The Kanawha County Commission is allocating another $500,000 for flood cleanup, bringing its total spending to about $1 million.
Most of the money is going to debris cleanup, but some is going to contractors that have helped the county through the cleanup process.
"The hard road is just beginning," said Kent Carper, the president of the Kanawha County Commission. "It's the effort to get things back for our citizens."
Carper said that the county is asking the state to reimburse it for some of the flood expenses through the state's Rainy Day fund.
"If we don't get money back from FEMA, we're going to have to go into our Rainy Day fund and it will be recklessly depleted," Carper said.
So far, the county has moved 14,000 tons of debris from the areas that were affected by the flooding.
The county also has issued about 50 building permits to flood victims who want to rebuild their properties.
Carper also raised concerns about the bridge to the Crossings Mall in Elkview.
So far, little progress has been made in constructing a new bridge and Carper said that he's looking into his options to force the developer to move faster.
"They spent a month hoping that the state will come in and will fix it for them," Carper said.
Because it is a private road, the state has no authority over constructing a new bridge.
Carper said that the bridge still is at least eight weeks away from being completed.
The commission also addressed the new concerns about people in Malden voting in the wrong state Senate district since 2012.
Andrew Gunnoe, assistant county manager, said that 200 registered voters were registered to vote in Senate District 17, rather than Senate District 8 where they are located.
The 200 registered voters add to a total of more than 1,000 registered voters who were placed in the wrong voting district in the 2016 primary election.
Keith Pauley, a Republican candidate for House of Delegates in the 35th District, asked the commission not to move voters to the correct precincts until after the November election.
"It's very confusing to the voters," Pauley said, adding that the candidates already had spent time and money campaigning in the areas that were incorrect.
Carper and Kanawha County Clerk Vera McCormick disagreed with Pauley.
"Absolutely no way," Carper said.
He said that he couldn't imagine knowing that people were voting in the wrong district and allowing it to happen anyway.
Carolyn Strickland, the chairwoman of the Kanawha County Republican Executive Committee, said that she agreed with Pauley that it would be confusing to voters, but that the commission should correct the problem.
"It behooves us to correct it," Strickland said.
Several Republicans were in attendance for the meeting because of the voting district issue.
McCormick made a statement acknowledging that she was the public face of the issue and asked the county to allow a professional mapper to examine every precinct to make sure there were no more mistakes.
"I'd like to remind you that there are other entities that have responsibility for a fair election," McCormick said, in reference to the fact that the problems have stemmed from confusion as high as the state level.
As the discussion was ending, Lance Wheeler, a Republican candidate running for County Commission against Dave Hardy, stood up to speak to the issue, only to endorse McCormick as county clerk and ask the commissioners to endorse her as well.
After being taken aback for a brief second, Carper dressed down Wheeler.
"It is unethical, it is illegal and it is not right to endorse a candidate in a public meeting," Carper said, adding that there was a policy about electioneering on county property.
Reach Daniel Desrochers at dan.desrochers@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4886 or follow @drdesrochers on Twitter.