of the Ronceverte City Council, Mayor David Smith has agreed to serve on the board the of the Mountain Transit Authority. Smith will represent the county on the board with Mary Surbaugh, Local Coordinating Officer with the Rainelle Medical Center. The group meets each month in Summersville.
- City Administrator Reba Mohler announced that with an adjustment to the budget, funding will be provided for two roof repairs to city structures, including the Clifford Community Center. The Marie Leist Foundation is also assisting with funding for roof repairs to some residential homes in the River City. The mayor and council expressed their thanks to the foundation for the community support.
- The holiday season brought several announcements of upcoming events in late November and December. Council member Barbara Morgan announced that on Nov. 20, the Ronceverte Womens Club will be offering home-made Christmas shopping items for sale and auction at the Baptist Church at 7 p.m.
- Mohler said the city will hold its Christmas Parade on the evening of Dec. 4, at 7 p.m.
- There will be a Christmas Dinner on Dec. 2 at the Trinity United Methodist Church with a $10 cost. The library fund-raising dinner will be held this year on Dec. 7, held annually at the Edgarton Inn offering three seatings at noon, 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.. Reservations are $40 and can be made by calling the Ronceverte public library. The theme this year, the mayor said, is Italian, and the library is seeking sponsors, he added. Reservations for both events will fill up fast, the mayor said.
- On Dec. 14, Ronceverte’s Christmas Open House event will be a fun affair from 5-8 p.m. in downtown Ronceverte. There will be food and entertainment, including carriage rides along Edgar Street from the post office to the Clifford Community Center and back. Businesses will be open for the event, offering many opportunities for holiday gifting.
- At the close of the meeting, council member Adam Rosin reported that he attended an informative meeting featuring ultra-fast broadband internet services offered by Citynet, a West Virginia company, and sponsored by the West Virginia Office of Technology. Citynet’s enhanced broadband services, known as “GigaPort,” is working to expand its “Internet Hog” services to power communities with ultra-fast broadband throughout West Virginia.
Rosin, who works in his home, said he was looking for high data capacity through a gigabit broadband connection. Citynet claimed to provide enough capacity and speed to support uploading data for his job as well as for other uses such as online gaming, home automation, security, and, increasingly important cloud services. One Gigabit is 1,000,000,000 (1 billion) bits, he said. What that mean, in a word, is speed. Citynet’s Gigabit Network provides the fastest Internet available, and that speed is delivered over fiber-optic cable, providing extreme reliability.
With 20 or more interested Ronceverte residents, Rosin said, an initial roll out of the enhanced broadband service will be researched for suitability to those neighborhoods that have expressed an interested in the service. According to the Citynet website (www.internethog.com), neighborhoods that reach a threshold of 30 percent interest, have priority to receive the Internet Hog service. Rosin said he could be reached at 304-667-1241 or adam@johnhenry.tech for more information.
