STAR CITY, W.Va. — The Town of Star City is looking to find more details into whether a portion of the City of Morgantown 2025 pedestrian safety improvements potentially took place on town property with just about no notice.
Star City Council unanimously approved for the town to hire an independent surveyor to determine if a recently paved pathway that borders on city property was actually completed within the town’s borders. Star City Mayor Sharon Doyle supported the decision after members of the council expressed frustration over the sudden nature of the work being completed combined with the lack of proper notice given by the city throughout the process.
“Our building code officials spoke with them a few months back about it, we never heard anything more about it, then all of a sudden, this project is done,” said Doyle. “We don’t know what’s in Star City, the council is not happy with the appearance of it, and we just feel a little bit left out in this,” she said.
According to Doyle, employees with the Star City Department of Public Works and Code Enforcement discovered the pathway between Lawnview Drive (City of Morgantown property) and along Selwin Drive at the end of Congress Avenue (both are within Town of Star City proprety) completely paved on Monday. This included close to a dozen road bollards on both sides of the pathway, as design of the paved pathway seen by other sidewalks and pathways completed as part of the City of Morgantown pedestrian safety improvements, all of which were installed without formal permission by Star City. With the pathway located directly on a border of both the town and the city, Doyle and other members of Star City felt an independent surveyor would be needed with property lines recorded by the Monongalia County Assessor’s Office apparently not taken into account by the city.
“Is this Star City? Is this Morgantown? Do we have responsibilities in this? Who’s doing the upkeep on it, the maintenance?,” said Doyle on the questions asked by the council during their meeting Tuesday. “We have nothing to go by except for basically a finished project,” she said.
Doyle also mentioned that The City of Morgantown did reach out via Interim City Manager Damien Davis where he did acknowledge an error on the city’s part related to the sidewalk improvements, particularly the delayed nature of the project. In response, Star City officials requested that the City of Morgantown’s Public Works Department keep the town in the loop regarding any future developments and eventual plans to create some sort of pathway into the Selwin-Lawnview Trail Connector. With the work being completed as recently as Monday with no Star City official confirming they were notified, the decision to make moves independent of the city was that much easier to make.
“Damien Davis spoke with us at the last city council meeting and we were under the understanding that council was going to list their concerns, we were going to present it to him, and in the interim, work in-stop on the project,” said Doyle. “But yesterday, the team was all out there working and it looks to me like it’s finished,” she said.
The work is being paid for using a portion of $1 million earmarked from American Rescue Plan Act dollars allocated to the City of Morgantown.
With no directive in place on how to proceed from either the City of Morgantown or a county or state directive, the plan for the Town of Star City is to hopefully make a final determination on whether work was completed within town borders by no later than the end of the spring. If it’s determined from an independent surveyor that the Selwin-Lawnview Trail Connector was completed on Star City property, then it’s expected that they will seek a combination of fees along with business and occupation taxes, due in part to the lack of proper communication by City of Morgantown departments. As the paved walkway along with close to a half dozen road bollards lay in wait, Star City officials hope they can be provided more clarity on what they’ll be able to do.
“If we determine that this property is in Star City, then you know, we’re going to have to meet with Morgantown (officials),” said Doyle. “We’re going to have figure out what the purpose of this project was for and what the expectations of it were,” she said.
A request for comment was made to The City of Morgantown, the following response was issued by Morgantown Director of Public Relations & Communications Brad Riffee:
“The project you are referring to focused on enhancing pedestrian access by improving the connector between Congress Ave. on the Town of Star City side and Lawnview Dr. on the City of Morgantown side. Today, representatives from Morgantown spoke with Star City officials and they are currently working to address any concerns. We greatly value our working relationship with Star City and look forward to coordinating efforts to resolve border determinations. Importantly, this joint effort will not impact any other ongoing projects aimed at better serving our community members.”