MORGANTOWN — They share Mason-Dixon Historical Park and a border, but not a state.
And for the last two years or so, leadership in Monongalia County and Greene County, Pa., has started to share a regional vision that extends beyond lines on a map.
“The relationship really started over COVID,” Greene County Commission Chairman Mike Belding said. “Obviously with the thoroughfare of 79, it made sense to know what Monongalia County was doing with preventative measures, and, later on, vaccinations … But we’ve really broadened the scope of our calls into economic development and tourism.”
And like I-79, it’s a two-way street.
Belding said Greene County is well ahead of the curve when it comes to rural broadband development and distribution — a topic of great interest to leadership in Monongalia County.
On the other end, Greene County would love to see some of the development happening just across state lines.
“When you look across the border, you see all the increase in development, housing and industry, and you get to the Pennsylvania border and it’s like the desert. We want to draw off some of their experience,” Belding said, conceding state policies play heavily into that dynamic as well.
One way to counteract some of those differences would be through larger regional initiatives, like the Appalachian Regional Commission.
Another, Monongalia County Commissioner Jeff Arnett explained, would be to bring Greene County into Morgantown’s Metropolitan Statistical Area.
MSA is a metric often used by companies to quickly determine interest in a given geographic region. The current Morgantown MSA includes Monongalia and Preston counties.
Arnett said expanding Morgantown’s MSA to include Greene County and some, if not all, of Marion County would make it more attractive to previously hesitant retailers like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s.
A portion of Marion County is currently included in the Clarksburg MSA while the rest of the county is unattributed.
But all of Greene County is unattributed, and Belding believes the Morgantown MSA is where it belongs.
“Morgantown is our city. Whether they’re biking on the river path down there or ice skating at BOPARC, that’s where the people tend to go for dinner and everything,” he said. “They go south.”
Commissioners on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line said the monthly calls have become a valuable asset in addition to just being the neighborly thing to do.
“They’re just very easy to work with. Honestly, I wish some of the counties in West Virginia were as easy,” Monongalia County Commission President Tom Bloom said. “It’s only a line between us. An invisible line between the states of West Virginia and Pennsylvania.”
