WASHINGTON, D.C. — Officials with the City of Fairmont have made the trip down to the nation’s capitol to advocate for Mountain State legislatures to support local projects.
Fairmont City Manager Travis Blosser, Mayor Anne Boylard, and Fairmont Fire Chief Brian Starn, among others, traveled down to Washington, D.C., to speak with Senators Shelley Moore Capito and Jim Justice along with Congressman Riley Moore to discuss what projects for the city will need to be accounted for with the help of federal funds. This includes facilities in need of immediate upgrades to respond to emergencies and multi-year projects that are part of the city’s five-year plan.
“So we’re here in D.C. to just talk with our congressional leadership about what we’re dealing with, but also to talk with some of those federal agencies,” said Blosser. “About what we can do to improve our grant applications if maybe we weren’t successful the first time.”
One area of need that Blosser pointed out, which led to Starn making the trip down to D.C., was improvements to facilities and equipment for the Fairmont Fire Department. The most poignant has been improvements to the Watson area fire station (a.k.a. Station 3), which has not seen upgrades since it was opened in the 1980s. Added to the need to move forward with over $1 million in American Rescue Plan Act dollars to pay for new fire trucks along with additional public safety improvements as part of the City of Fairmont’s five-year plan.
“We’re really focused on trying to invest in that, that will then kind of let us focus on the investments that need to be made to our existing public safety building,” said Blosser. “It’s showing it’s age as well.”
Blouser also mentioned that large-scale utility projects are also expected to be discussed as topics that would inevitably need to be funded with the help of federal funds. The most notable is the need to upgrade water and sewer systems in the city that have already received cost projections of at least $100 million. With costs for such projects rising across municipalities in the Mountain State, City of Fairmont officials hope to start a dialogue so large-scale grant funding can be established within the next couple of years.
“We’re looking at, in terms of getting into a utility discussion, about $100 million plus investment that we’re going to have to make in our sanitary and sewer treatment facility,” said Blosser on WAJR’s Talk of the Town on potential long-term projects that would require federal funds. “That can’t all be borne on the backs of the ratepayer.”
City of Fairmont officials do not intend to have these meetings with Senators Capito and Justice as well as Congressman Moore be the only ones that will take place in the coming years. According to Blosser, the plan is to maintain communications and have at least two trips to Washington, D.C., a year so they can maintain correspondence with state representatives on a federal level. With hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of projects planned for the City of Fairmont over the next half decade, the trip is considered worth the investment for the long-term prospects for the city.
“What we’ve made clear to them is that this isn’t the first trip to D.C. that we’ll make,” said Blosser. “It’s important for us to come and visit, have discussions with them, as well as their staff here in D.C. to really focus in on showing them what their dollars that their providing, what difference they’re making in our community.”