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Newspaper Archive of
The Hinton News
Hinton, West Virginia
July 3, 1990     The Hinton News
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July 3, 1990
 
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--5 t-. -=. m ,i# J. .I (Continuing the Hlnton Daily News & The Weekend Leader) of the W. V; FestiVal Volume 89 No. 10 Hinton, West Virginia Tuesday July 3, 1990 25 Cents ~'By Fred Long the Mayor's office with your calls Hintofi has been virtually with- and letters in support of our cause." outapolice force, with the exception Mayor James A. Leslie, Jr. said of Hinton's Chief of Police, for the he did not know of any =pay dispute~ past four days because each member between him and the officers saying has called in sick with a mysterious he believed the police officers =to be illness, Chief John Plumley said professional people that would not yesterday, leave the job unless they were really =As far as I know they are sick,~ sick. The first time I've heard about Plumley said. =None of them have a dispute over pay is now.~ But, he talked to me." said, =if they are calling in sick and City officers Cpl. B. B. Angell, notworkingbecausewegavethema Ptlm. Jimmy Wills, Bruce McCallis- 3% pay increase and they don't like ter and Fred Moody =have all called it. I'll begin due process proceedings in sick daily to the dispatch center in the courts tomorrow to dismiss since7amFriday,~Plumleysaid. "I them." have been answering every call." Leslie said any allegation that he All four officers, in a prepared and the City Council refused to work announcement yesterday, corn-with the Police on pay increases =is plained that the Mayor and City false. For several months we worked Council reneged on a promised pay on a uniform pay scale for all era- increase that has been a "dispute~ ployees that included years of serv- between them and City Government ice, but that system didn't work out." for over six months. Angell, when contacted last night, Likewise, Cindy Cooper, City protection, Plumley said he could City is protected. If I need help all I Clerk, said to her knowledge the see no difference. ~b~e had a person have to do is pick up the phone." officer "didn't approach the Mayor breakoutawindowatMessersPhoto =I want to remind every body,~ or Council at any time as a group. I the other night that, for some un- Cooper said, "we have the Sheriffs haven't heard any complaints about known reason, tried to steal two Department and State Police in pay so they must really be sick.~ picture frames. I arrested them. I Summers County. Hinton is in the As far as the City having police think that speaks for itself. Ifeelthe county." Both departments have been notified, Plumley .said, and will as- sist if needed. Plumley said he did not know how long the other officers would be off. Until then he said he would be tak. ing care of all police emergencies. July 2, 1990 To Whom It May Concern: We, the undersigned, want to address our situation to the citizens of the City of Hinton of whom we serve. priate actions upon the part of the Mayor and Council. The plight of the Hinton Police Department has been in severe straits for several years. Over ten years ago a patrolman made $4.19 an hour. Prior to July 1, 1990 a Recentattemptsbetween the City patrolman made $5.19 an hour. The police officers and City officials to lastpayraiseforpatrolmanto$5.19 reach an agreement have been effec- an hour was received when Mayor tive; however, the City officials have Leslie took office seven years ago. It failed to deliver their part of the was ex-Mayor Bill Humphreys' agreement. We, the undersigned, administration that saw progressive ministrativepositions. Forexample, ity is to serve'our families. A a city fireman makes $6.25 an hour patrolman's average take home pay compared to our $5.35 an hour as of is $250.00 every two weeks. One July 1, 1990. patrolman hasmet the federal guide- The City's response has always linestoparticipateintheFoodStamp been based upon the lack of funds. Program. Still, itisnotourdesireto The Police Department has fewer leave Hinton in search of adequate officeres, no dispatch center, and a jobs. reduc~on in other employees, as well A police officer's job i~ not always as a reduction in other departments, pleasant nor appreciated. But those This has resulted in a savings from time when we did respond to a call, salaries and other benefits that the the citizens were grateful for our City would have paid. We ask the presence. With approximately 5,000 =City officials have failed to de- saidheissickwithwhathethought cannot remain passive any longer, increa|meinmalaries. The financial location of the saved monies. We people residing in the City limits, liver their part of the agreement," i~ a ~inus infection. ~I'~ve been sick . . ~In the ~Fall~ of 1989,. ....... Mayor~ ~ Leslie,:~ ~._~..~z.~t. for_~ ..~olice ~ ~ms wor~ .queetiet~th.~tureaofmonies there is one officer per t,000 people. thefourofficerssayf,~We,~h~unde~;.