MORGANTOWN — The Morgantown Utility Board (MUB) is not opposed to recreation on and around the Flegal Dam and Reservoir, but it will not spend project money on those amenities or lead the effort to implement them.
These were among the points raised during a recent discussion of the approximately 125-acre site of the new reservoir, to be located along Cobun Creek Road, between Grafton Road and Kingwood Pike.
The comments were in response to a letter sent to MUB and Morgantown’s Board of Park and Recreation Commissioners (BOPARC) by the Mon Valley Green Space Coalition asking MUB to consider the value of recreational green space and the possibility of trails and other non-motorized use of the land.
MUB General Manager Tim Ball said all those options have been on the table for years. He said he intended to draft a letter explaining the “open invitation we’ve had with BOPARC since the fall of 2015.”
“In addition to that open invitation is our invitation for BOPARC to assume management responsibilities of any and all recreation opportunities at the Flegel Dam and Reservoir, subject to very few constraints we would have,” Ball said.
Because the reservoir will serve as an emergency water source for MUB, one of the stipulations would be no motorized watercraft on the reservoir, which is expected to be about 4,500 feet long, 800 to 1,000 feet wide and nearly 50 feet deep, according to The Dominion Post archive.
“So far, we’re not aware of any details from BOPARC to accomplish that,” Ball said before suggesting a meeting between MUB, BOPARC, the Green Space Coalition and any other interested parties.
“Again, we think it’s BOPARC’s initiative to take up and make happen,” Ball said. “There’s been the misconception that we are the obstacle, and we’re not.”
MUB Member Ron Bane said he believes any misconceptions come from the scope of the nearly $50 million project.
“So people know, we cannot use any funds from this project for [recreation],” Bane said. “The funds for this are for the dam and associated things to the dam, period. We can’t spend it on recreation, so for anyone who’s ever said that, it’s not correct.”
BOPARC Executive Director Melissa Wiles said BOPARC is early in the process of establishing general recreational use guidelines that could potentially help steer recreational uses at the reservoir site, but there have been no specific conversations about BOPARC’s intent regarding that property.
Tweet @DominionPostWV.
