City Council

July 8, 2025 The regular meeting of the City Council of the City of Fairmont was held at 7:00 p.m. on the 8th day of July, 2025, at the Public Safety Building located at 500 Quincy Street in Fairmont, West Virginia. Mayor Bolyard called the meeting to order. Roll call of members was taken by the City Clerk. Councilmembers present were: First District Joshua D. Rice Second District Anne E. Bolyard Third District Rebecca Moran Fourth District Anthony T. Horton Fifth District Charles “Chuck” Warner Sixth District Daniel “Dan” Weber Seventh District Julia “Julie” Sole Eighth District Bruce McDaniel Ninth District Kandice “Kandi” Nuzum Also present were: City Manager Travis L. Blosser City Clerk Janet L. Keller City Attorney Kevin V. Sansalone Finance Director Priscilla A. Hamilton Marketing Manager David A. Kirk IN RE: OPENING CEREMONIES Pastor Marlene Mitchell gave the invocation followed by the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag led by Councilmember Sole. APPROVAL OF MINUTES IN RE: MINUTES FOR THE JUNE 24, 2025 MEETING Mayor Bolyard noted that each member of Council had received a copy of the minutes from the Regular Meeting held on June 24, 2025 . She asked if there were any corrections, deletions, or amendments. Councilmember Sole moved to approve the June 24, 2025 Regular Meeting minutes as submitted. The motion was seconded by Councilmember McDaniel. The Mayor declared the minutes approved as submitted by voice vote of Council. 1  PUBLIC HEARING S No public hearings were scheduled for this meeting. ANNOUNCEMENTS IN RE: TWO MOVIE NIGHTS Councilmember Moran reported two free movie nights coming up: Friday, July 11th at the green space at Second Street and Walnut Avenue and is sponsored by the FRN Passion Central and MVA Clinic and then Saturday, July 12th at FSU. She noted that both movies are free and open to the public. IN RE: APPRECIATION EXPRESS ED TO ERIN PARKER Councilmember Moran expressed her appreciation to Erin Parker at Public Works regarding a resident noticing a problem at 5th Street Park and made the effort to reach out and before she could text the City Manager about it, Erin had already noticed it and dispatched Public Works to get it taken care of on a holiday. IN RE: 5th STREET PARK Councilmember Weber reported a broken swing at 5th Street Park. He then announced that the prayer box was broken into and all of the contents strewn around the park and a lady and her children cleaned it up. IN RE: COUNCILMEMBER SOLE COMMENDED Councilmember Nuzum thanked Councilmember Sole for all of the work that she has done for helping to get supplies for the flood victims. She has done a great job and she was thankful for the opportunity to bring the churches into that and help them out. IN RE: FINANCE DIRECTOR PRISCILLA HAMILTON – 35 YEARS Mayor Bolyard expressed her deepest appreciation to the Director of Finance Priscilla Hamilton. She has served the City unfailingly for over 35 years. She thanked Priscilla for her dedication and the work that she does for our city each and every day. IN RE: NEW FIREFIGHTERS AND POLICE OFFICERS The Mayor stated that we have several new firefighters and police officers that we have welcomed to the City of Fairmont. Congratulations to firefighters Swiger and Mussleh and to police officers Pearl and Gardiner. CITIZENS PETITIONS 2 There were no citizens petitions for this meeting. CITY MANAGER ’S REPORT IN RE: SWEARING-IN FOR DEPUTY POLICE CHIEF Mr. Blosser announced that we have a swearing-in scheduled for this Thursday, July 10th at 1:00 p.m. for the new Deputy Police Chief. IN RE: SWEARING-IN FOR POLICE SERGEANTS The City Manager reported that next Monday, July 14th, at 11:00 a.m., the swearing-in ceremony for five new Sergeant promotions within our Police Department will be held. He invited the public as well as City Council to attend both swearing-in ceremonies. IN RE: PROPERTY DISPOSITION PROCESS City Manager Blosser shared that the Property Disposition process that Council has followed and been enacted, which is to dispose of those properties that we have purchased at tax sales and part of our demolition program, the first property has made its way through that process and is now moving towards its closing stages. He stated that with anything new for us, there is always a learning curve and that process, after talking with staff, took a lot longer than it should have to walk through the processes so we had a meeting this week and we will be making some changes as it relates to the process flow inside the office relative to that which hopefully will speed this process up. We will now start some advertising around trying to make sure, whether that is through signage on the individual lot, we have them on the website but if someone is not going to the website to look for it, they are