Ohio County Commission Moves Forward on TIF District
Action Would Help Fund Second Highlands Interchange
Joselyn King Trending
A funding mechanism to help build a second interchange at The Highlands in Ohio County has now moved on to the next stage.
County commissioners on Tuesday night passed a resolution indicating their desire to establish a second tax increment financing district near The Highlands. The new area would continue down the hillside from The Highlands toward Middle Creek Road, taking in the Millenium Center and Touchstone Research Laboratory on the eastbound side of Interstate 70, then over to the Maroon Farm.
The commissioners next passed a separate resolution seeking to merge the proposed new TIF district with one already established at The Highlands.
The resolutions now will be forwarded on to the West Virginia Department of Development for consideration for approval.
A TIF district is a designated area in which a portion of the property taxes paid by property owners there is kicked back to a local government. The local government, in turn, is required to reinvest that money into further development in the TIF district with the purpose of growing more revenue.
The creation of the second TIF district is seen as a way to generate revenue to fund the construction of a second interchange at The Highlands and create further development along the hillside down into the Middle Creek Road area.
It is also the same direction that much water runoff flows when it rains, according to residents who live there. They addressed the commissioners about the issue at the commission meeting on Aug. 1.
Since that time, Ohio County Emergency Management Agency Director Lou Vargo and County Project Manager Melissa Marco toured the areas in question. They found that there was evidence of runoff there, but they weren't certain as to its source.
In other matters, commissioners voted to give County Clerk Michael Kelly permission to digitize some county documents that have been stored during recent years at an Iron Mountain facility in Pennsylvania at a cost of about $9,000 annually. The one-time cost to digitize would be $7,800 at Newbrough Photo in Wheeling.
County Administrator Randy Russell also brought before commissioners a request to change existing policy at the Wheeling-Ohio County Airport that prohibits anyone from operating a business out of a hangar at the airport.
Presently a couple of pilots who rent hangar space there would like to offer flight instruction there, according to Russell.
Russell explained the original thought behind the policy was to prohibit non-aviation related business within the hangars.
The commissioners will next meet on Tuesday, Sept. 5 at the City-County Building, 1500 Chapline St., Wheeling.