BUCKHANNON – Now that the architectural plans and financing for the Stockert Youth & Community Center’s long-awaited, new multipurpose building are finally ironed out, the SYCC’s board of directors will begin meeting less frequently.

Buckhannon City Council on Thursday approved on second and final reading Ordinance 461, which effectively decreases the size of the SYCC’s board of directors and reduces the number of times per year the board is required to meet. Meetings must take place quarterly now instead of monthly, and the number of board members has been reduced from 11 to nine.

According to a copy of the ordinance included in council’s packet at its Nov. 3 meeting, three of the nine members will be city representatives (the mayor, the city recorder and a council member at-large appointed by the mayor); a fourth member will represent the Upshur County Commission; a fifth member will represent or be appointed by the Upshur County Board of Education; and a sixth member will represent West Virginia Wesleyan College. The three additional at-large members will be nominated by the mayor.

City attorney Tom O’Neill read the ordinance by caption, which says that meetings must occur “no less frequently than quarterly” and that five of the nine members in attendance constitutes a quorum. Buckhannon mayor Robbie Skinner said he discussed the new schedule with SYCC board members at the board’s Nov. 3 meeting earlier that day.

“We had a Stockert Youth and Community Center meeting this evening at 4:30 p.m., and I discussed this with the board members and that is where they suggested that we do provide council with periodic reports intermittent of the quarterly proposed meeting schedule,” Skinner said. “And just to clarify, as we have before, this doesn’t necessarily tie the board to only meeting quarterly it just that is it is no fewer than quarterly meetings.”

City recorder Randy Sanders said SYCC board members were “most receptive” when Skinner outlined the new arrangement earlier that day. Earlier in the meeting, city finance and administrative director Amberle Jenkins briefed council members on SYCC’s operations in October.

The ordinance goes into effect Dec. 3, 2022.