By Adam Pack
The Ronceverte City Council met for their regularly scheduled meeting at 7 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 3, and City Administrator Pam Mentz was happy to announce that the Ronceverte Splash Pad is nearing completion. Supply chain issues and weather unsuitable for the pouring of concrete have halted the progress of the pad, but with both issues resolved construction can move forward.
Mentz informed the council that, to date, “the old concrete has been pulled up and the new concrete can go down as soon as the next couple weeks. At that time, we’ll have a formal groundbreaking ceremony.” That ceremony is scheduled for Oct. 17, at 1 p.m. This may coincide closely with the groundbreaking of the Ronceverte “Pocket Park.” Delays with construction have also hampered the park, but councilwoman King was hopeful that a formal groundbreaking could be held “around mid-October.”
Members of the council also informed the public of several other public works and recreational updates, including the beginning of a Yard Decorating contest held by Peoples Bank. The contest will be from now until Oct. 28, and winners will get free gift cards. Soon after on Oct. 29, Ronceverte Baptist Church will be holding their second annual Fall Festival. All area children are invited to attend. Ronceverte citizens will see new military banners around town now, as five more service members banners have been created to honor five current or former military members from the town.
Bob Hazelwood was on hand to discuss recent developments with the city’s water line projects. Hazelwood informed the council of two projects, one completed in December of 2021 and the other “substantially completed in June of this year [2022], after they completed the paving repairs.” Hazelwood noted that there are some “miscellaneous things left to do to, but we should get those completed in the next couple of months.” As a result of the completion of these two projects, Hazelwood reported that, “Ronceverte was previously buying 500,000 gallons of water from Lewisburg, but now that number is around 200,000, so that’s a significant decrease as you can see.”
In other news, the councilmembers were the recipients of new flags to fly at the Island Park Amphitheater. State Senator Stephen Baldwin was present for a surprise visit to the council chambers, informing them that at a recent church service held at the amphitheater he joked that, “Those flags look like they’ve been there a while, we’ll say.” He then presented the city council with a new U.S. and West Virginia flag to display at the park.