MOUNDSVILLE — Marshall County Commission members unanimously approved laying the levy rate for the upcoming fiscal year at 11.13% during their meeting Tuesday.

Despite an estimated 32% revenue decrease for the county’s 2025-26 fiscal year, Marshall County Administrator Betsy Frohnapfel said the commission was able to keep the levy rate the same as last year because the commission was “fiscally conservative” in its budgeting.

The revenue decrease was due to a decrease in ad valorem taxes collected in the county, which include property taxes levied on personal and commercial business property. Frohnapfel attributed this decrease in revenue to the 2026 fiscal year being the first time the commission valued ad valorem taxes from a three-year average to a one-year annual valuation. The state legislature made this change in the valuation process.

The change in tax collection contributed to an approximately $16 million decrease in the commission’s revenue for the next budget year. For the 2025-26 fiscal year, the commission projects $35,694,704 in revenue for the General County Budget and $5,075,000 for the Coal Severance Budget.

“We were aware of the change in how the West Virginia State Tax Department assessed business and industry taxes in the county, so we were prepared,” Frohnapfel said. “We had a spike [in revenue] over the last couple of years, so we could do some capital projects that didn’t base build into our budget. When we had to reduce the budget, it wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t disastrous either.”

Frohnapfel noted that the commission did not “base build” into the budget by avoiding adding items that cannot be reduced in funding, such as additional funding for elected officials or “exorbitant” pay raises.

“We did things like capital projects, including the health department and upgrades to the county courthouse and to the assessor’s office,” Frohnapfel said. “We focused on those one-time expenditures.”

In other business during Tuesday’s meeting, the commission approved the final change orders for the Marshall County Health Department construction and Marshall County Courthouse upgrades.

The total final change order for the Health Department was $57,978. The order paid for reducing the slope of the sidewalk outside the building and adding a railing. It also included fire dampers and additional fiber optic materials.

“After we were done with the [health department] project, we looked at the slope of the sidewalk and saw that it was a tripping hazard and liability,” Frohapfel said. “We’re going to change the slope of the street and put a railing there.”

Frohnapfel added “some street paving” for areas torn up during the construction process still had to be completed at the health department, along with sealing and striping parking lots.

The total change order for the courthouse was $6,717 and included adding an access ladder to the roof generator and general cleanup at the end of the project.

The commission also opened a Request for Qualifications for engineering firms to update the former State Food Stores building on Lafayette Avenue into a county election operations center. This is the first step in the “5G process” laid out by West Virginia State Code for selecting architect-engineer services for projects.

The commission received five applications for the project from McKinley & Associates, Silling Architects, ZMM Architects and Engineers, The Thrasher Group and Sixmo Architecture. Frohnapfel said the commission’s committee for the 5G process will review their applications and rank them, with the commission starting with the highest-ranking firm and “trying to come to negotiations and go from there.”

The commission also approved the oil and gas lease for Southwestern Energy for 70 acres of property the commission owns outside of Moundsville near 12th Street.