By Richard Kerns
kerns@newstribune.info
tribune staff writer
KEYSER — State environmental officials indicated Tuesday that they will work with the city of Keyser to ensure that long-standing deficiencies at the sewage-treatment plant are resolved as the city gets up to speed with new supervisory personnel following the recent dismissal of the former plant supervisor.
Councilmen William “Sonny” Rhodes and Dave Sowers met early Tuesday morning with Ellen Herndon of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), and said they came away from the meeting encouraged by the state's response to the compliance issues at the plant. Herndon was expected to remain at the plant until 8 p.m. Tuesday, working with newly appointed supervisor Mike Kesecker to address DEP's concerns.
“She's looking at this like it's a new laboratory,” Sowers said. “She's checking everything.”
The City Council formally named Kesecker supervisor of the sewage treatment plant at Monday's council meeting. He had been acting supervisor since mid-March, when the city fired supervisor Jim Hoffman and another worker for operating their private water-testing business out of the treatment plant.
In the midst of dealing with the fallout from Hoffman's dismissal, DEP notified the city that various compliance issues dating back three years needed to be addressed immediately, or the state would shut down the plant.
In addition to familiarizing himself with his new supervisory duties, Kesecker worked nights and weekends to resolve the DEP issues. He was at the plant with other workers until 10 p.m. Monday night on the eve of Herndon's visit.
Tuesday morning's meeting was the city's first face to face contact with the DEP
officials, and Sowers and Rhodes were pleasantly surprised by Herndon's approach. Most of the issues are technical in nature, many involving standard operating procedures that the state wants to see in place.
“The bottom line is, she's going to work with the city, she was just frustrated because Jim kept putting her off,” Rhodes said. “They're anxious to work with us to get this done.”
Sowers and Rhodes said city officials were not aware of the issues with the plant because Hoffman never reported DEP's contacts with him on the matter. As a result, the city administrator from now on will open all official mail sent to the city for supervisory personnel, passing the letters to them after their contents have been reviewed.
“It's all about accountability,” Sowers said. “The city of Keyser will work by established standards.”
Keyser, W.Va. —
