Story by Chris Lawrence
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The new Kanawha County manager is on the job, but for Jeremy Young the work is nothing new.
Young started Monday working for the Kanawha County Commission after holding the same position with the Putnam County Commission for the past 10 years.
“This week I’m just getting my feet wet and getting the lay of the land. It’s not anything that is unfamiliar to me, I’ve done it, just on a smaller scale,” he told 580-WCHS.
Young is getting to know those inside the courthouse, including elected officials as well as supervisors and others who will play a critical role in moving the county forward. He admitted right out of the gate, the Judicial Building remodeling/renovation project presents several challenges.
The project to create new courtroom space for a new Circuit Judge and new Magistrates has already been bid well above budget. He anticipated there would soon be meetings to revisit what the project entailed, what can be afforded and the difficult choices of what to eliminate.
“We’ve had a lot of projects similar to this in Putnam County. We built a new Sheriff’s facility that had some challenges and we were able to successfully complete under budget. I’m sure we’ll have meetings before too long to see where we are and get up to speed on a budget standpoint,” he explained.
Young is a native of Nitro and grew up in Kanawha County. He said although he had been the Putnam County manager for the past decade the Kanawha County Commission job wasn’t necessarily one he aspired to have, but rather an opportunity which presented itself.
“I was familiar with the area and I was at the point in my career where I had been in Putnam County for 10 years and probably had another 10 to 15 years before I would think about retiring. Just the way it fell as a challenge I thought I could be fully capable of doing and it worked out,” he said.