BUILDING COST CONSIDERED — Brooke County commissioners mulled costs to insure a county-owned building at 840 Charles St., and agreed to advertise for the construction of a storage building for the Brooke County Pioneer Trail. -- Warren Scott

WELLSBURG — The Brooke County Commission has been considering costs for a county-owned building at 840 Charles St. while pursuing the addition of a storage building for maintenance equipment for the Brooke County Pioneer Trail.

On Tuesday, the commission tabled renewal of flood insurance for the Charles Street building, which in the past was known as the Courthouse Annex.

The commission is faced with a yearly payment of $6,708 or $7,240 for flood insurance, depending on the level of coverage, for the building.

County Commissioner Stacey Wise noted the coverage would include flood-related damages to the structure but not the building’s contents, which are owned by separate agencies that occupy it.

The county’s probation department had occupied the building before it, along with the county prosecutor’s office and the county’s family, magistrate and circuit courts, was relocated to the new judicial center early last year.

But probation officers assigned to offenders sentenced to home confinement and the Brooke County West Virginia University Extension Service continue to operate there.

It’s not clear if the Victims Assistance Program, a regional organization with staff in Hancock, Brooke and Ohio counties, still maintains an office there.

The commissioners estimated they expend about $20,000 per year for utilities and garbage collection for the building.

Commission President A.J. Thomas noted the county could cut those costs if it were to relocate those still working in the building and close it.

No action was taken on the matter on Tuesday.

In other business, the commission agreed to advertise for a contractor to build the storage building for the trail, which extends from Brooke County’s southern border, where it links to the Wheeling Heritage Trail, to the Buffalo Creek Bridge at the south end of Wellsburg, where it links to the city’s Yankee Trail.

Thomas said coal severance funds can be used to fund the structure, which would allow volunteers with the trail to store equipment used by volunteers to maintain the trail.

The equipment had been kept in the Beech Bottom Industrial Park with the cooperation of the Business Development Corp. of the Northern Panhandle, but that space is no longer available because it’s being used by businesses there.

Thomas said it’s not been determined where the storage building will be established.

The commission also:

• Approved the hiring of Dale Butler as elections clerk for the county, filling a vacancy left by Sarah DeLong, who has been appointed Brooke County magistrate.

DeLong will serve the unexpired term of Shannon Price, who has resigned to pursue other interests.

• Reflected on the death on Thursday of Carl Miller of Wellsburg.

They noted Miller, who was 74, had been a driver for the Brooke County Senior Center and active in the Northern Panhandle Osiris Shrine, involving himself in the group’s efforts to support Shriners’ children’s hospitals.

• Made plans to interview two applicants for a part-time county radio administrator. Plans call for the individual to be employed on an as-needed basis to create a database for the many radios distributed by the county to local fire and police departments and possibly train new first responders in their use.

The commission’s next meeting is at 10:30 a.m. next Tuesday at the county courthouse.