WINFIELD, W.Va. -- Putnam County will pay about $15,000 more in insurance this year.

Putnam County commissioners approved the estimates with Payne and Garlow Insurance Tuesday.

As the county's population increases, the number of county employees and amount of property value increases, said Harold Payne with Payne and Garlow Insurance.

In turn, the county's premium increases, he said.

For 2009-10, the county will pay about $235,000. That number will increase by about $5,000 when the new 911 EMS Center opens, Putnam County Manager Brian Donat said after Tuesday's commission meeting.

The EMS building is scheduled to open in September.

In 2004-05, the county insured about $13 million in property. For 2009-10, that number will jump to about $29 million with the completion of the EMS center.

Over a five-year period, the county also went from 66 to 74 vehicles, and from 192 employees to 244. For 2009-10, the county will pay about $6 million in salaries.

The county has had an insurance policy with Payne and Garlow Insurance in Hurricane for 11 years. Insurance premiums are re-evaluated every three years.

Also Tuesday, Commissioner Joe Haynes submitted a letter to the Gov. Joe Manchin with a petition from 329 county residents asking that the remains of more than 600 American Indians unearthed in Buffalo in the 1960s be returned and reburied.

The remains are at the Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Center in Moundsville.

Putnam County commissioners approved the estimates with Payne and Garlow Insurance Tuesday.

As the county's population increases, the number of county employees and amount of property value increases, said Harold Payne with Payne and Garlow Insurance.

In turn, the county's premium increases, he said.

For 2009-10, the county will pay about $235,000. That number will increase by about $5,000 when the new 911 EMS Center opens, Putnam County Manager Brian Donat said after Tuesday's commission meeting.

The EMS building is scheduled to open in September.

In 2004-05, the county insured about $13 million in property. For 2009-10, that number will jump to about $29 million with the completion of the EMS center.

Over a five-year period, the county also went from 66 to 74 vehicles, and from 192 employees to 244. For 2009-10, the county will pay about $6 million in salaries.

The county has had an insurance policy with Payne and Garlow Insurance in Hurricane for 11 years. Insurance premiums are re-evaluated every three years.

Also Tuesday, Commissioner Joe Haynes submitted a letter to the Gov. Joe Manchin with a petition from 329 county residents asking that the remains of more than 600 American Indians unearthed in Buffalo in the 1960s be returned and reburied.

The remains are at the Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Center in Moundsville.

The skeletal remains were unearthed in 1963 in Buffalo less than a mile from the present-day Toyota plant. American Electric Power now owns the land.

For more than 40 years, the remains were passed among several institutions before the Putnam Commission stepped forward and accepted responsibility with the intent of reburying them in March 2008.

The state took control of the remains in July 2008, when a committee with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act brought up the question of who had legal control of them.

In other business Tuesday, commissioners will schedule a public meeting with Division of Natural Resources officials, county delegates and senators to address the wildlife population in the county.

DNR representatives met with residents last week to go over state laws for shooting deer and other wildlife on private property. 

Haynes said the meeting "shed a little more heat than light," and residents requested another meeting to further address the issue.

In May, a Trace Fork resident asked the commission to declare deer in the county a public nuisance, so he and other residents could shoot them during the hunting off-season to prevent the animals from destroying crops.

Residents can apply for kill permits with the DNR to shoot deer if they are causing substantial damage to private property. The property cannot be within 500 feet of another residence, highway or business.

Reach Veronica Nett at veroni...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5113.