MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The newest iteration of Morgantown’s City Council has been candid about the prospect of annexing new land into the city limits.
“The Suncrest Town Centre — it’s time for that entity to come into our city,” Deputy Mayor Mark Brazaitis said on the July 14 edition of Morgantown-AM. “The Mileground — those business on the Mileground — are not part of our city. They really should be. Mylan, of course, it would be wonderful if Mylan would join voluntarily. I think there would be great things to be gained.”
One of those areas is the Suncrest Town Centre, which is where Justin Byers’s restaurant Bartini Prime is located.
“It seems more like a take, rather than a give and take,” Byers said Wednesday on Morgantown-AM. “And that’s kind of what you want to avoid.”
Byers suggested the prime reason business owners would want to be a part of Morgantown would be for better fire and police protection, which would help lower insurance fees.
“I’ve never run the numbers, but I can’t imagine that the fire rating would go down so much to cover that cost,” he said. “And that would be really the only addition or benefit the city could add there.”
But if it turns out to be a net loss due to the additional cost of user fees and B&O taxes, Byers said business owners won’t have the incentive to sign off on an annexation.
“The city still hasn’t really perfected what it’s doing in it’s own space,” Byers said. “So, to kind of expand and take over more space even though it means more money for them, they haven’t really perfected what they are doing inside their borders.”
Monongalia County Commissioner Ed Hawkins said Commission will passively monitor the situation — aware that annexation issues could eventually be settled by the County Commission.
“If it’s not going to be a plus, I don’t see that business owners are going to flock to encompass this,” he said.
And without business owners signing off on a petition, Morgantown City Council will need to pursue other avenues to attempt the annexation.
For Byers, he said that some businesses — like Bartini Prime — could also see increased expenses by picking up their employee’s user fees.
“How are you going to punish a minimum wage employee for something that the city did?” he said. “I could understand if people were making maybe $50,000 or $60,000 dollars per year.”
Mylan and Mon General Hospital have also been discussed as potential annexation destinations.
The July 14 interview with new Morgantown Deputy Mayor Mark Brazaitis and Wednesday’s interview with Justin Byers can both be heard in full by listening to the Morgantown-AM podcast at wajr.com.