Brian Johnson of Mason, fourth from left, is honored for creating a seal for Mason County. Johnson was presented a certificate and $100 check for his submission which is now a part of county history. Also pictured, County Administrator John Gerlach, County Clerk Diana Cromley, Commissioners Miles Epling, Rick Handley and Tracy Doolittle.
Mason County’s new county seal has symbols representing the landscape, culture and local history.
POINT PLEASANT — Mason County officially has a county seal.
Brian Johnson of Mason created the winning entry which was one of over 80 submissions to the Mason County Commission. Johnson was honored with a certificate and presented with a $100 check at Thursday’s Mason County Commission meeting for the seal which was officially unveiled.
Johnson took many elements of not only the landscape of Mason County but the local history to create the seal. He explained to the commission he created a rendering of Mason County using the colors of blue and gold on the seal. He then took symbols such as corn to represent agriculture, birds and fish to represent wildlife and nature, riverboats to denote the importance of the river culture on the area, power plants to represent industry and tools to represent coal mining. There are also representations of the battle monument at Tu-Endie-Wei State Park, Chief Cornstalk and Fort Randolph.
He then talked about a ring of stars which circles the drawing of the county. There are 46 stars that represent those who lost their lives on the Silver Bridge in 1967 and three stars for those members of the Mason County Sheriff’s Department killed in the jail explosion in 1976.
Mason County Commissioners Miles Epling, Rick Handley and Tracy Doolittle, along with County Clerk Diana Cromley and County Administrator John Gerlach, helped choose the winning seal. The panel felt the seal offered an all inclusive look at Mason County’s landscape, culture and history.
Handley also gave special mention to Conner Templeton, Alex Swain and Travis Leonard, students in Jeff Wamsley’s graphic design class at the Mason County Career Center for working with Johnson to ready the seal for display. The seal will be displayed in the commission room. The commission expressed their gratitude to everyone who participated in the contest.
Also discussed at yesterday’s meeting:
Handley recognized Cromley for recently being a recipient of the Richard Shelton Memorial Lighthouse Award by the West Virginia Association of Counties.
Cromley also reported her office had received a $1,500 state grant to help with records management and record storage.
Bid openings for renovations on the old Point Pleasant Hardware building will be at 3 p.m., April 18.
Commission meetings for April will be at 4 p.m., April 11, 18, 25.
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