MORGANTOWN — A run for city council was inevitable for Patrick Hathaway.
A lifelong resident of Monongalia County, Hathaway moved into the city five years ago and got immediately to work.
He’s spent four of those years serving on the Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners, a body for which he currently serves as president. He’s also spent four years as president of the 1st Ward Neighborhood Association.
Now he’s set on representing the 1st Ward on Morgantown City Council. He’ll be unopposed on April’s municipal ballot.
Hathaway said a lot of people simply don’t understand the impact they can have by just speaking out and getting involved.
“Local government is one of the few places where you can actually be involved in the cutting edge of what’s going on. You can actually go. You can talk to your representative,” he said “You try to contact Senator Capito, you’re never going to get a response from Senator Capito. You may hear from a staffer or something like that, but when you’re looking at local government, you can send me an email. You can call me and I’ll listen to your concerns.”
Hathaway said council’s primary focus should always be making the city the best possible place for people to visit and live, as well as an attractive location for businesses.
A big part of that, he explained, is infrastructure. He points to sidewalks as an example, noting the city needs to be more assertive in that regard. Currently, it falls to individual property owners as to whether they front their property with a walkway.
“So even just walking down a random street anywhere in the city, you’ll find one property owner has a sidewalk in front of their house and the next lot over doesn’t, because they don’t have to,” he said. “Whereas if the city was more proactive with their sidewalk infrastructure, you might be able to build and fill in these gaps in the infrastructure and improve connectivity so people can actually get to these places they need to get to.”
Given his time representing BOPARC, it’s no surprise that parks and recreation are another focus for Hathaway, who said recreational amenities not only add tremendous value for current residents, but are critical in bringing people into the community.
Hathaway said he’s focused his efforts leading the 1st Ward Neighborhood Association on connecting city residents and their government. Now he’s ready to do the same as a member of city council.
“I just want people to know there’s a place they can bring their issues to, and I want to be that conduit that allows people to have a much larger voice in making sure their concerns are heard,” he said.
While Hathaway will be unopposed on the ballot, Seth Collins is running as a write-in candidate for the 1st Ward.
