By Hannah Heishman
The Hardy County Commission opened their first meeting of 2026 on Jan. 6 with a series of rapid-fire administrative decisions to keep the County running smoothly:
Steven Schetrom was approved to continue as Commission president. Commissioners’ respective board appointments did not change.
The Commission’s regularly scheduled meeting dates will remain the first Tuesday of each month at 9 a.m.; special meetings will be added as needed. Three days’ notice is required for regular meetings; two days’ notice is required for special meetings. Commissioners agreed to lay the levy April 21 at 10 a.m.
Board of Review and Equalization dates: Jan. 30 at 10 a.m.; Feb. 3 at 2 p.m.; Feb. 6 at 10 a.m.; and Feb. 17 at 10 a.m.
Public business hours will be Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with Saturday hours for individual offices as required. The holiday schedule was approved in December 2025.
Office of Emergency Management and 911 director Paul Lewis said the road to the Lost City tower is repaired. He is working with T-Mobile regarding their possible use of the Helmick Rocks tower.
Lewis noted that the Helmick Rocks tower was on a back-up generator for 14 hours during recent high winds.
Roger Vacovsky, representing Hardy County Emergency Ambulance Authority, recognized Nathan Kesner for “getting creative” with staffing, in attempts to staff all calls for that agency.
He also recognized West Hardy EMS for responding to 1412 calls in 2025, including 68 mutual aid calls, with a 100% response rate. Vacovsky said West Hardy is the only agency “in the region” to obtain that status.
Schetrom and Vacovsky briefly discussed the need to finalize updates to the ambulance fee ordinance soon. Vacovsky noted several grants require language from the ordinance to move forward.
Bill Ours, Health Department director, said his staff see “a lot of flu.”
“What I’m hearing is a lot of people are getting flu and COVID at the same time,” he said, and added that flu shots are available.
Sheriff Steve Dawson said both drug task force and uniformed deputies had assisted ICE in finding “someone from Guatemala.” He said his office has a letter of agreement to assist ICE.
Dawson said a case involving human bones found under the Clifford Hollow bridge were identified a year ago, and an arrest was made in Hampshire County with charges filed.
He also briefly talked about a situation that occurred two days prior involving an armed robbery and two attempted murders. Shots were fired early Sunday morning, Jan. 4 when an individual with a Pennsylvania drivers license approached a home on Caledonia Heights. The individual was apprehended shortly after. He was found to have parole violations and an extensive criminal history. Charges include two counts of attempted murder and one count of robbery.
Doug Mongold, Moorefield Volunteer Fire Department chief, spoke to the Commission about rental properties and fire safety.
Mongold said the Town of Moorefield’s rental property inspection process was partly to ensure that rentals aren’t “death traps.” He said violations have included extension cords running power to water pumps and units above ground level without escape ladders.
He talked about a recent fire call involving a rented trailer, in which a mother woke up in the night unable to breathe due to smoke. The cause was electrical, from improper wiring and extension cords. The smoke detectors did not work.
“It needs to be a safe building,” Mongold said. “People need to know they’re renting a place that’s worth renting.”
He went on to say the mother in the trailer was afraid she could be kicked out if she complained. “It wasn’t her fault. It was an electrical fire.”
Mongold proposed the County create an inspection program similar to Moorefield’s, to ensure rentals and new constructions are safe and habitable.
“I see a need for it,” he said. “Pushback from landlords? Yeah, I can’t help that. I don’t care about that: I care about the people.
Mongold, who is also on the Town Planning Commission, continued: “We had the public meetings (about the rental inspections). Landlords said, ‘You’re the Council, you have to listen to us.’ True, but the people we represent are the renters who live in Town. Most of the landlords don’t even live in Town.”
Ours noted that homes are being built in the county, with no inspection process.
“People lose thousands of dollars to contractors who aren’t really contractors,” he said.
Commissioner David “Jay” Fansler asked if those inspections, could be combined with safety inspections. Mongold and Ours both said ‘yes’.
Ours suggested that if the County hires an inspector, the person also becomes a sanitarian, to add that inspection.
“It wouldn’t be perfect,” Mongold said. “In Moorefield, we’re not able to look at everything. But if we start, at least we can build from that. Right now we’re doing nothing.”
“(We have) places with no floors, but they’re afraid to report it because there’s nowhere else to go,” Ours said.
Mongold finished, “We need rentals, but we also need safe rentals.”
Assessor Jim Wratchford approached the Commission with IT concerns. Several county offices, including the Tax and Assessor offices, have a contract to use a particular program. That program is not, currently, receiving adequate support.
The software was created by a company. The company was bought. All of the employees who knew this software left, and formed their own company. There is ongoing litigation between the two companies, which further restricts counties’ ability to get help.
The company with whom the County has a contract is GST. The new company with the employees who know the program is NSG West Virginia.
“Used to be, we could call them, and they’d fix it while were there on the phone,” Wratchford said.
A representative from GST, Frank McClain, called into the meeting and attempted to alleviate concerns. Ultimately, though, the person who built the software Hardy County uses, has not, allegedly, left any of that information. GST’s new hires are forced to learn the program as they go, and getting information from the experts as NSG requires lawyer involvement.
McClain provided multiple phone numbers and email addresses for the county to reach him, specifically, if they feel they are not getting the help they need.
McClain said, “I’ve worked for Fortune500 companies, and no one would have a program only one person knows for exactly this reason.” He continued that the ideal solution is a commercial software with a third party able to access the back-end code.
Vacovsky asked McClain if he could guarantee that all the data that’s in there is secure and can’t disappear McClain said it’s all being backed up.
Hardy County has had the GST contract for more than 20 years.
County Coordinator Wendy Branson briefed that, at the end of December, there were 13 dogs at the Pound.
She said Hardy County Day in Charleston, at the Capitol is Jan. 20. “It’s our day to brag about our county,” she said.
The Commission’s next regular meeting after this publication is Tuesday, Feb. 3 at 9 a.m. The meeting is open to the public and available for streaming and viewing on the County’s Facebook page. The public is encouraged to attend.
