MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — A renaming of leadership and a conversation about a massive economic development project in the southern end of the county were highlights from Thursday’s Berkeley County Commission Meeting, according to Panhandle News Network reporter Clint Gaige.
The meeting began a little differently as The Honorable Tony Petrucci, County Clerk called the meeting to order with a vote on who would lead the commission.
The Board voted unanimously to rename Eddie Gochenourr to Commission President and Steve Catlett to Vice President.
Commissioner John Hardy gave a quick rundown on his meetings from the week
“It’s been kind of slow the last couple weeks with all the holidays, but I did have a Planning Commission meeting on Monday night. It was your typical Planning Commission meeting. We had three public hearings that went off without a hitch and we had a couple more projects that we had moved forward and talking about the updates to the the strategic plan, the comp plan.”
Commission president Eddie Gochenour also spoke about a meeting with Nic Diehl of the Airport Authority
“I did have a meeting with Nick Diehl at the airport and to listen to a lot of opportunities that they’re working on there. You know, I don’t want to get out in front of Nick and, and all of his partnerships that he’s working on. But there’s, there’s some good things coming there,” he said, adding “I’m just really pleased bringing a whole lot of different agencies to to come together to, to make something good for our airport and the educational portion of that business.”
Also at Thursday’s Berkeley County Commission meeting, Executive Director of the Berkeley County Economic Development Authority Jennifer Smith spoke to the commission about holding public hearings to create an Economic Opportunity Development District in South Berkeley.
Ms. Smith explained the idea of the special district. “It is a state authorized financing tool under West Virginia Code 7, Article 22 and it allows a county to create a defined district. It allows to the county to finance major infrastructure and public facilities. It also is a direct only sales tax. It allows you to use those sales tax dollars to pay for those improvements. It also allows to issue bonds backed by the district’s tax revenue.”
As for the project in South Berkeley, which may bring a sports complex to an area of around 275 acres off Exit 8 in the area off Tabler Station Road, “I want to mention this is not (funded out of) the county’s general fund.”
The Board approved the next step to hold public hearings regarding the formation of this district.
Hear highlights from the meeting on Friday’s episode of Panhandle Live.
Reporter Clint Gaige covers government meetings for the Panhandle News Network.
