Overall Work Program
BHJ’s Overall Work Program and Budget (OWP), completed annually for the new fiscal year, is a financial blueprint for the tandem agencies called the Planning and Development Council (BH).
Weighing in at around 100 pages, the OWP’s eight sections include a description of BHJ organization, office structure, and all employee positions, the organization’s budget, cost allocations, and annual audit.
The meat of the document, however, can be found in Section 3, which outlines the work program by category, including WV planning and development services, economic development, transportation, and community development projects.
The sections break down as follows:
- West Virginia Planning and Development Services provides oversight of the of the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS), funded in part through the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA), and the West Virginia Department of Development.
- Economic Development includes administration of the CEDS and regional Brownfield Assessment Program funded in part by the ARC, EDA, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and local government dues.
- Transportation Planning is the agency’s Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) activity as directed through Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act of 2015, the FAST Act. These activities are financed by the U.S. Department of Transportation (Federal Highway and Transit administrations/FHWA, FTA), the Ohio and West Virginia departments of transportation, and local government dues.
- Community Development provides project administration and grant loan assistance to membership governments and public service districts funded in part through local dues and administrative contracts.
- Administrative, Management, Title VI Compliance, and Intergovernmental Review includes clerical, accounting, and executive director services financed through the indirect cost allocation.
The plan is reviewed by ODOT, WVDOT, the Federal Transit Administration and Federal Highway Commission, and finally adopted annually by resolution at the Transportation Study Policy Committee.