MORGANTOWN — A public hearing on the Town of Granville’s proposed annexation of West Virginia Department of Transportation rights-of-way by minor boundary adjustment will be held on May 8 in Monongalia County Commission chambers.
The town is looking to annex County Route 19 from the Star City Bridge to 507 Scotts Run Road (Granville Fire Department Station 2), Lady Bug Lane, Scotts Run Road from the municipal line to Lady Bug Lane and Chaplin Road from Westover’s municipal boundary to the intersection of CR 19.
The request is similar to annexation efforts denied by the commission in August 2017. However, unlike the previous effort which drew some public pushback, this annexation effort includes no residential or business properties.
With the current boundaries, the town’s first responders cannot access areas within the municipality — like the University Town Centre — without leaving and reentering its municipal boundaries.
Further, the town can’t spend money on the fire department property on Scotts Run Road at present as it falls outside the town’s boundaries.
Town Administrator Ron Snyder and Fire Chief Butch Renner have said the town would like to make that property a training center for the area’s first responders.
Public notice of the hearing will be published on April 16 and 23 in this newspaper and will be posted at five locations within the corporate boundaries of Granville.
In other county news, the commission is exploring whether it would be advantageous to refinance debt tied to the creation of the Monongalia County Justice Center.
The commission purchased the former post office building at 75 High Street in 2011 for $70,000.
In 2013, a contract was signed for an $18 million bond sale to fund a complete overhaul of the building.
“Those bonds have a five-year and a seven-year call. In order to get ahead of it a little bit, they would like to run some numbers on whether it would be financially beneficial for the commission to go ahead and do a refinance,” County Administrator Rennetta McClure explained, referring to the county’s bond counsel.
