WVU lines up against Eastern Kentucky at noon today in Morgantown.
Any other football season-opener at home and the University City would be the largest four-quartered one in West Virginia right now.
Never mind the assemblage of people waiting to get to their seats.
Others would be elbow-to-elbow in bars and restaurants, watching it all on TV.
The traffic cones would be out, and the tailgaters would be, too.
But this isn’t any other season opener.
Morgantown, instead, is a city under siege.
WVU students are taking classes remotely. Students in Monongalia County Schools are doing the same.
No one is in the bars because they’re closed.
The noon kickoff will happen in a near-empty Milan Puskar Stadium.
And authorities will be on the hunt, ready to write citations for house parties, if necessary.
Interim City Manager Emily Muzzarelli said Friday the ordinance restricting the numbers of people gathers for house parties in primarily student neighborhoods is about the pandemic – and not persecution.
“Monongalia County is the only county in the red in the entire state and our numbers are climbing,” she said, referring to the color-coded map the West Virginia Department of Heath and Human Resources has created to chart the coronavirus here.
Red is the worst designation on the map to have, concerning cases and transmission.
Coronavirus-watchers say Mon’s uptick in cases can be directly attributed to the population that gives Morgantown the biggest part of its civic and cultural identity: WVU students, returning to campus in Morgantown, and ready for all the experiences that sojourn entails.
“We need to directly go after events that are causing the highest risk of spreading COVID-19,” Muzzarelli said.
Events, as in those involving students at the state’s flagship university getting together without wearing masks or giving regard to personal distancing, she said.
Gov. Jim Justice last week ordered bars in Morgantown and Mon closed for the above reason.
That backfired, though, the city manager said. Not being able to go to bars just meant students would transfer the partying to the back deck or the living room.
And that means the university’s long arm of the law, isn’t quite long enough, in these pandemic days.
“WVU is doing what it can from its standpoint, suspending and expelling people,” she said, “but the reach is limited, especially as it relates to off campus housing.”
Just don’t think its Big Brother or a police state, Muzzarelli said.
“The intent of this order isn’t meant to limit or deny one or two visitors or friends from coming over,” she said.
“It’s meant to limit large house parties. The governors order already limits gatherings to no more than 25.”
The Sunnyside student neighborhood comes under the ordinance, including North High Street, and Jones Avenue.
Violators could be charged with misdemeanor fines from $250 to $500, the city manager said.
Not that wants you looking over your shoulder necessarily, she said.
“The students are part of our community and it’s our duty to keep them and the rest of our community safe,” she said.
“If someone is hanging out with a friend playing video games having a drink, the likelihood someone is going to call the cops is pretty low.”
