MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Sixteen people spoke during the public comment period at the Morgantown City Council meeting Tuesday night, 14 people against and two in favor.
Most of those who spoke against the annexation proposal expressed frustration about the lack of communication in the weeks and months leading up to the May/June roll out of the plan. Further concern was expressed over the lack of information provided about the basic infrastructure expansion needs and the answers, or lack of information provided to direct questions.
“When the developers built the Suncrest Centre they did it for a reason- to build a quality product at a good price. Currently, our police and fire services are satisfactory,” said Michele Krucoff, the manager of the Suncrest Town Centre that has 85 tenants and employs 1,500 workers.
“Annexation will adversely effect my tenants in the following ways- higher business and occupation taxes, higher sales taxes and the user fee.”
Local developer David Biafora, who has been an outspoken critic of city made his thoughts abundantly clear.
“There’s nobody downtown anymore, and if we ran Suncrest Town Centre the way you run downtown we would have been bankrupt a long time ago, but we can’t go out and money grab.”
This story will be updated.