MORGANTOWN — Past iterations of the Morgantown Board of Parks and Recreation commissioners (BOPARC) allowed the organization to fail “so their buddies at Mylan Park” could profit from the Mountaineer Center, Morgantown’s deputy mayor, Mark Brazaitis, said after Wednesday’s meeting of the organization’s board.
BOPARC spent years planning a community-wide recreation facility that included a track and indoor swimming facility, and Brazaitis said he and others who helped plan the facility thought it would be a BOPARC facility, not a private enterprise.
Mountaineer Center at Mylan Park is a track and pool complex. It’s been reported that the city was granted right of first refusal to have the center in city limits, but did not accept.
“They’re taking our customers, or want to, here in the city, and they want to pull them out toward a private enterprise in the county,” he said.
The deputy mayor said that’s part of reason the city’s parks organization faces many of its current needs.
The other part, he said, was that intentionally or unintentionally, previous boards failed to find funding mechanisms.
The people of Morgantown were manipulated and should be outraged, he said.
Brazaitis spoke during the meeting and urged the board to present the city council a county-wide levy draft for review at the next meeting or no later than the first week of August.
He said it was BOPARC’s obligation to repair the damage caused over decades by “wolves.” He acknowledged the problem couldn’t be solved overnight, but that action needs to happen now.
“Pools and baseball fields might be all we can offer with a levy, because as you know, the levy to fund the ice rink was utterly botched by the wolves,” Brazaitis said.
He said BOPARC needs to make $38 million in capital improvements, including to the 58-year-old Marilla Pool, 38-year-old Krepps Pool and 36-year-old Morgantown Ice Arena.
As for long-term funding, he promised a sales tax with the bulk of the revenue coming from bars and legal gambling. He said a sales tax is easier to collect than a Business and Occupation tax.
For every $117 city residents contribute to BOPARC, county residents contribute only $5, Brazaitis said.
Tony Christini agreed with Brazaitis and said putting the levy on November’s ballot will allow for a second chance if it fails the first time. He said the levy wouldn’t be imposing on taxpayers, but would allow them to decide if they wanted to support BOPARC.
Joey James, a board member, suggested exploring the addition of a representative from the county commission to the board because 50 percent of BOPARC users are from outside of city limits.
Morgantown councilor and BOPARC board member Rachel Fetty said she wasn’t opposed to the idea, but questioned if the bylaws would allow it.
State code would allow a county commissioner to be appointed to the board, but that person must also be a city resident, attorney Ryan Simonton said.
He said the city already used home rule to allow a non-property owners to be a board member.
County Commissioner Sean Sikora is the only commissioner living in city limits.
“I was here when the county threw us out,” board member Ed Cordwell said, adding if the county wants back into the management of BOPARC, it needs to contribute more.
“The city is damn near broke,” he said. “Let’s face it: We can’t pay our fire and police.”
Councilor and board member Jenny Selin said she’d like to see if adding a commissioner would increase communication between BOPARC and the county.
Cordwell also called out WVU for not paying its fair share. He said the university built all around the city and “if they don’t already own it, they’ve probably tried to buy it.”
Nancy Ganz said city residents have been carrying the bulk of the county’s recreation expenses and said BOPARC should ask for a share of a 1 percent sales tax for funding. She said several other municipalities require non-residents to pay double fees to use facilities, and many municipalities with universities have some kind of reciprocal agreement.
Patrick Hathaway, board president, said going forward, goals need to be clear, tangible and well-defined.
Hathaway also pointed out that the county commission recently said it never denied a funding request from the board and claimed to be willing to give BOPARC money, so the commission should be put to the test.
