BY MARK BRAZAITIS
I will leave Morgantown’s City Council at the end of the month with mixed feelings.
On one hand, my term was difficult, as my all-out effort to save the Haymaker Forest coincided with the re-emergence of my struggle with mental illness. On the other hand, I am proud of the stand I took on the forest — in the end, I was the lone vote to move ahead with its purchase — and on other issues. Likewise, I am proud to have served on a council that achieved a great deal in two years.
Among the accomplishments of this council, three stand out for me: Moving forward with the SAFER grant, which increased the number of the city’s firefighters; signing on to the Paris Climate Agreement; and passing the non-discrimination ordinance.
Morgantown’s fire department was in need of more man- and woman-power, and the SAFER grant made this possible.
By signing on to the Paris Climate Agreement, we acknowledged the serious threat that climate change poses for the world — and for our city. We are making strides to reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions, thus making ours a more livable and more forward-thinking community.
By passing the non-discrimination ordinance, we declared Morgantown a rainbow city, open to, and accepting of, all people.
The city’s failure to purchase the Haymaker Forest —or, put another way, the landowners’ unwillingness to negotiate with the city on a better price — is a lost opportunity for all of us — and for generations to come. The Haymaker Forest’s 42 acres could have provided Morgantown with its most spectacular park.
Secondary benefits, which are many, include carbon capture, storm runoff protection, wildlife and plant and tree preservation, a traffic noise buffer — and I could go on.
To witness the destruction to the forest taking place behind the Circle K on Dorsey Avenue — the felling of trees and the creation of a large, ugly expanse of dirt and mud — is to mourn what we as a community are losing. A good portion of the forest remains, and I hope we can move rapidly to ensure its survival. To lose it all would be nothing less than tragic. It’s sad enough already.
Another forest — White Park — is facing a crisis of its own thanks to the Morgantown Utility Board’s desire to run a raw waterline through it. MUB’s raw waterline will provide Morgantown with a crucial secondary source of water, and this is desirable.
MUB’s initial plan to run the waterline under White Park’s most used path, creating a 40- to 60-foot swath in its wake, and thereby felling hundreds of trees, was a glaring mistake for a couple reasons:
MUB didn’t realize it didn’t own White Park and couldn’t act unilaterally;
MUB didn’t realize the significance to our community of the park and the path and the hundreds of trees along the path, some of which are more than 200 years old.
MUB’s efforts to receive public input on potential routes are commendable, but MUB shouldn’t have been given permission to go through the park in the first place. White Park is a precious community resource — a quiet place to walk, run, bike, and find solace in nature — and it should be treated as such. MUB should build its waterline around the park. At this point, such an outcome seems unlikely, and that is a shame.
I am leaving the council, but my commitment to our city will not change. I will continue to advocate for — indeed, fight for — what will make us a stronger, healthier, and greener, and a more livable, more tolerant, and more dynamic, city.
Mark Brazaitis is a professor of English at WVU and an author. This commentary should be considered another point of view and not necessarily the opinion or editorial policy of The Dominion Post.
