MORGANTOWN — Third-floor space in the Monongalia County Courthouse formerly occupied by the county’s circuit court will soon handle charges of a different sort.
A complete renovation of a former courtroom and adjoining space is under way in preparation for the sheriff’s tax office.
Facilities Director Bobby Doyle said the plan is to start moving the tax office up from its first-floor location by the end of the year.
Chief Tax Deputy Kelly Palmer said the change of scenery can’t come fast enough as the tax office has long since outgrown its current location.
Palmer explained her staff resorted to turning folding tables into impromptu work stations in an attempt to work around the cramped quarters.
“We’re very crowded right now,” she said, noting the third-floor office will essentially double the available space.
“There are 14 of us working in a space originally built for eight or nine people,” she said. “We just don’t have the room we need.”
She went on to say the new, larger space will not only allow for more taxpayer privacy, it will feature additional teller windows, a lowered counter to accommodate taxpayers using wheelchairs and a waiting area that will include a kiosk for online payments.
The work is being handled entirely by the county’s four-man construction crew under the direction of Doyle and Facilities Manager Carlos Goss.
Sheriff Perry Palmer said the changes are not only needed for the efficiency of the tax office, but the convenience of taxpayers who are often shuffled between the first-floor tax office and the assessor’s office, now located on the third floor.
“This really is going to save the taxpayers a lot of trouble. They’re not going to have to go up and down the stairs between the tax office and the assessor,” he said. “That’s the big thing. It’s going to be so much more convenient for them with the two offices being right down the hall from one another.”
Getting the assessor and tax office closer together has long been a topic of discussion, Doyle said. It only became a possibility once the Monongalia County Justice Center opened in 2015.
Shortly thereafter, the county began a plan to overhaul and fill the newly available courthouse space by moving and/or expanding a number of offices.
Initially, the county assessor’s office moved from the second floor into empty court space on the third floor, allowing the county commission office and meeting chambers to expand into the assessor’s old digs.
In July 2017, the county commission earmarked $170,000 to update and substantially increase the size of the county clerk’s office. During that same meeting, an additional $170,000 was set aside for the new tax office.
The now completed overhaul of the county clerk’s office was also handled by Doyle and crew, as was the assessor’s new location and the expanded commission space.
Doyle said it’s too early to tell how much the county will save by doing the work in-house. He said the county crew is typically able to complete a job for half what it would cost to contract out.
According to Doyle, the county’s construction and maintenance crews typically save the county between $750,000 and $1 million annually — a fact not lost on the county commission.
“Our facilities team, everything they do is very high quality work and we’re saving a heck of a lot of money by doing it in-house,” Commissioner Sean Sikora said, thanking Doyle and his team. “This is another instance of things we’re doing to improve the infrastructure of the county. It’s going to reap benefits for years to come.”
