City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, we will start with the pledge for anyone wishing to participate. 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 will call this meeting to order. This is the Morgantown City Council regular meeting for Tuesday, January 20th at 7:02 p.m. We will first ask Clerk Wade to please call the role. Yes. Joe Bugan, president. Jody Hollings here. Weezy Michael

here. Jay Selene here. Mark DS here. Deputy Mayor Butcher here.

Mayor Trumbull here. Our first item of business is approval of minutes. We had the January 6, 2026 special meeting minutes and January 6, 2026 regular meeting minutes. Were there any additions or corrections? I passed along one correction to the clerk that Brennan Williams, who was appointed to the traffic commission, is appointed as the fifth ward representative on the traffic commission. Um, any others? No. Approved by consensus. Great. uh correspondence. We have the proclamation for Annalin Stac here on correspondence. That is on this agenda forformational purposes. She was unable to be in attendance at the meeting this evening and councelor DS and I will present that proclamation in person at a later time. Uh the second item of correspondence we have is the annual excuse me the annual report for Main Street Morgantown. Cam Allen, welcome. Howdy.

They work now, by the way. You've got some in the room, not just online. Do we have Okay. So, I also brought a written copy of our year in review annual report. Um, okay. Sounds All right. Sounds good. Thank you, sir.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Thank you. All right, here we go. Do you want to be in charge of the little scroller? Oh, yeah. I would love that. Okay.

All right. Hello all. My name is Cam Allen. I am an operations manager with the Morgantown Area Partnership. I am accompanied by Russ Roger, CEO of the Morgantown Area Partnership, and I'm here to present our Main Street Morgantown 2025 year in review.

I can find our mouse. May not be close enough. Like I can also scroll for you. Oh yeah. You just need to Sometimes it likes to I'm letting pride get in the way. Sometimes it doesn't.

Okay. So, who are we? Main Street Morgantown is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that has been serving the downtown since 1984. Our mission is to steward a welcoming, vibrant, and prosperous downtown and warf districts. In 2025, our executive committee members consisted of Andrew White, president and owner of Andrew White Guitars, Charlie Mcuan, vice president and owner of Tanner's Alley Leather Design Studio, Jessica McDonald, treasurer and owner of Cactaya Mountains Design, and Steve Bennett, secretary from Valley Health. So, this is one of our first big numbers of the presentation. Um, and I feel like it was a good way to frame how we think about downtown. Um, I know that it doesn't always come to mind, but downtown Morgantown is Monalia County's second largest retail center. Uh, so downtown Morgantown is the place where the people are coming. They're coming to live, play, work, shop, you name it, right? More on that later. Um, so in 2025, our aim was to have a downtown where everybody knew that something was happening all the time. For business owners, that meant having a slate of events that allowed them to shine a light on their business as well as the event at the same time. um for event organizers that meant positioning downtown as a local of choice. Uh so that when a visitor came downtown, the first thing they thought is there's always something happening. There's always something that I can be experiencing. Um and for an event maker, that means that their event is going to

be successful downtown. So, in 2024, we aimed for 40 events for our 40th. Uh, and we hit about 60. Um, and so this year, we were going to shoot for the moon. The Main Street Morgantown calendar in 2025 consisted of 108 events. That's 80% more than 2024 and 200% more than 2023. Uh, so at that point you're probably asking yourself, how do we do it? We had a little help from our friends, right? Main Street Morgantown runs their affiliates program, um, which features all sorts of events from the Morgantown Farmers Market to some events that just recently came back downtown, uh, WV Vintage Fest, uh, First Friday for the Arts, um, etc. All of those run under the banner of uh Main Street Morgantown affiliate event. Um so what does the affiliate events program actually do? It positions downtown as the destination of choice for event organizers in the community. Um so when we're thinking of downtown, what Main Street Morgantown seeks to do with this program is place Morgantown or downtown Morgantown at the forefront of your mind. when you're thinking of where am I gonna have my event and when the community is thinking where should I go this weekend, where should I go tonight, they're thinking about downtown. I promise you that. Um, and our goal and how we do this is supporting our existing events and lowering barriers for whatever next big thing is coming our way. Um, and so we do this in three ways which is on the next slide. Uh first of all, we provide each affiliate event with expert marketing and communications. Um Ava Vaverick, our communications

manager, has done a really well job of helping all of our affiliates out um if they need a press release, extra advertising. Uh we share all of their posts on social media, if they have a question about downtown communications, downtown marketing, downtown best practices for their event. Um, it's a one-stop shop. Uh, for equipment, we make accessible our affiliates closet. Uh, the affiliates closet has about $5,000 plus worth of equipment that is accessible for all affiliate events. This includes high tables, electricity, uh, long tables, uh, chairs, you name it. We got me Jenga in there, the whole nine yards. Um, and then we also provide logistical and technical support. Uh, so what that means is essentially if they need help with permitting, uh, if they have a partnership question about how they can connect with other event members, um, if they've got a parking question, um, if they just want to talk with me for an hour about what they can do with their event and what opportunities are accessible, um, all of that is available to them. Uh and what we seek to do is really boost events that are already, you know, well beloved, exist in the district, as well as promote some new things that are going on and help it make it easier for people to bring what they've got down here and succeed. And we can only provide such a slate of events because Main Street Morgantown has done 11 events this year. Uh, and we've historically done so many events, I can't even possibly name them all. Uh, between nine arts walks, one National Historic Preservation Month initiative, uh, one trickor treat, one

downtown dash sponsored by Breezeline, one small business Saturday. Uh, we've done it all. And the next one is just posters for it, too. Um, and each one has individualized posters. Each one gets a press release. everyone is advertised. Uh and our goal is really just bring people downtown and shop at small business, right? Um and then two more events that we also did this year that weren't listed. Um the downtown opportunity tour on August 27th um that led into the downtown merchant mixer. So I'll start with the opportunity tour. the opportunity tour, which was led by economic vitality committee uh volunteers, including councelor Mark DS, um was an event where essentially we took a tour of downtown with a bunch of business professionals uh and we showed them all of the opportunities. Well, really, councelor DS showed them all of the opportunities that were available in downtown. uh whether it was available spaces or what's new opening up or how they can get involved. Uh it was the whole nine yards and we had a great day. Um it was beautiful weather. They got to go into some spaces that they uh wouldn't normally get to see. Uh they got to see the new mural that we'll talk about later. Uh they got to see the whole nine yards, right? Um, and then we had our merchant mixer afterwards, which was essentially an opportunity for members of the downtown business community to get together and talk about different opportunities in the downtown area and also just mingle.

Billing the suspense. Cio Microsoft Edge I swear I'm trying, right?

