City Council - Regular Meeting

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We'll call this meeting to order. This is Morgantown City Council regular meeting for Tuesday, February 17th at 7:08 p.m. We will ask Clerk Wade to begin by calling the role. Yes. Joe Vanam. Jody Hollings Head here. We Michael present. Jenny Seline here. Mark Towns here. Deputy Mayor Butcher here.

Mayor Trumbull here. First item on the agenda is approval of minutes. We have the February 3rd, 2026 regular meeting minutes. February 3rd, 2026 special meeting minutes. Were there any additions or corrections? Seeing none, approved by consensus. Yep. Great. We will move into correspondence. We have the National Cancer Prevention Month proclamation. And it is my understanding that we have a few Health and Wellness Commission members here tonight, Amarici and Abigail, as well as Jenny Ostein Ostein from the WVU Cancer Institute.

Come on up, Abigail. Whereas cancer continues to affect individuals, families, and communities across the city of Morgantown. Whereas many forms of cancer are preventable through healthy lifestyle choices, some safety, recommended vaccinations, participation in routine screening to support early detection. And whereas cancer prevention month provides an opportunity for residents, healthcare providers, community organizations, and local government to work together to promote education, prevention, and wellness. And whereas the board of parks and recreation commissioners, FOART, has demonstrated its commitment to community health by supporting cancer prevention month with the donation of sunscreen to promote sun safety and cancer prevention awareness. And whereas the Wu Cancer Institute located within the city of Morgantown and across the state plays a critical role in protecting and improving community health through patient centered cancer care, innovative research, education, and outreach efforts that benefit residents of Morgantown and the surrounding region. And whereas the city of Morgantown values community partnerships that strengthen public health and improve quality of life for all residents. Now therefore, I, Danielle Trumble, mayor of the city of Morgantown, on behalf of city council, do hereby proclaim that the month of February 2026 is hereby designated as cancer prevention month in the city of Morgantown. We encourage all residents to engage in cancer prevention practices, seek recommended screenings, support public health efforts, and promote awareness of actions that reduce cancer risk and advance early detection. The city of Morgantown further recognizes and appreciates the collaboration of community partners whose support and participation help advance cancer prevention, education, and public health awareness throughout our community.

Thanks, Holly. [clears throat] By taking this piece of property and selling it out from the development, you've taken all that away. Now, what we have is a simple development on the hillside. Maybe a boutique hotel, 30,000 ft of retail. Maybe this is not the vision that I ever thought. And we're sold to you all. Please be patient with me. Please be patient with me. You can have a few more seconds to wrap up, but we have a full agenda to get through.

Okay. So that being said, okay, this sale should be voided. This property needs to go back into development. If you don't want it to go back into development and it's not of interest to the development, then I would have loved to have the right to bought it. Okay, how it was done, the price that was placed on it. So at the detriment of the development now 18 months later the supposed developer of this project before sells to a third party Sam Chico. This is incredibly crazy. Okay really it is. So in any case I'm going to give you the information the documents of the deed exchanges deeds of trust changes sales of property disclosures and how all these things went down. So, thank you.

Here you go.

There. There. And I would like these placed on the record. Okay. I appreciate your time and I hope that we can move this forward to do the right thing for everybody so that we make this right because what has happened has been really wrong. Okay? And my only interest ever, ever, ever, ever to all of you was to do something wonderful and create something longterm that would be a legacy for all of us. And that's what I still want. Okay. So, my intentions is to get this thing moving forward into the fast track to get it taken care of. 6 years is too long. Thank you so much.

Is there anyone else wishing to speak? Seeing none, we will move on. We have no special committee reports. We will enter our consent agenda. I will read all items. If there's anyone on council wishing to pull an item off of the consent agenda, they may do so. Otherwise, we will vote on the items with no deliberation. Item A, consideration of approval of bid call 2026-11 asbestous abatement and demolition of 565 Clark Street, 612 Arlington Avenue and 2060 Lloyd Avenue. And item B, consideration of approval of second reading of an ordinance establishing and maintaining one-way roads and restricted turns. First reading, February 3rd, 2026. Is there anyone wishing to pull either of those items off? Otherwise, we can entertain a motion. Move to approve the consent agenda as

second. Thank you. Yes. Jody Hollings. Yes. Weezy Michael. Yes. Jenny Seline. Yes. Mark Downs. Yes. Deputy Mayor Butcher. Yes. Mayor Trouble. Yes. Passes 6. We have one item of new business this evening. Consideration of approval of first reading of an ordinance approving a gas line easement at 495 Falling Falling Run Road, Morgantown, West Virginia, 2650. Thank you, mayor. We have Damen Davis here, director of public works and engineering. Who will be presenting on this item?

