Candidates share views at public forum

May 1—KEYSER, W.. Va. — Five candidates for the lone open seat on the Mineral County Commission shared views on a variety of issues Monday at a candidate forum held at the Keyser Moose lodge.

The Primary Election takes place on May 14. However, early voting in Mineral County runs from May 1-11.

The county commission consists of three elected officials serving six-year terms, and the seats are staggered so one is up each election cycle. The seat currently held by Commission President Jerry Whisner, who is retiring after serving two terms, is up for election.

Candidates participating in the forum, all Republican, included Jason Whitlock, David Boden, William "Butch" Wahl, Jim Hannas and Troy Kesner.

Whitlock is a missionary and travels around the world for the Youth with a Mission West Virginia organization.

"I would like to see open transparency of the county finances so that people can understand it better," said Whitlock.

"With the hiring practices for contracts, I'd like to see everything go to bidding and not see just your friends getting the work. We also need to work on our economic development. Northrop Grumman is growing, but we need housing available for them."

David Boden, formerly with the newspaper industry, is currently a substitute teacher for Mineral County Public School System.

"We have to look at a different way of doing things," said Boden. "We need to get the (county) meetings more open to the public.

"Right now if you want to watch the meeting online you have to email the county coordinator to get a link to the meeting. A lot of other counties put them on YouTube and they can watch them live. You don't need a password and they are available to watch anytime.

"We have to do these things to get people involved."

Wahl is retired and is currently a special education substitute teacher.

"It's about jobs," said Wahl. "We need industry here. It's also, right now, with the drugs and crime prevention ... you have to have the police officers make the arrest and then the prosecuting return prosecute and the judge should not let people right back on the street.

"The cost of the Potomac Highlands (Regional) Jail is very high. Once they closed down the local jails, you have to ship them up there and it's expensive."

Wahl said he'd like to see more people who have been convicted putting in community service hours.

Hannas is currently the public works supervisor for Keyser. He shared thoughts on usages for opioid settlement funds accrued to the county.

"You got a $567,000 check now," said Hannas. "I think you should have all law enforcement officers in a room — sheriff, city police, deputies — and ask them how do you want to use this money?

"They have to do stakeouts before they can come in and do a drug bust. I know you are worried about overtime. You can use some of that money to furnish their wage to do that.

"You could also add another K-9. That would be excellent."

Kesner is an accountant at Mineral Fabrication and owner of TJK Accounting Services, LLC.

"The state did start a tax credit for volunteer firefighters," he said, "but doing taxes this year I only saw one that qualified. New Creek has four out of 40 firefighters qualify for the tax credit. That is something that definitely needs to be reevaluated so that more people qualify that donate their time.

"Even the fire chief for Keyser didn't even qualify. I think it is less than 10% that qualify. That is something our delegates definitely need to work on and get that fixed."

The winner in the primary will move on to the General Election to face the lone Democratic candidate, former Commissioner Cindy Pyles.

Early voting will take place at the courthouse in Keyser. Voting hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and Saturdays from 9 a.m to 5 p.m.

Voters unable to be present can request an absentee ballot at the courthouse or online.

Greg Larry is a reporter at the Cumberland Times-News. To reach him, call 304-639-4951, email glarry@times-news.com and follow him on Twitter @GregLarryCTN.