KINGWOOD — The Preston County Commission approved an application form for submitting annexation by minor boundary adjustment requests, as the town of Reedsville looks to bring the post office into town limits.
County Administrator Kathy Mace told commissioners the county had a request for annexation from Reedsville, so she created an application and had it reviewed by County Prosecutor James Shay.
He told Mace the application met all statutory requirements for the process, and to move forward the commission needed to officially adopt it as the application for municipalities for annexation by minor boundary adjustment. Mace noted the process could always be amended going forward.
“I also included to make it simpler and easier perhaps for the submitter was an instructional sheet; I provide the code,” Mace said.
Approving the application was a step in the right direction and the town has everything ready to submit as soon as they get the application, Reedsville Mayor Dennis Pierson told The Dominion Post.
“It’s a very narrow strip of land, along Route 7 from the fire hall up to the post office,” Pierson said. “We’re one of the few towns in West Virginia whose post office isn’t located inside city limits. … With this boundary adjustment we won’t be capturing any other businesses or residences. It’s just enough property that parallels Route 7 and all of the post office.”
The reason the town seeks the adjustment is because of the way the 1% municipal sales tax works, Pierson said.
“The sales tax is collected upon the billing address for internet sales and things like that. So that helps with a little bit of that revenue. Everybody in Reedsville has a post office box. We don’t deliver mail to our home, we have to go to the post office and get it,” he said. “So with that minor adjustment we capture those addresses and keep those tax dollars in the town.”
It’s hard to say how much revenue the change could bring but looking at comparable towns it’s estimated to be around $40,000-$50,000 a year. It could be a lot more or a lot less though, Pierson noted.
Reedsville has passed the home rule that allows them to collect the tax and has everything filed with the state, Pierson said. However, the town is not eligible to collect that tax until the third quarter of this year.
TWEET @DominionPostWV
