MORGANTOWN — Morgantown City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to approve the repayment of $561,683.85 in property taxes and interest to Monongalia County in the wake of a November ruling by the West Virginia Supreme Court (WVSC).
Those funds are part of just over $2.8 million, plus $219,674.60 in interest, owed to the developers of University Park at Evansdale and West Virginia Campus Housing after the WVSC ruled the county should not have assessed the public/private developments on WVU’s campus.
The county collected and disbursed property taxes to a number of entities, including the city, starting in 2015 — the same time a nearly four-year legal battle began over whether the assessments were proper.
City Finance Director Jim Goff explained that the city parked those dollars — the lion’s share of which came in 2018 — in a financial stabilization fund with the understanding that an unfavorable ruling from the WVSC would mean reimbursement.
“These dollar amounts have been set aside. They haven’t been spent by the city. We have those dollars available in the financial stabilization fund to make payment,” Goff said.
The city’s portion is broken down into a $540,431.45 principal payment and $42,504.79 in interest. However, the county agreed to cover half the interest for the city, the state and all three board of education concerns as well as all of the interest for each of four levying bodies, bringing the city total to $561,683.85.
Goff said that since 2015, the city’s financial stabilization fund has grown from $377,000 to just over $2 million. After this payment, he said, the city will have about $1.5 million remaining in the fund, which is used for unusual, emergency or other one-time expenses.
In other news, Tuesday marked the first time since the end of 2017 that meeting attendees didn’t pass beneath scaffolding to enter city hall.
The removal of the scaffolding this week marked the end of a $318,000 facelift that was a combination of engineering and architecture from Alpha Associates and masonry by Arch Masonry.
About a quarter of those funds were provided through the West Virginia State Historic Preservation Office.
The project included a cleaning of the building’s facade as well as the reconstruction of the structure’s parapet wall and improvement to the building’s windows.
City Manager Paul Brake explained that the sandstone used to build the former fire station-turned city hall was the same used to construct New York’s Empire State Building.
“That’s something really to be proud of, maintaining the tradition and history of this structure into the future,” Brake said, noting there is additional work yet to come on the building.
Lastly, council heard from Carol Hall and Linnie Wiley regarding some of their frustrations with changes to Mountain Line’s bus routes since the transit authority had to move it’s depot from Garrett Street out to Mountain Line’s headquarters, in Westover.
The move took place in August and was prompted by the city’s multi-million dollar riverfront overhaul project.
Hall said she and Wiley were speaking on behalf of a number of senior citizens who are having a harder time getting around since the move.
In particular, she asked that the city work with Mountain Line to place bus shelters in and around the downtown.
Members of council said they were in favor of bus shelters and expressed an interest in having Mountain Line General Manager Dave Bruffy attend an upcoming session to discuss various transit-related issues.
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