The Hancock County Commissioners had a short but productive agenda at its January 10th meeting. The Teen Court advisor, Randi Lageschulte, spoke to the Commission about the advantages of a Teen Court in the County. Seventeen Teen Courts are now operable in West Virginia and approval had been granted by the Commission to establish the Court, but the implementation appeared to have been on the back burner. The program operators under the Family Resource Network (FRN) in both Counties and was initiated by the passing of enabling legislation in 2006.
The program is available for juveniles ages 11 – 18 who commit a crime that would be a misdemeanor if they were an adult. Those include speeding tickets. minor in consumption of alcohol or tobacco, truancy or curfew violation and other charges which would be misdemeanors. Entrance into the program may be by referral by the school and local community. While the judge is a retired judge or an attorney, all other participants are teens including the prosecutor, defense attorney, and jury.
Lageschulte explained that a teen can only participate in the program once every two years. She said the program helps the participant assume responsibility for their behavior by helping them become accountable for their actions.
Funding for the program comes from a mandatory fee of $5 which is added on to fines in Magistrate Court. Commissioner Paul Cowey noted that Hancock County’s participation in the program had been approved by the Commissioners several years ago. The Commissioners will look back through their records to get the date it was approved for start-up in Hancock County.
In other business, the Commission:
***approved General County bills oof $97,421.99 and purchasing card bill of $22,272.81;
***granted approved for adoption of the 2025 mileage rate increase set by the IRS, an increase from .67 to .70.