not going to see that property. He noted that any of the changes that we are making will be in line with the process flow that Council already approved to implement. It will just be some internal moves that we make. IN RE: FINANCE DIRECTOR PRI SCILLA HAMILTON Mr. Blosser stated that with 35 years of service, he wanted to also say thank you to Priscilla Hamilton publicly for her work at the City of Fairmont over the years. He went on to say that Fairmont has a lot of significantly talented staff who have dedicated a lot of time here and with Priscilla and her department, they are the folks that put the budget together and help us make sure that we can afford to do the things and the projects that we want to do. He noted that we would not be in the financial position we are in to accomplish these goals and investments in our parks and recreation if it was not for her leadership. IN RE: MEETING WITH FEMA The City Manager said that he will be having discussions with FEMA as it relates to the flash flood event that we had on June 15th. He noted that they will discuss, particularly looking at mitigation strategies, based on the significant flooding but looking at, in 3 particular, the Hickman Run area. He mentioned that large sections of that existing system that is buried is private and not municipal-owned and so there are some issues with that. He stated that if there are FEMA dollars and the potential for FEMA to be part of this to try to mitigate some of those issues that we think are there in that private system, that would be helpful. IN RE: EMERGENCY ORDINANCE Mr. Blosser stated that there is an ordinance on tonight’s agenda that essentially suspends fees for building permits associated with construction activities related to recovery from the flood. Our Inspections Department intends to work with our citizens. While this is a small piece, it is something that we can do. He added that this ordinance will be in effect for 60 days and then if we see, as staff, the amount of benefit that folks have received from this, we will work to make sure that it is on the agenda to renew it and extend it, if necessary. CONSIDERATION OF COUNCIL BUSINESS IN RE: ADOPTION, AN EMERGENCY ORDINANCE OF THE COUNCIL FOR THE CITY OF FAIRMONT TEMPORARILY SUSPENDING THE PERMIT FEES REQUIRED BY SECTION 1709.02 SCHEDULE FOR PERMIT FEES OF ARTICLE 1709 STATE BUILDING CODE OF THE FAIRMONT CITY CODE FOR PERSONS IMPACTED BY THE JUNE 15, 2025, FLOOD EVENT; ALL OTHER PROVISIONS OF SAID STATE BUILDING CODE PRESERVED The City Clerk read the proposed ordinance by synopsis. Mayor Bolyard entertained a motion for the adoption of an emergency ordinance to temporarily suspend the permit fees for persons impacted by the June 15, 2025 flood event. Motion: Councilmember Weber moved for the adoption of the proposed ordinance. Councilmember Warner seconded the motion. The Clerk read the proposed resolution by synopsis for the first time. Roll call was taken by the Clerk. The Mayor declared the emergency ordinance adopted by unanimous vote of Council and the ordinance designated as Ordinance No. 2077 was duly adopted. IN RE: ADOPTION, A RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FAIRMONT APPROVING AND APPOINTING TETRICK & BARTLETT, PLLC, TO CONDUCT SINGLE AUDITS FOR THE CITY OF FAIRMONT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2025 AND FISCAL YEAR 2026, PURSUANT TO THE PROCEDURES MANUAL FOR 4 PROCURING AND CONDUCTING AUDITS AND REVIEWS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENTS The City Clerk read the proposed resolution by synopsis for the first time. Mayor Bolyard entertained a motion for the adoption of a resolution approving and appointing Tetrick & Bartlett, PLLC to conduct audits for the City of Fairmont for FY25 and FY26. Motion: Councilmember Weber moved for the adoption of the proposed resolution. Councilmember Sole seconded the motion. Roll call was taken by the Clerk. The Mayor declared the resolution adopted by unanimous vote of those Councilmembers present. IN RE: ADOPTION, A RESOLUTION PROVIDING FOR AN AMENDMENT TO THE CITY OF FAIRMONT ’S 2025-2026 ANNUAL BUDGET: COAL SEVERANCE The City Clerk read the proposed resolution by synopsis for the first time. Mayor Bolyard entertained a motion for the adoption of a resolution providing for a Coal Severance Budget Revision. Motion: Councilmember McDaniel moved for the adoption of the proposed resolution. Councilmember Weber seconded the motion. Roll call was taken by the Clerk. The Mayor declared the resolution adopted by unanimous vote of those Councilmembers present. ADJOURNMENT The Mayor entertained a motion for adjournment. Motion: Councilmember Rice moved to adjourn the meeting. The motion was seconded by Councilmember McDaniel. The Mayor declared the meeting adjourned by voice vote of Council at 7:17 p.m. 5