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City candidates tackle issues

Forum focuses on Elkins’ challenges

The Inter-Mountain photos by Brad Johnson Candidates for a First Ward Elkins City Council seat, from left, challenger Judy Guye, incumbent Bob Woolwine and challegner Phillips Kolsun, take part in Tuesday’s candidates forum for the March 5 Elkins municipal election.

ELKINS — City officials received some stinging criticism during Tuesday’s candidates forum for the March 5 Elkins municipal election, with several incumbent council members on the panel countering that city government is doing its best to deal with modern challenges.

With the First Ward candidates speaking first, the forum often featured challenger Judy Guye criticizing council’s handling of issues, followed by incumbent Bob Woolwine offering the city’s perspective on the situation.

Asked first about how the city should spend the revenue from the new 1 percent sales tax, Guye said, “I think there was talk about lowering the B&O tax for the merchants downtown. They’re the ones who are collecting the 1 percent tax. I think there should be a plan where they start implementing a lowering of the tax over the next five years so that at the end of five years the merchants don’t have the B&O tax.”

Woolwine responded by saying, “We’ve been constantly criticized for implementing the tax by a lot of people, and then we turn around after we pass it and kind of put our political careers on the line, and those very people want to tell us how to spend it. Kind of ironic, but nevertheless we’ll move down the road.

“We’re going to have a special call council meeting on Thursday to discuss what to do with (the revenue) and we are going to stick to the strategic plan — for recreation, for infrastructure and things like that,” Woolwine said.

Second Ward Elkins City Council candidate C. Michael Hinchman, left, and moderator Dr. Eric Castater, professor of political science at Davis & Elkins College, participate in Tuesday’s candidates forum for the March 5 Elkins municipal election.

The other First Ward challenger, Phillips Kolsun, said, “We really need to get the community involved and the citizens involved in deciding what is done with that money. We do have a strategic plan … I think we really need to look and see where the need is and what the best way to use that money is… It’s not the city’s money, it’s your money… so we need to get the citizens involved in seeing what is the best use of that money.”

Second Ward candidate C. Michael Hinchman responded, “I’d like to see (a focus on) infrastructure … public safety … and I’d like to see us keep some (of the revenue) in reserve. You never know what’s going to happen.”

The other Second Ward challenger, Carrie Shupp, was ill and could not attend Tuesday’s event. Incumbent Gene Ochsendorf is not seeking reelection.

Fifth Ward challenger Howard P. Knapp II said, “I keep hearing about broken-down houses … Maybe they can put more money into that.”

Fifth Ward challenger Robin Spicer responded by saying, “Do we have enough (police officers)? Do they have enough equipment? … Also the potholes. We need to fix our streets and our sidewalks.”

Fifth Ward Elkins City Council challengers, from left, Robin Spicer, Joe Sabatino and Howard P. Knapp II take part in Tuesday’s candidates forum for the March 5 Elkins municipal election. Fifth Ward incumbent Linda Vest did not participate in the event.

Fifth Ward challenger Joe Sabatino said, “Part of the money should go toward maintaining our city structures … City Hall … the Darden House. Beautification. And I really think we ought to bank part of it. There’s always problems down the line we don’t anticipate.”

The Fifth Ward incumbent, Linda Vest, was not present for Tuesday’s event.

The forum’s second question asked what should be done about the city’s dilapidated properties issue.

Guye said the dilapidated properties issue is the “whole reason” she is running for council.

“I became involved because I am chairman of the (Randolph County) Health Department,” she said. “There’s been a Town Hall group that’s met for the last three or four years on a quarterly basis because they could get no answers from city council on their concerns with abandoned and dilapidated properties.

“When I was mayor we had an enforcement committee. We met every month for six years. We called people in, we said, ‘You have this to do.’ If they didn’t do it, they got fined, but most of the time they did it because they were called in. We did not let the city go down like they have for the last 10 years without enforcing their rules.

“There’s an ordinance for dilapidated properties, it has a fine for people. After two years of (being) vacant, it’s $200, and then it’s $400 the next year. They’re not collecting the fines. They could’ve had the money to tear down some of these houses if the enforcement was there,” she said. “They issue letters and violations but they don’t follow up. I went to the code enforcement officer and said, ‘Why haven’t they been paid?’ ‘I billed them,’ he said, ‘and I can’t do anything if they don’t pay.’ Well, that’s wrong. We have the ordinance and we can unify this town if we follow through with the codes.”