Just one slide. The rest of it's just uh so [laughter] well that DIDN'T WORK. MY MY BAD. SORRY. [laughter] I'll leave that alone. Uh so here presenting a request for utility easement across the piece of property the city owns. Uh the city the property itself uh is uh vacant. Uh the city acquired it back in 1950 with the uh dissolution of the uh uh water Morgantown water commission. Uh currently, uh that's a little bit. There we go. So, the property itself sits between uh Frozzman and Falling Run. Uh it's a irregular shaped property. Uh currently, this dash line right here is an existing gas line to the previous house that was here. The gentleman bought this house, tore the house down, and has built a new uh new house. uh when they they uh demoed the house, they abandoned this line. Uh as you see, it cuts across the property, kind of makes it uh it it makes the property undevelopable. And so, originally, when we s started talking to this gentleman about this, we asked him to move the uh new line and new easement along the prop upper property boundary uh to minimize impact on the property. Since then, we we found uh that MUB does have a 8 in water line that runs the the length of this property. So, uh our interest in ever developing this property is, you know, uh uh can't nothing can really happen with that. Uh but again, with moving the the new easement uh across the upward

boundary, it does limit uh the impact of Mub's water line. This one crossed their line and if there was already any issues there could be impact but now we're trying to move this up north. Um house has been built. Uh I think he's waiting on uh this event to be the final kind of uh to get uh his certificate of occupy into the house to have the final utilities in there. Um that's all I have. Any questions on that? questions for director. Looks pretty straightforward. Yeah. And necessary.

It helps one. I guess it helps with this too, removing this uh old easement across that private property uh owned by local landlords. Uh it helps make this property a little more developable too in the future if if anything ever would happen to that. Ours being undevelopable with the utilities already on it. Uh uh doesn't really impact it as much. If I may add, mayor and council, this piece of property is already classified as utility vacant land. So, it was contemplated for for use for utilities. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Is there a motion? Move to approve. [laughter]

Thank you. Second. Further discussion on this or questions for manager Miller? Seeing that quickly. Jody Hollings, yes. We Michael, yes. Jay Seline, yes. Mark DS, yes. Deputy Mayor Butcher, yes. Mayor Trumble,

yes. Passes 6. Brings us to the city manager's report. Yes. Thank you, Mayor. a couple of of good news items to share that I'm sure people are familiar with already, but want to make sure to call out uh the best of Morgantown results where some of our arts and culture facilities have received another nod this year and so we're extremely proud of them. Our rubric ruby summer concert series has been awarded the best festival. Uh, the Met has been awarded the best performing arts venue and our museum has received the award for bronze of the best museum in West Virginia. So, uh, we're extremely proud of everything that that department brings to the table and continues to bring forward to the community overall and enrichment related to arts and culture. So, um, congratulations to all of the staff that make that happen every day and thank you for the continued support for for those activities. We did receive a visit today from staff members from Senator Justice and Senator Capido's office today at the airport. Uh they spent several hours at our airport with us talking about our airport, our goals, um some of the objectives that we would like to accomplish. So, uh thank you to them for their continued support of our airport and the impact on the region. Uh so was pleased to report on the progress of that meeting. uh staff does have a meeting with the division of highways staff tomorrow to talk about how we can continue to develop partnerships with the DO. So looking forward to continuing to make that collaboration stronger as well. As a reminder, next week before our committee of the whole meeting at 6:00 p.m. we are holding a workshop to discuss what the future of the committee of the whole andor workshops could look like. Um and then the last item that I would like to bring forward just as a a

some awareness uh we met with members from the WVU team on Monday uh to discuss the um upcoming St. Patrick's Day celebration. So the students are planning for a March 7th St. Patrick's Day celebration and and so certainly pulling together uh all of the members of the community whether it be uh WVU our police department just making sure that we are communications so that we are prepared to encourage uh all celebrations be done responsibly. So we are making sure those efforts are coordinated. That concludes my report today. Thank you. Report from city cl.

