Recovery from severe flooding in June in the Elkview and Clendenin areas dominated discussions Monday at a special meeting of the Kanawha County Commission that was held in conjunction with the commission's official canvass of voting during the Nov. 8 general election.
Mike Shinn, director of the Greater Kanawha Long Term Recovery Committee, appeared before the commission to seek its support in setting up a meeting with area clergy and business operators to discuss the dire need for more volunteers to help hundreds of residents still repairing flood-damaged homes and property, seeking new housing and remaining financially burdened by the floods.
Shinn said he fears that many people in the Elkview and Clendenin areas won't be able to get back into their homes before winter, unless volunteer assistance is ramped up soon.
"Right now, 80 percent of the volunteers we do have are from out of state," Shinn said. "We have a great need for more volunteers. If we can get a group of pastors and business people together to tell them how much more help is needed, we're hoping they send us more volunteers. Maybe some businesses could let their employees take one day a week off to help out."
At the suggestion of Commission President Kent Carper, Deputy Planning Director James Young was directed to assist Shinn in organizing a public meeting involving clergy, business operators and private and government relief agencies to address the need for more volunteers.
"We are committed to flood recovery in this county," Carper said.
Connie Arthur Nelson, of Elk River Strong, a recently formed flood-recovery organization, appeared before the commission to seek its assistance in organizing a community rally to lift the spirits of flood victims with live music while getting the word out that much work remains to be done to restore the Elkview and Clendenin communities to pre-flood conditions.
"I appreciate the work the commission has done for us, but sometimes it feels like we've disappeared off the radar screen," Nelson said.
The continued inaccessibility of the Crossings Mall shopping center near Elkview, closed since the June 23 floods washed out its culvert-bridge entrance, "is a situation that constitutes an emergency," she said.
People in the area have to drive to other communities to fill their prescriptions and buy groceries, Nelson said, while hundreds of former employees of the shopping center have lost their jobs and some of the mall's businesses might close permanently.
"It's not just a place to shop," Nelson said, "it's the center of our community."
The county commission, Carper said, has discussed the situation with the mall's owner, Bill Abruzzino, as well as Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, state Fire Marshal Kenneth Tyree, state Adjutant General James A. Hoyer, and state Division of Highways personnel.
Earlier this month, the commission hired outside counsel to begin legal proceedings against Abruzzino's company for creating a public nuisance by leaving the mall inaccessible to fire trucks and other emergency vehicles, should fire occur at any of the mall's businesses, including gas stations with large underground tanks.
"The property owner had core sampling done, got a permit to build a new bridge, put the project out to bid and said he would get it rebuilt in eight weeks," Carper said during a break in Monday's meeting. "It looks to me like, when the construction costs came in at about $1 million, he decided to try to get someone else to pay for it. His position now is that the culvert that washed away was on a Division of Highways right of way, so the state should pay for it. The state disputes that."
Carper said a federal court lawsuit filed in September by the U.S. Bank National Association, which holds a $13.6 million loan on which the mall owners defaulted, might provide the fastest route to replacing the bridge and reopening the mall, since it would place the shopping center in the hands of a court-approved receiver with the wherewithal to build a new bridge "sooner, rather than later."
Carper suggested that Nelson meet with Young, to provide the commission with more details about what the proposed community rally would entail.
In other flood-related developments:
n The commission voted to provide $13,800 in state Lottery table games funds to the Herbert Hoover Grand Slam Club, an organization boosting Herbert Hoover High School's baseball program. The group is working to restore the Clendenin-area school's baseball field to pre-flood conditions. A major renovation of the baseball field had been completed by the Grand Slam Club about three months before the flood.
The new renovation work funded by the commission is expected to be completed much faster than the earlier makeover, according to the Grand Slam Club's J.R. Oliver.
"We should be old pros at repairing ballfields by now," he said.
n The commission voted to spend an additional $9,700 of its Lottery table games allocation to provide two new scoreboards for the Stonewall Jackson Middle School gym, at the request of the West Side Basketball program, which provides league play that involves about 175 boys and girls annually.
n Montgomery Mayor Greg Ingram and Fred Lockard, a member of the town's city council, outlined plans to annex a 1-mile stretch of W.Va. 61, and the adjacent unoccupied riverbank along the Kanawha River just west of the current city limits, to accommodate recreational development adjacent to WVU-Tech's boat dock, which will be donated to Montgomery when Tech moves to Beckley next year under a West Virginia University reorganization plan.
Plans for the dock include equipping it with a fueling site, and developing RV sites and a walking trail on the land surrounding it.
Carper, who said he ordinarily doesn't favor such annexations, told Ingram and Lockard that he won't oppose their plan, which goes before the county planning board in December.
"After what West Virginia University did to your town, WVU should give you a grant to pay for what you're planning to do," he said.
Reach Rick Steelhammer at rsteelhammer@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5169 or follow @rsteelhammer on Twitter.