MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The City of Morgantown is ready to begin a trial run on a portion of two roads heavily used by West Virginia University students as they hear concerns over work on another on the Evansdale campus.
The Morgantown City Council unanimously approved a trial run not to exceed 90-days designating a portion of Belmar and Waverly Streets to be one-way. City of Morgantown Director of Engineering and Public Works Damien Davis detailed the trial run to the council as part of their regular meeting Tuesday, which was proposed based on a reported large influx of WVU student-related traffic on the residential roads.
“Belmar and Waverly Streets are both two-way streets currently, with parking on one side of Belmar, they do get narrow,” said Davis on the purpose of the trial run to make portions of both streets once-way. “A lot of fraternities are right there, so it does get congested, so allowing it to be a one-way circulation would help alleviate some of the congestion,” he said.
The trial run will begin on October 30, traffic that is on Belmar Street will be directed to travel from Price Street to North High Street. Any traffic on Waverly Street will be directed to travel from North High Street to Price Street, with signage scheduled to be placed by the City of Morgantown Engineering Department in the coming weeks. According to Davis, once the 90-day period is up, the Engineering Department will show results to the council, where they can consider the possibility of making the change permanent.
“We will go through and install everything, monitor it, and see how things go and get comments,” said Davis. “Then, if everything’s good, then we can come back with an ordinance to make it permanent,” he said.
The trial run to make Belmar and Waverly Streets one-way will conclude on January 30.
Two members of council and one resident, Charlie Chico, opposed any future changes that would restrict traffic to Rawley Lane in Evansdale. Repair work recently temporarily closed the road, leading to discussions that the popular cut-through could be shut off permanently.
To close that road to traffic is putting residents that live in that area in jeopardy, I believe that because they have to fight the traffic to get out to University Avenue.” Chico said.
The city is forming an audit committee and preparing to bring an auditor in to review fiscal years 2024 and ’25.
The Request for Proposals for an auditing firm from an approved state list are due Wednesday, Oct. 16. Director of Finance Jonathan Furgison said one proposal has been received, two have firms declined, and two have not yet responded.
The Audit Committee will include Director of Finance Jonathan Furgison, Mayor Joe Abu-Ghannam, Assistant City Manager Emily Muzzarelli, and Assistant Finance Director Denise Steffanizzi.
The new operator of the emergency triage shelter at Hazel’s House of Hope, Catholic Charities West Virginia will hold an open house Thursday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Financial problems forced Bartlett Housing Solutions to cease operations; CCWV reopened the facility with financial support from the city and county.
“They’re up to taking about 20 people, so they’re still not operating at full capacity, but they have amped it up since taking over that space,” Trumble said.