MORGANTOWN — If municipal governance is your jam, Morgantown is the place to be this week as the University City has rolled out the red carpet for the 2022 West Virginia Municipal League Annual Conference.
The event teed off with a Tuesday golf outing but hits full swing today and Thursday with a slate of workshops, committee meetings and events in and around the Morgantown Marriott at Waterfront Place.
The municipal meet-up was a topic of conversation as Morgantown City Council worked through a relatively light agenda during its regular Tuesday meeting.
“It’s brought in 300 to 400 folks representing municipalities from all across the state of West Virginia,” Morgantown City Clerk Christine Wade explained, noting attendees include elected officials, like mayors and council members, as well as city managers, attorneys and her municipal clerk counterparts, among others.
“It’s a good time for all of us to meet and talk about the things going on in our cities; things we might be struggling with or have ideas for,” she said. “It’s just a good time to collaborate with all those folks.”
Workshops cover a wide variety of issues ranging from cybersecurity to dealing with dilapidated properties to Roberts Rules of Order.
Local presenters include Morgantown GIS Coordinator Marvin Davis, who will discuss how GIS was utilized in the city’s most recent election, and Deputy Mayor Danielle Trumble, who will present on leveraging community resources through discussion of the Hazel’s House of Hope project.
In addition to benefiting Morgantown’s businesses over the next few days, Councilor Bill Kawecki said he hopes the conference spurs the kind of ideas and cooperation that end up benefiting municipalities across the state.
“I think these kinds of meetings really are the incubator for the activities that will make a better community for all of us,” he said. “I’m happy to participate and I’m encouraged to see our council is very cooperative in participating, too.”
Morgantown is one of 234 municipalities in West Virginia. This is the WVML’s 53rd annual conference.
In other news from Tuesday’s meeting, council upheld the Morgantown Planning Commission’s recommendation to deny zoning reclassification petitions for 815 Price Street and 305 Glendon Avenue.
The request would have rezoned both from R-1A (single-family residential district) to R-2 (single-family and two-family district.)
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