Johns Manville site discussed at Vienna City Council meeting
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VIENNA -- In the past few weeks, there has been some confusion among Vienna City Council members about how near the Johns Manville site is to receiving its certificate of completion and when use of the site can begin.
In a previous meeting, Mayor Randy Rapp stated that the site remediation plan has been approved.
During council comments Feb. 14, Council member Roger Conley brought up the matter saying: "I asked to see the approval of the remediation plan for the Johns Manville site, and was told I could find it in the library's depository."
Conley said he went to find the approval, but it was not there.
Conley said he then called Derek Hancock, with the Department of Environmental Protection, who told him that he and Tom Rebar, the remediation specialist, are going to be at the Johns Manville site with equipment to look for "hotspots" after one was recently found.
"They said if a hotspot is found that site will be excavated prior to our approval," Conley said.
Terry Fletcher, the public information specialist-FOIA officer at the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, told the News and Sentinel earlier this week that the Remedial Action Work Plan for the Johns Manville site has not been completed.
"The WVDEP has completed its review of the Revised Risk Assessment and DEP submitted the Revised Risk Assessment Approval Letter on Jan. 7, 2019," Fletcher said.
Fletcher said this combined document is too big to email and prevented a timely update to the public depository in the Vienna Public Library.
"The Licensed Remediation Specialist (LRS) for the site, Tom Rebar, will be providing a copy at the Vienna Library Friday," he said.
Fletcher said "the DEP's project manager for the site, Derek Hancock, and Mr. Rebar will be on-site Friday to conduct the final testing necessary to complete the RAWP."
Fletcher said that once the RAWP has been submitted and approved by DEP, the defined remediation will begin on the River Parcel of Johns Manville Glass. Once this work is completed, the next step is the Remedial Action Report (RAR) and Land Use Covenant (LUC) to be completed and submitted to the DEP for review.
Once the RAR and LUC are approved, the project will move to the Final Report stage, Fletcher said. Once the Final Report is submitted and approved, the site will receive a Certificate of Completion (COC).
The Johns Manville site is divided into two parcels. The above information is only related to the parcel closest to the Ohio River.
Council member Jim Leach said at Thursday's city council meeting that when Rebar and Hancock arrive, they will be using a XRF Field Testing Device down by the gas well looking for any arsenic.
Another major topic of discussion at Vienna City Council meetings has been city insurance.
The process in the past as described by Rapp and Mark Schwendeman, the city insurance broker, is that the Insurance Committee, which was comprised of the mayor, representatives from all the city departments and the finance director, chose the insurance plan that is recommended by the broker.
The cost is then submitted in the city budget as one of the last items.
Council members Mike Elam and Conley have expressed their concerns with this system. They said this is money that includes the people of Vienna and should be discussed by the elected officials of the city, not by the employees and the insurance broker.
City attorney Russell Skogstad said Thursday the reason council has not been presented with the papers and other bids in the past is that they have not asked to see those documents until recently.
Rapp announced Thursday that as a way to fix the concerns, the Budget and Finance Committee will be taking over the insurance selection process.
"Everything will be discussed there and all submitted offers will be submitted to council for further consideration," Rapp said.
"The heads of each department and council members are invited to ask questions at the meeting as well," Rapp said.
The whole budget must be submitted to the state by March 28.
"The department heads are making cuts because as of now we are out of balance by $1.9 million," Rapp said.
Rapp told the council to keep watching and if they think "we don't need a new pickleball court, but the police should really have those two new cruisers," council members should express their opinions. Council can present a list of items it wants to fund to be discussed, he said.
"The budget will be a line item at each of the following meetings, to be sure it is completed and the city gets funding for needed items," Rapp said.
Rapp said the budget is also difficult to plan without a decision on making Home Rule permanent, which accounts for $3.5 million out of the $9 million budget.
During the public forum, two out of the six speakers asked about the "noise" from across the river.
Rapp said he attended a meeting last week with officials from Eramet as well as Wood County officials, City of Marietta and Washington County officials to discuss possible ways to address the noise that has been coming from Washington County and into Vienna over the past few months.
"Eramet said they conducted a study, and the noise has been traced back to their blowers," Rapp said.
"They have decided to build sound deadening boxes over the blowers to reduce or eliminate the sound, and it has already been sent out to bid," he said.
Rapp said the company expects the noise to be gone sometime in early summer.