Yeah. Yeah, we're good. Yeah, we're good. We're good. Um, so painting our story in 2025, uh, we saw $40,000 worth of investment in artsled economic development initiatives in downtown um, and the Warf area. Uh, so that included 15 Morgantown restored exhibitions. Those are exhibitions that are ran out of Main Street Morgantown that put a spotlight on different available properties um, or different available opportunities in the downtown area. Um, and that wouldn't be possible without all of our great property owners who were able to um able to allow us to display those opportunities downtown. Um, and then also Blake Wheeler's historic Morgantown mural in Wall Street Alley, which is currently partially put up right now, uh, which celebrates Morgantown's industrial roots, as well as some characters in Morgantown's history, Mary Boehner, um, Ellie Manette, um, famous individuals who are the root of Morgantown's history. and that will be completed in later 2026. Uh so look out for that. And I would be aiss if I did not mention the wild thread of High Street mural uh at South High Station. Um, a big thank you to Joel Dugan, uh, Mark DS, Monagelia County Commission, Fairmont State Foundation, the YCF, um, organizational arts grant, um, and many more who were allowing who allowed this to happen uh, and allowed Main Street to dedicate this beautiful mural to South Downtown. Uh this mural held at

a strategic gateway into south downtown helps visitors identify uh downtown in their minds when they're going in. And then also situated right at Decker's Creek, this mural helps make Decker's Creek a prime destination for people to go when they're coming downtown or when they're coming to Morgantown in general. 14. What? 14. 14 reveal.

I love it. I love it. I love the little theatrics. I'm much better at computers than this is making me seem.

No, you're fine. You're fine. I get it. You know, I wanted to put this in a PowerPoint. and it ended up being a PDF. So, it's thwarted both of us. Um, yeah. So, there were 14 new businesses in downtown Morgantown in 2025. Um, and we helped them celebrate their milestones, their openings. Uh, and we helped them celebrate with Main Street Morgantown ribbon cutings. Uh through ribbon cutings, we give a moment to new businesses and others who are celebrating their special milestones to shine a light on all of the hard work that they've done and tell their story of how they got downtown and what the future holds for them. A special ribbon cutting that we did um was at the retail lab on High Street. Uh this this project um was actually really cool. Um, so partnering with WVU fashion design students, um, this building, which used to be the Main Street office, um, underwent a 130,000 renovation to become an incubator space for WVU fashion and design students. um and will hopefully become their first space that they have downtown before moving to an even bigger bigger one down the street. Um, and this this was actually really special because Jessica McDonald, who is our who is our treasurer, um, wrote an article and submitted it to Main Street America and actually got us recognized uh, for this

amazing partnership um, between all sorts of different individuals. Um, and so this was something that was sort of um, national pride for us. And then the last number that I'll leave you all with is 5.3 million. According to Placer AI data that we've collected, 5.3 million is the number of visits that downtown receives or received in 2025. Um this number which represents three different states um is a massive number of people who are coming downtown to work, live and play. Um it represents how many people are served in the downtown area. Um, how many people are shopping at these small businesses? How many people are making downtown their favorite place to go and their favorite place to be in Morgantown?

And now I will be taking any questions. Does anyone have any questions for Cam? No. I know that when uh Sister Cities had their downtown event, Cam, you were super helpful in terms of making sure that we were able to have our tents and our tables and just all those small things that a lot of people don't think about until the night before and they go, "Oh my god, I need eight tables and you were there to help us and I just really appreciate that." Anytime and anything you need in the future.

Other questions? I appreciate um this is also not a question, but I appreciate the data um the the number the number two data about being um the most is it the most visited or the largest or how are you phrasing that? Um it is the most visited according to Placer AI. Second most visited. Second most visited. Sorry, I got ahead of myself.

We're getting there. But anyway, I appreciate placing that information in front of us and in front of other people because I think people don't always think about even though traditionally people did think about downtown as their place and I think the more that we make it into people's place, it will uh continue to regain that attention that it deserves. Absolutely. So, thank you, Cam. Thank you so much. Um I'm a huge fan of all of the events. um you all and your affiliates put on and it really seems like you've got events unlocked. So, I guess my question would just be um what's next? What more do you want to do with Main Street?

Uh so, in the future um in terms of events actually, we're going to be focusing on recruiting some successful events that are already happening outside of our footprint and hopefully bringing them into downtown on our own because I mean, you know, we have 108. I would like to see, well, you know, I won't set expectations too high for I won't set expectations too high for everybody, but I'd like to see us shoot for the moon once again. Um, and it starts with recruiting people and letting people know, you know, 5.3 million visits to downtown. People are coming downtown. Bring your event down here. You will be successful. This is the cultural This is the culture and arts center of Morgantown. For sure. For sure. Thanks.

They've built it. Well, they should come. Yeah, I look forward to um seeing this a lot of this data shared uh on social media. I mean, there there's a lot here and I think there's a lot of uh perceptions that um that frankly need to change about downtown and this uh this information goes a long way towards changing it. Um, and I also look forward to talking about closing High Street in the coming year. Thanks. Will there be another tour?

There will. Yeah, in fact, there will be there will be there will be another there will be another opportunity tour we're working on. Uh, we're working on one for April. Uh, the April time frame. I can't remember the exact Yeah. the exact date, but bridging it's going to be in conjunction with bridging innovation week week, which is a statewide economic development uh uh conference that is uh being hosted by the city of Morgantown this this year at the Waterfront Hotel. Bridging Innovation Week is the week of April 27th. Thank you. And the throwdown. Oh yeah. When's the throwdown coming

soon? Oh, I thought you knew. I I was confused. Um, but I'm very excited to see it come down here. Right. Yeah, it's great. I will be there that day. Have you seen it before? Um, it's really cool. It's really cool. It would be lovely. It is so cool because you have snowboarders and skiers coming down a big platform in the middle of a city. It's very cool. Oh, yeah. Well, yeah. years ago. Um years ago, and I can't remember what the what the event was. Yeah. But there was a halfpipe built out of snow um outside of Pathfinder on High Street. Snowboarding competition. Yeah.

Mottown throwown. I believe there was a DJ like it to be. Yeah. My moves were Well, this sounds awesome. Captured forever on the internet. ly mark your calendar for February 21st, but I don't think that's been publicly announced yet, but here we are. You're the you're the one that mentioned expectations being set. It's all me. Thank you all so much. Thanks, Cam.

We have another item of correspondence this evening. We have Sarah Cranston with the Morgantown Public Library System presenting their facilities report.

Hi Sarah. Hi. Good evening. I was waiting to see if I get a button or not a button. Technology in council chambers is not our strong suit if you haven't noticed. We're working on it. It's a work in progress. It's great. Um, it may be your controller. We're working on it.

Would you like to attempt to click or or try? Well, you can't take it very far. I'm happy to. Let's see if you We should just move the ponyt. No, we're not. We're You want to try this? It's just the arrow, right? Yeah. Yeah. I just hit the right arrow and it moved to that. So, you can hit left and see if it goes back. You're off the hook, Emily.

