(Matt Drzik/Beaver County Radio)
On a cold and gloomy Wednesday at the Beaver County courthouse, the Beaver County Commissioners’ work session started on a sunny note as Treasurer Sandie Egley presented her annual report.
For the second consecutive year, Beaver County’s tax numbers are steadfastly positive. 95% of taxes were collected totaling $53.2 million dollars, paralleling the record rate from 2022. Additionally, the County gained $1.7 million in total interest over the year, including significant increases in bank interest. Over $1.1 million was gained through Premier Savings–up from $854,565 in 2022–and over $38,000 was gained through Huntington Bank, up from $2,824 in 2022.
Parks & Recreation director Tony Caltury also had something sunny to report, but not in a good way. “With the nice weather,” Caltury stated, “this Saturday’s Snow Shovel Riding Championship is looking bleak. We’ll make the official announcement on our social medias tomorrow about it, with the hopes of making it up the following Saturday on the 4th.”
Emergency Management Service director Eric Brewer spoke about the ongoing aftermath following the East Palestine train derailment, in which eighteen different agencies associated with Beaver County EMS assisted in resolving the initial situation. “Our staff is overwhelmed and tired,” Brewer stated, “however, I couldn’t ask for a better group.”
Brewer noted that because of the assistance to the train derailment, Beaver County lost twelve sets of Hazmat gear that will need to be replaced; early estimates have the cost for replacement gear at roughly $50,000. Brewer stated that the cost of replacing the gear should not fall on the taxpayers of Beaver County. “My goal is to get what Beaver County deserves out of this,” he added. “We’re not asking for more, but just compensated.”
Solicitor Garen Fedeles notified municipalities that were awarded ARPA funding for projects will be receiving letters shortly regarding the timeline for municipalities to spend the money and initiate projects. “That money has to be spent by 2024; what the county is looking for is for those projects to be initiated by no later than the end of this year,” Fedeles explained. “The rationale for that is if this money isn’t spent and the county needs time to reallocate it. So that way, if it isn’t used, we’d have to give it back to the U.S. Treasury.”
More letters in the form of tentative values for reassessed properties will be sent out in March, as county citizens will learn how much their property values will be following the multi-year process. “Those [letters] are going to be sent out in two different batches; one on March 17 and one on March 24,” Fedeles said. “If anyone has any questions or disagreements with it–remember, this is only a tentative value–there’s going to be a process that you would be able to meet with Tyler Technologies, who’s the company that handles the reassessment.”
The next Commissioners’ work session is scheduled for March 1 at 10:00 AM.