FAIRMONT — Marion County Commissioner Ernie VanGilder has some unfinished projects to do before he can end his time as commissioner, assuming he wins re-election in November.
“We have the Hydrogen Hub, we have to get that project finished and developed,” he said. “It will bring not just jobs in the hydrogen industry but also develop the proposed industrial park there on the south end of Fairmont, closest to the interstate.”
VanGilder defends his seat on Marion County Commission from Democratic challenger Sherman Sapp. At the top of his agenda is job generation, which he sees as the most important driver of economic development. Once small businesses open up as tributaries to larger ones, he said, other things like home building, better education and recreational centers will follow.
“You can’t get the order wrong,” VanGilder said. “You have to concentrate on the jobs first and everything else will fall into place.”
Bringing the Hydrogen Hub to fruition would be a significant achievement for VanGilder. Although he is still a large proponent of coal and gas, he also supports continuing research into energy production methods that are efficient cost-wise for both consumer and manufacturer. To that end, VanGilder sees hydrogen as the technology with most promise, for its capacity to safely produce clean energy and for its abilities to create jobs and downstream support industries.
However, he’s aware a possibility exists the Hydrogen Hub won’t come to Marion County.
“We’re dual-purposing everything out there,” VanGilder said. “I always believe that if you want to build buildings and take that type of risk, you should at least be able to have a plan B to fall back on to re-purpose those buildings in the event it doesn’t happen.”
The site can be retooled to become an industrial park if necessary, he said.
As far as coal goes, VanGilder is a tremendous believer in its energy generation properties, saying there’s no less expensive way to produce electricity in the world, short of nuclear power. In 2022, the International Renewable Energy Agency released a report showing utility scale solar overtook fossil fuels cost-wise in Europe. The report argued new fossil gas generation in Europe will become increasingly uneconomic over its lifetime.
The continent as a whole has been investing heavily in renewable energy. However, FirstEnergy representatives recently pointed out at the new Rivesville Solar Farm that it would take about 13 hours for a coal plant to produce what it takes a solar farm one year to make. That said, solar farms haven’t penetrated into the state’s infrastructure at the same scale as they have in Europe, and the state has a limited amount of flat space on which to park any solar farms. Europe was also dealing with market shocks from the war in Ukraine when the report was released.
VanGilder has seen some controversies during his current term. At a June 2022 meeting of County Commission, former Commissioner Randy Elliot accused VanGilder of allowing his business dealings to get in the way of his work as county commissioner. The flare up occurred when the County deeded the 3rd floor of the J. Harper Building to the City of Fairmont.
Elliott said VanGilder used his position to retaliate against the City every chance he got. VanGilder denied he let his business dealings cloud his judgment or that he held any malice toward the City.
In August 2023, former state delegate Guy Ward sued the commission over a potential ethics violation. Ward accused VanGilder and Commissioner Bobby DeVaul of unilaterally creating a new position and hiring an employee without the requisite open meeting. Ward later dropped his suit after the commission separated the employee from the position.
One of VanGilder’s campaign shirts has a slogan on it that serves as his guiding principle: protect and serve the taxpayer.
“That’s the reason I ran for county commissioner,” he said. “I felt we needed to get a grip on our taxing and I felt the only way I could do that was to get involved and try to control the cost of our budget.”
VanGilder said the budget has remained pretty consistent over the last decade. He said all business and government is cyclical, which is why its important to put money away in good times to be able to get through the bad ones.
“That’s how I was operating my business, and I think that applies to government as well,” he said. “I always say get more businessmen and businesswomen in the government and get government out of business. We’ll be a lot better off.”
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