BUDGET TIME — County Clerk Kimberly Barbetta and the Brooke County Commission are working with the county’s department heads to prepare the county’s budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year. -- Warren Scott

WELLSBURG — When the Brooke County Commission submits its budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year later this month, it will reflect a large loss in revenue from oil and gas production in the county.

But the commissioners don’t expect it to affect the county’s operations and services because they had allocated such funds for capital improvement projects that have been completed.

County Commissioner Stacey Wise said the panel is anticipating a $3.2 million drop in taxes collected on property with actively producing natural gas wells.

Commission President A.J. Thomas said while tax collected on such property is based on production levels for 2023, he’s been advised they also didn’t rise last year.

The commissioners said revenue from natural gas, while a boost for the county, has been difficult to predict as drilling and market demand has fluctuated.

Wise said, “It’s going to be more of a roller coaster because the way they (state legislators) have changed the (tax) formula.”

She noted while tax dollars once were based on the average production of natural gas during a three-year period, it’s now based on the previous year’s production.

“We’ve been hesitant to make that part of our operational budget,” said Thomas.

He said the current three commissioners and their predecessors set aside the gas revenue for two major building projects, the county’s new ambulance station and the judicial center.

The ambulance station was completed in October at a cost of $2.4 million. Replacing ambulance stations in Follansbee and near Bethany, it provides a central location for the county’s ambulance service near the intersection of state Route 2 and Pleasant Avenue in Wellsburg.

Completed last March, the judicial center brought facilities for the county’s circuit, magistrate and family courts and the prosecutor’s office under one roof, with updated security measures.

Though it was financed largely through the $15 million sale of bonds, Thomas said funds from natural gas revenue allowed the commission to make a substantial down payment for the project.

The coal industry is another sector of the economy that has been a fluctuating tax source for the county.

Coal severance funds collected by the state are disbursed among its 55 counties, with 75 percent of the net proceeds going to counties where coal is produced and the remaining 25 percent divided among the other counties and municipalities based on their populations.

Thomas said the commission often has allocated those tax dollars toward economic development but recently used them to install mile point markers along the Brooke County Pioneer Trail to help first responders to locate trail users in emergencies.

He added they also will be used to establish a storage building along the trail for equipment used to maintain it since space at the Brooke County Industrial Park once used for that is no longer available.

The commissioners and County Clerk Kimberly Barbetta are collecting information from the county’s department heads for the budget, which must be submitted to the state auditor’s office later this month.

Last year’s budget was about $16.4 million.

On Tuesday, the commission heard from Joy Reese, administrator of the First-Time Homebuyers Program for CHANGE Inc.

Reese noted since it was established 28 years ago, the Northern Panhandle HOME Consortium has used U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funds to provide loans to income-eligible first-time homebuyers in Hancock, Brooke, Ohio and Marshall counties.

Loans of up to $10,000 are available for a down payment and closing costs for a home and are forgiven for those who live in the homes for at least five years, she noted.

Reese said in the last 28 years, the program has provided $1.3 million to 138 Brooke County homebuyers, $1.3 million to 201 homebuyers in Weirton and $1.2 million to homebuyers elsewhere in Hancock County.

For more information about the program, call (304) 797-7733 between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Thomas said the program has enabled many people to own homes who would not otherwise be able to, and it’s very rare to see foreclosures upon such homebuyers.