Yes, mayor. Um, April 25th, the Police Civil Service Commission will be holding entry level police officer uh, exams. That's a Saturday at 9:00 am at 300. No, I'm sorry. We've moved that. That will be at the um Morgantown public safety. Forget the last part of the formal name, the the former defense and depth in Saberton. So, um, that is April 25th entry level police officer exams. um in March on March 13th, we'll be having fire lieutenant promotional exam. So, we'll be uh promoting uh another fire lieutenant and congratulations to those who are eligible and um we'll see what comes from that. And uh that concludes my report.

Thank you. Report from city attorney. Thank you, mayor. Uh I've sent council drafts of forthcoming ordinances requested by council. uh one on revival of abandoned nonconformities, another on accessory dwelling unit regulations um that should be on your February committee of the whole meeting along with some other updates from development services related to affordable housing. Uh but please feel free individually to send me any uh comments and questions. I'm happy to address those. Um additionally noted on there is some pending legislation that could impact uh some of that legislation. So something we'll be monitoring and be aware of. Um, and that is all I have to say.

Thank you. Report from council. Council Michael. I guess I'm first today. Um, I went the other way last time.

I know. Um, I just honestly I just I don't have a whole lot. I just wanted to thank uh uh the city for doing the proclamation uh the cancer proclamation and thank Abigail and Amariti for uh representing our health and wellness group. Um, as someone that's lost uh both a brother and sister recently to cancer, prevention is really important because, you know, we we believed our our family members could have uh, you know, survived if they had early detection. So, it's important to get early detection. And that's all I have to say. Thank you.

Thank you, mayor. Just um a reminder that our span meeting is Monday, February 23rd with some social time starting at 6:30. The meeting will start at 7. That's at First Christian Church on Coen. Um we're going to be discussing um our Morgantown Mosaic Project. So if you want to have some input on that, um be sure to make it to that meeting. Um I also just wanted to shout out our city ambassadors. I went for a little walkabout with them um last last week. um with Caitlyn Frank and Shayen Carter couldn't make it. And um I learned so much about what they do and I'm so appreciative of that program and all of the energy they're putting into uh putting Morgan Town um making Morgantown as wonderful as we know it can be. So that's it.

Sleep. Um last Thursday I got to attend uh Marty Gro right here. I'm sure I'd rather go to the real Marty GR in some other state, but at 123 Pleasant there was a nice fundraiser for public theater. Um, and they had excellent food um from Meline Marie and um king cake and catfish and shrimp and grits, which I love theirs, and music and some people in costume. And it was uh very nice and they promised to keep making it bigger and better every year. So next year when you see Marty GR and you see it's a benefit for public theater [snorts] um consider going. Um and then there was another one of those lovely uh Tuesday events sponsored by B Park at Wilds Hill. Um, and it had lots of people participating in art projects and um, music with Chris Hadex and um, information about the rail trail and a nice movie related to that. And then it was fun because people were coming in and out that participate there and take classes um like some uh movement class and just a lot going on all in one open gym. A lot going on all in all in one place and it's part of a free program on Tuesdays and so keep and not every Tuesday but I think they're once a month.

Second Tuesday when we can go. Second Tuesday when we can go. So March will be an egg hunt. There we go. So um it's pretty cool program and people were enjoying they were learning how to um use pottery wheel and they were throwing pot for the first time which is very tricky and then there was a program where people could make some glass trees and some other art projects. So anyway, that's enough from me and um thank you to Mub that came and made the presentation and everyone else that uh worked on the um cancer month proclamation.

