Published: April 25, 2008 10:19 am            

Voters will decide four-way race for County Commission

PRINCETON — When Mercer County voters pick the next County Commission panelist, they’ll have a choice between a private investigator/collections agent, a high school principal, an emergency room technician and the incumbent Commission president, a career law enforcement officer and long-time elected official.

Incumbent Democrat Joe Coburn faces tough competition among three other Democratic challengers in Princeton Senior High School Principal Stephen Akers, Allegheny Consultants Inc. Owner and Operator Robert “Bob” Carter and Princeton Community Hospital’s Willie Wiley.

Though the four identified many of the same issues facing the county, their opinions on how to best handle the challenges differed this week, as they shared backgrounds and ideas on how to balance the $10 million budget and best help Mercer County.

•••

Dr. Stephen Akers attended Mercer County schools and worked a year at the Turkey Gap Coal Mine before taking a job at Bluefield Supply.

The year of 1970 was a big one for him. He was drafted into the United States Army for service in the Vietnam War, and married his wife, Debbie, currently Mercer County Schools superintendent, on Thanksgiving Day. He shipped out Dec. 26, 1970 and spent two years in the military before returning to Mercer County and Concord College, where he completed an education degree in 1974. He started substituting as a teacher in early 1975 and has worked in Mercer County education ever since.

Akers has served as principal at Oakvale, Montcalm Elementary, Bluefield Middle and Princeton Senior High schools.

“I guess the most interesting thing is that I’ve enjoyed every job I’ve ever had,” he said. “I’ve always had some nice people to work for and with.”

Even before he graduated from high school, Akers said he worked at INS Grocery in Matoaka, where he learned the importance of managing money, a skill he said would come in particularly handy if he’s elected to the County Commission.

“I grew up in a family where we knew the value of hard work and effort. We understood we had a responsibility for self, and I always felt that taxpayers should get their money’s worth,” Akers said.

If elected, he vowed to maintain accountability for county spending, while balancing personnel resources and budget allocations efficiently.

Akers’ frustration as he watched business opportunities and people leave Mercer County prompted him to run for the office.

“I think we’ve missed a lot of opportunities,” he said. “We just haven’t been in the right place at the right time when it comes to holding our hands out for federal dollars and other things that are coming down the pike.”

Specifically, Akers said he was bothered by the loss of commercial air service at the Mercer County Airport and the lack of jobs that continues to send Mercer County’s people out of state to find work.

“We need to reverse that trend and create jobs that will pay and keep young people in the area,” he said.

One project Akers expressed optimism on was the proposed Equestrian Park between Princeton and Bluefield. Though he doubted such a facility could employ a large number of people on a consistent basis, Akers said it would be a boon to existing businesses and attract visitors to Mercer County.

“I certainly would be in favor of that and think that it would improve the economy,” he said. “Any job at all would be welcome.”

Akers identified taming jail bills as a top priority in balancing the county’s budget and pointed to litter as a serious concern. He said he would be willing to examine the option of countywide zoning, and supported an increase in fire service fees to fund volunteer fire departments.

“The fuel price alone has made it incumbent upon us to look at more creative ways to support departments and bring them along,” he said. “It’s extremely frustrating to know you have a job to do and feel like you don’t have the resources to do it.”

Overall, however, he said long-range planning would help the county protect what belongs in Mercer.

“After we lose the airport or see a business move into Virginia, it’s too late to wring our hands and try to find out what we can do,” Akers said.

•••

Robert “Bob” Carter believes the key to making Mercer County more efficient rests in running the county like a business. After a career in public health, collections and investigation, that’s an experience he’s positive he possesses.

“Running the county is a business, and that’s what a lot of people don’t realize. Or, once they get in there, they forget they’re running a business,” he said. “I’ve handled millions of my clients’ dollars, and I’ve never lost a penny. I’ve never lost a client because they’ve been happy with the way we’ve done things.”

