Bath struggles with road repairs & hotel taxes

CNB Bank President and CEO Tom Rokisky appeared before the Town of Bath Council on May 18 to talk about the condition of Market Street which runs next to the bank’s main entrance.

Rokisky said bank employees were getting many complaints about the condition of the roadway. Rokisky said you can’t even drive up and down Market Street without “tearing your car up.”

“My employees are saying, ‘Tom, we are tired of hearing individuals come down and complain to the bank and yelling at us about the condition of that road.’”

Rokisky asked council to level the roadway and put down some stone “because you can’t use it.”

Mayor Susan Webster said the town had put down stone on several occasions but “it comes right back out.”

Councilman Ryan Rebant said council was working on a request for proposal to repair both Mercer and Market Streets near the bank and would put the job out for bids. But he cautioned the town would have to find financing to pay for the job.

“In the meantime we will patch and see what we can do to fill it in,” Rebant said.

Rokisky said the street also needed to be graded to smooth it out.
Councilman Jim Slough said the two issues were a short term fix and a long term fix. He said the street could be patched in the short term. The problem was with finding funding for a long term solution.

“We can’t find any government funding at this point. We haven’t identified any government funding and Ryan (Rebant) has been working on it very hard,” Slough said.

Slough asked Rokisky if he could help look for grants through his bank contacts to help fund a project to repair the street. Rokisky said he would have someone start looking today to see if any funds were available.
Slough then suggested the town’s street workers be put under the supervision of the police department. He reasoned that both Councilmen Scott Merki and Ryan Rebant of the Public Works Committee had full time jobs and they are not always around to supervise street work.

“On a temporary basis, it might be something that would help,” Webster said. But she wanted to talk to Chief Pearrell first to see if it would be a job he wanted to take on.

Hotel-Motel delinquencies
Stephanie Rebant, representing Travel Berkeley Springs, told council there is a “severe problem” with hotel-motel taxes. Travel Berkeley Springs receives half of the hotel-motel tax revenue collected by the town.
Rebant said TBS only received a $577 check for the first quarter of 2010. In past years, she said the amount was between $3,000 and $3,700. “So there is a major collection problem,” she told council.

Rebant said there are 12 lodging establishments in town with 10 paying monthly and two paying quarterly.

“From November 2009 to March 2010, seven establishments did not pay. From September 2009 to October 2009 six lodging establishments have not paid and from July 2009 to August 2009 four lodging establishments have not paid,” Rebant said.

“People aren’t paying, that’s the bottom line and I just ask you for your diligence in enforcing the law and making them pay,” Rebant said.
Webster said this was probably the worst two or three years ever for those in the lodging business.

“The law has to be obeyed, we understand that. We understand that these taxes come in and they must go back out. But I want to see overall more aggressive help from the Morgan County EDA and Berkeley Springs-Morgan County Chamber of Commerce to stop people in town and get them to go to these places,” Webster said.

Council agreed to start the process of enforcing the collection of delinquent taxes by sending out a letter of notification.

Webster asked police administrator Gene Kilduff to review the law and see what recourse the town has for businesses that don’t comply with the law.
At the May 4 council meeting, Town Clerk Margie Allgyer said collection of hotel–motel taxes are behind schedule. She said the town had only collected $10,303 this year out of a budgeted $37,000.

By contrast, according to statistics from the county clerk’s office, Morgan County has collected $74,206 in hotel-motel taxes out of a budgeted $90,000.

CSX lot
Webster said CSX has started cleaning up 2.2 acres of land behind the train depot to bring it environmentally up to commercial and industrial use standards.

She said CSX would be removing contaminated soil and replacing it with new soil.

Webster said that once the lot is brought up to standards, CSX, after the paperwork is done, will cede the lot to the town.

She said Governor Joe Manchin was instrumental in brokering the deal with CSX.

The northern neck of the property beyond the 2.2 acres behind the depot is not being worked on and will remain CSX property.

Police business
Bath Police Chief Craig Pearrell, attending via teleconference, asked council to put part time patrolman Lance Marshall on full time.

Pearrell said Marshall’s job performance has been “outstanding” and Marshall has been working the overnight shifts by himself with backup from the county.

Council voted to put Marshall on full time status immediately.