Tucker County Commission candidates Mike Rosenau (I) and Jon Bush (R) met in front of a packed house at the Tucker County Senior Citizens Center in Parsons to discuss the issues facing Tucker County today ahead of the November elections in a debate sponsored by Country Roads News.
Country Roads News contributing writer Mat Cloak acted as moderator for the debate. A three minute limit on responses was established and adhered to throughout the hour-and-a-half debate period.
During his opening remarks, Rosenau talked about his background and family. He spoke about his generational ties to the community through his ancestors and his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He also spoke about the influence his father, the former Mayor of Parsons, had on his view of public service.
“I’ve been asked a question, ‘Mike why did you run for County Commission?’ I’ll tell you why I ran for County Commission, public service is in my family. I’ve talked about my family a lot. That’s a lot of respect. My father was the Mayor of the community for years and he said, ‘Don’t complain about something unless you’re willing to work toward it to make it better.” – Mike Rosenau
Bush also spoke about family in his opening remarks. Bush owns and operates a variety of family businesses that have employed young people throughout Tucker County for over 37 years, he said. He went on to say that his companies employ approximately 750 young people throughout the area.
“Why I’m running for Tucker County Commission, one of the things running business both in Parsons and in Canaan Valley, is that there is this separation that continues to exist between the mountain county part of the mountain and the lower part being Parsons. This has existed for a number of reasons, obviously.” – Jon Bush
Bush went on to say that a lot of the separation is economic. The businesses on the mountain rely on tourism to drive their economy, while the lower half of the county is more manufacturing and industrial based.
“Tourism continues to grow, but we seem to have a distance in what’s going on here and what’s going on, on the mountain. People have a lot of things that concern them and why I’m running for County Commission is hopefully bring those groups together and show that we can work together. That not only can we increase tourism, but we can increase manufacturing throughout the county.” – Jon Bush
Both candidates stressed the importance of education.
The subject of education came up at a couple of points during the debate during the opening remarks and during questions and answers from the moderator and audience, as well.
Bush proposed more trade education for young people in order to keep them in the community. He also spoke of funding parallel education programs.
Rosenau spoke about working together with the school system, as well as establishing relationships with outside education organizations such as local colleges to bring in training programs for locals.
On the subject of funding, when HB 2014 was brought up, the matter of why none of the funding was directed to education was asked. Rosenau said that it was explained to him that funding was filtered through the counties and counties could direct as much of that funding to education as they liked with no impact on their existing state funding dollars.
Both candidates agreed that the biggest crisis the county faces in education is the need to train students for jobs that will keep them in the area, as too many of the county’s youth are leaving after high school due to a lack of opportunities at home.
Corridor H
The first question posed to the candidates was on their viewpoints on Corridor H and choice of routes. Bush was the first to speak on the project, saying he was in favor of finishing it as soon as possible.
Bush said that he felt that the West Virginia Department of Highways has mostly settled on their planned route and it will likely not be the Go North alternative.
Bush stressed the need for Tucker County citizens to come together and discuss what alternatives will best serve the needs of them with the WVDOH civilly and come to an equable compromise. He said that the road will bring many economic opportunities to the county when it is completed.
Rosenau said, “Let’s build it and get it done.” He said one of the main reasons he was against the northern route was because of the potential danger it posed to the seven springs north of Thomas that feed the town’s water supply. Rosenau also said that the longer the project is delayed, the more of a bottleneck traffic will cause traffic hazards in the area, especially in areas such as Thomas and Davis where traffic congestion causes issues with EMS access.
EMS Funding
The subject of the County’s contested 2% EMS Fee was the second topic of debate. Bush said that he disagreed with the County’s fee on the grounds that it only targeted “a certain sector of society” and he found it “not fair and equitable.” While he understands that EMS needs funded, he said he felt a 1% flat fee across the board on everything except groceries and gas would better suit the need. Bush said that the businesses will survive regardless of whether the fee is in place, but “the issue is that we are doing it at all.”
“It is not a broad tax or a broad fee. It is targeted at a certain group of people and that to me leads to socialism,” Bush said.
Rosenau said due to State code, a fee can be directed at one specific item, as opposed to more broadly, like taxes are. The current fee in place, he said, is based on a law passed in the 1970s.
“The Commission felt that if we have 6500 people in our county and a million plus guests a year, everyone is a potential user. So we tried to do how it was fair for everybody,” Rosenau said.
Rosenau said that residents pay the same fee as guests do when they use services in the area and there was no discount or reduction in fee for locals.
There had twice been attempts in the past at local measures to pass Ambulance Fees and they were struck down by voters and never made it to the ballot box.
“We wanted ambulance service for everybody that came to the county, but didn’t feel that it was fair for 6500 people to bear the cost of everything,” Rosenau said.
When asked why business owners were not consulted about the Fee prior to passage, Rosenau said the measure had been announced on the Commission agenda. Rosenau said the public is welcome to attend and voice their concerns about any agenda items and the Commission would have welcomed any input local businesses would have had.
“Randolph County put a .4% fee on purchase throughout the county. The State Tax Department said that was too much like the 1% tax that’s been voted down on the State level for years. Cities can do it, but counties can not. That’s State Code. They said, well how’s Tucker County doing it? The State told them, the Commission President told me himself, it’s because Tucker County has it for a specific thing, going back to amusement.” – Mike Rosenau
Bush rebutted Rosenau’s statements by saying that 95% of the County’s 2% fee is paid from out of state guests and only 5% of those guests use the service. Rosenau said that he disputed the statistics.
Data Centers/Power Plants
The hot topic of Data Centers and the Ridgeline Power Plant Project of course was brought up during the debate. The candidates were asked what their view of the County’s responsibility was in shaping the future of power plants in the area.
Rosenau, who worked at Dominion Energy for over 30 years, said that Fundamental Data, the company behind the Ridgeline Project had stated at a public meeting that the new plant was estimated to bring 80 plus permanent jobs to the area, not including the jobs in other industries that would be fueled by the industry. However, he did say he certainly would not have chosen the location.
Bush said that at the current industry rate, the plant, should it happen, is likely seven to 10 years from happening and would likely bring outside jobs. He said he is “against the power plant, period.” He said he would rather see Mt. Storm expand and bring in hybrid technologies.
The candidates differed on their opinions of coal. Bush said that “coal is not dead” and that “coal was the cleanest.” Bush went so far as to claim Mt. Storm to be the cleanest facility in the world.
Rosenau differed in opinion of coal. He claimed coal to be the dirtiest and new restrictions make burning coal harder. He said Mt. Storm has plans to build a gas fired plant that “is supposed to be the cleanest.”
Tourism
Bush said that he saw tourism as a vital part of Tucker County’s future. He used his own success as a business owner as an example of how a living wage can be accomplished in a Tourism based economy. He said that none of his companies pay minimum wage.
Rosenau said that he applauds tourism, what he does not applaud are the “traffic jams” and “low wages.” Another negative factor to tourism that Rosenau spoke on was the cost of homes from second and vacation home buyers during COVID. Rosenau said the average (sold) home cost in Tucker County was $255,000.
However, all the County Commission had to do to help homeowners combat rising tax bills from the skyrocketing home prices is try to keep the levy rates one of the lowest in the state. Rosenau admitted the County Commissioners have no control over wages or the cost of homes. He also said the county needs both tourism and industry to survive.
