A saga two years in the making, the Wings Olé property-line dispute has finally been settled.
The Dominion Post first reported on the incident in March 2020, but Dan Nagowski, owner of Wings Olé on University Avenue, made the verbal agreement to allow the city to use 35 square feet of his land in September 2019. No documents were ever signed, but the next thing Nagowski knew, a new bathroom facility (part of the Hazel Ruby McQuain Park updates) took up 800 square feet of the Wings Olé’s lower parking lot.
In a joint statement released Sept. 8, 2021, attorneys for the City of Morgantown and Nagowski announced the fight over the usurped land had ended with a settlement of $365,000.
It’s not a bad settlement. The city had initially appraised that piece of land for only $193,000; Nagowski had asked for almost $775,000, or approximately the revenue those parking spots would have brought in over 20 years. It seems the final deal makes up for a little less than 10 years of potential revenue.
What matters is that Nagowski is satisfied. And we’re pleased the city finally dropped the threat of using eminent domain to “take” the land it had already taken and offered Nagowski fair compensation instead.
Mistakes happen, but they still have to be set right.
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