By Josephine Moore
The Register-Herald
RALEIGH COUNTY, W.Va. — The Raleigh County Commission is receiving more than $300,000 in state funding, which it will pass along to employees working for several emergency medical services in the county.
Raleigh County Administration Jay Quesenberry said the funds come from the state’s Emergency Medical Services Salary Enhancement Fund, which was established last year as part of Senate Bill 737 to supplement EMS workers’ salaries.
During the Raleigh County Commission meeting Tuesday morning, Quesenberry said Raleigh County will receive $318,181.81.
Those funds will be divided among Raleigh County EMS providers, including Jan-Care Ambulance, Best Ambulance, Ghent Volunteer Fire Department EMS, Whitesville Volunteer Fire Department EMS, Coal City Volunteer Fire Department EMS, and Bradley Prosperity Volunteer Fire Department EMS.
Quesenberry said the funds would be distributed based on the percentage of calls each EMS organization responded to from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023.
During that time, Quesenberry said there were 15,935 calls to EMS.
In other business, Jimmy Miller, director of the Raleigh County Day Report Center, informed commissioners he would be seeking an increase in state funding for salaries and other reimbursements at the day report center.
Miller said he has applied for $324,591 from the state’s Community Corrections Grant.
“I hope they give us more than they gave us last year, but if they give us the $200,000 roughly that we got last year, I’ll be tickled with that,” he said.
Miller said he applies for this grant yearly.
The Raleigh County Commission also made moves Tuesday to transfer portions of the Ghent Fiber Deployment Project to the New River Gorge Regional Development Authority.
This was accomplished with the approval of a resolution to transfer the commission’s contract for the GigReady program with the state to the development authority.
Next, commissioners approved the transfer of lease with purchase option with GigaBeam Networks, an internet service provider (ISP), to the development authority.
The Ghent Fiber Deployment Project is part of several broadband projects funded by the state’s GigReady program.
Raleigh County received $5,889,198 in state funding from the GigReady program and was required to provide matching funds of $1,963,066.
The project will result in over 106 miles of new fiber infrastructure, with Ghent as the starting point, and is projected to provide broadband connectivity to 1,677 households.
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