Woolwine said, “I think a couple things need to be clarified. I don’t want anybody to get the opinion we’re kind of kicking the can down the road. I think that’s been done in the past, we’re trying to deal with them. Fifty thousand dollars we do have budgeted, we plan on using some more money to take care of these properties. But there are legal ramifications, there are rules to go by.

“Just because somebody thinks a property is vacant or dilapidated doesn’t mean we can just go in and tear it down,” he said. “There can be a mortgage on the property, there could be some kind of lein on the property. We could tear it down, the city could spend the money if we can get a grant, fine. The city could spend the money and we may not get that money back. And I’ll give you an example.

“About three years ago we had a house that burned down. The owner was in a nursing home, there was no insurance on the house. We had to go to court several times to get permission from the judge to tear the house down. He gave us a limit on what we could file as a lien on the property. We went in the hole tearing the property down. It took us almost two years to do that. So it’s time-consuming.”

Kolsun said, “I think the dilapidated structures in this town have gotten worse, as far as the number of them.” He said he believed seeking grants was key in dealing with the properties, along with code enforcement. “Following up with the code enforcement, making sure that we get the fines.”

Hinchman said the city should follow the BAD (Blighted, Abandoned and Dilapidated) Buildings Program model for dealing with such structures, and seek “clean-up grants” from the Environmental Protection Agency and other sources.

Knapp said “tougher fines” and more code enforcement would help the situation.

Spicer responded, “Grants is the way we should go with this. I don’t think it should be from the money from the sales tax.”

Sabatino said the problem was difficult to solve because “many of the people who own (the dilapidated properties) don’t live around here … Maybe putting fences around them would keep people out.”

The third question asked the candidates what they feel is the biggest challenge facing the city of Elkins.

Guye said “accountability” was the top challenge. “If the citizens have some problems, we need to respond to them. They haven’t gotten a response from city council, and so they formed the Town Hall meetings, because that was the only place that they could vent their frustration on what problems they had.

“If the city council had been responsive … I don’t think the Town Hall group would have formed. I sent letters to 10 council members with questions. I got one answer back. That’s not the way we need to run the city of Elkins,” she said. “City Council needs to listen to the citizens and help when they have some problems. Maybe you can’t answer exactly what they want to do, but you’ve got to answer them. You can’t turn them off.”

Woolwine cited “negativity” as the biggest challenge. “You go to these meetings and you hear all kinds of negativity. You don’t a lot of times hear a suggestion or ‘If I was you I’d do this.’ It’s easy to be on the outside and look in and say, ‘If I was on council I’d do this.’ Well, maybe you would, maybe you wouldn’t. You’re one of 10 and you’re one vote out of 10.

“I think the negativity — and I can take some responsibility for that, being on council, that we have to change that negativity by getting the word out in a positive manner. But I think that’s hard for us to do,” he said. “It hurts everybody. When everybody’s so negative, it’s hard on all of us. We need to be more positive. Be optimistic. You know, we’ll get through this, whatever the challenge is, we’ll get through it.”

Kolsun said, “We have a drug problem … Education is a huge part of (solving) that … we need to get some of those (anti-drug programs) back into the schools.”

Hinchman said the biggest challenge will be “planning for the future as it comes. There’s no silver bullet. We just have to take it as it comes.”

Knapp said, “We have a major drug problem in the city” and fighting it will be the city’s biggest challenge.

Spicer said the biggest challenge is “the future of our kids… The streets are terrible … the school systems (have challenges) … companies come in here (and) they don’t want to settle here.”

Sabatino cited “limited resources and limited production … We’ve got a dying downtown. Who wants to live in a ghost town?” He also said annexation was key so that companies enjoying the city’s services “pay their fair share” of city taxes.

Fourth Ward incumbent Marilynn Cuonzo, who is running unopposed, also took part in Tuesday’s forum. Mayor Van Broughton and Third Ward incumbent Chris Lowther, also running unopposed, did not take part.

The forum’s moderator was Dr. Eric Castater, professor of political science at Davis & Elkins College. The event, at the Madden Student Center on the D&E campus, was presented by Polis, a non-partisan D&E student political group, and Generation Randolph.

Present in the audience at Tuesday’s forum were council members Charlie Friddle, Rob Chenoweth and Marly Hazen, along with City Clerk Jessica Sutton and City Attorney Gerri Roberts. D&E President Chris Wood also attended the event.

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