Local News

‘A Heck of an Oversight’

Officials displeased by lack of an Elkins City Hall sound system

ELKINS – Several Elkins City Council members seemed displeased Monday when they learned that the lack of a sound system will temporarily prevent council meetings from taking place in the newly renovated City Hall.

During the City Municipal Properties Committee meeting on Monday afternoon, interim Operations Manager Melody Himes gave an update regarding the status of Elkins City Hall. The building has been been closed for restoration and recovery work since Aug. 31, 2024, after a sewage overflow incident flooded the building’s basement and first floor, including the Elkins Police Department. The Elkins Police Department returned to City Hall this June, while the Treasurer's Department and the Municipal Court began operating within City Hall again earlier this month.

Himes invited Bryson VanNostrand, the lead architect on the City Hall restoration project, to speak to the commission. VanNostrand stated that he, Himes and City Clerk Sutton Stokes were planning an “informal tour” of Elkins City Hall on Thursday. VanNostrand said the primary purpose of the tour was to take the city’s elected officials through the building to see the changes and “where it’s at.”

“The contractor achieved what we call ‘substantial completion’ this past Monday (Oct. 5),” VanNostrand told the committee. “They’ve got 30 days from that point to achieve ‘final completion.’ So we’re kind of in that 30-day period now, wrapping things up.”

When asked after the meeting if the tour was for city officials only and not for the public or media, Stokes told The Inter-Mountain that was correct. Stokes added that the City will look into scheduling a “public-facing event” at a later date.

VanNostrand noted there were several things that still required city input, including the matter of the new security and camera system. He stated that the system was capable of facial recognition through the use of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) and it was possible for the city to look “for certain individuals” if they enter the building.

VanNostrand acknowledged that there has been a lot of “political discussion” over the use of A.I. for surveillance, but he said he wanted to make sure city officials were aware they had the ability to do that with this system. He added that he personally believed the city would need to develop policies for how the system operates.

It was also noted that the City Hall elevator will be fully finished in a week or two.

When Third Ward Council member Christopher Lowther, who leads the committee, asked for a tentative date of when city meetings, including City Council and the committees, can be held in Council Chambers again, VanNostrand said the sound system for the Chambers was an issue. He stated they did not have, in their current scope of work, a new system for the Chambers or for the rest of the building. VanNostrand said he guessed the plan was to use the existing sound system, though he asked Stokes if that was correct.

Stokes explained that “despite asking for it during the early part of the year,” the sound system work did not get included in the City Hall restoration project. He added that the city can’t hold an “effective meeting” in Council Chambers without a sound system due to the size of the space, and the current set-up the city uses for meetings in the Phil Gainer Community Center will not work either because of the short cable length.

“As an intermediate step, I’ve asked United Sound… to see if they can stand up the previous system, which would provide amplification and be used to (live)stream,” Stokes said.

The Committee did not appear pleased with this. Fifth Ward Council member and Municipal Properties Committee member Burley Woods asked Sutton if the new sound system’s not being rolled into the renovation project was an oversight on the City’s part.

Sutton said he asked for it and “it’s not there.” Lowther commented this seemed to be a “pretty small, insignificant thing to a $4.1 million renovation” to keep the council and committees from being able to meet in Council Chambers again.

“We can’t let a sound system keep us from being back in the building,” Lowther said. “Well, that’s a heck of an oversight that was missed.”

City Treasurer Tracy Judy noted that, when the bids for the restoration work originally went out two years ago, official were unsure what the cost of the sound system would be. Stokes and Judy both reiterated that they were now looking at reinstalling the previous sound system into Council Chambers, but they were waiting to hear from United Sound for more information on the equipment condition, as the system has not been used since City Hall closed two years ago.

Woods said he just did not understand why the Council Chambers’ sound system was not included with running communications systems in City Hall during the project. Himes informed the committee that, in May, Sutton reached out to the Operations Department regarding the sound system and “nothing was processed or moved forward on that.” She also said that Sutton reached out to the department again in September. Himes said that, after speaking with former Operations Manager Michael Kesecker, she forwarded the information to another individual involved, but she never got a response.

“Well, when we lost out Communications Officer (IT Manager), the person who was doing it, Mike (Kesecker) said he took on that role, making sure everything that was done with communications and the audio and anything we needed, so he took on that role,” Woods said. “So good, better and different, that fell back on Mike and Mike’s department to make sure that the audio and all of our communication or connectivity was completed.”

Himes said she understood that.

First Ward Council member and committee member Robert Chenoweth asked if the delay would impact the historic tax credits the city was hoping to receive for the renovation. City Attorney Geraldine Roberts, who joined the meeting via video call, said it would not.

Lowther asked that they please get the sound system solution moving “as quickly as possible.”

During the City Personnel Committee's meeting on Oct. 5, it was announced that Kesecker had submitted his resignation. The matter had been listed on the committee's agenda for Oct. 5, and Fifth Ward Elkins City Council member Cody Thompson, who leads the Personnel Committee, stated that the agenda item was brought forth by Human Resource Generalist Sarah Campbell.

Campbell confirmed Kesecker's resignation with the committee and stated that his last day would be on Oct. 9. Kesecker, who was present for most of the Oct. 5 meeting, also confirmed this, stating he turned in his resignation to Campbell and City Attorney Geraldine Roberts.

No reason was given during the meeting for Kesecker's decision to resign, and no word was spoken about whether he is going to another position elsewhere. The Inter-Mountain reached out to Kesecker for comment on his resignation, but still had not heard back as of press time. Kesecker joined the City of Elkins as Operations Manager in 2023.

Elkins City Council will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Phil Gainer Community Center.