BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
INEZ — The City of Inez is seeking an alleged agreement between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Martin County whereby the county purportedly received a grant to channel the creek in town for flood control. In exchange, the county allegedly agreed to keep the creek banks free of brush and maintain the channel perpetually.
The issue came up Thursday in the City Commission meeting.
Mayor Ed Daniels announced that Martin County code enforcement officer Paul McCoy and jail workers would bush hog the creek bank next week. The mayor noted that Inez resident Barry Horn brought to his attention a tree causing issues with the stream’s flow.
“The tree needs to be trimmed,” Daniels said.
Commissioner Dennis Hall said the city would have problems if the creek did not get dredged.
“I talked to FEMA about that,” said Daniels. “After the initial work was done here, the county was supposed to have that done. I mentioned it to the judge and told him I would continue to harp on it – beat it to death.”
Hall said the city had talked about that for the last eight years.
“Nobody can find where it’s written,” said Hall.
Former city clerk Candy Crum was at the meeting and told commissioners she would find the document.
“I’ll go through every box,” said Crum. “I will find it. Dick Young gave it to me.”
“This town is going to get flooded off,” commented Hall. “It’s just a matter of time. It’s worse every time it rains.”
Daniels agreed.
“If it had rained one more hour like it did the one night in July, it would have washed this town off,” said Daniels. “It would have been as high as in ’62 or ’63.”
Daniels announced that he and Martin County Judge/Executive Colby Kirk had discussed the issue of an ambulance not being available to respond to a call recently in Inez.
“He didn’t think we should shoot them down or begin to do anything,” Daniels said. “There was one other option – have the county buy an ambulance, give it to them, and have them park it up there and use it for this county only. And that’s about as far as we got.”
Hall gave the street update, saying the city had received a new handicap swing and would wait until spring to install it at the park.
“It’s a nice swing,” said Hall.
Hall installed two signs displaying park safety rules on the fence at the park and will install another at the shelter displaying information about reservations for the shelter.
Hall announced that he had requested permission to install two 6-foot benches in front of the Martin County Business Center.
Commissioner Richie Wells stated he had reviewed the city’s financial reports, and all looked good.
Inez Volunteer Fire Department member Jarrod Slone returned with a request for the city’s ARPA funds to match a grant for equipment.
“We can’t use ARPA funds for our part of a match if we apply for a grant,” City clerk Lisa Mollett stated.
The commissioners took no action on Slone’s request.