BY DAVE WILSON
With questions concerning Morgantown’s proposed annexation plan piling up every day and definitive answers to those questions in short supply, it appears the city is ready to pump the brakes on moving the plan forward along the timeline initially presented to city council.
“We’re going to be stepping back and be taking a look at this and approaching this from a whole different way,” Morgantown City Manager Paul Brake stated Monday on WAJR’s Talk of the Town with Dave and Sarah.
The timeline proposed to city council for moving the plan forward was outlined in an April 29 memorandum. The original timeline included presenting the minor boundary adjustment application to Monongalia County Commission by August.
“That will not happen then,” Brake stated.
Brake said the process will likely be extended for another three to six months before the city is ready to send a minor boundary adjustment request to the county commission for consideration as the administration works to answer questions brought up so far.
Those questions range from specific needs of the police and fire departments to handle the increase in area and residents who would be included in the service area, to determining how homeowners who may be required to connect to Morgantown Utility Board sewer and/or water lines will pay for the new service.
Those are just two examples that have come up since the plan was first presented at the May 1 Committee of the Whole meeting.
Throughout Monday’s interview, Brake insisted the plan that has drawn considerable pushback from businesses and residents, with the group F.A.I.R. Inc (Forced Annexation Isn’t Right) leading the charge, is still a draft and is not the final product.
Brake insinuated there could be changes coming based on the feedback from the open house meetings hosted by the city this month.
However, the areas targeted by the city for annexation will not change.
“We’re not looking at reconfiguring the boundaries, nothing like that. It could be how it’s implemented and looking at a longer time frame,” Brake explained.
Brake clarified what he meant by “reconfigured,” elaborating that one option the city may consider could be a series of minor boundary adjustments, targeting the same 3.8 square miles, instead of a single, large request.
That line of thinking would be a reversal from the position city administration stated during the May 1 Committee of the Whole meeting when Brake told council the city did not want to take a piecemeal approach to annexation and end up with portions of the 3.8 square miles the city is targeting.
“You’re setting us up for a situation that they [Monongalia County Commission] will present where there is the highest cost that they have,” he said then. “So from a public safety perspective, where there is increased calls from the sheriff’s department and alike, in there would not be revenues to coincide with that.”
Brake is scheduled to update city council during tonight’s regular meeting on the takeaways from the first two open houses and an updated plan for moving forward with the annexation proposal.
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