MORGANTOWN — During a sit-down with state officials in late 2022, Morgantown leadership expressed concerns about the rate at which funds were coming in for the city’s runway extension project.
The slower the dollars trickle in, they argued, the longer it’ll take to build – and with a project this size, time is big money.
The long-coveted 1,001-foot extension project physically began in 2021 with an estimated cost of $50 million. The work was to be carried out in five phases over five years.
By the end of last year, the city had already adjusted the projected cost closer to $65 million.
Morgantown Municipal Airport Director Jonathan Vrabel told members of city council on Tuesday that the city has jettisoned that initial timeline as well.
“With the way the funding cycles have been coming in, we’re looking probably at seven phases now,” he said. “We had originally planned it at five, but we’re now up to seven. We’re hoping it doesn’t go any further than that.”
Vrabel appeared before Morgantown City Council to provide project details prior to council passing three resolutions approving the acceptance of just over $5 million in Federal Aviation Administration grant dollars for, among other things, Phase III of the project.
According to that December 2022 meeting with state lawmakers, the city previously estimated Phase III to be a $13 million project and calculated Phase IV at closer to $20 million.
Vrabel said the scaled-back Phase III will include more excavating as well as preparation of an area along the east side of the property where stream enclosure work will take place.
Council approved a $2,474,397 bid from Mountaineer Infrastructure, LLC for that work.
City Manager Kim Haws pointed out that Vrabel is simultaneously meeting the challenge of running a small airport in the current aviation climate while also driving what many believe to be the most critical project the city has ever undertaken.
“This is no small feat,” Haws said. “He’s been the driver to keep this thing moving through these phases. I just wanted to express appreciation.”
In other city news, council adopted zoning text amendments limiting where firearms can be sold in the city.
The amendments define terms like “firearm” and “antique firearms.” They also define the new “firearms retail establishment” use and limit that use to B-5 (shopping center) by right and B-2 (service business) by conditional use, meaning it would need a vote and public hearing before the city’s board of zoning appeals.
The application for zoning code changes was filed last August by Protect Morgantown, the community group that successfully pressured developer Hardy World to void a lease with firearms retailer Big Daddy Guns for The Deck development, at 1050 University Ave., which falls in a B-4 (general business) zoning district in the city’s downtown.
All existing firearms retail establishments will be “grandfathered” under the existing code.
Lastly, council approved a $1,179,076 bid from Parotta Paving for the relocation of 1st Street as part of the larger Beechurst Avenue improvement project.
Council annulled the short section of 1st Street between Beechurst Avenue and Hall Street earlier this year.
The city swapped the land that previously comprised the right of way to WVU for the land on which the relocated portions of Campus Drive and 1st Street will be located.
Squaring up that intersection is a major component of the overall Beechurst upgrade, which includes a widening and restriping of Beechurst as well as turning lanes onto and off of Campus Drive.
