The Times West Virginian

Opinion

August 29, 2010

It’s time ‘brick wall’ Greater Marion PSD customers have hit finally is taken down

Times West Virginian

FAIRMONT — It’s a situation no one should have to deal with for a day.

Let alone a decade.

Carolina, Idamay and Kellytown residents are still waiting for groundbreaking on a project to grant them relief from numerous sewage system issues that have been plaguing the small communities for years.

During the past month, Marion County commissioners have approved three agenda items dealing with details of the Greater Marion Public Service District and its mission to replace a faulty sewage vacuum system installed about 11 years ago by Clarksburg-based Thrasher Engineering. None, however, has resulted in action on a re-engineering project that has been in the works since homeowners began experiencing significant issues with the system shortly after its installation.

It’s not for lack of effort.

“The wheel of progress to fix that system is unfortunately moving slowly, and there’s nothing we can do as commissioners to make it go any faster,” Commission President Randy Elliott said earlier this month.

Nearly every time it rains, the system backs up and residents are left with standing sewage in their homes, no working water at times, plugged-up drains and significant flooding, among other problems. There have even been some homeowners who have not been able to use their waste facilities at all at times.

As Elliott stated earlier in the long process to get these people relief: “They are tired of smelling (expletive). They are tired of pumping (expletive), and they are tired of being treated like (expletive).”

The PSD, which was taken over by the commissioners at one point in an effort to help the residents, took the matter to court. Three lawsuits against Thrasher and its insurance carriers were won by the class action representatives.

These funds are sitting in three accounts. The first, account A, was to be used to fund the pending $6.8 million replacement project, and the other two, accounts B and C, were to be divided among the residents to pay for damages and fix their properties. In 2005, Keyser-based engineers Rummel, Klepper & Kahl, LLP (RK&K) were hired to fix the system, but the project has not begun.

Unfortunately, the only money taken out so far has gone to pay legal and engineering fees, Elliott noted.

Head class action representative Debbie Spears summed up the frustration of the Greater Marion PSD residents well:

“It’s like you hit a brick wall every time you think the state will get it started,” she said.

Until the project is complete, money set aside for the residents is essentially worthless to them. The residents’ homes cannot be fixed and the damages cannot be completely assessed.

James Kelsh, a Charleston attorney representing the PSD, said the project is complicated and that getting the funding in place is the main holdup.

This month the Marion County Commission approved an agenda item to pay the remainder of the old RK&K engineering contract to establish a new contract for the acquisition of United States Department of Agriculture funding.

We understand there is plenty of government red tape to unravel in such a project, but having hundreds of residents suffer for a decade through absolutely no fault of their own with no end in sight is simply inexcusable.

Government bureaucrats, tear down this “brick wall.”

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