A Navy veteran with six years of experience as a hospital corpsman, Carter moved to Mercer County from Greenbrier County in 1978 to attend Concord College. He graduated in 1983 with a bachelor’s degree in biology and worked in the public health sector until the end of 1993. He opened Allegheny Consultants in 1994 and operates a farm on Old Athens Road, raising hogs and poultry. And, along the way, he even found time to serve as Santa’s helper as a member of the Amalgamated Order of Real Bearded Santas.

Running his investigation and collections agency, Carter said he spent a lot of time in the courthouse and was disturbed at the discontented employees he encountered.

“I spend part of every day in the courthouse, and over a period of several years, I heard more and more of people’s concerns,” he said.

Those top concerns lately have focused on pay and the increasing cost of living for the county employees “in the trenches.” Those employees are set for a 3 percent pay raise, but Carter said a 10 percent increase in insurance rates come July 1 will eat the increase. Single employees will come close to breaking even by the time the pay raise and insurance premium increases take effect, but Carter said employees on the family plan will lose an additional $700 per year from their paychecks.

“They’re working two, and a couple of them are working three jobs, just to feed their families and pay their bills,” he said.

The low pay for county employees is particularly troublesome in light of a 2006 decision that handed County Commissioners and other elected officials a pay raise. He said that money could have been better spent funding pay raises for other county employees.

“If you’re running for office, it should be about service,” he said.

Mercer County’s losses weigh heavy on Carter, who cited the Colgan Air pullout, a cut in funding for the West Virginia Extension Service and the deterioration of the Mercer County Health Department headquarters as three examples of problems he said the current commission either missed, ignored or otherwise failed to address.

When Colgan Air shut down services, Carter said the company took three jobs with it, and recent funding cuts eliminated 50 percent of the West Virginia University Extension Service’s Mercer County funding, a move that also cut matching funds.

He also questioned a recent decision to pursue a new 911 Communications Center, when the Mercer County Health Department is struggling to get funds for a new headquarters.

“Here, the County Commission wants to close a 13-year-old building that’s managed perfectly well, and they’re completely ignoring the health department. That’s a 50-year-old building that’s falling in around our ears,” he said, predicting putting off a new health center will cost more in the long run.

On other issues, Carter said he stood ready to support the equestrian center, and doubted that countywide zoning would be in the best interest of the area. He called for creative approaches to difficult challenges, citing Sheriff Danny Wills’ suggestion that the county create its own garage to service Mercer County Sheriff’s Department cruisers at a lower cost. And, to cut jail bills, he suggested putting more inmates to work in order to make the jail experience less palatable.

“They get three hots and a cot, heat in the winter, air-conditioning in the summer and a gym to play in,” he said. “I say we don’t let them sit in a cell all day; put them to work.”

Carter supported increased fire service fees for structures more than 2,500 square feet, saying volunteer fire departments soon wouldn’t be able to furnish fuel without some assistance.

Overall, Carter said he had more business experience than any other candidate and believed that was the one asset the commission needed more than anything else. However, he encouraged voters to take a close look at all the candidates and the county’s current situation before casting a vote.

“If you can’t vote fore me, vote for Steve (Akers) or Willie (Wiley), because we need a change. We need a change badly,” he said.

•••

Commission President Joe Coburn disagreed with Carter’s dire outlook. Instead, he said the Commission is getting a handle on a balanced budget, trimming jail fees and working toward long-sought water projects.

“I enjoy the challenge of being able to help people,” Coburn said, explaining why he chose to run for another six-year term on the panel.

Coburn attended Concord College for three years before taking a job in 1959 as a deputy with the Mercer County Sheriff’s Department. After working there until 1961, he was appointed as a state probation officer for the area, a post he held until 1969, when he returned to the road as a deputy.

A few years later, Coburn accepted the job as Athens chief of police, and in 1972, Coburn ran for County Court, the body that would later become the County Commission. After serving two six-year terms, Coburn declined to run again and became a tax coordinator for the state through 1988. He later served as a field representative for the state treasurer and ran for County Commission again in 1996. He’s remained on the panel ever since and is running for his fifth overall and third consecutive six-year stint.

“I think it’s a challenge. It’s interesting work. It gives me a chance to meet a lot of people and work on a lot of projects,” Coburn said.

