ELKINS — The City of Elkins has received a second Tax Increment Financing (TIF) check from Randolph County, with this check’s amount being six times more than the first.

During the Sept. 19 City Council Meeting, Treasurer Tracy Judy informed council that another TIF check had been received at the beginning of that week. The amount, according to Judy, was around $30,000.

In August, the city received the first TIF check from the county, for $5,851.70.

“The beginning of this week… we received another TIF check from the county in the amount of a little over $30,000,” Judy said during the Sept. 19 meeting. “So that’s good.”

The City of Elkins applied to the state Department of Economic Development to issue bonds in order to fund projects through the TIF in January 2023. The application was approved in April 2023.

The TIF allows the city to collect any tax increases on the properties that are mapped as a TIF district for the next 30 years. Randolph County will continue to receive tax monies from the properties, though that amount is based on the tax assessment from July 1, 2022.

During council’s Aug. 15 meeting, when the amount of the first TIF check was announced, Fifth Ward Council member Cody Thompson asked Judy how often the city would receive the checks. Judy responded that she assumed it would be whenever the county received funds and that a percent of that could be monthly.

In February 2023, Randolph County Commissioners David Kesling and Cris Siler sent a letter in opposition to the city’s TIF application to the state Department of Economic Development; however, the application was still approved.

“I hope they use the money they are redirecting from the county for what it is intended for,” Kesling told The Inter-Mountain in August after the city received its first check. “A TIF is a district meant to capture increased tax revenues and then funnel them to particular projects. It’s not an additional tax, or an increased tax rate; rather, it captures increased revenue in the district to help finance projects within the district.”

Elkins Mayor Jerry Marco told The Inter-Mountain in August that the city planned to use the TIF checks to fund several redevelopment projects.

“The Riverfront Development Plan was one of the projects we’ve identified, the Streetscape was one, and trail development was another,” Marco said in August. “Altogether there are around five projects we have identified and will be working on in the future… The TIF is all about reinvesting back into the community. The money we are getting from it is not something we are adding to our general fund. We have projects planned and that funding will be invested back into our community.”

During the Sept. 19 City Council meeting, the council also passed resolutions on:

Adopting an updated City of Elkins personnel policy;

Authorizing updated conditions of a contract between CivicPlus and the City of Elkins, and authorizing the execution of said contract;

Accepting the conditions of an agreement between Citynet and the City of Elkins, and authorizing an execution of said agreement.

City Council will hold a special council meeting today at 7 p.m. at the Phil Gainer Community Center to discuss “clarification of city’s administrative authorities” and a “personnel matter in the Operations Department.”