Um, well, good evening everyone. Um, I'm Sarah Cranston. I'm the director of the Morgantown Public Library System. And um James Spears, the manager of the Morgantown Library and assistant director is also here this evening too. Um so um over the last year or so uh the library has taken part in a um master facility plan which is now available on the website. The link should have been shared with you. If you do need a paper copy of it, just let me know. I'll be happy to get you one. um the report from the consultant that we used is available plus um the appendices which include um a lot of the data that I'm going to try really hard to not talk about tonight but also happy to talk about that in much greater detail um really anytime. Uh so we started uh in fall of 2003 when the library board was doing their overall um strategic plan or you know we have to do a five-year plan that gets reported to the state and one of the main things that came out of that was the need for a master facility plan. Um and so we went through the process of figuring out what that means for us um and what it looks like and doing an RFP. Uh we ultimately selected Margaret Sullivan Studios to do the project for us. Um they are a national firm that really only does library uh design and strategic planning work and they partnered with Library IQ which is a data analytics company that specializes just in library data um to do the whole project for us. So as part of that we've had Library IQ for almost a year now. Um everybody loves it. it's really been transformative in our work in a lot of ways. Uh so we're also working on keeping that for future use.

Um and then from February through September of this past year, we did the internal work, which if you've ever worked with a consultant is way more work than you think it's going to be when you're like, we're going to get a consultant to do this. Um but they need a lot of information from us. So the staff worked really hard um both in like the pre-work stuff but then also in the workshops that they did um everybody came to it with an open mind and uh really got into the process and enjoyed it. They did a big um community engagement program or part of it too all of that took uh as everything does longer than we expected but we're really pleased with the whole process. Um, like everything that we do, it's rooted in our uh mission and values. Our mission is enriching our community through open access to information, resources, and experiences. Um, and our values do not want to show up. Um, we take these four values very seriously both as we guide our internal work and as we prevent the library to the public too. Uh, providing innovative service that's welcoming and fun to our community, fostering community well-being by offering programs, resources, and experiences. We believe stories are powerful and add meaning and value to our lives, especially when they're shared with others. and inclusion where we honor human diversity by offering access to resources that present multiple views and we provide inclusive opportunities for all. And I I feel like it's all represented very well throughout the plan. We're going to do a full stretch for each one. Um so first we had to address sort of

for inter internally plus explain to our external audience um what is facilities master planning and we basically wanted to reimagine what a library system would look like if we were starting from scratch. Um you know are our buildings the right size? Are they where where we want them to be? And what are we actually using the facilities for? and then also inherently what can't we accomplish based on buildings that we have. So from the RFP and our initial conversation with the Margaret Sullivan group um these were sort of our the main things that we identified as uh ambitions for the project. Um I pulled all of these screenshots out of their presentations and the plan. So, I'm sorry if they're a little small and fuzzy, but the main ones here, at least for us, um, that we really focused on were the strategic financial stewardship, creating a road map for maintaining and renovating library facilities, and um, a consensus driven approach to prioritization. So, those are the behind-the-scenes nerdy ones. And then the fun ones were visionary planning for community needs and growth, creating community- centered spaces and expansion recommendations for the library system. That's where things got colorful and fun and less data. So the methodology we incorporated existing regional studies like the uh city's plan um the county's plan um which both are on the same timeline so that was helpful uh the data analysis from library IQ this includes demographic information um and then also uh library usage data staff engagement workshops we had a team of of about 10

staff members who represented each location and both public facing and administrative to make those up. Uh community survey, community outreach events, and then a very targeted partner breakfast. This was the survey. By the end, we had um this says 850, but we were a little closer to 900 by the by the end of it. Um, we got a lot of fantastic feedback. I mean, the people who who completed the survey really didn't just fill in the bubbles, but gave us lots of great comments about what they really liked, what they felt was missing. Um, I mean, we all know when you ask somebody's opinion, a lot of times you just you get that one thing from 10 years ago that's either been fixed or whatever, but these were all these were really great and thoughtful answers. Um so some of the preliminary you know you can see what our our main audience is here are the people who um responded. We have a lot of people who identify themselves as families um adults caregivers of course lots of readers. That's that's kind of a given when you're willing to take a 10-minute survey for the library. Um but uh and then the maker or the creative creative. So this is pretty typical of the breakdown of almost every category of statistics that we have where Morgantown main library makes up about 70%. Cheat is a close second usually with 20 to 25%. Um the the interesting one here is that people who only use the digital services made up 4% of our responders. Um when it actually comes to circulation numbers,

that's much higher. Um but for people to identify solely as a digital user and not say that they have a home library is really um something that we hadn't tapped into before. And then these were the top five sort of if you could add any dream space into the library, what would it be? Um, and I think they really all kind of mean the same thing. Community garden, outdoor reading garden, reading nooks, vibrant cafe, and a messy maker space. You know, these are all places to be. Um and four out of five of them are places to be without a specific purpose, which is something that um we see referenced in a lot of community building things that people just need a space to be in order to gather to have natural um friendships and connections and to feel like you belong someplace. Um and this is something that does not exist in any of our spaces right now. a tiny bit in downtown in the kids area, but it's super tiny and restrictive. So, the fun part that we did with community members was we basic we had them design libraries um with these fun little bubbles of what they would put in all their spaces. Uh it was really fun to see the thing that popped up the most was a bubble that said center for happiness. Uh so we had the staff do a whole exercise about what that would mean to them. Um which was a lot of fun and got them thinking in directions, you know, like because not only do we all work there and we want it to be an enjoyable workplace, but we all also love and appreciate using the library as well. Um, but this was it was a lot of fun to see what people really wanted to put into the library and at some of the events that we went to,

people got super into it and we got um a lot of feedback and it was a great way to also, you know, have some good conversations. So, we used these stickers that had words or some like, you know, general images on it. So, it was more vibes about what kind of a library they wanted rather than specific like drawings and things like that. Um the staff took it next one step further and we worked on breaking down what we normally think of as a library from a traditional building into typologies of libraries. So, a bunch of different, you know, without thinking about specifics about where it would fit geographically or um, you know, what types of services you could offer through different types of buildings or amenities. And this was to me one of the um the best moments like from the staff workg group side because they really embraced it which you'd think that people want to really hold on to the way it's always been and instead it you know the idea many of them hadn't thought about the idea of having a library as a in a storefront location. Um and you know what you what what could you do with that? You could have you know super popular holds pickups. you could have um you know computer centers. And so they broke all of these down and designed how many things they would like to see across the county. So we can be a lot of things. Um we can't be all the things all the time to everybody. But we can this was the staff's one one moment of getting to dream big here uh and not have to think about logistics. But we really looked at like if we could have mobile services anywhere, if we could do pop-up libraries, pop-up stories, story times or puppet shows or