Thanks Jenny. Yeah. Um I just you know thinking about you we um as the cancer proclamation you know this is very recent for you and again my condolences. It's um so uh uh I want to say happy Lunar New Year to everyone. Happy belated Valentine's Day and happy Marty Gro. Um uh I wanted to also um thank 123 and the and West Virginia Public Theater for for hosting their event uh in our downtown. Um it's the second second year that that's happened. as you said, I heard great I I wasn't able to attend, but I I heard great things and and uh and it plays, you know, events like that play a critical role in strengthening our local kind of arts um the fabric of our community and and and making connections. So, um I also want to thank uh MUB um the leadership of Star City staff and uh and my colleagues here uh for the work and and uh and due diligence that went into the approval of the acquisition of uh Star City. Um you know, partnerships like like this is how we grow and and uh you know, we they're difficult decisions certainly. We all we all weigh those our own way and and and we uh they're there [snorts] we have many challenges and opportunities in front of us that are that are coming coming up soon queuing up and that's uh that's a very good thing a good good thing for all of us and uh I just think if we keep that partnership mindset that uh we're going to achieve great

things together. So thanks that's it. Thanks Mark. Um, as we're coming up to the end of winter season, I wanted to once again thank the city and uh the DO for keeping our roads clear. I think we did a good job this year overall. Um I think a lot of people were saw the difference uh in terms of contracting out um those uh scraping and salting services and um I had just a lot of positive comments this year for the most part um which is definitely different than most years just a lot of negative comments um and uh you know I'm excited to see um at our next committee the whole just what counselors are uh wanting to prioritize in terms of legislation and policy that they want to bring forward. Um and uh I hope that um we can work through those together and have good conversations about them. And um you know uh I've appreciated also the administration's kind of diligence on the budget and I know that we're going to have difficult and tough conversations about that going forward. So, I encourage everybody to lean into that. Um, and I guess finally, I just want to say um thank you, James, for um your words tonight and I I hope you understand that uh we are listening and um we take you seriously and so um yeah, that's [cough] I just wanted to acknowledge acknowledge that.

Thank you. Um, Jenny talked about all the stuff that I have written down. I was also going to Yeah, the neighborhood nights. That was a really great event. My son and I I was there a couple of times throughout the day, but my son and I went and he participated in the art activities and really enjoyed those. Bumped into a lot of folks that we know. I think that that was a very successful free event and look forward to the full schedule of those neighborhood nights moving forward. As I said, I [snorts] think it's March 10th. Yes, March 10th will be an egg hunt that is free, I think, at White Park. Um, guess I should have looked that up before we went. Just a reminder that with the new newly updated ice rink comes a newly updated ice schedule and the community use of that facility will be coming to an end in two or three short weeks right around the beginning of March. So if you have not yet visited definitely get out and see that. Um it's been well received by the users I believe. Um, speaking of Bow Park, uh, the volunteer group that Mark and I work with came and presented to Bow Park at our meeting last week about some projects that we intend to work on along the trail and near Stanley Spot park this coming spring and summer. And we already have a few art projects trail adjacent that um, are going in on private property. We already have permission from the property owner, but those come at a cost. So, we are having a disco dance night to raise funds at 123 uh next Friday, the 27th for our our co- volunteer Lisa's birthday. And all

of the proceeds from that will go towards paying for those art projects. So, we're very excited. Um, thanks to Councelor DS for attending the airport meeting with us today. I thought that the the staffers from the senators were very engaged, very interested. Um, I think that was a good kickoff to the conversation that we will have when we visit again um with them in March, right around the time that the congressionally directed spending um applications are due. So yeah, look forward to more conversations there. Um, I don't have anything else. That sounds like a good amount. I'm I was upset that I did not get to attend Marty Gro and I'm only going to say it because he's here and I get one final ch. I had a planning commission meeting that night and I gave director Joerger a hard time. It was an extra long planning commission meeting agenda. I said, "Don't you know there's a fundraiser going on?" And I promise that's the last time I'll bring it up. Just another because you brought it up a little bit. Um,

but it was also a very good planning commission meeting. We got a lot done. So, um, I'm sure they had no idea when they were planning Marty Gro [laughter] that you had a planning commission meeting and to work around it. They just didn't know. They could have had it tonight. Look, it's opportunities to grow. [laughter] Um, yeah, I think that's good enough. That's fine. Is there someone willing to move us into executive session if no one else has anything to add?

Yes. I'd move that pursuant to West Virginia State Code section 6-9A4B9, we move into executive session to discuss acquisition or development of real estate in the Saberton area and a discussion of matters related to development of property and/or investments of public funds in the area of Spruce Street, Willie Street, and Richwood Avenue. and also uh state code section 6-9A4B2A to discuss personnel matters considering new appointments for boards and commissions. Second. All in favor? Yes. We will take a short break and then join executive session.