MORGANTOWN — For all the sound and fury in recent weeks surrounding Morgantown’s draft annexation plan, Thursday’s first public information meeting on the topic didn’t quite seem to match the rhetoric.
Despite soggy weather and limited parking at North Elementary School, a steady crowd filtered through the free-form gathering, which saw the city set up seven stations, each staffed by a city representative and focused on a particular topic, such as the annexation process, the benefits of city emergency services and city finances, among others.
The city’s plan to annex 3.8 square miles of land, including 12,830 residents, 367 businesses and 43 miles of roads into the city by minor boundary adjustment has drawn plenty of criticism.
F.A.I.R. (Forced Annexation Isn’t Right), has led that charge. The group had volunteers holding signs out in front of the school and placed a booth just inside the front door to distribute literature opposing the city’s plan.
Of the attendees, the majority seemed opposed to annexation. A large percentage of the crowd was either wearing anti-annexation stickers, carrying yard signs expressing the same sentiment, or both.
A representative of F.A.I.R. said the group has passed out more than 260 yard signs over the last three days and have more on order.
Rob Yoder was among those wearing his opinion stuck to his sleeve. He asked City Manager Paul Brake why the city didn’t make an effort to notify the residents and businesses to be impacted?
“Forced annexation is one thing, but I’d call this sneaking forced annexation,” Yoder said. “And that’s very offensive to me.”
Brake said Yoder’s was a common question, explaining that the city’s “public engagement” efforts were a sore spot for many.
“Honestly though, I don’t know if we’d sent out fliers to everyone that people would have been convinced on first reading,” Brake said. “These are difficult processes and it’s where real leadership is involved.”
Brake said he also heard criticism of the format the city has chosen for its four public information meetings, but his goal was to encourage dialogue, not one-sided lecturing from a podium.
Wheeling-based attorney and F.A.I.R. spokesman Mark Kepple disagreed, explaining that the format was by design to water down the information available as well as any pushback.
“They’re not giving an explanation of exactly what they’re doing. They’re just talking at these little tables where they can’t be pinned down. None of these things on these tables provide any details — they’re just topics. It’s calculated to deceive the people from getting the information they need to make an informed decision.”
Among the members of Morgantown City Council on hand was 7th Ward representative Barry Wendell, who was talking to people about how they would be represented as new city residents — as a part of the seven existing wards, which would be enlarged.
“It gets me when people say they won’t be represented but they can’t tell me the name of the county commissioner from their area,” Wendell said. “They’re afraid we won’t be responsive, but how responsive is the county commission. The county commission, who’s on that again? You ask and many people have no idea.”
Lynn Baker lives in one of the areas targeted for annexation. She said she’s in support of the plan. Her reasons mirrored Wendell’s comments.
“Over the years that we’ve lived here we’ve had a number of different things happen to our detriment, and it just seems like when you’re in the county you don’t get much support for anything,” she said.
Brake has said numerous times that the city is not in a rush to push an annexation application to the county commission — which will have the final up or down vote.
He said he’s looking at a “slow, deliberative process.”
“There is a lot of insight that we’re gaining. We’ll talk about the overall process and look at possibly implementing different strategies to gain greater buy-in along the way,” Brake said.
Kepple said if the city was being deliberative, it would see the public opposition and change tack. Either way, he said F.A.I.R. views the annexation plan as a cash grab and will fight it in court if necessary.
“The city is so misguided. They can obviously see there is absolute rejection of this plan, but they, in their incompetence, will go ahead and vote for it anyway,” he said. “Hopefully the county commission will recognize it’s an inappropriate position to take. But if somehow it would get to that point, F.A.I.R. absolutely would file suit to stop it. They’ve indicated that to me. There’s no doubt.”
Comment and question cards were distributed. Brake said the city will put the answers on its website as frequently asked questions.
Another public information session is planned for 6:30-8:30 p.m. Monday at the BOPARC Marilla Center.
