| By Bob Weaver
The Statewide Addressing and Mapping Board voted Thursday to terminate its contract with a Vermont company that has already been paid nearly $3 million.
That company was hired to help create addresses for homes and businesses in rural areas of WV.
The company had been doing some work in Calhoun and other regional counties.
Calhoun's 911 Director Dave Johnson said "About 25% of the county could be completed," by the Vermont company.
The company, microDATA GIS was selected in December 2003 to help West Virginia counties and towns create addresses to help emergency responders, mail carriers and other people locate homes and businesses across the state.
A microDATA employee came to Calhoun and did some work, but then resigned. A replacement made a brief appearance, but then failed to return to work on the project.
Johnson said their work was to have been completed by the end of this year.
Board members have heard from county officials across the state about "general dissatisfaction" with the company's work, including missed deadlines and data that had some mistakes.
Ken Beezley, mapping and addressing coordinator for Wirt County, said when his county sent some mapping data to microDATA for processing, it came back with major errors.
"I felt like a ninth-grade geography teacher grading homework that was poorly done," he said, saying that the company lost copies of maps.
Kanawha County's Metro 911 board members called the addressing portion of the project a disaster. Even half of Charleston's information was blank, when it was delivered.
Officials were reluctant to discuss details of the contract termination.
Earlier this year, the mapping board and the company entered mediation after the board deferred several payments.
The mapping board was scheduled to dissolve by the end of the year.
The board has not announced what steps will now be taken.
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