Eminent Domain

charlestown@herald-mail.com CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - State Sen. John Unger said he met with Gov. Joe Manchin Monday to discuss developing a three-year pay raise package for West Virginia State Police. Local officials have pushed to increase pay for state employees, particularly those living in the Eastern Panhandle, because of the higher cost of living there. Many state employees have been lured to higher-paying jobs in other states, leaving agencies like the state police scrambling to staff shifts.

tammyb@herald-mail.com ANNAPOLIS - Local legislators insist there will be issues on the table other than politics during the upcoming General Assembly session, which begins Wednesday. "I guarantee you close to 1,500 pieces of legislation will get passed and a lot of work will get done," said Del. Christopher B. Shank, R-Washington. "There's a great deal of important heavy lifting to be done. " Not that other issues can't turn political in an election year, or even a nonelection year - witness the medical malpractice wrangling last year, in which partisan squabbling during a December special session overshadowed the regular session that began two weeks later.

tiffanya@herald-mail.com Three state legislators from Washington County listened Friday morning as members of the Hagerstown City Council expressed concerns over rapid suburban development and a legislative initiative to make it harder for cities to annex land. Each year, the city tells members of the delegation what it wants out of the 2006 Maryland General Assembly before the new legislative session begins. The city hopes its requests will end up on the governor's budget proposal in January.

tarar@herald-mail.com MAUGANSVILLE - Washington County has purchased some homes outright to accommodate widening Maugans Avenue to five lanes - paying more than $243,000 for land and moving costs to one property owner, while others have been paid as little as a few thousand dollars for strips of land. Some property owners have been approached by the county but haven't yet sold portions of their land. The county, which has reached deals with 21 property owners, has 17 settlements left to reach, and it hasn't ruled out using eminent domain to acquire the land if deals can't be worked out. Real Property Administrator Joe Kuhna said Wednesday the county would like to acquire the land without using eminent domain as soon as possible, so construction can begin as planned in the spring.

tarar@herald-mail.com After removing some words thought to be too harsh, the Washington County Commissioners approved a resolution Tuesday stating the county would acquire private property through eminent domain only as a last resort. County Commissioner John C. Munson asked for the resolution in light of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld a government's right to take private property for economic development purposes. The resolution states that the Supreme Court upheld "what the majority maintained is local government's ability to take private property for a vaguely defined 'public good' such as economic development, or increased tax revenues to the local government itself.

Washington County Commissioner John C. Munson says he wants county government to keep its hands off private property, for the most part. Munson on Tuesday asked the County Commissioners to approve a resolution that states the county would back away from using eminent domain to acquire private property, except as a last resort. The commissioners plan to place the proposed resolution on next Tuesday's meeting agenda. Munson asked for the resolution's approval in light of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld a government's right to take private property for public purposes.

Here are some of the calls we have received lately: "Since we're paying an extra $7.50 now to help the Chesapeake Bay, how much are neighboring states paying? This includes West Virginia, Virginia, and especially Pennsylvania and New York, (which give us the Susquehanna, the filthiest river in the United States, dumping right into our bay). " - Halfway "Do I understand this correctly? They want important decisions made here and not in Annapolis. By whom? The same group that just OK'd the quarry expansion over its own study group and shot the farmers in the back with the zoning?

martinsburg@herald-mail.com MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - Their stories, John Unger believes, are sad and becoming too common. Retirees and senior citizens are finding it harder to live in the Eastern Panhandle because of a high cost of living, including increasing tax assessments, said Unger, D-Berkeley. To address the concerns, Unger is holding an event he described as a rally/forum Friday at the Quality Inn in Martinsburg, starting at 2 p.m. The hotel is on Edwin Miller Boulevard.

Businesses want input on pipe work BERKELEY SPRINGS, W.Va. - A water project meeting has been scheduled for Aug. 23 at 5:30 p.m. at Bath Town Hall to discuss the upcoming pipe replacement project. Bath Town Council member Tom Hall said the bidding process to choose the engineering firm that will lead the project will close Aug. 15. Chuck Wheeler, owner of Mountain Laurel Gallery on Fairfax Street, recently was appointed chairman of the Business Liaison Committee by the Berkeley Springs-Morgan County Chamber of Commerce.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that local governments may use eminent domain to take land that isn't generating much tax revenue and turn it over to businesses that will increase the property tax take. Now West Virginia Republicans are taking the lead on measures that would limit the effect of the ruling in that state. A good thing, we say, and something the Mountain State's Democrats should back, in a bipartisan effort to protect property rights. After the June decision, several national news organizations reported that eight states now prevent the use of eminent domain for the purposes of economic development, unless the property in question is blighted.