MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Commissioners in Monongalia County and across the state line in Greene County, Pennsylvania, are building a relationship that could erase that border and increase economic development opportunities.
On WAJR’s “Talk of the Town,” Chairman of the Greene County Commission, Jared Edgreen, said meetings between the two elected bodies are ongoing in an effort to increase commerce. He noted two Greene County businesses, 5 Kidz Candy and Fisher’s Fine Cigars, have recently opened locations in the Morgantown area.
“For too long we’ve had the state line more like the Berlin Wall, and we can’t let that happen,” Edgreen said. “We need to take a more regional approach as to how we can better connect across our region.”
Vice Chair of the Commission Betsy McClure said Morgantown is a familiar destination for Greene County residents, and during the pandemic, they saw the numbers in the form of people crossing the state line for medical treatment. They also recognize many people from Monongalia County are regular visitors north of the state line.
Betsy McClure
“Many of our folks go to West Virginia,” McClure said. “Not only to shop and enjoy entertainment, but they also go there for hospital care with state-of-the-art care they can receive at Ruby Memorial and Mon General.”
Working together on grants from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) is something two bodies are confident will be successful. The Monongalia, Greene County relationship is the type of Appalachian collaboration embraced and supported by ARC. The Greene County Commission recently received a $75,000 ARC grant to establish a business incubator in downtown Waynesburg with the help of West Virginia University.
“We have already reached out to WVU to partner with them to find out what a business incubator looks like,” Edgreen said. “Leaning on their professors and their business department to garner support from them, and that’s probably a big reason why we got the grant.”
There are talks between the two to add Greene County into Morgantown Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) figures in the future. An addition to the MSA would give them greater visibility to job creators and policymakers when future investments or decisions are made.
“We want to diversify, so we have to look at more than our coal and gas companies,” McClure said. “But could we bring some artificial intelligence here? Could we bring some robotics here?”
The Trump and Morrisey administration policies to be energy dominant are another area of potential growth for the two counties. Depending on the level of that growth, Edgreen believes supporting industries will also bring their jobs to the region.
“There could be downstream, midstream industries that come in,” Edgreen said. “Here in a few months we’re going to make a pretty big announcement with what we’re doing with economic development in the future.”