Kesling
ELKINS — The Randolph County Commission approved a $2 million rollover of general funds from the last fiscal year during its regular meeting Thursday.
Commissioners David Kesling and Cris See voted unanimously to carry a total amount of $2,284,336 over from the fiscal year 2022. Commissioner Cris Siler was not present for the meeting.
“We started our new fiscal year 2024 budget on July 1, so we finished our 2023 budget on June 30,” Kesling said during Thursday’s meeting. “The rollover is money that we had budgeted but didn’t spend. That money will now roll over into next year’s budget.”
Kesling said great work done by Randolph County’s elected officials made the savings possible.
“With the help of all the elected officials, we were able to have this rollover,” Kesling said. “It takes all of them to make this happen because (Sheriff) Rob (Elbon) has a budget he operates off of, (County Clerk) Brenda (Wiseman) has a budget, (Prosecuting Attorney Michael) Parker has one, and so forth. They all work off their budgets and if they don’t spend all that money, then it becomes a rollover for the next year.”
This rollover was an improvement from fiscal year 2022, when $1.5 million was carried over by the county.
“We are very watchful of what we spend and how we spend it,” Kesling said. “And we take advantage of a lot of the grants we can get. We have a grant writer for the county who goes out and tries to get us grant money, so that we don’t have to use taxpayer money. That has helped out tremendously and we are happy to again report another hefty rollover for the county.”
Kesling listed some of the key items the county did during the last fiscal budget.
“One of the major things we did for the county was the pool and splash pad project, which has been a great success so far,” Kesling said. “We also purchased the building across the street that was the old Smith and Jury law office. That building is now going to become the new prosecutor’s office, and that was all done through grants that we received, so there was no taxpayer money in paying for that building.”
Other projects Kesling highlighted as part of the last budget included adding a third PRO officer at Elkins High School, providing funds for the Harman PSD ($85,000), helping fund the Randolph County Senior Center’s Roof Repair ($31,000), and providing new vehicles for the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office.
“Those are some of the big things the county has done,” Kesling said. “We help out tremendously with our hotel-motel tax that we collect on people visiting hotels that are outside the city limits. Anytime you go and pay your bill and you see hotel-motel tax, that tax comes to the county, and we get half of that we can use and the other half goes to the CVB downtown to help promote tourism in the county.”
Kesling also listed Boys and Girls State, EHS Project Safe Graduation, Mountain State Forest Festival, Fourth of July Fireworks, Arts Center, Christmas Parade, HOFNOD, Our Town, Coalton Days, Camp Pioneer, Celtic Festival, Tygarts Valley High School and Valley Soccer as other organizations and events the commission helped fund in the last fiscal year.
“We gave $7,500 for the fireworks this year and sponsored the Christmas Parade with $8,000,” Kesling said. “Tygarts Valley needed a new scoreboard and press box, so we gave them money for that. And we gave Valley Soccer $13,500, and we gave $50,000 to the recreation board to help finish the bathhouse project they’ve been fighting for. So that’s all about $193,000 that we gave out from hotel-motel tax.”
Kelsing said the commission is pleased by the rollover amount from the last fiscal year.
“It’s a lot of rollover money, we spent a lot of money, but we spent it wisely and that helps it continue to roll over,” Kesling said. “We consistently rolled over about $2 million, but the year prior was about $1.5 million. So we are happy that we brought it back up this time around.”