PARKERSBURG - In what he promised would be the first of many visits, Rep.- elect David McKinley, R-W.Va., met with Wood County commissioners Friday to ask them to give a list of the top three needs for the county.
McKinley, who will officially take office in January, said he will be seen in the area frequently.
"You are going to see me a lot," he said. "I am going to go to all 20 counties in the district, all of the school boards and the mayors of the various cities."
McKinley, a former state legislator and chairman of the state Republican Party, defeated Democrat Mike Oliverio on Nov. 2 to succeed Alan Mollohan in the First Congressional District. Oliverio defeated Mollohan in the May primary election.
McKinley said in his first visit he is asking local leaders to work on a list of the three most needed things in the distirct. He said he expects a wide range of needs since every county has unique needs.
"I'm not asking for your answers today," he said. "I want you to think about them."
McKinley said he wanted the needs to be those that are federal issues not state issues, like reforms to the state tax code.
Commissioners Blair Couch and Wayne Dunn, along with commissioner-elect Steve Gainer, said the top need would probably be more jobs and the infrastructure to attract those jobs.
Couch said one area of concern is improvements to the Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport. He said jobs have been lost due to a lack of what he called "airport connectivity."
"We recently lost Simonton Windows to Columbus because of a lack of airport connectivity," he said. "The executives had to travel to Columbus and other places for flights and people coming to meet with them had to do the same."
Dunn said another thing that needed to be addressed was "quality of life" issues. He said businesses are looking for areas where the employees will have happy and healthy lives.
Dunn added the answer was not only in attracting traditional industry.
"Without Public Debt and DuPont we would not have anything here," he said. "Government jobs can be a good thing since they are clean jobs and there is a trend to move out of Washington, D.C. because of the costs."
Couch said he would like to have meetings with McKinley, not only in Parkersburg but in Washington, especially when the county is applying for grants for direction to what is available and who they would need to meet with concerning other grants.
McKinley said he recently attended a conference or caucus of Republicans where they voted against earmarks in legislation, but said that does not mean the end of money for needed projects.
"Until we can get the budget under control I don't think we need any earmarks," he said. "I do not have a problem with putting money in a project if we can afford it. We can't hide them in bills like was done in the past."