um you know a book bike or any of those kinds of things, where would you want to see it go? And so we threw every literally everything on the map. Um and then we started to break it down into how would we get there? And so this is where we take the the sort of two sets of typologies and we broke them into investing in community or investing in space. So things like a trail library or a popup or partner programs all take um investing in the community, connections with people in order to make those happen. It also takes logistics behind the scenes of being able to load up vans and um having staff available to do it. But that's one one road we can take. And then another one would be investing in place in uh in buildings either building new buildings, trying out more temporary spaces like something like a retail storefront or what we couldn't stop laughing about through the whole process where they called 5,000 foot micro libraries and that's bigger than all of our branch libraries. I was like we are upgrading to micro

macro. Um, right. But that's sort of the the smallest library that anybody would consider building at this point and it's triple the size of all of our our branches. Um so those are so that this is the fork in the road so to speak about like where we how we would decide whether we want to pres pursue more of a uh creating services to connect with communities to build more will to later invest in the place. So once we had sort of that that in in mind we started looking at the county as a whole as our as our definition by the state goes for our legal service population it's the entire county. Um we are the library board is appointed by the city. We are municipal library. We do not have anou with any other municipality in the county um or with the county for that matter. We do have a levy that in the description says we will provide library services for Montgalia County, but nothing more specific than that. So, there's room to um to explore new options to move around. Um these sort of regions were uh hotly debated. Uh we started off with there were five. We kind of tried to shrink them down. The northwest and the southern could also be one or two. Um, we tried there's a lot of different ways to break things into different groups, but this is where we ended up settling because it seemed sort of um it's where the roads go. There was a lot of well, you can't get there from their conversations as we tried to explain um

how west the western end of the county works to our consultants who did come and visit and did go to Blackville, but um they still struggled with how we build things on sides of hills all the time. Uh and so then we started putting in place um the two vague groups of typographies and what we could look at. Now, we're not going to do all of this, of course, um, but we've put the framework in place to be able to consider, you know, the opportunities as they come up either as it relates to partnerships that we would want to pursue and not wait to just present themselves or um, real estate possibilities. Uh so using this framework of a financially stable model um where we evaluate the readiness based on the community willingness to support the library um political will for whatever uh entity it falls underneath of um depending on where it is in the county. Dedicated partners and our financial capacities to both build and operate. Um and then we can use the communities to organize and advocate in the county. Uh this is sort of what we're using to decide whether we move forward with either replacing or repairing. Um repairing is an option really in most of any of our buildings. It's all um replacing where it is or moving it and building new. um but using that. So I won't go through all of the regions necessarily, but region one it would be Morgantown and the very immediate surrounding. Um these are all what the consultants did was they went through and they kind of identified where

audiences were not quite reaching to the capacity they think we can. um what future programs and services could look like that would connect with what people are already like in that area. And many of them can have a transition plan um which might mean an a small improvement now while building uh um either financially or relationship wise to get us to the to the full replacement. Um, I'm going to preface this with these are all concepts, not plans. I know the that the word plan gets used a lot, but uh what they gave us was um a concept for Morgantown to stay in the same building and reorganizing the space um such as something like turning the entire second floor just into a children's space. So there'd be more room to literally run around, but also um it would be, you know, away from the front door where you're right onto the busy spruce street. Um we'd be able to have programming in the same space as browsing, which works when you have kids in multiple age groups. Um and then reformatting the first floor. Uh this of course removes a lot of the current um books shelf space that we have which is always controversial but the data shows us how much of it sits after 3 years. Um so there's there's a lot of room to explore on things there too. So, this would be one option. Um, you know, to keep the library where it is downtown. Um, or everybody's favorite version is to move the library to uh the waterfront warf

district type area. Uh, where we can make use of every consultant group I ever sit with, you know, for any group that brings in is doing a plan. every single one of them, right? We're not making good enough use of the waterfront area. So, um um it's nice to be included in the group with everybody else. We can't all move there. Uh we don't all necessarily want to leave the the downtown district either. Um, so like something like this would be considered if there was a a lot of opportunity for improvement, you know, like improved access for parking. Um, being able to access it from the trail, uh, better flow through the building, which can help us with our staffing, like right now where each floor is very shut off. It takes a lot of staffing. If we had a more open fluid building, we could our operational costs could go down a little bit. Uh or we could change the way we staff the building. So, it's there's a lot of fun there. Um but it it's a big it's not going to happen soon, right? Unless somebody's has some property they want to donate. Um so we did this with each region uh which I'll go through quickly so that we can if you have questions. Um, oh, it also included um the possibility of exploring a Sunrest micro library. I have no doubt that there is the enthusiasm for a library in Sunrest. We hear this regularly. I think it would be amazing. Um, but the big challenge there is the operational costs of staffing and running another location without any changes to our current makeup. Um, and then cheat gets a similar workup. The cheat library, we could double or triple the size of it and it's

still um, and it would grow like crazy. It they are so busy all the time. Their uh, programs and story times regularly have 30 plus people at them. um you know and but this is a great example of what uh sort of a coll-located library could look like with a partnership with wreck um where there's not a public wreck um access to things like courts and fitness in that cheat lake area. it would be a great partnership, but whether that's a county thing or a city thing or whatever would be the next level to explore or something that the library just ran as um and then for region three, this is the uh what we currently would have clay in the Blackville area and what that would look like possibly with incorporating Milin Park. Um, and each of these has different focuses. And then the region four would be um what currently has the Arnutsville and Clinton libraries um which again have very different audiences and focuses right now. Um the Margaret Sullivan group identified some next steps with us to for us to help keep us on track. Mostly coming up with um a combined working group of city officials, library administration um pulling in some county people uh in order to keep um communication open about possible partnerships. I know, you know, there's lots of other entities looking at expanding space. You know, anytime we'd be able to share space where we could um take the a shared responsibility of

keeping things staffed would be in everybody's benefit. Um and then the board started to work on the most immediate priorities which are included on the website too if you want to look at them in detail. But mostly at this point it's figuring out um finances of what it would take to operate. you know, how much money would we need in our operating budget in order to run a Sunrest Library or expand our outreach uh efforts to include something that looks more like a bookmobile um or regularly occurring uh activities at senior centers or uh other places like that. Any questions? questions for Sarah.

Um Sarah, thank you for your first of all, thanks thank you for your leadership. Um your uh you you and your staff do an incredible job uh for our community. U the library is tremendous asset and it's a destination for uh downtown and and and just great resource beyond that. Um, I'm don't really have a question. I just want to really express my um complete and total support for uh this plan uh your endeavors to expand and grow because I think the library uh you know as great a job as you all do, I think if we give you better tools, if the community gives you better tools, uh you can do even more to support the community. So, thank you and let me know whatever you need from me.

Thank you, counselor. Appreciate that. And then I would also like to echo uh the counselor sentiment. The fact that you need to expand is a testament to the hard work that you all have put in and I appreciate this detailed report and just all the information that that's in it. Um, and I just appreciate all that hard work. So, thank you.

