By Bob Weaver
It was midnight in the garden of Wirt County in 2002 and the fate of the county's existence was at stake.
The Charleston Daily Mail editorialized by saying "Wirt never amounted to much anyway," a likely candidate for county consolidation.
Two years have past since Wirt citizens pulled it from the jaws of death by passing a bare-bones operating levy. Now the levy is up for renewal on November 2 after it failed to pass in the May primary. The vote fell short of the 60% needed, 917 for the levy and 839 against.
It is showdown time again for the three-year-levy.
No one will bail out the county this go round.
It's all up to the voters.
County Commission President Charles Murray has said he is hopeful the levy will continue with a bigger voter turn-out and a more informed electorate.
The levy has filled the gap for money shortfalls to keep the county going.
Like most rural counties with few jobs and little business, tax money comes from residential and personal property taxes. The tax base is further eroded by large tax breaks given by state government to the county's largest landowner, a timber holding company.
One-third of the county is tied up in managed timberland which limits tax revenue. It was a bill based a few years ago which was touted as giving the small wood-lot owner a tax break, but in fact gave enormous tax breaks, at least 66%, to timber corporations.
Commissioner Murray keeps it simple. "We need the money from this levy to run the county open," he said.
Murray said the county, after cutting several positions, has eight non-elected full-time employees and two part-time employees, a bare minimum to keep things going. The levy supplements the employees salaries.
Unfortunately, county employees have no health insurance, with county officials declining regular pay raises.
Murray said there is no where else to cut.
The special operating levy is at the same rate as presented two years ago, 7.15 cents per $100 in assessed valuation on Class I Property; 14.30 cents in assessed valuation on Class II Property; and 28.60 cents in assessed valuation on Class III and Class IV Property.
The current operating levy is expected to raise an additional $190,000 for the 2004-2005.
Murray said it has been good to pay county bills when they come due.
A group has stepped-up to help keep the levy going -The Citizens to Preserve Wirt County. The group has been raising money to create signs and send out mailers to residents to inform them of the need to pass this levy, according to chairman Roy Buchanan.
In 2002, Wirt lost its county jail when the regional jail opened in Doddridge County, but the county also lost $155,000 income from other counties who were paying to house female inmates in the Wirt jail.
Buchanan said he felt the levy would be renewed last May, when only 53 percent of the electorate voted in favor. He said the citizens information group has since re-started.
Buchanan and Murray said he is hopeful Wirt residents will want to keep their county.
RE-PUBLISHED FROM HUR HERALD 2002: "Midnight In The Garden Of Wirt"
(05/11/2002)
By Bob Weaver
It is midnight in the garden of Wirt County, as voters go to the polls Tuesday to approve or reject a three year operating levy. The smallest county with the lowest tax base may be the first of several West Virginia counties to go asunder, a victim of default.
Some say it is too much or too little, too late.
It is a county, like many rural counties, that has been victimized by mandates and legislation, from the high costs of a regional jail to the eighty-cents an acre taxes charged Westvaco, the largest land owner in the county.
The Charleston Daily Mail editorialized "Wirt County never amounted to much anyway."
The higher powers in West Virginia have long planned the vision to reduce the counties, bigger ones taking over smaller ones - all in the name of efficiency and reduction of costs. Centralization is the name of the game around the Mountain State.
A Charleston newspaper reported a state politician saying "Wirt never amounted to much anyway."
The peaceful, pastoral country life many of us value will becomes part of a more urban world, to be taxed and developed. Those super low taxes will be a thing of the past and those who govern and serve will be elected by voters in populated areas, a form of taxation without representation. The local political "weasels" might even begin to look pretty good.
In the Wirt County Journal we read accusations of political skullduggery, politicians who have drug their feet, and some who say levy passage will only stay-off the death of the county. All may have some merit and make interesting points, but its a nickel late.
It is midnight!
There is another confusing take against levy passage. If the levy fails, there will still be a Wirt County to be self-determined by constitutional vote. While counties can decide their consolidation by a vote, the counties failure to maintain constitutional government means it will no longer exist.
If the county sits and does nothing, in legal default, I'm quite sure its future will be determined by legal authorities and the West Virginia Legislature.
With fewer people spiritually concerned to their place of origin, it may be easier to give up the 230 square miles of land, some of it beautiful flat land along the Little Kanawha River. Wirt is a treasure that holds great promise, if only for the quality of life it could protect.
It has been a while since William Beauchamp came through in 1796 to build a grist mill in 1803, long before the development of oil, gas and wood products, most to be taken away by large corporations, leaving little behind to support life in the community.
Over the past two hundred years, it has mostly been a county of farms. People close to the earth. No matter what happens at the polls Tuesday, we hope to remember them in a generous light. Farmer citizens who stuck close to simple values and lifestyles. The chaotic world will someday look upon these country people with favor.
For those of you who read The Herald in distant places and might not understand this, time to take a look at WIRT FROM THE ROAD.
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