MORGANTOWN — Morgantown City Council approved a pair of resolutions Tuesday tied to a West Virginia Department of Highways project to improve the Beechurst Avenue corridor.
Assistant City Manager Emily Muzzarelli said the work will run from Walnut Street to Campus Drive, which will be realigned and upgraded to include both right and left turn lanes onto Beechurst.
The work will also include an additional northbound lane coming out of the downtown as well as a dedicated northbound turning lane from Beechurst onto Campus.
“There will be two dedicated lanes continuing straight onto Beechurst. Right now, there’s only one. So if you’re in the wrong lane, you basically get stuck in a right turn only lane going up Fayette,” Muzzarelli said, noting the mesh point of University and Beechurst will be restriped to make it less ambiguous.
The work is expected to begin as early as spring 2022 and take about one-and-a-half construction seasons to complete.
Councilor Bill Kawecki said the studies that informed this project are more than four years old. He said the city needs to make sure its needs are being met by the changes.
“I appreciate that they make these decisions, but these decisions need to be made so that it’s actually a benefit to the city and not just a determination based on other motivations. I don’t mean to say there’s any accusations there, but again, we need the city perspective on this. This does affect downtown and the economic vitality of downtown,” he said. “It’s something that we need as a city to make sure our voices are heard.”
In other news from Tuesday’s meeting, council voted unanimously to adopt a ban on the practice of conversion therapy with city limits.
Conversion therapy is the practice of attempting to change someone’s sexual orientation from lesbian, gay or bisexual to straight, or their identity from transgender or nonbinary to cisgender.
The amendment to Article 153 of city code bans any medical or mental health professional from engaging in conversion therapy with a minor.
TWEET @DominionPostWV
