A $46 million broad grant application, the White Sulphur Springs TIF Project, and the county employee COVID-19 policies were considered during the Tuesday, January 25, meeting of the Greenbrier County Commission.
The commission is looking to expand broadband service again, this time taking the “first step” into a potential $46 million project though the GigReady Program. The program is organized by the West Virginia Department of Economic Development, the West Virginia Broadband Enhancement Council, and the State Broadband Office, looking to improve internet service in the state.
“It’ll help a lot of southern West Virginia to get broadband, but for Greenbrier County, it will pretty much cover the entire county that’s not covered now,” said Commission President Lowell Rose. “… Probably, from the West End and to the East End. … That’s pretty much our goal.”
A resolution supporting the application was approved, reading the “Greenbrier County Commission wishes to submit an application to West Virginia Department Economic Development [GigReady Broadband] grant program to request funding for a broadband expansion project. … The Greenbrier County Commission authorized the matching pledge amount of approximately 25% which is $6,690,787.50, of a total project cost of $46,763,150.”
Commissioner Tammy Shifflett-Tincher noted the funds would not be coming from the county’s general fund.
“This is the first step to the submission of our application in order to get funds from the state for the broadband project that the county wishes to proceed with to cover, across the county, broadband,” said Tincher. “The [$6 million match amount] will be coming from the TIF fund. This amount has been reserved in that fund for this project.”
The White Sulphur Springs Tax Increment Financing Project Plan (TIF) is a method of subsidizing county infrastructure, economic, and community improvement projects by redirecting an increase in overall taxes paid to the state government back into the district from which they were paid. This is possible due to an expanding tax base, more people and money in a district, rather than a policy increasing taxes on a consistent tax base. In the 1990s, the County Commission approved a TIF in order to fund the repair and reconfiguration of a wastewater treatment facility in White Sulphur Springs. In 2019, when the original TIF was set to expire, the commission renewed it with a new project list.
“This project is something that the county commission and Region IV and others have been working on for probably close to three years now,” Rose said. “We’ve had this in the works, we met and selected our ISP, which is our internet service provider, and have been working with them. Our application will be going in probably this week or next week [on January 31].”
In other business:
– The county’s COVID-19 policy for employees was updated. Tincher explained “our policy ended at the end of 2021. This is a revision of the policy that was put in place back in 2020, when COVID first started. … This is a revised to update the changes that the CDC has made with exposure, quarantine, and isolation guidelines, as well as confirming that the employees employed by the county, if they do have to go through any of that process, that the 14 days that were originally provided to them … would still be able to have 14 days available to them … but at the end of those use of those 14 days, sick leave would have to be utilized if they had to be out for any longer timeframe.”
– Rose explained the resolution from White Sulphur Springs City Council and the commission would approve “invoices relating to design and construction [of the] Big Draft waterline extension project and authorizing payment [to] Pro Contracting, who’s a contractor on it, for $74,027.61 and E.L. Robinson, the engineering company, for 21,287.02. … That is out of the TIF project in the White Sulphur district.” The funds were approved.
– The County’s holiday policy was also updated. Tincher explained “we updated our dates for the elections in May and November because the election days fall on county commission days, so our county commission meeting will be the Wednesday … directly after the election. And so, at any rate, we are accepting the Supreme Court calendar, which has Juneteenth, June 17, and then West Virginia Day, June 20, honored.”
– The Arts and Recreation expenses include $19,423.34 library programming and
$381.61 for advertising for phase three of the Meadow River Trail project. The funds were unanimously approved.
– Rose also noted “we’ve got the second payment to the contractor [on the courthouse construction project] that is due. It’s included already in the bills [approved earlier in the meeting], but I want to mention that … it’s in the amount of $335,739.69.”
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| The commissioners pray at the beginning of the meeting. |
