Commission votes for “new blood” on sewer board

After interviewing three candidates for a seat on Morgan County’s sewer board, the Morgan County Commissioners voted 2-1 to replace sitting board member Isaac Bohrer with someone they said would bring “new blood” to the group.

The selection of Danny Clark, Jr. came at the end of the February 4 commission meeting.

Commissioner Tommy Swaim opposed the appointment, saying it sent a “terrible message” to sewer customers and county volunteers.
Swaim was referring to the fact that Clark has refused to hook his home onto the public sewer line on Fairview Drive. Clark still pays a monthly bill for the service.

Swaim said putting Clark on the board sent a message that “150 of the rest of us down the ridge made a mistake” by hooking to the new sewer line on Fairview Drive.

He also objected to replacing Bohrer, who was willing to serve another term on the board. Bohrer has been a board member for two years, serving out the unexpired term of Tom Rokisky.

“When we needed someone to fill Mr. Rokisky’s position and had trouble finding someone, Ike took the job and took a lot of flak,” Swaim said.
He said he didn’t want to treat county volunteers that way.

“This is not about Mr. Bohrer. He’s done a great job,” said Commission President Brenda Hutchinson.

“He’s just the person who’s up for reappointment right now. I think we need some new blood on that board,” Hutchinson said.

She and Commissioner Stacy Dugan repeated their concerns that the board’s meeting agendas and minutes hadn’t been delivered to the county office for posting on the county government website, and that public notices of the sewer system’s recent rate increase had not been more widely advertised.
“My concern is we have so many people in the community who can’t afford water and sewer,” said Dugan.

She focused on Clark’s customer service experience at the highway department in Martinsburg, where he worked before retiring.
“What kind of customer service system would you put in on the sewer department?” Dugan asked.

Clark said he would ask customers to attend board meetings to see if the board could resolve any of their problems.

Following the appointment of Clark, current sewer board member Paul Zorich told the commissioners they might have misunderstood the role of sewer board members.

“Both candidates didn’t want to be on the board, but managers of the utility. I think they are applying for the wrong job,” Zorich said.
He described the board as one heavily regulated by state law and the state’s Public Service Commission.

“This is a ‘mother may I’ organization. The inertia built into the system makes it difficult to make changes,” said Zorich.

“Changes are slow, painful and you take a lot of flak for them,” he said.
Clark will take his seat on the sewer board seat as soon as he is sworn in for the job. Bohrer’s term expired on February 1.

The next meeting of the Warm Springs Public Service District is today, Wednesday, February 10.