MORGANTOWN — Should Granville move its municipal election in line with the county-run primary?
Granville Town Council voted in July to put that question before its citizens as part of the upcoming general election.
The Monongalia County Commission on Wednesday approved the placement of the question on the November ballot.
If Granville’s voters support the move with a simple majority, the town will hold its standalone election as normal on June 10, 2025. Winners in that election will serve a one-year term and all seats will be back up for election, for the traditional two-year terms, as part of the county’s primary in May 2026.
As previously reported, Granville is looking to join Star City and Westover, both of which eliminated their standalone elections and moved in line with the county.
Both municipalities saw significant increases in voter turnout this past May as part of their first county-run election cycle.
The last two standalone elections conducted by Star City saw 121 and 109 voters participate. As part of the county ballot, 314 of Star City’s 1,116 registered voters (28.14%) participated.
In Westover, 55 voters cast ballots in the 2020 municipal election. That number jumped to 127 in 2022. On May 14, 769 ballots were cast by Westover residents, representing just over 28% of the city’s 2,718 registered voters.
Members of the commission lauded the move.
“This is great. Having the independent elections when the other is available through the county for free, essentially, is a staggering waste of resources,” Commissioner Jeff Arnett said. I’m glad to see this option is available. I’m glad to see Granville is opting in to be part of the general elections.”
Commissioner Tom Bloom pointed out that if Granville ends up making the switch, only Morgantown will be left with a standalone city election.
“I hope this puts pressure on them to decide to put it on the general election,” Bloom said.
The issue is expected to be part of an upcoming charter review process by Morgantown City Council.
In other commission news, Bloom said nonprofits looking forward to applying for opiate settlement funds at the state level through the West Virginia First Foundation should probably start preparing.
Bloom shared a correspondence from Jon Dower, the foundation’s Region 4 representative, explaining “the board intends to disburse funding before the end of the year.”
“If there are any nonprofits that are planning to apply for this billion dollars worth of funding, they probably want to start now working on their data and collection because this is moving quickly,” Bloom said. “Hopefully, by early fall, probably in the next two months, they will have the application process in place.”
This first round of funding will be based off the findings of an “initial opportunity” committee that will, among other things, work the foundation’s panel of experts to identify immediate needs that could be addressed with funding.
After that, funding decisions will be informed by a statewide needs assessment.
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