Cabell County, West Virginia, rejects recycling levy

The Herald Dispatch, Huntington, West Virginia, reports the Cabell County Commission did not pass the levy proposed by the Solid Waste Authority at a meeting Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016. 

Although Commissioner Bob Bailey motioned to place the levy for $300,000 on the November general election ballot, the motion did not carry with a second from Commission President Anne Yon or Commissioner Nancy Cartmill. As a result, the program will be terminated at the end of 2016, the article says.

“I have to look at it from my responsibility as a commissioner,” Cartmill said at the meeting, the Dispatch reports. “The constitution says we are the fiscal agents for the county and right now we are in financial difficulties … it might be that the county commission needs that levying authority to provide a necessary service for the people in Cabell County.” 

Following the commission’s decision, Tom Bell, the commission’s representative on the Solid Waste Authority board, expressed his frustration by submitting his resignation, the newspaper reports. 

According to The Herald Dispatch, “This is highly frustrating,” Bell said. “I’ve been on the board for 15 years as the county’s appointee, and it became clear to me that they are not really supporting recycling, and that's a real blow as far as I'm concerned. You reach a point where the frustration comes to the surface, and this is that point. We have worked hard for five years getting support for the recycling, and now to have us go backward is just a terrible thing.”