EHWA Gets County Funding For Plan

Wednesday October 22, 2008
EHWA gets county funding for plan
Pamela Pritt
Editor

Citing tightening budgets, disgruntled taxpayers and the possibility of duplicating efforts, county commissioners gave the Elk Headwaters Watershed Association a fourth of what its representatives asked for.

EHWA president George Bell and member Tolly Peuleche asked the commission for $20,000 to fund data collection for the association’s comprehensive watershed plan; however, after a perusal of their budget, commissioners agreed to contribute $5,000 to the EHWA’s efforts.

“Resources are going to get real tight,” county commissioner Reta Griffith told Bell and Peuleche. “I don’t want to duplicate what the state is doing.”

It was also Griffith who reminded the pair that the three commissioners had to face a public sometimes unhappy with the commission’s contributions to non-governmental entities.

Griffith said the commission would be funding the EHWA at nearly the same level it does emergency services and senior citizens. On top of that, the county has other watershed associations the commission doesn’t fund, she said.

“The model we hope to put together should be applicable across the board,” Bell said. “We’ve already brought $20,000 into the county.”

Half of that is from the National Audobon Society’s Together Green program. The announcement was made Tuesday night at Elk River Restaurant. The EHWA is pursuing other grants, as well, he said.

“What is more important than clean water?” Peuleche added. “You’re going to have payback for years to come from this.”

Bell agreed, saying the EHWA’s model is going to help the whole county.

“Your contribution will go a long way in leveraging other money,” Bell said.

Commissioner Martin Saffer noted that other counties in the watershed are also stakeholders and suggested soliciting contributions from neighboring Randolph and Webster counties.

Bell said that is on the association’s agenda and invited Saffer to accompany him to other meetings.

Griffith told Bell and Peuleche that the county’s assessor already has GIS information available, but Peuleche said the study the EHWA hopes to fund needs more specific information than the county or state has available.

The EHWA’s budget for the study is $80,000, with $10,000 of that coming from the West Virginia Division of Environmental Protection, another $10,000 from the Together Green grant, and $40,000 from “local businesses, private foundations, (and) government grants” which are in discussion.

The bang for the buck, in this case, gets the EHWA 342 hours of consulting work from Downstream Strategies, travel and copies of the Expanded State of the Watershed.

Peuleche said that a reduced contribution from county government would not reduce the association’s efforts.