PARKERSBURG -Wood County commissioners, along with many of their peers around the state, are asking the governor to include on the special session agenda legislation to guarantee access to economic development bonds as part of the federal Recovery Act Bond issue.

The local commissioners hope to take advantage of the bonds to help finance the justice center, which will house the magistrate court, sheriff's law enforcement offices, smaller holding center, coroner's office and home confinement program. The program provides reimbursement of 45 percent of the interest. The bonds can be used by state and local governments for economic development projects.

"The Wood County Commission has intended to use the recovery zone bonds to help finance this project. It is a very important part of our project," according to the commission's letter to the governor.

Many counties, including Wood, would like to take advantage of the federal stimulus recovery zone bonds, but are concerned if the state doesn't get the necessary legislation through in time, the program may not be available.

"It is extremely important to have this tool for us to use, that's designed for stimulus. It allows the county commission to recover interest for the term of the loan and is an integral part in the whole project. I'm really surprised the federal government has given us this tool to work with, but is apparently tied up in Charleston for some reason," said commission President Rick Modesitt.

"Several counties have projects they would like to move forward, it will put people to work. It is something that should be placed, in my opinion, on the special call and give us that tool to work with," Modesitt said. "If it doesn't, in our case, I guess we could wait until the regular session. We aren't going to start building until September. However, there is a lot of work we could be getting out of the way so we could go right to work the first day."

Modesitt noted he's concerned about including the action in the regular session, where bills too often become lost in process.

"There are times when things get lost in the shuffle, fall through the cracks. If it's on the special call, you're focused only on those few issues," Modesitt said.

"This is a tool that's there for us to use, for counties in general, and we should be moving forward on it," he said.

West Virginia Association of Counties officials agree.

"While it is possible it could be done by executive order or may in fact be allowed by an IRS decision, as some have heard, we want to go ahead with the letter writing campaign to be sure it is covered in some way," association officials notified county commissioners, urging them to write a letter to the governor seeking enabling legislation for counties to use the Recovery Zone Bonds. The association is also writing a letter.

The county commissioners have finalized purchase of the Hintgen building for $2.4 million and are hoping to close on the deal for the new justice center in December. The building is leased to the Bureau of Public Debt until September 2010.