Thank you, counselor. I don't want this to become a gushfest, but you deserve it. You and your team absolutely deserve a moment of recognition for um making the Morgantown Public Library system so much more than a library. You guys work so hard to contribute in ways that we couldn't have even imagined a library could not that many years ago. So, thank you.

Thank you, Jody. I say all the time that parks and libraries are what entice families to want to live in an area and those are things that the city needs to invest in and support. So, always happy to support you, especially during budget season like we're in now. Thanks, Mayor. We appreciate I'm an avid library user, as you know. I see James all the time. I'm always in there returning and taking books. Like my husband yells me, "You already have seven at home." Like, I know, I know. I'll read them. Don't worry about it. I get right through them. It's great. Deputy Mayor Butcher is trying to say something. Ryan,

thank you, Joe. Um, Sarah, yeah, that's incredible presentation. Um, you guys really thought were really thoughtful and creative and ways that you engaged the community and I I really appreciate that. It was really cool. A lot of planners could learn a lot from what you guys did there. Um, the you talk a lot about what your dreams and hopes are for the library. What kind of challenges are you seeing right now? I mean fund funding is always a challenge you know nothing in our funding world is guaranteed um and it's all is all based on each other like uh you know our state funding is uh has a match system that we have to match locally. We have great support from council and from um city administration and we're very thankful for that. But, you know, everything is always a it could go away any year. The levy we at least get for a couple years. Um, our I think our one of our big sort of like longer term challenges as funding goes is really improving uh our ability to fund raise. It's not in our capacity with our current staff, meaning primarily me. It is not something that I have um you know, running a capital campaign is not something that we've ever really done. We were super proud of our like $4,000 that we raised this year for Day of Giving. That was huge. That's the most we've ever done. Um, but if we want to build buildings, we need we need uh real sort of um strategic and structural help to to raise those kinds of funds. I appreciate it that you have some items. So after you went big and broad that you had a few things to sort of start knocking off the list, which is

going to be the best way to handle the beginning of this as you figure out how to marshall the more funds. But it's neat to just kind of figure out the really huge picture and then figure out how to get started. So, I appreciate it that your presentation included both of those cuz you do a really nice job and you have a lot of support in the community. So, thank you counselor. If you need Morgantown Forward to come and paint for you, you let us know. I will in exchange for those book trails you put up, we will uh come and help you paint.

When when would your lovey come back up? Uh we are generally speaking on the um presidential primary election. So two years. Okay. Yeah, we're halfway there. Um 20. Yeah. We'd like to, you know, be able to show our our levy funds are operational. They are not like the park funds. A certain amount of that is dedicated to capital projects and ours are not are strictly operational. So, um it makes it a little bit harder to do flashy things and and point a big arrow to to the levy on it, but um it's Yeah, we have two more years.

You mean your employees are not wearing um they're not wearing uh little recognitions on them? Not yet. We'll take the mask.

I appreciate Councelor Butcher's question. And um and now's the I mean now's obviously the time to start planning if that's going to be a lever that um that you know is look to to fill a gap in a capital stack to to for facilities for facilities budget. So, um, uh, happy to happy to, uh, talk about, uh, you know, sourcing someone to, uh, or someone or some people to help with a cap or run a capital campaign. So, um, I think that that's a great idea. Great. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Sarah. That is the end of our planned correspondence. Clerk, Wade, did we have any additional correspondence? No, mayor. I had none. Did any member of council have correspondence to share? Seeing none, uh, we have no public hearings this evening, which brings us to unfinished business. Our only item of unfinished business is boards and commissions. Uh, is there any member of council that wishes to make an appointment this evening? I would like to nominate Stephanie Hunt to the uh Morgantown Transit Authority,

the Mountain Line Transit Authority. Thank you. All in favor? Yes. I. And that is a reappoint. Um Councelor Michael, do you have one? I'd like to appoint Stephanie Hunt to the Human Rights Commission. Second. All in favor? Yes. Uh, councelor Hunt. I'd like to nominate James Spears for the Historic Landmarks Commission. Second. Thank you. All in favor? Yes. Great. Council. I'd like to nominate Relle Gonzalez to the Human Rights Commission. Second.

Thank you. Yes. Great. And Councelor D. I I will nominate Lucy Allen to the Human Rights Commission. Second.

All in favor? Great. Uh those folks will be hearing from the clerk's office about their appointments. Uh is there anyone that we missed? That was the list that I had. All right. We have no special committee. Oh, no. We're on the public portion. Sorry. public hearing, public portion, it's all uh we will now move into the public portion of tonight's meeting which is subject to rules established by council adopted by resolution. Generally, you have four minutes to speak. You must come to the podium and state your name and address for the official record. Uh no personal comments or comments um directed at any single council purp. there was a signup sheet. We will first go off of this signup sheet, but it is not a requirement for speaking. If there's anyone after we go through the list, um you are welcome to do so at that time. So, we'll open the public portion. The first person on the list is Paige Rearing. Hello. Okay. And I learned my lesson. I'll stand back here. I'm uh My name is Paige Rearing. I live just down the street here on Spruce. Uh, I am here today to speak on behalf of my neighbors who are too scared to be here. We do not want Immigration and Customs Enforcement operatives in our city and we ask that every public servant from council to clerk to police make our city as inhospitable to these ICE agents as possible. I appreciate the statements made by Mayor Trumbull and Deputy Mayor Butcher, but I hope today to reach those whose hearts may still be petrified, believing as I do that I read the future a right. It would be criminal in me to remain silent. Many of the people who have been kidnapped from our state were

literally just doing their jobs. 40 people have already been detained in our state this year. According to West Virginia watch, ICE pays the state $90 for each day it it holds a detainee. So perhaps that is why DHS established a base of operations in Morgantown. The same van that kidnapped two restaurant workers in Nutterport, Pennsylvania plate LNK unknown 544 spent several nights here at the residents in by Marriott across the street from the children's hospital. This van was part of an ice fleet that engaged in high-speed car chases, one of which resulted in a crash near the Bridgeports complex in Bridgeport. According to West Virginia's news, two Harrison County commissioners said the incidents created more risk to the public than was necessary. Journalists who tried to film the arrest were intimidated by armed agents who said that filming was not allowed in direct violation of the US Constitution's First Amendment. Lindseay Fono, owner of Takaria Lulu, where the detainees worked, said this the night of the arrests. I am brokenhearted of the events that took place today. These people came to Christmas. We celebrated birthdays. They came on a dime's notice if we needed help. They have family. They are friends. They are people. These men were not bad guys. They came to work, did their job, and went home. No drugs, no drinking, no kidnapping kids, no horror story, just people. Pray for us. While ICE has not yet targeted Morgantown, agents have been seen scouting our neighbors across the river, tailing a University High School bus from Westover to Granville last Thursday. And I presume we will see ice in our streets very soon. Some may some listening may think that this will not affect them, but each day we see more people caught in the crossfire. Renee Good, a poet and writer

