Published: August 01, 2009 11:28 pm      

Two Mineral issues under review

County planning commission asked to look over wind turbine, exotic entertainment ordinances

KEYSER, W.Va. — Two planning issues are going to wait for a decision in Mineral County as the county commissioners ask the planning commissioners to review potential wind turbine regulations and prepare to look over a draft of the exotic entertainment ordinance.

“We’re asking (the planning commission) to look at the public good,” Commission President Wayne Spiggle said. “We’re trying to figure out what we’re going to look at in 10 years.”

Commissioner Cynthia Pyles questioned whether the county was asking the planning commission to do something that it really can’t do without the authority of the Public Service Commission.

With the upcoming comprehensive planning process, Spiggle said, there needs to be some mention of the wind turbines in their plan. While there may not be the ability to do regulations at this point, the comprehensive plan covers the next 10 years. In a decade’s time, he said, new legislation could be passed and a lack of recognition of the turbines in the plan might affect future ability to set up regulation.

The commission also decided to wait until the next commission meeting when all of the commissioners would be present to make a decision on the exotic entertainment ordinance. The new draft has some changes to it, including limiting the location of the property when near a single home, which was not in the previous draft. Now, the business must locate at least 1,500 feet away from a single home.

The new draft, County Coordinator Mike Bland said, also omitted the requirement for yearly renewals of a license. Instead, a one-time fee would be required. The yearly renewal would have required staff to keep additional records on the businesses.

Also at the meeting, the commissioners met with Keyser Mayor William “Sonny” Rhodes and Councilman Dave Sowers to discuss the county’s policy on improperly registered vehicles.

Sowers questioned whether Jim Endler, code enforcement officer, had the right to go onto someone’s property to look into the windows of a garage.

Rose Ann Hanna-Maine, assessor, told the commissioners since Endler was acting as part of her office, and her office has that authority, he should as well. Sowers and Rhodes should seek clarification from the prosecuting attorney’s office, she said.

Sowers said he drove around Keyser finding vehicles that were without tags and provided a list to the commissioners. Some of those, he said, were sheriff’s vehicles or county-owned. The county is making a push to get rid of problem vehicles, but these are without tags and within city limits. The city has an ordinance that vehicles not inside a building must have tags.

The county, however, will allow vehicles without tags as long as they are on the tax register and there are no more than three on a property, Hanna-Maine said. Endler said many of the vehicles that are without tags are difficult to track down, and there is a possibility that they are actually on the tax roles. He is mainly looking at the vehicles that are marked as out of state despite the fact that the owner lives in the county.

The commissioners asked Hanna-Maine if she felt that things were going well with the effort to find these out of state tags, and she said that it definitely was “ruffling feathers.”

Sheriff Craig Fraley said while the untagged vehicles would be outside of Endler’s jurisdiction, it was within Keyser’s and the city could do something about the vehicles if it chose.

Contact Sarah Moses at smoses@times-news.com.