Photo by Brett Dunlap Commission President Blair Couch stands in the former county probate office. Probate has moved to the third floor of the courthouse. The county has begun its budgeting process.

PARKERSBURG — Wood County Commission has started its annual budget process with agencies providing funding requests for the next year.

Jodi Smith of the WVU Extension Service appeared before the commission Thursday to discuss its allocation and programs.

Commission President Blair Couch said the county’s finances are remaining around where they have been.

“Once we went through the Board of Equalization and Review, there were not really any drastic changes,” he said. “We did not see property valuations to the point where people wanted to come in and talk about it. That tells me that we probably have a flat tax base and in some instance we have heard of it shrinking.”

That means the commission will inform elected officials that funding would be similar to last year when it comes to their budgets, he said. Over the last few years, county offices have had to cut back and maintain operations without significant increases in their budgets.

Smith said the Extension Service is not asking for additional funds.

“I wanted to let you know that Wood County dollars are not going to waste,” she said. “We are doing a lot of programming. We have been able to do a lot with what we get.”

She asked if the commission was able to give a raise to the employees it provides to the Extension Service. The county provides the Extension Service with $123,303, office space and utilities.

The Extension Service provides programs reaching more than 5,000 youth and 1,000 adults. More than $400,000 in funds and more than 18,000 volunteer hours in the community, a value of $395,392, were generated by involvement in WVU Extension Service educational programming in Wood County.

Employees will receive training to teach life skills to middle school youth this fall, Smith said. They just trained 21 middle and high school students to be health ambassadors and talk with other youth about the dangers of vaping, Smith said.

The number of kids who are vaping has doubled in just a year, she said.

“Every kid at that training said they have seen it in our schools,” Smith said.

Vaping pods have as much nicotine as a pack of cigarettes. If kids can’t vape because it is so expensive to get nicotine, many turn to smoking to get that fix, she said.

“They are marketing to kids, even though they say they are not,” Smith said.

“It is also easy for kids to hide vaping devices, which are the size of a computer jump drive and can easily fit in a pocket, Smith said.

The Extension Service also has programs for 4-H and youth development, agriculture and natural resources, family and community development and the Family Nutrition Program.

Over the last year, the state Department of Corrections took over operations at the holding center, saving the county over $700,000 that has gone to purchasing voting machines and pay raises for deputy sheriffs, which has taken up most of the savings, Couch said.

The new valuation of new businesses, including Hino Motors at the Parkersburg business park on W.Va. 14, will not go into effect until July 1. Hino will own the building and is making improvements to the former Coldwater Creek East Coast distribution center.

Menards is still being planned for Emerson Commons, which is in a tax increment financing zone, on Emerson Avenue near the I-77 interchange. Couch said everything is on track with the owners making the payments with the bond in place.

“That will impact as values rise in that area, but we don’t see the immediate benefit of that through taxes,” Couch said. “Hopefully, we will see the benefit of that through jobs.”

In other business:

* The Probate Office has moved from adjacent to the county commission chambers to the third floor of the courthouse. Couch said the new location will provide more privacy to families talking about sensitive issues.

“They can have a more appropriate setting to be able to explain their situation and get through these tough times,” he said. “Probating a will of a loved one is not easy and people can have a difficult time with it.”

The county is moving compliance officer Sarah Farnsworth into the former Probate Office.

* The commission voted 2-1 to grant a variance to Burl K. Wright of C&B LLC to put video lottery machines for a business at the site of the old Hillbilly Inn on Staunton Avenue, pending a letter of approval from a neighbor who might be impacted by this business. Machines had been there up until this past October. Commissioners Robert Tebay and Jimmy Colombo voted in favor. Couch has consistently voted against the placement of lottery machines in the county.

Wright will submit that letter to the county for approval.