South Charleston Mayor Frank Mullens, City Manager Rick Atkinson and police Chief Brad Rinehart praised the city's fire department for its work on the fire that destroyed Mojo's sports bar Thursday morning.
"I want to tell you how proud I am of the job our fire department did," Mullens said at Thursday evening's City Council meeting. "To only lose that one structure was just an outstanding job. I've always said we have well-trained first responders, both police and fire, and today was a good example.
"They deserve our appreciation."
Mullens also thanked St. Albans, Charleston and Dunbar for their assistance.
No one was injured in the blaze. However, Atkinson said some people next door to the destroyed building were displaced. The Red Cross put the displaced residents into temporary housing.
"All of the city departments were up there," Atkinson said. "The unified command worked well."
"It all worked the way it was supposed to," Mullens said.
Atkins said some businesses in town showed up with food. After the meeting, Ward 1 Councilman Kent Rymer said the Olive Tree, one of the city's newest businesses, voluntarily provided food while the fire was still being extinguished.
Also at Thursday's meeting, council authorized city executives to take all actions necessary to accept a $91,000 grant from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.
Public Works Director Gerald Burgy said the money will be used to buy a small packer truck for recycling. He said the truck may allow the city to cut the number of trips to Beckley each week with recycling materials from five to two.
In other action, council authorized Mullens to release First Principal Partnership from any future financial obligations regarding a 17-year-old sewer project.
In 1999 the city replaced a sewer system that existed on property then owned by Clearon Corp. and constructed a new section of sewer pipe along Route 60 on Park Corp. property and along F Street, according to city documents.
Five business entities served by the project, including First Principal Partnership, agreed to pay a proportional share of the project cost through 2020. However, First Principal Partnership submitted $2,957, its share of the outstanding balance on Dec. 24.
City Attorney Michael Moore said Doug Skaff Sr. is an officer of First Principal Partnership.
Also at the meeting, council recognized South Charleston High School Principal Mike Arbogast, who gave his ninth annual report about activities at the school.
"Things are good" at the school although "we're never satisfied with the status quo," Arbogast said.
Fourteen college classes are offered at the high school.
"There's no reason a kid can't walk out of high school with a minimum of their first semester of college classes under their belt," he said.
Abrogast also talked about the school's webcasts, which live stream many school activities including concerts, ceremonies and sports events. Students produce the shows.
The webcasts are posted and archived under the SCTV icon on the school's website, http://kcs.kana.k12.wv.us/schs/ Arbogast said SCTV has had 2,500 hits since August.
During announcements, Moore said 10 deer were harvested during the city's annual urban deer hunt, which ended Dec. 31.
Ward 8 Councilman Don Ryan did not attend Thursday's meeting.
Council's next meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 21 on the second floor of City Hall on D Street.