and wife and mom, has been labeled a domestic terrorist by the federal government. And DHS has used this as an excuse to implement de facto martial law in Minneapolis. The fifth amendment reads that no person shall be deprived of either life or liberty without due process of law. And yet good was never given that opportunity. Such slander is not unheard of in West Virginia. We heard similar smears about striking miners and their supporters when the National Guard was sent to paint in Cabin Creeks and when the army assisted King Cole at the Battle of Blair Mountain. ICE agents modern-day Baldwinfeld's blood hounds run wild in our hills. And when they turn their gaze to Morgantown, we should not be surprised when they show us the same warmth they showed Renee, that of a fired gun. If we cannot be safe, we must be good. And as Mother Jones said, pray for the dead, fight like hell for the living. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh the next person on the list is Tori Bush. Good evening to the council. I'm from uh just across the river in west over. Um I was also wanting to speak uh this evening with regard to the u immigration customs and enforcement operations. Um there's two data sets uh from the KO Institute in Washington DC uh that span from January 2025 to November last year that showed consistently on a month-to-month basis uh 2/3 of people detained by ICE do not have a criminal conviction and as low as 5% are convicted of a uh violent crime. just for the sake of time uh after the meeting if any of the council members are interested I can uh provide those articles to them. Uh if we think of that that trend in terms of our immigrant neighbors here in Morgantown regardless of their status uh we know who the targeted victims of this operation would be. Blueco collar service and healthcare workers as well as international students and faculty of the university who contribute to the wider academic community and sustain WVU as a top research institution in the state. ISIS's actions elsewhere in the country have been unpredictable and dangerous. And here they could very well disrupt the several ways that both immigrants and citizens of color contribute to the economy and sustainability of Morgantown, one of the few places of our state that's still experiencing growth. I would also ask the council to consider how its actions moving forward will not only affect the working and academic areas that Morgantown is tied to, but the city's relationship with its charitable partners. Um I think that any cooperative ordinances, resolutions or memos with respect to ICE would only serve to uh alienate uh the city from those partners. And I'm thinking here primarily of uh Catholic Charities which the council and the city worked very hard with to establish the warming

shelter uh Catholic leadership um from Pope Leo to the Conference of Catholic Bishops here in the United States. even uh the bishop of the Wheeling Charleston dascese here in West Virginia, they've all made their stance pretty clear that they're um with immigrants and and wanting to work towards their dignity and rights being respected. And I think that that it is the intentions of the council to see that that those rights and dignities are upheld. I think we saw the beginnings of that with uh the mayor and deputy mayor's statement. Uh but the people also need to see that uh translated into tangible action um in in a in a continuation of the the types of sentiments that were made in that statement of being with uh people in people who are immigrants but also in rejecting the type of authority that as we've seen and has been mentioned in in Minnesota is really treating all of us as as less than human. And uh to that end, I would hope that uh the council and the city would would look to other partners like uh Mountain State Justice, ACLU of West Virginia, and the various progressive faith faith-based communities here in Morgantown to help the city navigate through this moment. And I I thank you all for your time.

Thank you. Uh next person on the list is Michelin A.

Good evening. Uh, my name is Mike. I live over in First Furs on Alleian Avenue. Um, madame mayor and councel, the letter regarding ICE was a weak and pathetic attempt to address the very real concerns of our community. Allow me to translate your letter into plain language the way it read to many of us. The city of Morgantown is here to help, but only after we let ICE screw you over. Super great sentiment, folks. That's what you're putting out into the community. What your letter should have been was nothing short of a fullthroated condemnation of ICE. You'll see on my shirt our state motto, uphold it by doing better. Those were the only three names on the list this evening. Is there anyone else wishing to speak during the public portion? You can approach and

state your name and address for the record. Uh, my name is Timothy McCollum. Um, I also live uh in First Ward on Allegian Avenue. That was my wife that just uh addressed you guys. Um, I had something written here, but uh I want to address Paige said she's here to speak on behalf of the people that are too afraid to speak. Um, I'm 38 years old. I'm white. I'm cisgender heterosexual. I'm a Christian. I was born here in the United States. My parents were born in the United States, as were my grandparents, my great-grandparents. I'm as far from any minority as you can get. I'm about as privileged as you can get. I'm afraid. I'm scared of what happens when ICE comes to Morgantown. I'm afraid for myself. I'm afraid for my family. I'm afraid for my neighbors, my friends, my co-workers. And we heard from people tonight about Main Street Morgantown and the growth that's happened there, about the public library and the growth that has happened there. Do you know what happens when people are afraid? They hunker down and they stay home. They don't go to downtown. It doesn't matter if there's a halfpipe. They don't go to the library. It doesn't matter if there's a garden. They stay home. Uh gentleman's report tonight said there's been an 80% growth in the downtown events. You want to see an 80% decrease jacked thugs asking people to see their papers is exactly how you do that. And that is what will happen. Uh Edmund Burke said that all that is necessary for evil to triumph is is that good men do nothing. So I implore you do not sit idly by and do nothing. Do not refuse to take a side. simply not offering cooperation is no longer enough. The position that ICE has no place in Morgantown, that they are not welcome, and that their presence will not be

tolerated must be clear. It must be spoken forth in one voice. And as the leaders of our city and our community, you cannot simply be part of that voice. You must be the face of that voice. And I encourage you to do so. Thank you.

There's gentlemen in the back. Hello, my name is Nick Zorchinsky. I live in South Park and uh I really appreciate all of the um all of the statistics and citations and the arguments that the people who spoken before me have brought. Um so I won't repeat them. Instead, I will yes and them in that uh I think all of those are legitimate concerns for our community and for our safety and for our prosperity. But there's even uh perhaps just two things that are also weighing on my mind. One is maybe an emotional call to action. You know, I have a small child and um he's getting to the age where he can understand what's going on. I have to explain to him that his grandpa died. I have to explain to him that there's certain members of my family I don't talk to anymore. Do I really now have to explain why there are masked people carrying assault weapons walking around our city? Are you freaking kidding me? Think about that. That's not something that happens in this country. Why is everybody acting like it's normal or it's okay? It's the furthest thing possible. And then to add to that, uh the people who are carrying these weapons are not in any kind of uniform. They haven't been trained in person. They do four weeks online and they bring their own guns from home. This isn't it's not like this is a uh well organized operation. It's again what was Jack booted thugs. Yeah, 100%. You know, I I I just uh I can't believe that it's

come to this and I can't believe that there even has to be a conversation about whether we're going to cooperate with this or not. So, that's all I want to say. Thank you. Is there anyone else wishing to speak?

