MORGANTOWN — It appears Morgantown City Council will join the Monongalia County Commission in setting aside $150,000 to help finance Catholic Charities’ administrative takeover of the Bartlett House triage shelter in Hazel’s House of Hope.
Earlier this week, council approved on first reading a budget amendment allocating roughly $1.3 million in carryover dollars.
The $150,000 in triage shelter funds was among several items included in a $605,000 transfer to the city’s capital escrow account.
During a July 2 presentation before council, Catholic Charities West Virginia President and CEO Mark Phillips said state and local government would need to come up with at least $450,000 for his agency to step in and operate the shelter for the first year.
The Monongalia County Commission set aside $150,000 in coal severance carryover dollars for that purpose during its July 10 meeting.
The state is expected to release $167,000 to Catholic Charities. Those funds were not provided to Bartlett House this year for the first time in decades following a state move to a competitive grant process.
The budget amendment was presented by Jonathan Furgison, the city’s new finance director.
It was one of the few action items taken up at the end of a meeting dominated by public comment on a potential encampment ban and the situation facing the city’s unhoused population.
It was not lost on Councilor Bill Kawecki that in addition to the $150,000 to Catholic Charities, the budget amendment also includes $30,000 to help finance a winter warming shelter and $33,000 to extend free bus service to Hazel’s House of Hope.
“Listening to the report on our finances and realized exactly how much we’re expending in this city on this group of people that we heard so much about tonight,” he said.
The earmarks also include $68,000 to fund security at the Morgantown Public Library, which, Kawecki said, “is something that, in my lifetime, is new here in Morgantown.”
He went on to list the city’s investments in the creation of Hazel’s House of Hope and Milan Puskar Health Right’s pending move to Scott Avenue, among others.
But contrasting that list was another — WVU, Main Street Morgantown, parents, property owners and small businesses — all of whom are expressing their frustration to the city over some of the activity taking place in and around its downtown.
“I’m not sure I have an answer. I’m just really expressing my frustration. I’m part of a group here who will attempt to find some sort of solution. We do know that there needs to be some sort of activity that we can address these various problems with,” he said.
“But you can’t expect that we’ll satisfy everybody. We’ll just do the best we can, as we should and as we’ve done in the past.”
Also included in the budget amendment is $350,000 to BOPARC for pavilion replacement and $361,628 to the city’s contingency fund.
