MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — After one term in Morgantown City Council, one member will be leaving for other endeavors.
Councilor Ryan Wallace, attended his final Morgantown City Council on June 4, where he gave his farewells in what. Wallace, spoke highly about his time in council and the community as a whole.
“I made a lot of friends, I think was able to contribute to some meaningful stuff in town, and just really appreciate the opportunity,” said Wallace.
Wallace, was elected to city council in 2017, as part of major turnover that saw five new members elected to council. Wallace, whose original forte into public service was working with non-profits, was thinking of his roots when he first decided to run run for council.
“I wanted to make a difference,” said Wallace on WAJR’s Talk of the Town. “We try to get involved where ever we go, I guess mostly because my wife is pretty active in the community I try to as well, it wasn’t what I expected, it was better in a lot of ways, tremendous growth experience,” he said.
During his time in Council, Wallace was a proponent of several of iniatives, including an annexation plan to expand the city boundaries. Although Wallace was quick to point out, his concept relied on annexation by petition and targeting specific areas one-by-one, rather than requesting a minor boundary adjustment to bring in 3.8 square miles all at once.
Wallace wants to be remembered as someone who worked for the best outcome regardless of what the situation was.
“I really just tried to listen to everybody and ask questions, and get to the bottom of the issue and I guess, that’s what my biggest contribution was, time will tell,” he said.
Now no longer on council, Wallace has moved to Canada with his family where he will be practicing law in the Toronto area.
Orginally born in Pennsylvania, Wallace is a graduate of WVU and the WVU College of Law. Along with completing his education there, Wallace has also raised his two children in Morgantown with his wife Christine who says Morgantown has not seen the last of the Wallace family.
“Well we’re coming down, we plan on coming down every September to support Jamie Summerlin’s Morgantown Marathon Weekend so you’ll see us every September,” said Wallace.