MORGANTOWN — For nearly 30 years it was the nerve center of Monongalia County’s emergency response system.
Now, the .82-acre property at 74 Mon General Drive is going back to its original owner.
The Monongalia County Commission finalized a three-way agreement Wednesday that will return the former home of MECCA 911 to the Monongalia Health System.
In return, Mon Health will convey four units in the condominiumized Heritage Professional Building, at 1197 Van Voorhis Rd., to the Monongalia County Building Commission. The building commission will sell the units and pass the proceeds on to the county commission.
“So, we’re getting something out of a building that we’re no longer using. The best use of it would be the Mon Health complex, so it’s kind of a win-win situation,” Commissioner Sean Sikora said.
The Mon General Drive property was deeded to the Monongalia County Building Commission by Mon General Hospital in 1996 for the specific purpose of building a new 911 call center.
Over the following year, the building commission bonded approximately $700,000 to construct the roughly 5,360 square-foot, disaster proof 911 facility, which it then leased to the county commission to satisfy payment of the bonds.
One of the stipulations of the 1996 deed transfer is that Mon General would retain the right of first refusal on the property.
When Monongalia County opened its new state-of-the-art MECCA 911 facility in the Morgantown Industrial Park last year, Mon Health System President and CEO David Goldberg inquired about bringing the property back into the hospital system.
“I think it served its purpose well over the years, but it was outgrown. Certainly with their departure, we find that we could use that building as well. We’re growing and it would serve a great purpose,” Mon Health Chief Legal Officer Ed Phillips told the commission.
The commissioners noted the county was only interested in recouping tax dollars spent on the old 911 building, not the value of the land.
“We agreed that you had given us the property, so we were just looking for something for that building that we put on it,” Sikora said. “It was just trying to get to that amount so we’re doing our due diligence for our citizens, but also acknowledging the generous gift of the land years ago.”
According to information available through the county’s GIS parcel viewer, the land was most recently appraised at $218,300 and the building at $480,900.
It was one of several properties to benefit from significant infrastructure improvements when the $4.1 million Mon General Drive access road was completed in 2013. The road was the first project in the Monongalia County Development District (TIF) No. 3, also known as the Maple Drive TIF.
Monongalia County Administrator Rennetta McClure said the four Van Voorhis Road units to be conveyed to the Monongalia County Building Commission come with an interest share in the surrounding parcel to include parking.
In other news from Wednesday’s meeting, the commission moved two properties – 3376 Stewartstown Road and 5172 Earl L. Core Road – to the county’s complaint stage at the request of the Monongalia County Abandoned & Dilapidated Property Enforcement Agency.
