Kanawha County employees can expect raises in the coming budget year. The Kanawha County Commission on Thursday approved a 2.5 percent full-time salary line increase for the 2017-2018 budget year, which starts in July.
The raises, including a FICA and retirement match, will cost the county $553,617. The money will be distributed to the office of each elected official and the official will determine how to distribute the pay increases among employees.
"We've looked at our finances, we've looked at the cuts we've made to be able to do this and we approved [raises]," Commission President Kent Carper said after the meeting.
At a meeting earlier this year, commissioners approved setting aside $500,000 for employee raises.
Carper called the raises a cost of living allowance. Workers have not had a raise since the 2013-2014 budget year, finance manager Kim Fleck said.
"If you figure they haven't had one for a couple of years, assuming they were supposed to get one then, which they didn't, you could argue it's not that great but it's significant," Carper said. "The amount of money is large simply because we have that number of employees."
About 60 percent of the money will go toward the sheriff's department, Carper said.
"If you want to go out and hire deputy sheriffs to come out here at 2 o'clock in the morning and risk their lives, you better pay them," he said.
Prosecuting attorneys go up against the best lawyers in the state, he said. Carper said the prosecuting attorney's office is becoming a place where attorneys can spend their careers. It used to be an office they spent a few years before moving on, he said.
The rest of the county employees work hard, too, he said.
Also Thursday, deputy county manager Andrew Gunnoe said the county will spend about $20,000 in attorneys fees for the bankruptcy and federal court cases involving Crossings Mall owner Tara Retail Group. The county hired attorneys to represent itself in both court cases. Gunnoe said the county did everything it could to push the proceedings forward at the risk of annoying the bankruptcy judge.
Construction on the bridge started earlier this week, about 10 months after it washed out during the late June flood.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Patrick Flatley last month approved a financing plan to allow the reconstruction. Bridge contractor David Alvarez, of Applied Construction Solutions, agreed to front the cost of building the bridge for Tara Retail Group, headed by developer Bill Abruzzino, in exchange for priority status as a creditor.
Carper said part of the problem with the bridge situation has been the perception that the bridge was public and the county or another government entity should have fixed it.
"Not all bridges are public bridges," he said. "This was a private bridge, and first of all, the thing they put in there years and years ago never should have been put in there to begin with. It was a culvert. It was a corrugated pipe, so to fix it it's gonna be over a million dollars."
Besides the attorneys fees, no public money will be used, he said.
The contractor has estimated the bridge can be built within 60 days of construction starting.
In other business:
n Commissioners approved allocating $300,000 toward the purchase of new ambulances for the Kanawha County Emergency Ambulance Authority. Carper said the money could buy and equip up to three ambulances, which are badly needed.
At some point, buying new ambulances is cheaper than paying for maintenance to keep older vehicles on the road, Carper said.
"Having an ambulance break down going to a heart attack call is just not a good thing," Carper said. "They're needed desperately."
n Commissioners approved giving the town of Chesapeake $28,960 for a storm sewer repair bill. The money will come from the county's coal severance funds, Carper said.
n Approved a letter of intent to give $50,000 to the YMCA, which plans to open at the West Virginia University Institute of Technology's athletic center at its former campus in Montgomery.
n Approved an application by the county's planning department to the West Virginia Housing Development Fund's Property Rescue Initiative for a demolition program. Commissioners approved the program at a meeting in March. The $1 million program will be funded half with an interest-free loan from the Housing Development Fund and half with money from the demolition fund, which is money of building permit fees. Planning Director Steve Neddo said with the $1 million, the county could theoretically demolish 114 dilapidated houses.
Reach Lori Kersey at lori.kersey@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1240 or follow @LoriKerseyWV on Twitter.