KINGWOOD — Preston County saw its share of changes in 2019, ranging from the courtroom to the classroom, from the checkout counter to the water faucet.
Here, in no particular order, are five of the year’s top stories.
School levy
In February, voters approved a five-year, $4.5 million annual school levy. It came after a similar levy was defeated by less than 100 votes in May 2018, leading to a series of public hearings on possibly closing Fellowsville and Rowlesburg schools.
After an outcry from many, the board of education voted to take a chance and put the levy on the ballot in February. It was a last-ditch effort, pushing the timeline for proceeding with the closures, if the levy failed.
A community group formed to support the levy with a bombardment of positive messages.
“I think it was really a coming together of the community. The Preston County community put this together,” Tarrell Ries, president of the committee, said on election night. “I believe we’re finally on the right track.”
Municipal sales tax
Preston County’s 10 municipalities are fighting a battle of providing increasingly expensive city services with increasingly smaller tax bases.
Early in 2019, Kingwood became the first town in Preston to implement a municipal sales tax. Researched and promoted by Councilwoman Michelle Whetsell, the 1% tax began to be collected July 1.
At the end of the first quarter of the current fiscal year, the first check came in, totaling $56,469.24.
Not knowing how much would be collected, council had not budgeted the money for any particular purpose. Early discussions were about replacing the town’s aged street sweeper, making improvements to parks and other uses.
For now, the money rests in a contingency fund.
PSD 1 water woes
When ground was broken in 2017 for a new dam at the J.W. Ruby Research Farm, Public Service District 1 was told by the federal government it would need to find another water source for about a year.
Almost two years into the project, the district is dealing with lack of water, rising treatment costs, poor water aesthetics and unhappy customers.
The increased costs of treating the water and additional hours worked led the State Public Service Commission to approve an interim emergency rate increase of 26.11%. That brought the minimum monthly bill for a 5/8-inch meter to $49.16.
At the end of the year, the district still didn’t know when the dam would be completed, still had no control over the project and still was looking into any legal options open to it to seek compensation.
Crime on the rise
In December, Preston Prosecutor Melvin C. Snyder III asked the county commission to consider adding a prosecutor to his office in the new fiscal year.
“This is a serious matter. Our workload has increased,” he said. “We have murder, rape, malicious assault, stabbings. We’ve had four murders since March of this year. ”
He said from 1997 to 2000 there were no murder cases. From 2005 to 2015, there was one every three years.
Snyder said felonies have increased from 72 in 2010 to 154 this year, abuse and neglect cases increased from 23 in 2010 to 63 in 2019, and misdemeanor cases increased from 344 in 2010 to 484 this year.
He said while the number of misdemeanors has not increased much, the cases are more severe. This came along with record-sized grand juries, during the year.
In law enforcement, another deputy was added because of money provided through the school levy to place an officer at Preston High. That brought the number of Preston deputy sheriffs to 19, plus the sheriff and chief deputy.
The roads we travel
Road conditions continued to be an issue in 2019. In October, after multiple requests from county commissioners, Gov. Jim Justice did a one-hour driving tour of Preston County.
“We were able to see roads that we have made a lot of progress on, and we’ve seen roads that we surely need to do a lot more on,” Justice said after the tour. “Every one of us wants to see every road fixed. Every one of us regrets and hates the condition of roads that we’re taking school buses down. For crying out loud, we’re tearing the school buses up. Or the sheriff’s department or the police department or whatever.”
In the northern end of the county, citizens collected thousands of signatures on petitions demanding better roads. They plan to deliver them to the legislature in January.
County commissioners noted that much work was done this year and thanked Division of Highways (DOH) employees for that. But much remains to be done and, more importantly, a maintenance schedule and funding source need to be identified and followed, they said.
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