Seeing none, we will close the public portion. There are no special committee reports this evening. Uh we move into the consent agenda. I will read each item on the consent agenda. If there's any member of council willing to pull any item off of the consent agenda, they may do so before a motion is made and a vote is taken. Otherwise, the the vote is taken on all items together. Two items on the consent agenda this evening are consideration of approval of a first reading of an ordinance authorizing a lease agreement with Intoune Counseling LLC for office space at the Morgantown Municipal Airport. The second item, consideration of approval of first reading of an ordinance providing for annual reporting by boards and commissions.

Move to approve. Thank you. Second. Thank you. Clerk wait. Yes. Joe Bugan, yes. Jody Hollings, yes. Weezy Michael, yes. Jenny Seline, yes. Mark DS, yes. Deputy Mayor Butcher, yes. Mayor Trumble, yes. Passes 70. Uh, new business. We have one item of new business. Item A, consideration of approval of a resolution approving and authorizing the submittal of a substantial amendment to the fiscal year 2025 annual action plan for the use of CDBG funds.

Yes, thank you, mayor. Um, I will run briefly down the process. This is a proposed resolution for our amendment to our annual action plan for our fiscal year 2025. Um last year at the end of last year we did an annual amendment for our fiscal years 19 20 23 and 24. And as part of that project uh we look to accomplish several things including making sure that we are able to draw down those funds in a timely manner. Uh we also addressed some concerns related to a green space in the Greenmont neighborhood that was previously identified in one location that we needed to uh collect. Uh we had several um engagement opportunities including in uh interaction with those in the Greenmont neighborhood uh to seek what was important to them as we move forward into this public green space planning. uh through that process, one of the things that we heard come out time and time again as a as a really key item that they'd love to see is a pedestrian bridge. Um so as we've moved forward and and we're starting to work through the spending of these funds, the pedestrian bridge was an item contemplated in that green space area but not specifically uh gone into as a main component. Uh we were have been very fortunate to receive a donation of a 100 foot pre-engineered uh fiber reinforced polymer bridge from WVU as a donation uh which will help us move our project along much faster than originally anticipated. So the pedestrian bridge has now became a real reality of something that we could execute much quicker than a future part of the plan for the this Greenmont neighborhood area uh green space. So

what this substantial amendment does and as we work through substantial amendment processes uh these are required to be posted we we put them in the newspaper they're posted in various public places such as the library or city hall. uh we do offer a comment period where people can provide some engagement uh before we bring it to you all to do a proposed plan amendment that we submit to our CDBG funding partners uh to establish a new project. So what we are doing tonight uh is establishing a pedestrian bridge project and and taking funding and reallocating from some of the other projects in order to make sure that we can move forward with this pedestrian bridge project. uh this will allow us to see that happen. I do want to highlight this is only amending our fisc year 25 allocations uh and there is still funding available in those fiscal year 19 202 23 and 24 funding allocations towards this Greenmont green space area including there's about $272,000 allocated towards that program that is staying with that project. uh this is just us peeling off a portion of it to move the pedestrian bridge forward. Um so public feedback that we have generally heard through this process um was that they are supportive of the pedestrian bridge moving forward. That's a part of the project that they want to see happen. Uh but the neighborhood appreciates uh a continued focus to make sure that green space becomes a reality as well as we consider future funding for CDBG. So, what is before you today um will allow us to move forward on the pedestrian bridge. Efforts towards the lower Greenmont uh green space does remain of a priority. Staff in fact uh just this week or last week met with our HR HRG design group um whose completed

surveys they did some borings last week. um they are working through some uh landscape architecture plans and and working to bring some concepts back to the neighborhood. So wanted to make sure that we're clear that this allows us to move forward on the ped bridge, but that doesn't mean that the other portion of this project is going to lieow that there is still work being done on that. Um so before you would allow us to create this new project, reallocate funds and move forward with the bridge part of this program. questions for the city manager on this item.

When should we expect to see those uh renderings or plans from HRG and or other consultants associated with landscape architecture? I can get you a more firm timeline. I staff just met with them that last week. So need to get that feedback from them.

Yeah. I'm particularly interested in feedback after the the neighbor the the neighborhood listening session that we held. Um and which was which was great and and while greatly attended and um but yeah so interested in what that timeline looks and to work on setting expectations for when uh the the stakeholder community might see some followup.

Absolutely. Um and we will see if we can get that timeline solidified. I I do know that staff is going to the Greenmont neighborhood meeting next Monday and and they will talk about a variety of things. Uh but Damen will be present as well to address questions related to the bridge. So we'll see if we can make get a timeline put together before then. In the paperwork in the packet, I know the bridge is longer than the span of the creek. The packet showed that we're going to reroute the rail trail in that area. Is that the current plan instead of trying to shorten the bridge? Yes, there'll be some minor modifications to the rail trail that will be designed as part of this process.

How does that work, pardon? With the with the right of way and the ballast and all that. I'm looking at that. I'm like, "Oh, yeah, that one." Sure. I'm looking at it. Um, do we have all the right way we need and everything? I mean it's a park. So yeah, we we will believe that we will be able to engineer and design it in a way that accomplishes within the current right away. So this won't void the warranty of the bridge. Right. All right. It's a tough thing. I'm glad it's being accomplished. I'll move to approve. Second.

Thank you. Any further discussion on the substantial amendment to the CDBG action plan? Seeing none, yes. Joe Bugan, yes. Jody Hollings, yes. Weezy Michael, yes. Jenny Seline, yes. Mark Downs, yes. Deputy Mayor Butcher, yes. Mayor Trumble,

yes. passes 70. Uh, city manager report. Just a couple of brief items. Mentioned that we be traveling Sunday through Tuesday for the West Virginia Municipal League. Um, and then we will be back here for the Tuesday's committee of the whole. So, I'm looking forward to engaging in Charleston. Um along those lines, we we do anticipate and staff's aware of and and monitoring um some anticipated snow impacts as we head into the weekend. So, our public works crew is always on high alert this time of year and certainly uh they've even shifted into a staffing model that uh has different staff scheduled at different times to allow more coverage throughout the entire week. Um uh but we will make sure all proper preparations are made related to public works to respond to the storm. Um I wanted to thank you all for uh the small budget discussions as as we're working through our capital plan. Uh I will ask that the week of February 9th, we would like to have small meeting as well the one-on-one meeting related to operations and personnel. If you could take a look at your calendar and let me know which days to avoid for each of you personally, we can get that scheduled um with an anticipation that the February committee of the whole we will present the budget um for consideration and adoption in March. So that's it for me tonight. Thank you.

Thank you, city clerk.

