Published: January 06, 2009 12:06 am      

New Mineral County sheriff has car problems

Most have over 100,000 miles

KEYSER, W.Va. — New Mineral County Sheriff Craig Fraley said he’s going to “focus on the needs and not on the wants” as he takes over the office formerly held by Gary White.

“We’re in desperate need of cars,” Fraley said at the county commission’s Monday meeting. “We have four Crown Victorias from 2005 and back that all have over 100,000 miles and one has 150,000 miles. One is from 1999.”

He said that one car that should have been ordered wasn’t, so that there would be at least one new car in the department. He added that a few that were put on reserve have only minor, repairable problems compared to some of the cars currently on the road.

Fraley said there are some staffing issues that he wants to resolve, one of which is the hiring of a new deputy. The new deputy’s salary would come from a combination of home confinement and regular enforcement funds. Fraley added that he does not plan to hire a chief deputy in the foreseeable future. He said that many tasks have already been delegated to other officers.

Fraley also hopes to advertise for a position in the tax office.

County Coordinator Mike Bland said instead of advertising, they would compile a list of potential employees if a position becomes available or is created.

Fraley said he wants to see the backlog in the computer records at the tax office resolved. He said they need to not only have duties clearly marked, but that one person might have to manage the front office while the other employees work on getting the last six months of receipts and bank records into the program that had been purchased from Software Systems Inc.

Wayne Spiggle, commission president, said that he’d like to have Fraley come in and report to the commissioners regularly as he did for his initial meeting.

“There was a lot of correspondence, shuffling of letters between the commissioners and the sheriff’s office,” Spiggle said. “That was frustrating for both of us. I’d like to see you do what we just finished on a fairly regular basis. I’d also like to see you build on your relationship with the county coordinator.”

Fraley agreed and said there are some housekeeping changes that he would like to see made. One would be to replace the carpeting, which has gotten stained and dirty from foot traffic.

Bland said the carpet had been installed eight years ago and that it definitely shows the amount of traffic the office gets.

Contact Sarah Moses at smoses@times-news.com.