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PARKERSBURG - The Wood County Commission wants to have a meeting with representatives of Peoples Cartage regarding an outstanding bill resulting from the fire at their south Parkersburg facility this past summer.
Commission President Blair Couch said that a representative with SPSI has reached out to him regarding an unpaid bill related to the warehouse file at Peoples Cartage that occurred in early July.
The county called in the company based in Washington, Pa. to help with the fire. The company previously came to the area in 2017 to help deal with the IEI warehouse fire. SPSI specializes in hazmat, environmental and industrial emergency response.
In July, the company brought in two large pumps that were able to utilize water from the Little Kanawha River to help fight the fire. They have a bill for around $289,000 they need to have paid for the work they did, Couch said.
"We called them and they were there that day," Couch said. "That is the kind of response we needed and now they are requesting to be paid.
"We called them. We didn't get Peoples Cartage to call them. I hate holding up a small businesses’ money."
Initially when the fire was happening, county officials believed Peoples Cartage would take care of the bill, but that has not happened. Wood County officials said they have reached out to officials with the company, but have not been able to reach anyone.
Officials talked about personnel with the Assessor's office working with the company in the past to resolve questions and concerns they had regarding assessments done to their property.
"We did respond, followed up, had them reassessed and did everything we could to make that correct," Commissioner Jimmy Colombo said. "I don't know why they won't respond to us."
Couch believes Peoples Cartage should pay the bill or look at having the county pay the bill immediately and have Peoples Cartage or the company's insurance company pay the county back.
"We have grounds to be reimbursed from Peoples Cartilage and we have standing," Couch said.
Wood County Prosecutor Pat Lefebure agreed with the legality of what Couch was saying.
"It is not a huge number," Couch said of the amount. "When we call someone to come down and help with an emergency, we owe them the funds."
Commissioners want officials with Peoples Cartage to come in and meet with them as well as the Lefebure and Wood County Sheriff Rick Woodyard.
"I think it would be good to get them in here and see what their position is," Lefebure said.
Woodyard, who is running for a commission seat in November, felt the matter would probably fall to Peoples Cartage's insurance carrier.
"I would think the county would pay the bill and then recoup the cost from the insurance company," the sheriff said adding legal action in court could be a possibility.
Officials said they do not know who Peoples Cartage's insurance company is and why they would need to meet with the company's officials to get those details.
With the IEI fire then Governor Jim Justice approved funds to reimburse the county for fighting that fire with SPSI and others' help.
"We put together a detailed invoice and got it all paid," Couch said.
Governor Patrick Morrisey was on the site for the Peoples Cartage fire and instructed county officials to do whatever they needed to to get the fire out as quickly as possible, Couch said.
"We made that call to SPSI and we did everything we could and it was put out in record time compared to the last one," Couch said.
Woodyard said getting SPSI paid would be the priority.
Commissioner Jim Hamric asked Woodyard if he thought a meeting with Peoples Cartage's leadership would be prudent in trying to resolve this situation.
"I want to see what they have to say," he said.
"I think you have every right to do that," Woodyard responded. "Your number-one concern is the safety of the public.
"You acted on the behalf of the safety of the public to get that thing put out as quickly as possible. I feel it was a prudent decision to make."
Since the county asked for SPSI's help, they are initially responsible for the payment, Woodyard said. The county can work with the company or their insurance company to see about getting compensated.
Officials discussed the cost of those kinds of pumps and determined it was too expensive, $80,000-$150,000 a piece, to have them laying around doing nothing for long periods of time.
Since this has happened twice in the last 10 years, the county might need SPSI's help again sometime in the future.
"You may need those pumps again and the last thing you need is a bad relationship between you and (SPSI)," Woodyard said.
Officials want to get the meeting set up as soon as possible.
In other business, commissioners talked to Wood County Assessor John Kelly about additional actions he is taking to address an estimated shortfall of around $357,000 in the office’s valuation fund. The office already cut two employees and other related costs that totaled around $162,000 in savings.
Kelly said they are having an audit done, but the results from that are not available yet. Income through taxes coming into the office was more than what was originally projected which can be applied to making up the difference of the shortfall.
"We have also gone through and done cuts in our budget line items," Kelly said. "At the end of the first cut, we have been able to cut around $67,500 from those budget line items."
"Combined, that is a $322,345.37 reduction. We are working diligently on this."
He estimates they are around $25,000 short.
"We will find that $25,000," Kelly said. "We are planning to go through the budget again...and doing a second cut and try to bring this thing to an end.
He and his staff would be making the final cuts themselves rather than rely on additional audit work after the initial audit is done.
"I think with a sharp pencil and a scratch of the head, I think we can pull another $25,000 out of the line items," Kelly said.
They have a person returning from military service that prompted the Assessor's Office to have one of their people move over to the County Clerk's office rather than cut a third position. Kelly said there is a possibility that person might get another job. If that happens, the position will be filled from within so they won't have to bring in another person.
"That would eliminate another staff position without having to terminate anyone," Kelly said. "I am looking at all options. I am not going to let any options pass me by.
"We are going to fix this."
Contact Brett Dunlap at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com