MARMET, W.Va. (WSAZ) – Marmet residents spoke at the town’s Council meeting Monday evening about recent burglaries in the community.

“This police department needs help, our town needs help and you need to get it done,” said Robert Wells, a Marmet resident.

Mayor David Fontalbert said there are solutions to prevent crime.

“Employees who are not sworn to patrol every part of town 24/7. “You know if anything suspicious is going on, hopefully preventing future break-ins.”

The council decided to discuss the possibility of hiring people to patrol the community until the next meeting. The mayor said funding and finding new officers are a problem, even though they offer $20 an hour.

“Our civilian wage is currently $16 an hour, so we can save a lot of money,” Mayor Fontalbert said.

The council also discussed placing a Prestera Health Center in the former Marmet Primary School building. Local beauty salon owner Tina Westfall worries the new center will impact her business.

“I’m worried that this will be directly across the street from my business, there will be more foot traffic and we’ll lose more customers,” Westfall said.

Mayor Fontalbert said they are still discussing contracts with Prestera and expressed some concerns from the public about the idea.

“There are no overnight stays, no drugs distributed like methadone or anything like that. “There’s no needle exchange, so it doesn’t really increase what some people perceive as a negative impact on society.”

Police Chief Charles Buttrick said storage buildings and homes were broken into last month. He said it is difficult to recruit new officers and they only have two working police cruisers.

Marmet council approved funding for a new cruiser at Monday’s meeting.

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