~ offand on for the past three weeks,, w3th Councilman l~effer present, enedduringthelastsevenyearsdue into the purchase of properties and Now, the Chief of Police is alone signed, cannot remain passive any he said. Last week Angell said he addressed pay raises for the officers to several reasons: theMainStreet Program. One City responsible for 5,000 individuals, longer-~ worked almost 90 hours =and three by stating he would like to see us 1) City employees in the pastCouncilmembermadethestatement their homes and their businesses. According to the officers, "in the of those days I was so sick I could equal or above a City fireman's sal- fall of 1989" they began negotiations hardly move.~ He said he has been for apayraise "equal or above a City in contact with his doctor and has a fireman's salarf' which is 90 cents doctor's appointment scheduled. more an hour. Police officers jobs =This is the first time that I ever are =just as hazardous and impor- came down with somethinglikethis tent,~ they write in the statement, in the Summer time.~ Although he But they say "On Monday, June did say he signed the officers an- 18, 1990, the City police officers nouncement concerning pay, that heard through the grapevine that had nothing to do with his sickness only a 3% pay increase would take that is preventing him from work- place July 1, 1990 across the board ing. for all employees. We are hurt that Officers Wills, McCallister and the l~yor did not have the courtesy Moody could not be reached. to i~rt that knowledge to us per- Plumleyalso saidhehad noknowl- sonally." edge of a pay dispute in the depart- With a City population of about ment. =They have never presented ~5,000 =there is one officer per 1,000 any formal complaint about that to people,~ the officers say. "Now, the me,~ he said. ~l'hey got a 3% across Chief of Police is alone responsible the beard. The very same thing that for 5,000 individuals, their homes everybody else got. They say they and their businesses... We, the can't work because they are sick. undersigned, needyourunderstand- Until I learn otherwise as far as rm ing and support. We ask you to flood concerned they are sick.~ received free health insurancebene- that money from the General Fund, Responsibilities due to Summer ary in that our jobs were just as fits. Currently, employeesmustnow whichisusedforPoliceDepartment tourism are not included in this hazardous and important. Council- pay 50% of health insurance costs, salaries, was utilized to keep City survey. manKefferagreed. The Mayor asked 2) City employees originally re- Sidetrack Park out of the red. We We, the undersigned, need your ustowaituntilthelstoftheyearfor ceived a number of holidays with ask how many expenditures are understandingandsupport. Weask pay raises, holiday pay. Currently, approxi- listedundermiscellaneousexpenses, you to flood the Mayor's office with In January 1990, the situation matelyhalfoftheholidayshavebeen Ismoneythatcouldbe used for sala. your calls and letters in support of continued with the Mayor statinghe cut out. ries being wasted? our cause. The City of Hinton has was unable to work pay raises into 3)Cityemployeasoriginallycould TheMayorandCouncilareelected great potential. It is the City of the budget at this time. He asked us accumulate sick days per year. All officials, representing the people of three rivers. It has significant his- to allow him time to work pay raises sick days have been cancelled, the City of Hinton. We ask the torical impact. We are not asking into the City budget which, would 4)ThePoliceDepartmenthasbeen citizensiftheyareawareofhowthey the sacrifice of Hinton's future to take effect July 1, 1990. We agreed working understaffed for some time are being represented. Maybe it is meet our needs. But, we are asking to wait until then. which resulted in officers working time you should start asking for an for a more realistic achievement of On Monday, June 18, 1990, the more than 40 hours per week. Cur- accountability, goals. A City and its citizens always City police officers heard through rently, all officers have approxi- In the past, when City Council need police protection of life and the grapevine that only a 3% pay mately four weeks of overtime hours has voted on items which caused an property. Without this, there can be increase would take place July I, accumulatedwhichtheCityisrefus- uproar within the city departments, no growth in future advancements. 1990acrosstheboardforall employ- ingtopay. Traditionally, thesehours the Mayor has left town thus avoid- All growth derives from a steady ees. We are hurt that the Mayor did .wereusedfortimeoffwithpaywhich ingfacing the consequencesofsuch foundation. The police are there to not have the courtesy toimpart that the Mayor is now refusing to honor actions. Once more, the Mayor has protect and maintain that founds- knowledge to us personally, while this dispute is going on. He again left town to keep from dealing tion- which is the citizens of the City. Pay raises were discussed at the has stated he would fight this in with adverse reactions, as WVVA. of Hinton. '. June Council meeting at which time court for years to come before he TV found out Saturday, June 30, pay raises were not an agenda item. would honor such requests, and reported on the eleven o'clock Thank You, " The Chief of Police as our depart- It is our claim that inequality program. Cpl. B. B. Angell mentheadwasnotifiedhispresence prevailsthroughouttheCitydepart- Our primary responsibility is to