WHEELING – Wheeling Park and John Marshall high schools were well represented when the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission honored student athletes for their academics and social service Saturday morning. The WVSSAC hosted its annual academic achievement awards breakfast at the Wheeling Island Hotel-Casino-Racetrack. The event coincides with the Super Six State Football Championships […]
WHEELING – Wheeling Park and John Marshall high schools were well represented when the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission honored student athletes for their academics and social service Saturday morning. The WVSSAC hosted its annual academic achievement awards breakfast at the Wheeling Island Hotel-Casino-Racetrack. The event coincides with the Super Six State Football Championships […]
JOSELYN KING Staff Writer
WHEELING The Ohio County Board of Education’s move to cut its allocations to the county library by a third isn’t sitting well with local historian Margaret Brennan of Wheeling.
Brennan addressed the board this week, thanking the board and the school system for efforts displayed during the pandemic. She then asked why the board chose to reduce the money it gives the library.
The board voted 3-2 on April 26 to reduce the amount of its library contribution from three cents per $100 of assessed county property value, to two cents. The reduction is projected to lower the next fiscal year’s funding to the library from approximately $884,547 to $589,698.
Donât Defund the Public Library
May 1, 2021
This past Monday, by a 3-2 vote, the Ohio County Board of Education chose to reduce funding to the Ohio County Public Library, from an annual allocation of $884,547 to $589,698. Voting to partially defund the library were board members David Croft, Molly Aderholt and Christine Carder.
At that same meeting, board members agreed to solicit bids for lighting, restrooms and storage for a new sports field being built next to Wheeling Park High School, projects that will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
For decades, the Ohio County Board of Education has given 3 cents of every dollar in property taxes to help fund the library. From the 1950s through 2012, that allocation was stipulated in state code. However, the West Virginia Supreme Court in 2013 struck down the legal requirement for the funding.
For The Times Leader
Photo by Alan Olson
Ohio County Library Treasurer Greg Marquart speaks before the Ohio County Board of Education, asking them to revisit the funding issue next year.
WHEELING In a tightly contested 3-2 vote, the Ohio County Board of Education voted to lessen payments to the county library by a third.
At Monday evening’s board meeting, the board voted to reduce the funding provided to the Ohio County Public Library from three cents per $100 of assessed county property value, as has been the standard previously. David Croft, Molly Aderholt and Christine Carder voted in favor of reducing the funding to two cents per $100. Grace Nolte and Pete Chacalos voted against the measure.