MORGANTOWN, W.Va. Morgantown City Council and the Monongalia County Commission held a joint meeting Tuesday night to address funding major projects, communication with the West Virginia Department of Highways (DOH), and nuisance property issues affecting city residents.
City Manager Kim Haws expressed frustration that state lawmakers have not taken a more active role in funding the Morgantown Municipal Airport (MGW) runway extension. Haws said federal funding through U.S. Senators Shelley Moore Capito and Joe Manchin has allowed them to complete the design and continue construction at a slower than anticipated pace. Haws didn’t mention the project by name but referred to a substantial amount of state funds going to a nearby airport while MGW is not supported.
“It doesn’t trickle down this far, or we’re up river; maybe I don’t know,” Haws said. “Whatever it is, we’re just not getting, in my opinion, a fair share of state involvement and participation in that process.”
Assistant City Manager Emily Muzzarelli told the group more discretionary funds are needed to progress the work at MGW, and the state doesn’t have the budget to adequately support the airports statewide. The largest sum of money received by the city for the project was $7.7 million through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.
“When we originally made estimates and we’re looking at a five- to six-year timetable, that was assuming we were getting $10 to $13 million a year, and we’re getting about $3 million, maybe. Sometimes $1.5 million,” Muzzarelli said.
Monongalia County Commission President Tom Bloom wants to implement an airport authority management model. Bloom said operations and development should be handled by a dedicated management team that would work with budgets and set goals.
“This group would be running the day-to-day operations separately from the city and the county and making it a priority,” Bloom said. “I really would hope that if we’re going to move forward on this, we do it with an airport authority.”
From the lights on the Walnut Street bridge to overgrown weeds and gravel washouts along roadsides, both entities expressed frustration with the DOH. The DOH has not responded to requests regarding local control over some small streets and clean-up issues at key entry points to the city.
Mike Oliverio (R-Monongalia, 13) offered an alternative using a corridor through Star City from the interstate, left at the Coliseum and down Patteson Drive, by the hospitals, through the roundabout, and to the Pierpont Exit onto I-68. The proposal assumes a current DOH cost for maintenance of $250,000 and that major entities along the route would help fund the maintenance as well: WVU Athletics, WVU Medicine, WVU, possibly Mon Health, Morgantown, and the Monongalia County Commission. The total collected would be used to develop a Request for Proposal that could be used to hire a company to pretreat roads for winter, remove snow, fill potholes, mow, and keep the area clean.
“Release those to go do other things and give us the $250,000, then we collect money from the other entities I described, and we come up with an amount of money that we think will properly maintain it,” Oliverio said.
Morgantown Mayor Jenny Selin said the city is receiving some complaints from residents that border the county, where some problem properties are located. County and city officials plan to explore a partnership between their employees to address problem areas along the border. Commissioner Jeff Arnett explained that many of the problem properties have been under the same ownership for decades, which limits the options for responding.
“They’re next to someone who has completely let everything go, and there are rodents there,” Selin described. “Or you’re next to someone with a whole set of trees leaning toward your property, and you have recourse apparently.”
Both sides have agreed to hold another meeting in December.