MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Callers on WAJR’s Morgantown AM responded to the city council’s decision to postpone the purchase of Haymaker Forest following a public hearing on Tuesday.
Residents called in Wednesday to weigh-in on the meeting. Some felt that a better understanding of the benefits as well as more information on the forest could have had a positive impact.
“It would’ve been so nice had they had reports from the floods plane people and from the University about the forest and the endangered species,” Christine said on WAJR’s Morgantown AM. “they coudl’ve handed out a packet and it would have made such a huge difference.”
However, it seems that the common trend among the concerns relates to finances. Two residents called Morgantown AM on the matter.
According to Carl, a resident of Morgantown, there are alternative funding sources that the city could pursue to help fund the purchase of the Haymaker Forest with green space grants being one of them.
Another resident, Bill, says he talked with business owners outside of the chambers on the topic of raising the user fee and sales tax, two funding mechanisms suggested by City Council over the past three weeks. He mentioned that many business owners pay for their employees’ user fees as a way to keep good employees, however, they were concerned with the future of their business if the user fee were to be raised. He also said that the owners were uneasy with the idea to implement a one percent sales tax, unsure of how the tax would affect their businesses with already-low profit margins.
“A couple of them said ‘if they raise it I’m going to have to think about that and the employees will have to pay more. If they put a sales tax on then I’m going to have to really think about what I’m going to do because my margins are not great already,'” Bill said.
The forest wasn’t the only topic discussed on WAJR’s Morgantown AM. Multiple callers commented on City Councilmen Barry Wendell’s comments during the meeting, expressing their displeasure.
Wendell spoke after the conclusion of the public hearings.
One resident even suggested he read a sociology book titled “Blaming the Victim” after making a comment towards residents of Morgantown.
“This guy made a comment that almost made me drop my jaw, that the problem with Morgantown needing more money for all these different expenses isn’t theirs,” said Carl. “It’s the people who aren’t making enough money who live here and that’s just appalling.”
With the residents’ overwhelming opposition to the purchase, city council voted to postpone the purchase in the best interest of the city.
“For a representative democracy to work, voters must speak up, media must provide fair info & those elected leaders must listen & act for the many not the few,” said Beth Ryan in a tweet to Morgantown AM. “Media did its job, people spoke. It will take steady pressure to make sure council listens.”
The decision had been postponed indefinitely.
Story by Hannah Williams