MORGANTOWN — Potential.
It’s a double-edged sword of a word.
To say something has potential, good or bad, is to simultaneously see the vision of what could be and the reality of what is.
Lower Greenmont — the area between Brockway Avenue and Deckers Creek — has potential.
Residents want to see a revitalized Pennsylvania Avenue include green space, a recreational connection to Deckers Creek and the trail system; maybe even a park of some kind.
That’s the vision.
The reality is parts of Pennsylvania Avenue are a mess and have been for some time.
Emily Quinlan is co-chair of the Greenmont Neighborhood Association.
“Lower Greenmont, the area we’re talking about, is still part of the neighborhood, but it hasn’t received the same attention and upkeep and care as upper Greenmont,” Quinlan said. “We really just want to make all of our neighborhood an accessible, safe place that people throughout Morgantown would want to come visit.”
The city shares that vision.
As part of its American Rescue Plan Act agenda, $600,000 was provided to the Morgantown Land Reuse and Preservation Agency to purchase and raze vacant and dilapidated houses. Pennsylvania Avenue was designated a target area for those funds.
Admittedly, the effort got off to a slow start. The agency struggled to contact property owners and negotiate deals. As of June, it had purchased one property — 570 Pennsylvania Ave — and had a second sale in the works at 657 Pennsylvania Ave.
That’s when word got out that the city was going to pull the funds back due to a lack of movement and a Dec. 31 ARPA deadline.
As part of public comments offered at the agency’s June meeting, Adelheid Schaupp volunteered to lead the effort. The body took her up on the offer.
“I just don’t think they were super familiar with the area. They’re all volunteers on the board and they’re doing the best they can, but they don’t know a lot of the property owners. They don’t know the situations with a lot of the houses,” Schaupp said.”
“Since a lot of us live in that neighborhood or are very familiar with the neighborhood, we’re able to reach out and contact these people that maybe they haven’t been able to find or locate, or just couldn’t get them to pick up the phone. So, that’s helped just having knowledge of who lives down there and who owns which properties, and which properties are the most problematic.”
On Sept. 11, the LRPA approved purchase and sale agreements on three Pennsylvania Avenue properties for a total of $174,000.
On Thursday, it approved two more, buying two tiny vacant parcels at the split of Brockway Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue from Jacintha Nwoko for a total of $2,500.
“There are several others. Some have title issues. Some of them have tax liens. Nothing is clear down there. It’s a complicated area,” Schaupp said. “But as soon as some of that stuff is worked out, I think you’ll see a few more come through. I’ve talked to the property owners. There should be several more coming up in the next month.”
Schaupp spent more than a decade living in Greenmont before moving just outside of town. She owns several properties in the neighborhood, noting “I’m there every single day.”
According to Schaupp, the general condition of the lower Greenmont area is a result of multiple factors, including lax enforcement of property maintenance codes.
“Also, you can’t charge a lot of rent for them when you have gravel trucks coming through at 3 a.m., so that impacts the area as well,” she said. “You’re not going to get a bunch of private owners putting money into updating their properties when you can’t charge a lot of rent because of the noise. So, there are a lot of factors that make that a very difficult area to improve.”
Greenmont is the oldest neighborhood in Morgantown. It’s big on charm and short on open space.
“More than any other neighborhood in Morgantown, Greenmont has very few green spaces. We have no parks. We would love to see a dedicated green space, and that could mean lots of different things. That could mean a playground. It could mean a launch site for tubing, or fishing,” Quinlan said, noting Main Street Morgantown’s project to explore the recreational potential of Deckers Creek.
“It’s an amazing spot. There’s so much potential down there. But with a lot of those dilapidated houses and the structures that have been abandoned for so long, it’s not a place that is safe. Right now, people don’t want to be there.”
