MORGANTOWN — With the needed federal approvals for its planned $50 million runway extension project in hand, Morgantown officials are now looking to lawmakers in Washington and Charleston for help obtaining those funds.
During a meeting with a handful of state representatives, it was explained that the best case scenario would be a 90/10 funding split, with 90% of the project covered by federal dollars and the rest, at least $5 million, coming by way of a local match provided by the state and/or city.
Morgantown Municipal Airport Director Jonathan Vrabel said the state provided $20 million for a project at the North Central West Virginia Airport and $8 million to cover the local match for runway work at the Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport in recent months.
“The governor has been very giving to aviation in the last year and a half or so. I think it’s a good time to ask him and I think he’d be supportive of helping us,” Vrabel said.
The extension will add 1,001 feet to the runway at Hart Field, bringing the runway to 6,200 feet and allowing the state’s busiest airport to accommodate larger corporate jets and better cater to WVU and WVU Athletics.
Asked if pushback was expected from Clarksburg, who has actively opposed expansion of the Morgantown airport, City Manager Paul Brake said Morgantown’s focus is on corporate and business clientele, not passenger service, which is what the larger North Central West Virginia Airport excels at.
“There’s enough business to go around. And even if we didn’t exist, I don’t know if that traffic would be diverted down that direction anyway,” Brake said. “We would be shortsighted to look at this as a zero sum game, that anything Morgantown gets is on the back of others.”
The extension project is expected to begin next fall and take five years to complete, meaning all the funds won’t be needed up front.
“So this is where this thing gets pretty tricky. At least it’s spread out over a period of time. It’s not a one-time ask, which would be a heavy lift,” Brake said. “It’s kinda that old adage — how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Same thing here. It’s going to be in increments. It’s doable, but it has to be a collaborative effort.”
Other issues discussed by the city and state lawmakers include:
Public intoxication shelters — Morgantown Police Chief Ed Preston explained that despite state code referencing and defining such facilities, there is no provision for the certification, staffing or funding of county or regional intoxication shelters.
Arrests of known alcoholics for public intoxication are prohibited in state code. Further, those who can be arrested can’t be admitted to the regional jail while drunk.
As a result law enforcement has no good options for dealing with publicly intoxicated individuals, including the chronically inebriated, who end up being shuttled to and from local emergency rooms.
Preston said providing security for the facility would save his department both money and man hours over the status quo, which he described as “An untenable, unreachable solution … unless the state gets involved and starts making changes to the code.”
Right of first refusal — Morgantown Director of Development Services Chris Fletcher explained that a provision giving the state’s land reuse agencies first refusal for properties to be included in county tax lien sales is set to sunset in 2020.
According to information provided by Fletcher, LRAs are allowed a first look at the sale list in order to potentially purchase property that’s valued at $25,000 and under or has been condemned.
He explained that the first refusal provision is in line with the purpose of LRAs – turning vacant, abandoned and dilapidated properties into property that is once again useful to the community.
“At the very minimum, we’d like that sunset provision removed so it can continue,” Fletcher said. “We are also discussing the possibility of either removing that $25,000 value cap or increasing it.”
The formation of the Morgantown Land Reuse and Preservation Agency was finalized in January, making it the first in the state.
The creation of LRAs was made possible by the West Virginia Land Reuse Agency Authorization Act of 2017.
