Leadership with the city of Westover is hopeful the West Virginia Department of Highways will be willing to do something for Holland Avenue this summer.
Hopeful, but not exactly confident.
“We’ve not been successful in getting them to commit to anything. That’s about as basic as I can put it,” Doug Smith, engineer for the city of Westover, explained during Monday’s Westover City Council meeting.
The DOH actually had a Holland Avenue paving project scheduled in 2022, then mutually decided with the city to hold off until after the forthcoming project to address broken sanitary and stormwater lines beneath the road surface.
Then that project was promptly pushed out to spring or summer 2024 due to timing issues with the loan application process through the West Virginia Infrastructure and Jobs Development Council.
In the meantime, Holland Avenue continues to crumble, and city hall is hearing about it.
Smith said the DOH is still committed to resurfacing the road once the larger Holland Avenue project is finished.
But so far, that’s all.
“We’ve tried hard, and we’ll continue to try to ask if they can do anything, whether that is putting down just a scratch coat on top or milling the street or something to eliminate that washboard out there,” he said. “But as of right now, I’ve been unsuccessful in getting a commitment out of them for this summer.”
In other news from Monday’s meeting, council approved on first reading an ordinance authorizing the city to submit an application to the state’s West Virginia Municipal Home Rule Board.
As previously reported, Home Rule began as a four-city pilot program in 2007 with the goal of giving the state’s municipalities freedom within the law to tackle unique challenges.
It was made a permanent program in 2019 and opened up to all the state’s municipalities.
Westover City Clerk Sandie Weis said the city’s initial Home Rule plan will include provisions for the creation of a 1% municipal sales tax as well as exemptions pertaining to code enforcement.
Westover is aiming to present its case when the West Virginia Municipal Home Rule Board next meets, on July 12.
Lastly, Weis explained ordinances changing the city’s charter to extend the term of office for the position of mayor from two to four years and move the city’s election in-cycle with the county will be presented for first reading at council’s June 5 meeting.
The second reading and public hearing will be held during council’s June 21 meeting.
City administration is optimistic that the charter changes can be made by ordinance. If there are any citizen objections, the city would have to put the potential changes before the city’s voters.
