Editor, News-Register:

I’ve lived in Wheeling for almost 45 years. I’ve not only paid all of my taxes on my property but also on all of my vehicles, owning anywhere from four to six (currently five).

In 2016 we purchased the lot next to our home where a duplex burned and was demolished.

As all taxpayers know, you get your tax statement every year. I pay them every year in person. The morning of Sept. 14, my wife got a call from her brother, he told her our name was in the paper for delinquent taxes. My wife and I knew that was not possible. On Monday, Sept. 17, my wife went to the tax office to find out what happened, also taking our tax receipts for the past 10 years. She was directed to see Zach Abraham, president of the Ohio County Commission.

It turns out that fault in this matter is that of the assessor’s office. We were told that a former employee of the assessor was the person responsible for the mistake in not getting us a tax bill. Is this former employee also the one responsible for all of the real tax cheats in Ohio County that have Ohio and other out-of-state plates?

I remember at the high mileage checkpoint behind the City-County Building, about 10 years ago, asking one of the deputy assessors if I can put Ohio plates on my vehicles, like so many others in this city, and get away with it. Her response was no. Then I asked, “When is something going to be done about it? It’s against the law, right?”

She told me she understood my frustration, but they could not possibly go around the city making people change their plates. If laws aren’t going to be enforced, someone needs to answer. Why are elected officials permitted to libel people like my wife and myself, who not only pay their taxes, but pay them early for 44 years now? How do you get your good name back when the local newspaper puts your name in because people at the county are inept in doing their job?

But it’s easy to blame a person that no longer works there. It would be nice if the person responsible for this would apologize to my wife and myself and also have a printed retraction in the Wheeling newspaper. It’s pretty embarrassing to try to explain to family, friends and neighbors that you’ve done nothing wrong after it appears in black and white.

We received our notification from Charleston, from J. Russell Rollyson Jr., the deputy commissioner of delinquent and nonentered lands for Ohio County. I’m not putting the blame on them. The blame solely falls on the head of the Ohio County Assessor’s Office. We received this mail from Charleston telling us to either pay the $2,353.58 within the next five days, or the property would be sold at auction. I was really fired up when I looked at the newspaper and realized that the $2,353.58 was really $1,826.93, but due to the Ohio County Assessor’s Office we were charged an additional $526.65.

We had no problem paying what we owed, even though it’s someone’s incompetence at the assessor’s office that led to this. They even charged us $30 to put our name in the newspaper.

An apology is warranted, and a retraction in the newspaper, and $526.65 is needed. The ball is in their court.

Charles Cunningham

Wheeling