A Tackle Run Road family learned it will have to get that one extra signature on a petition if its wishes to have the name revert back to Ponderosa Drive.
Ruth Ann Marino, whose parents David and Margaret Stanley, live along the road in Upshur County with the disputed name, said there are 11 property owners in the neighborhood. A county ordinance requires 80 percent of those owners to sign a petition in support of the change, meaning Marino would need 8.8 signatures to reach the required threshold. Marino questioned if eight signatures would suffice, but was told she needed to get the ninth property owner to meet the standard perscribed by the commission.
"I would interpret that as a minimum of 80 percent," Commissioner J.C. Raffety said.
Marino complained that requiring 80 percent of property owners to support the petition was too high of a standard. She said elections where millions of dollars will be spent on a levy do not require that high of support, adding that most elections do not require 80 percent to be considered passed.
"Eighty percent is the state's recommendation," said Commissioner Donnie Tenney. "It's a matter of making more people happy."
Marino also said three of the 11 property owners reside outside West Virginia, and she was critical of a county decision not to accept letters or emails in support of the petition. She said those who may not support the petition could throw away the originals and "then we would be back to square one."
Addressing and Mapping Coordinator Terri Jo Bennett said she could accept original signatures on photocopied petitions. Bennett, however, disallowed a signature from a resident whose property is under a land contract, which brought the number of signatures on the petition to eight.
Marino said she believes at least two of the non-resident property owners will sign the petition to change the road name to Ponderosa Drive. The Tackle Run Road had been on the Department of Highways' roles for several years, but residents fought to have the name changed to Ponderosa Drive in 2000. But because of perceived procedural problems, the commissioners decided in 2007 to use DOH names.
Marino said there had never been a sign designating the road as Tackle Run until recently. Residents only found out about the change after a neighbor noticed the new sign.
"I concede (the DOH) may have called it that, but there was never a sign and nobody called it that," she said. "If you would ask anybody in the community where Tackle Run Road was, they probably could not have told you."
Raffety said complaints over road name changes will soon dominate the commission's agenda, especially after the post office officially notifies local residents.
"These issues are going to be prominent, not just in Upshur County but in the state of West Virginia," he said. "It's not our intent to add to the frustration of the public. The ultimate outcome is a positive thing. But getting there is going to be somewhat difficult. We are not the enemy. We have a responsibility that has been imposed upon us."
In other matters, the commissioners approved Danny Rex Gould as a volunteer deputy reserve, Joan Ellen McCardle and Dannette Lynn Perkins as volunteers at the Lewis-Upshur Animal Control Facility, and Gilbert Valdez as a volunteer with the Office of Emergency Services.
The commissioners approved the hiring of Judith G. Piercy as a part-time child visitation monitor after accepting the resignation of Carolyn Lunsford from the position of part-time child visitation monitor.
