MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Board members for the WV Botanic Garden say an extended property lease with the city of Morgantown will help with a major fundraising campaign.
Council voted Tuesday to extend a 25 year lease to 50 years for 82 acres known as the Tibbs Run Property.
Bill Johnson is the Botanic Garden Board President.
“When you’re asking major donors to put millions of dollars into that kind of investment, they want some certainty that investment will be there. So, the new 50 year term of the lease will really give us that kind of certainty.”
Johnson said a capital campaign will begin to fund an 8,000 foot visitor’s center and extensive new gardens.
In a couple of years, a major capital campaign for help will begin.
The Tibbs Run Property was the former site of a drinking water reservoir for the city of Morgantown active from 1912 through the early 1970’s.
Johnson said the 82 acres is more than enough for garden expansions.
“We’re talking about developing less than half of that space and leaving a good bit of it in more or less the natural state. There are some beautiful old growth hemlock and mixed deciduous forest out there that people enjoy hiking in as well as the gardens.”
The WV Botanic Garden sits off of Tyrone Road.
More than 30 organized activities and events are scheduled with the Botanic Garden this year.
October 9th is the annual free fall children’s festival, paid for through grant money, that’s drawn 700 people at a time.
“People come out to that. Families with young kids get to get outdoors, paint pumpkins, do crafts. It’s a wonderful place for activities like that. It’s also attractive to visitors to the area,” Johnson said.