Whittling the Regional Jail bill and dealing with trash are two of Coburn’s top issues.

At it’s highest, Coburn said Mercer County was $1.6 million in debt to the Southern Regional Jail. At his last calculation, Coburn said that number was down to $1.17 million, and he said the county continues to make monthly payments on the fees charged to house inmates. The largest monthly jail bill he could recall registered at $151,000, but Coburn said the last bill was for approximately $82,000.

“We’ve been paying it down with the help of our judges. We’ve also been doing the Day Report Center and home confinement whenever possible,” Coburn said.

Unsightly trash, illegal dumps and litter bugs are persistent problems. Coburn said a day does not go by without a citizen calling the Commission to complain about garbage. To ease that burden, Coburn said the Department of Highways recently signed a deal to put more inmate labor to work cleaning eyesores

Carter and Coburn agreed that employee insurance is a critical issue.

“It’s going to be a great challenge, because if what I hear is true, it could go up 10 percent in the next two years,” Coburn said.

One of his proudest projects as a commissioner has been the preliminary work toward the equestrian park.

“That’s a great project, I think. I’m very proud that the commission got involved in that early on,” Coburn said. “We’ve got a lot of help on it. We’ve got the architects working on the project right now. We’re waiting on more funding for the project and to get that two-lane highway in there.”

Concerning budget matters, Coburn said the county is getting a “pretty good handle on it right now.” He said the Assessor’s Office had done an exceptional job, and he touted the fact that there have been no tax levy increases in recent years.

Though Coburn said some countywide zoning could be called for in coming years, he didn’t expect anything in the immediate future. He backed increased fire service fees for large businesses but said average families pay enough already.

“We would also like to let everybody know that we continually work on water projects and wastewater projects,” Coburn said. “It’s every day that we’re working on these projects and trying to get grants and other funding. We’re making some progress.”

•••

Willie Wiley said he’s running for County Commission to make a change.

“I see a lot of problems with the county through the ER,” the Mercer County native and Lerona resident said. “You see everybody in the ER, and a lot of people have talked to me about running. I would like to help clean up the drug problem, and I see a lot of things that need to be fixed. Our systems are broken.”

Wiley is a 1993 graduate of Athens High School and currently works as an emergency room technician at Princeton Community Hospital.

Some of his primary concerns are funding formulas for rescue squads and fire departments, and updating the county operations.

“Sometimes I feel like the courthouse is still running in the 1960s. We need to update it and bring it back,” he said. “I also see a lot of the issues the police officers have to deal with concerning the regional jail. We need to bring our regional jail back here.”

If jail operations moved back to Mercer County, Wiley said the county could make the most use of inmate work hours, primarily to clean the county and work toward beautification projects.

Wiley also said he would like to see a broader range of businesses locate in Mercer County, and he pledged to do what he could to recruit new business, if elected.

“We need something besides a restaurant or a car lot. We need better jobs. The restaurants and car lots are wonderful things, but we need more,” he said. “We need to push for more industry ... We need better-paying jobs to get some of our people back to work. My generation’s gone. They’ve had to leave to find jobs. We need to bring them back home.”

Finding ways to preserve small towns is also an important priority, Wiley said, citing Matoaka, Athens and Oakvale as areas rich in culture and people but struggling for resources.

Though Wiley said he was certain he was the right candidate for the commission job, he pledged to push for a county administrator to work full-time toward the county’s agenda.

“County Commis-sioner is a part-time job. We need somebody in that office to write grants,” he said.

Wiley said he would prefer to handle countywide zoning on a case-by-case basis and supported a reasonable increase in fire service fees.

He called for better funding and a restructuring for Mercer County 911, particularly in the area of equipment, and he said the equestrian park could prove to be an important link to bind Princeton and Bluefield in a common cause.

He also pointed to the Chuck Mathena Center as a point of pride and an attraction.

“This is a wonderful county. We’ve got Bramwell there as a tourist attraction. We need to capitalize on that,” he said. “We’ve got one of the best workforces in the world in Mercer County, but our workforce is leaving every day because there are no jobs here.”

— Contact Tammie Toler at ttoler@ptonline.net

        

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