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ELKINS -- Elkins officials announced Friday that the city's TIF application has been approved by the state.
"It has been approved at the state level right now," Elkins Mayor Jerry Marco told The Inter-Mountain Friday. "So the next step for us is we have to take it to full city council, so council does have to agree that they do want to go forward with the TIF. It will have to go through two readings before council."
Elkins City Council voted Jan. 5 to submit an application to the state to issue bonds in order to fund projects through Tax Increment Financing (TIF). To fund several costly redevelopment projects, the City of Elkins has a plan to issue up to $25 million in tax increment revenue bonds.
Marco said the news about the state's approval came at a surprising time.
"We actually were told (Thursday) about an hour before the city council meeting," Marco said. "This turned Good Friday into a Great Friday for us!
"We felt confident in the application, with the projects that we'd selected. We're very pleased with the result we got back. "It was a lot of hard work and we've had a lot of partners throughout the community on this project. I just think it's tremendous for our community," the mayor said Friday.
The city was told it would take about 60 days to hear a result on the application.
"Good things come to those who wait," Marco said. "The governor signed off on it and Sec. (Mitch) Carmichael sent us the official letter that we got Thursday. So we are very happy."
Carmichael, the secretary of the West Virginia Department of Economic Development, sent the city the approval letter, in which he wrote:
"The WVDED has found the application is complete and thereby approved per the project plans with bond financing not to exceed $25 million. These funds will be used to make capital improvements within or which serve the TIF District including the design, permitting, acquisition, construction and equipping of site, infrastructure and other improvements, both public and private, that will facilitate development within, or for the benefit of, the TIF District as outlined in Section II of the application."
"This approval means that the city is now authorized under state law to establish the proposed TIF district," a City of Elkins press release stated Friday afternoon.
"The next step is for council to approve an ordinance, on the usual two readings, enacting the TIF district. Officials are meeting to plan next steps soon; the process will likely be complete within 30 or so days."
In February, the Randolph County Commission announced that it would ask the Department of Economic Development to decline the city's TIF application.
The Commission sent the opposition letter to the Department of Economic Development early in February.
"We never heard anything back from the state," Commission President David Kesling told The Inter-Mountain Friday afternoon.
"Any way you look at it, the City of Elkins is taking county money to fund their pet projects for the city. And now, that's going to take money away from the county for the next 30 years, for projects that could be done outside the city of Elkins," Kesling said.
"As a county commissioner, I felt it was my right and duty to do anything that I could to protect county money."
Kesling said the letter to the state focused on what was included in the Elkins application.
"We tried to point out irregularities in the city's application," Kesling said. "They want to use some of the TIF money to pay for the event center. The Randolph County Development Authority already has federal funding to pay for that.
"Also, the application included beautification of downtown Elkins -- the city's 1% sales tax was supposed to be going to that. We tried to point out these irregularities to the state, but it just didn't work."
Supporters of the TIF application were thrilled by the news that it has been approved.
"This is part of a defining moment of where this area of the state is heading," local business owner Lamarr Weese told The Inter-Mountain Friday afternoon.
"Thanks to Mayor Marco's consistent leadership and the vision of city council, future generations will look back in gratitude. The 'gem' that is Randolph County can start to be polished to the luster it deserves."