Wood County’s recent grant request denied
By PAMELA BRUSTPARKERSBURG - Wood County's recent West Virginia Courthouse Facilities Authority grant request has been denied to continue upgrading the courthouse heating, ventilation, air-conditioning system.
"We were 21st on the list to be funded, the authority only funded 19 projects for a total of about $1,318,000. The revenues are down somewhat. There is a possibility we still might get some money if more revenue comes in. There will be another meeting in March, and depending on the income level at that time, we might be up there," said Bob Tebay, county commission president and a member of the West Virginia Courthouse Facilities Improvement Authority. Tebay represents the County Commissioners' Association of West Virginia on the authority.
Seven years ago the West Virginia Legislature created the authority to evaluate the needs of the courthouses and estimate potential costs for renovation and repairs. An estimate of the improvement costs for the counties' facilities over a 20-year period came in at around $300 million. The authority oversees a special revenue account, which consists of a portion of the fee collected for county services such as marriage licenses and copying fees for tax maps. The grant funds can be used for anything related to courthouses or any county-owned building used for county operations. The maximum grant award is $80,000, and there is a 20 percent required funding match on each grant.
"It's kind of hard to understand why they wouldn't fund us this year when it's just the continuation of an ongoing project and they funded it last year," noted County Administrator Marty Seufer. The county received funding last year for a new HVAC system on the first and second floors of the courthouse and had applied for money to upgrade the system on the other two floors. The grant application was for $80,000.
Tebay said revenues from copying costs are down on the state level, and there is concern a pending case may become precedent, cutting even further into those revenues. Seneca Technologies attempted to obtain electronic copies of the state's tax maps through a Freedom of Information Act request. A denial of the request was appealed to Kanawha County Circuit Court. The statue provides no specific fee for information filed electronically, only for paper copies. The current price for paper copies is $8 per map, Tebay said. There are more than 20,000 maps.
"It's my understanding the company obtained the maps for much less. The case is still in court. But this could set a serious precedent and cost the state a lot of potential revenue," Tebay said.
Tebay penned a letter Thursday which he asked fellow commissioners to sign off on as well, asking the Legislature to close this loophole and set a fee for electronic copies of these documents.
"Income for the authority greatly decreased as a result of this company receiving on electronic copy of the state's tax maps to avoid paying a per sheet fee. I believe a small change in the statue to include electronic copies (with fee specific), would correct this problem," according to Tebay's letter.
