State senators bring stocking stuffers full of money for Marion County community projects

Dec. 21—FAIRMONT — West Virginia Senators Mike Caputo, D-13, and Mike Oliverio, R-13, brought their proverbial red Santa sack to Marion County Commission, stuffing the metaphorical stocking full with checks for several projects during the final commission meeting of the year.

In total, Caputo and Oliverio brought roughly $98,000 Wednesday for projects around the county.

"That's all we got for Christmas today from Santa Claus," Caputo said. "But once again, thank you to the commissioners because we couldn't do without your help. The money has to flow through the commission for auditing purposes and you guys have never said no to us. We come to you with projects and you have been more than happy to hear us out and and always have been there for us."

Maple Grove Cemetery, the YWCA, and Coal Mine Heritage Museum received $3,000, $10,000, and $5,000 respectively. Maple Grove's money will go to clear debris from parts of the cemetery and identify veterans' graves. The YWCA will use the funds for its HVAC system and the Coal Mine Heritage Museum will use its portion to continue building on owner Mike Rohaly's vision to have a coal mining museum in the northern part of the state.

The Town of Monongah also received $20,000 to help restore one of its parks. Rivesville brought up the rear of the giving spree, receiving $5,000 for the baseball field in Greentown. Caputo also announced the senate was able to secure $55,000 to renovate the town's community building. He presented a check to Rivesville Councilman Mark Dorsey for the renovation.

Santa's bag spent, Caputo and Oliverio retreated from the podium, however, not before Caputo thanked Oliverio for his partnership in helping various Marion County projects find the funding they needed through the Senate.

"Senator Oliverio has been more than kind on these requests with me," Caputo said. "We've been working so well together, I'm in the super minority, as you all know, but he has been very kind and he's never said no to Marion County. I want to take a moment of personal privilege to thank him and commend him for his work."

The commission also granted $800,000 for a continuing water project for Rivesville. The town is working on a project to upgrade some of its water infrastructure in order to serve Rivesville and surrounding townships. The project started in 2017 because two bridges the water line runs through are scheduled for demolition. The pipeline is strapped to the bridges. The project will take that line off of the bridges and bury it, helping update some of the area's water infrastructure at the same time.

"It's just a whole new waterline system," Dorsey said. "And then through the Dakota area, Fairmont will be hooking up their residents and that's why they committed money. It just helps everybody out. There's some really old lines in there. Everybody will have new fresh drinking water."

The project's cost was initially estimated at $1.5 million. However, thanks to COVID-19 and other inflationary factors, the price tag rose to $3.8 million for the upgrades. Securing funding throughout the project's life has been difficult, Dorsey said to commissioners, but fortunately project leaders did not give up and the work moves closer to completion. Dorsey said roughly 6,000 residents will benefit from the new pipeline.

A Rivesville representative who joined Dorsey at the podium summed up the project's benefits best.

"The greatest Christmas present is to get people clean drinking water," he said. "It's the greatest present."

Commission President Ernie VanGilder summarized 2023 as a revival year for Marion County.

"With COVID, for a couple of years there wasn't much we could do with regards to bringing businesses into the county," VanGilder said. "There just wasn't any activity. I think people are starting to look to the future right now. There is a little activity and it's up to us to cultivate that and bring it here to the county. That's what we're working on."

For Commissioner Bobby Devaul, who will mark his first year as commissioner in January, it was a year of learning about the county and the best way to work as a team with the other commissioners. He is looking forward to growing as a commissioner doing what he can to improve Marion County. He especially focused on how to best serve the youth here in the area.

Commissioner Linda Longstreth said the county is in a good spot as far as budgets go. She said the commission is doing its best to spend the money it has wisely and stay within its limits. However, that also means stepping in and helping out where needed. Longstreth understands the long game.

"We had projects that the community needed," she said. We're always trying to be here, to help them if it's something that's really needed. There's a lot of need out there, especially in small communities. Bobby mentioned, it's for the kids too. We've got to look out for keeping the children here, keeping the families here in Marion County. That's a big thing to do. If we can continue what we've started this past year after COVID, I think we're on the right track."

Reach Esteban at efernandez@timeswv.com