Ptlm. J. R. Wills was not required at that meeting, ments based upon salaries within serve the citizens of the City of Ptlm. B. E. McCaUister i.. We deem such secrecy as inappro- the fire department and other ad- Hinton. Our secondary responsibil- Ptlm. F. W. Moody ~r J Will Rq James Reed, owner ofthe Tobacco Leaf building in Downtown Hinton, said he will restore his building us- ing Historic Preservation incentives learned during a conference for managing historic sites held late last month. Reed said he will use the federal and state tax credits to off set the cost to rebuild and will be meeting with the state's Historic Preserva- ~ion Office and the Hinton Historic Landmark Commission at the build- ing next Monday to begin his reha- bilitation process. =That conference," Reed said, =convinced me that this is the direc- tion for me to go. I had a good business on the corner and I want to go back there. TbJ s will help me and atthe same time it will be an asset for Hinton.~ It will cost about $20,000 to re- build, Reed said, but the 20% federal Building tax credit and 10% state tax credit will return $6,000 to him cutting the total cost to only $14,000. Reed said he will not rebuild at the former Hair Station location and leave =this area vacant to be used as a loading zone to prevent parking on the street." The former office for Nationwide Insurance is also ex- cluded from the plans. =We plan to repair this part of the buildinglater.~ The main building, he said, will be returned closer to its original design by removing the first floor =mansard roof and wood aiding~ which will be replaced by a retract- able awning and brick that will match the original brick. The building was gutted by fire early May and suffered extensive damage on the inside; however the brick walls remained sound and are repairable. Ahospital management cornpany, Appalachian Regional Health Care (ARHC) out of Lexington, Ky., Thurs. day night, entered into a three year contract to manage the Summers County Hospital, Norman Wright, senior administrator for ARHC said, and yesterday he announced that the hospital does not have full time emergency room coverage. For the past week, or more, people have been turned away from the emergency room because no physi- cians were working. This is a prob- lem Wright said they will be trying to correct by recruiting new physi- cians for the hospital. Wright, along with Kathy Bflskie who will be working to recruit doc- tors, arrived yesterday where both will assume management responsi- bilities until a full time administra- tor is placed in the position. "The contract includes placing a full time administrator,~ Bilside said. ~W'e hope to place an administrator here within two months.~ Wright saidin the meantime they will perform those duties and ~nost of the time she and I will both be here ." Any administrator, Wright said, must be approved by the Hospital Board of Trustees. ~We are here to financial problems that the hospita] help as much as we can. We're not has been facing because they have here to take over the hospital, but to encountered ~similar problems with help the board, the employees and other rural hospitals.~ At this time the community.~ the hospital does not have any The financial terms of the con- ~emergencyroomcoveroge,~heeaid, tract were not disclosed. =We don't and a doctor that specializes in sur- mind telling you this," Wright said, gery is needed. "but I would rather have this come qt is difficult to recruit physi- from the president of the Board." clans to a rural area,~ Wright said. Board president Lonnie Mullins "Kathy will be trying to do that. In could not be reached, fact she already has a surgeon inter- Both said they understood the eared in coming to this area.~ Nineteen hundred and eighty- 20.5 miles ofimprovemente. nine was a record year for highway Statewiderecorde were also setin improvements in W.Va., according the following areas: to figures compiled by the Project .Roadresurfacing, approximately Control Division of the Division of 2,458.71miles, costingabout$77.405 Highways. million. A record 4,137 miles of improve- .343bridgesreplacedorimproved, ments were brought about in 1989, $123.458 million. breaking 1978'samountof3,879.All . Installation or improvement of of this work totalled an estimated 690,000 linear feet of guardrail ( $293.4 million, which/ssignificantly more than 130 miles), $8.5 million. less than the amoun~spent in 1978, . Interstaterenovation, almost$40 $381.1 million, million. An estimated $2,439,000 was A comparison of the DOH's per- spentin Summers County alone, for Continued on page 5 BILL DILLON Senior member of the Sum- mere County Board of Educa- tion, John William "Bill" Dillon, became president of the School Board during a Statutory Meet- ing held last night. Dillon, a six year member and former president of the Board, was elected to the position fol- lowing a motion hy Bill Matbews and a second by nearly elected member Charles Neely. Both Dillon and Neely were elected to a six year term on the Board last May. Earlier in tlm meeting School Superintendent Jim Taasos administered the Oath of Office to each of them. Dr. Bill Mathews was elected to serve as vice-president ofth0~ Board following a motion by Dillon and a second from Nelly.