IJDC approves funding for Snowshoe Drive sewage plant

Thursday June 04, 2009
IJDC approves funding for Snowshoe Drive sewage plant
Geoff Hamill
Staff Writer

The West Virginia Infrastructure and Jobs Development Council (IJDC) approved funding for the planned sewage treatment plant on Snowshoe Drive at a council meeting Wednesday morning in Charleston.

The IJDC funding committee previously met on May 29 and unanimously recommended that the council approve the funding request.

The Pocahontas County Public Service District (PSD) requested more than $25 million in loans and grants to build the plant, which still requires West Virginia Public Service Commission approval. The plant was designed by Thrasher Engineering, of Clarksburg.

The IJDC also approved a modification to a funding request for the Bartow-Frank-Durbin (BFD) water project. The PSD modified the request to include 50% grant money, in order to keep rate hikes as low as possible.

Pocahontas County Commissioner David Fleming attended the IJDC meeting on Wednesday to voice the commission’s support for the BFD water funding modification.

Fleming also restated the commission’s desire to stop funding for the Snowshoe Drive project, but was unsuccessful in convincing the IJDC to disapprove the funding request.

Fleming and fellow commissioner Martin Saffer have stated their belief that the PSD failed in its planning process to find an appropriate solution to the area’s wastewater needs.

The sewage project has been embroiled in controversy since November 2004, when the PSD announced plans to build a plant on Route 219, near Slaty Fork, at an estimated cost of $13 million.