Wood County officials OK hirings; Couch talks tax issue
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PARKERSBURG -- The Wood County Commission approved new appointments and hirings, while expressing concerns on the states proposed elimination of personal property tax during its Thursday morning meeting.
Commissioners approved the nomination of Jessica Emrick, Chris Swarr, Gary Thompson, Andrew Borkowski and Bob Buchanan to the Wood County Parks and Recreation Commission at Mountwood Park.
Commission President Blair Couch said Emrick will be a new addition to the commission, replacing Patsy Hardy, who resigned a year ago.
"Jessica looks to be a good addition to the board. She grew up in Waverly and remembers fishing there as a young child, and uses the park pretty substantially," Couch said.
The commission announced a vacancy on the Wood County Alternative Transportation Committee, seeking someone to replace Mark Abbott, who passed away in November. The commission also approved the a request to hire two positions, Steven Williams as part-time court security at $13.77/hour and Angela Braden as a sheriff's tax deputy at $28,500/year.
Couch also expressed concerns about the discussion for the elimination of personal property tax going on in the House of Delegates in Charleston, saying the elimination will only help business and not only the residents, but the county will miss out on $4,642,000 that the tax generates. Even a proposed bill that would provide counties with the authority to impose a county sales and use tax of up to 1 percent under certain circumstances if approved would not help. Couch said the county will still lose money with the elimination of the personal property tax.
"I told the legislators I talked to, you can't convince Mrs. Betty Smith in Belleville to vote for this if it's to benefit businesses and not her," Couch said. "Let's get the 1 percent for a year, so we would know what it generates. Then we can either choose to eliminate or keep, but if they eliminate the personal and we only gain $2,000,000 and 1 percent, we have a $2 million hole in our budget."
Tyler Bennett can be reached at tbennett@newsandsentinel.com