Local News

Wood County Commissioners, other officials meet with newly elected lawmakers

PARKERSBURG - Local officials got to discuss a lot of their concerns with potential upcoming legislation as new state legislators gathered during a recent meeting in Parkersburg.

The Wood County Commission, along with a number of local officials, met this past week at the Wood County Resiliency Center to allow state lawmakers to introduce themselves and highlight some of the issues the state legislature might be able to take action on that will have a local impact.

State Delegates-elect Justin Beanard (R-Dist. 10), Jeff Sandy (R-Dist. 11) and Melissa McCrady (R-Dist. 13) as well as State Senator Trenton Barnhart (R-Pleasants/Dist. 3), who won the election to finish out the term he was appointed to after State Senator Donna Boley retired, met with commissioners, Wood County officials, representatives of the Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department, Mountwood Park, the Wood County 911 Center, the Wood County Day Report Center, the West Virginia Association of County Officials, WVU Medicine Camden Clark Medical Center and others. Wood County Sheriff and Commissioner-elect Rick Woodyard attended.

"The whole idea was to bring in the newly electeds who may not know certain people in the community and give the background to be able to call someone if you have any questions," Wood County Commission President Blair Couch said. "Each of us has a role."

The various county officials told the new lawmakers what their departments and organizations do.

Wood County Assessor John Kelly, a former state legislator, said the legislature has looked at changing the Homestead Exemption a few times but it has basically remained unchanged for 44 years. He wanted to see what might be done.

Woodyard said he has not been in a room with lawmakers in this manner before and welcomed the chance to talk one on one with them.

"I'm glad everyone was able to show up," he said. "It shows everyone's interest in what is happening."

Legislative action helped create the court division that has court officers handling security in the courts, roles that used to be handled by the deputy sheriffs.

Wood County Prosecutor Pat Lefebure said he was open to meeting with any lawmaker who had questions they needed answered.

"I would certainly be glad to give input on upcoming bills on local issues coming up in Charleston," he said. "I can give my two-cents and you can certainly do with that what you want."

Sean Smith, president and CEO of Camden Clark, said the facility handles 600,000 patient encounters a year. He highlighted upcoming expansion efforts with the new East Tower project as well as continuing to grow medical services in the area.

Couch said he wanted to be sure that lawmakers have contact information for the elected officials and the other officials who attended the meeting so if specific issues come up, the lawmakers could have someone they can interact with and ask questions.

Couch brought up the various issues surrounding data centers with House Bill 2014 that he said didn't allow county commissions to have a say in placement of data centers.

"We want to get all the contacts we can get you," he told the new lawmakers. "If during the session something comes up, you can actually ask somebody that it is going to impact.

"That has been a rarity for us with those in Charleston."

Officials said they would love to be able to give lawmakers insight into how legislation could impact them.

Patsy Hardy, representing the Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department, talked to the incoming lawmakers about covering the needs of the agency's six counties: Wood, Wirt, Calhoun, Ritchie, Pleasants and Roane. She talked about how funding in the local health departments is done by the legislature through the state health department and how funding is not always available at certain levels to handle some needs in tracking illnesses, as employees are not paid enough to do the work and the agency is competing for people with others in the healthcare field. Laws are in place where the tests given to the people who do food safety inspections are only given once a year. People in training are not able to go out and do those exams.

"I wanted you to comprehend the impact that is making," she said. "We hope that if you have questions about public health services that you reach out to myself (and others at the health department) and we would be very happy to give you more details so if you are looking at a proposed bill you will be able to determine if it will impact you."

Others talked about the needs of Mountwood Park, the Day Report Center and others who gave lawmakers insights to what was happening locally. The Regional Jail Bill has been a continuing issue for the county commission as the cost to house prisoners has gone up. A number of local officials wanted to see the state take over funding of all the jails and prisons throughout the state and take that burden off the counties.

Couch said he hopes they can have more meetings like this in the future, possibly after the session to determine what the successes and failures were.

McCrady and Beanard both said they were open to talking with officials as they work in Charleston to better serve the area.

Sandy commended Woodyard's efforts in dealing with fraud crimes, which has saved local residents over $10 million in losses. He wants to set up events locally to educate the community on how to combat fraud. He is in favor of the state taking over all the regional jails to ease the financial burdens on the counties.

"We can reduce our jail bills with everyone working together," he said.

Barnhart said he wished he had meetings like this in all of the counties he serves. He told the other electeds that there were so many issues thrown at them when they get to Charleston.

"As a legislator, you have to know a little about a lot," he said. "What you don't know, you have to know who to talk to, who can get you good information so you can make sound public policy.

"None of us have all of the answers. It will be so important to have (these local) contacts so when we have a question we can get that information."

Del.-elect Dennis Rempel, D-Dist. 12; Del. David Foggin, R-Foggin; and state Sen. Mike Azinger, R-Wood/Dist. 3, did not attend the event.