Kermit Council takes action

BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN

KERMIT, W.Va. — Kermit residents are being driven to barricade themselves inside their homes because of noise from a natural gas compressor station owned by Diversified Energy. Channing Preece, who lives next door to the station, brought the issue to the Kermit Town Council meeting Monday night.

“I just need some help with the gas company noise, bad,” Preece told council members, describing the situation as “unbearable.”

Council Member Tammy Preece Hodge said she could attest to the problem.

“It is horrible,” Hodge said. “He probably gets the brunt of all of it. Two streets over, as anyone else can tell you, it’s horrible. You can’t even sit out on your porch.”

Mayor Charles Sparks apologized to Preece.

“I should have done this years ago,” Sparks said. “There should have been an ordinance years ago.”

Sparks said that he and council member J.W. Endicott got a decibel measuring app on their phones to measure the noise.

“It goes in the 90s all the time,” said Sparks.

Preece told the mayor that EPA inspectors had come to Kermit to investigate his complaint.

“They said they don’t even have to make a recording to know it’s too loud,” said Preece.

Sparks advised Preece that it would still be good to record the noise for documentation.

Council members noted that residents had complained to the gas company but have received no relief.

The council agreed to have the mayor draft an ordinance and send a certified letter to the company.

In other business, the council announced their July 4 fireworks show at dark in the park.

The council voted to authorize the mayor to sign papers approving West Virginia’s $26 million settlement with opioid manufacturer Endo Health Solutions.