4-H Camp Manager, Assistant Fired

Huntington, WV--The resident manager and assistant resident manager of the Cabell County 4-H Camp have been fired from their duties.

Jim Brown, manager, and his wife, Judy Brown, assistant manager, were given 48 hours to leave their residence at the camp just odd Alternate W. Va. 10 near Barboursville.

Commissioners L.D. Egnor Jr. and Bob Bailey co-signed a letter dated June 22 from County Administrator Glenn White saying the county commission “is exercising the termination without cause of your employment agreement effectively immediately. You are hereby relieved of rendering future service to the county. In addition you are to vacate the residence at the 4-H Camp immediately.”

The letter goes on to say that the Browns will be given what amounts to 60 days severance pay.
Commissioner J.R. Blankenship refused to sign the letter.

“These people have done nothing wrong,” Blankenship said, “and the camp is in better shape now that it has ever been.”

Blankenship said he believes the firings have to do with a report earlier this week in The Herald-Dispatch that claimed the pool at the camp did not contain chlorine and was unsafe. Blankenship said the problem was faulty plumping that was not installed properly. Brown was quoted in the story as blaming county workers for the  improper installation.

“I made a visit to the camp and all the plumbing that the health department turned them down on was being replaced,” Blankenship said.

Blankenship said the Browns were not political appointees but were “professionally trained in pool management” who had worked at the camp for about two years.

Additionally, Blankenship questioned the firing since “a vote was not taken in regular county commission meeting. It was all done behind closed doors like so many things that Egnor and Bailey do.