Yes, mayor. Um the fire civil service commission will be holding entrylevel firefighter exams. Um the agility exam is January 31st. That's a Saturday at 9:00 a.m. Uh those passing the agility will move forward to the written exam which is about 30 days after on February 26th. That's a Thursday at 6:00 p.m. Um we uh we gathered last week. It was a last minute gather. So, I do want to share that with you, Mayor, because I know you'd like to uh go with us. So, you'll have to make a special um uh call out to Lieutenant Doug Sharp. Uh we gathered to celebrate 30 years uh with the Morgantown Fire Department. Um and so we honored him and his service and his commitment that he has shown uh to the community since January 2nd, 1996. So, uh, we honor him and congratulate him for this milestone. Um, if folks are interested in participating in the entry level firefighter exam, uh, it's an easy find on our website at morgantownw.gov. If you hover over departments, uh, and then fire department, right, as soon as you see the the front page there, it says apply to be a Morgantown firefighter. So, it's a quick, easy link to apply online. If folks have any uh difficulties or need assistance, please reach out to the clerk's office. Um, also this Saturday, uh, January 24th at 9:00 a.m., the police civil service commission will hold entry level police officer written and agility exams. Um, it's not too late to apply. Uh, so please reach out to the to the clerk's office. Um, again, you could, um, apply

online. Uh, go to morgantownw.gov, hover over departments, find police department, and there's a link there to apply online. Um, the exam, it will be located at the public safety building located at 300 Spruce Street. Um the police civil service commission will hold oral interviews for those who do pass the agility and the written exam immediately after the agility exam. Uh and additionally the commission will meet prior to the testing um to elect their president and certify names. And that's one of the last the last um things that the police civil service service commissioners do before they go to um interviews with uh our administration. So um I want to thank the police civil service commission and the fire civil service commissioners for their work and their um their diligence in trying to get our new uh new new folks in to be uh uh employees. And then that takes me to our boards and commissions. Uh we do have many vacancies as you all know and I appreciate your appointments. Um for folks out um in our in our city who would like to volunteer, it's easy to find that as well on morgantownw.gov. If you search volunteer opportunities, there's a long list of our boards and commissions who have vacancies. there's a link to to that specific board or commission that gives information about what what their purpose is um when they meet, things like that, how to apply. So, if someone is interested in being on a board commission, we just ask you take a little bit of time and and check out our website or call the city clerk's office. then we can certainly help them and get

them connected to the to or one of you all who um might be able to answer this. And that concludes our report. Yeah.

Uh we'll skip over the city attorney's report this evening as we have no city attorney this evening. Uh move on to report from council members. Councelor Abu Ghan first. Uh actually I don't really have anything to report this weekend because we were at a wrestling tournament and our girls were uh setting a precedent for the first time ever at our OPAC conference which is one of the oldest conferences in the United States and the girls of Morgantown and Morgantown High are now solidly put in the record books for first time ever. So that's it. Good job. Thank you. Congratulations.

Very proud. Really proud of them. Our girls program continues to grow and uh yeah, I saw Netty had won and I recognized her from the um the mock city council meeting during municipal government week. So, actually both of the girls that were there were on our mock city council. So, they're active in uh in being aware as well as on the mat. So, couldn't be more proud. Fantastic.

Um, I only have one thing today. I tried to write it down, but my pen died. Um February 10th we're going to have an open house at Wild Hills Community Center and it's going to be featuring MRTC partnership program programming studio 287 workshops Eureka Cafe of course um the open gymnasium access and we're going to have a health out hour with a retired doctor and the next meeting I'll have a time for all that that hasn't been So

yeah, that's part of B Park's neighborhood nights that they're doing. Last week, the week before, they did a free event at the Ice Arena and next month is the um Miles Hill Community Center. Usually this the second Tuesday, pardon. Do you have a time? Uh I did not get a time. I didn't get a time either. Okay, that's all I have.

Thank you. Thank you, mayor. Um, apologies because I actually have several items. Uh, but I'll try to be brief. Um, last week Danielle and I attended the neighborhood coordinating council meeting, which I always enjoy hearing from the other neighborhood associations. Um, and South Park's major update is just that our January meeting will be officers only so that we can sort of plan out the year before we um, get the neighborhood involved. Um, we had our first housing info session on Wednesday. Mark and Danielle and I were there and it was great to engage with folks from the community about some of the ways the city can potentially create some more affordable housing. Um, thanks to development services for putting all of that together. Um, as Mayor Trumbull mentioned, it's budget season and as a firsttime city councelor, I'm learning a lot. Uh, but I just I wanted to state that um I'm having some promising conversations about advocating for transparency um in the next cycle and advocating for some uh more opportunities for public education and input regarding our budget. Um, the city budget is a way that we communicate our priorities and what matters to us and um, I want you to know that we all are aware of that and um, and working towards being truer to those priorities. Um, I sure I'm sure Mayor Trump will mention the uh, fundraiser next week for the warming shelter. Um, but I also wanted to share that counselor DS and I spoke with Cassidy at the Westr Run facility where the warming shelter is located um just this morning and I uh Cassidy was kind enough to um send me some really um promising and uh

encouraging stories um about um just some positive outcomes that are coming from the warming shelter alone. Um because of the stability that even a temporary warming shelter provides, many of the people utilizing the facility that the the shelter are able to access um occupational therapy services, um psychological services, peer recovery support services, um as well as being able to attend doctor's appointments and go get the medication that they need. Um, so I I just wanted to say that tonight because even again, even something as temporary as a warming shelter, even that level of stability makes such a huge difference in the lives of these people. Um, I mentioned that to publicly state that and share that information as well as um encourage folks to donate if you are financially able to. um also come to the fundraiser which I'm sure Danielle will share more details about um next week. Um and finally, thank you to everyone who came to speak tonight um to speak up for our community members who cannot speak up for themselves. Um, I want to be very clear about where I personally stand and that is obviously for the dignity and safety and prosperity and human rights of immigrants. Families in our community, our very community are hurting and scared and financially disabled

among many other impacts because of the abhorent inhumane actions of these untrained officers. We are having continuous conversations um about different ways we as a city can protect our neighbors. Um, I just wanted to thank you for coming to advocate for them and I wanted to be clear about where I stand. Thank you. That's all I have. Thank you, Council. um those in the Evansdale Neighborhood Association um have been passing around information about um mub being in their area and lining um the pipes. Uh this is something that is um maybe you can shed a little bit more light on it, but this is something that is um uh needed in our area, but it's also something that people have questions about because it put um uh fumes into some people's houses and they were very concerned about it. And some of them were aware that this was going to happen and some of them weren't. And so one suggestion was more like door hangers and things like that when there's work that's being done. that is the type of work that's that kind of intrusive and invasive that that um that people would have unusual um presumably chemical smells coming into their homes. Um, and so, uh, I know that it was addressed many different ways and I know that there was a lot of communication back to the neighbor association and so both the work that's being done and the um, fact that neighbors did feel comfortable speaking up and um, requesting that they get more information

um, super helpful. I would love to know a little bit more about um I I read bits and pieces of things, but I would love to know a little bit more about this lining process and just sort of highlights of how long um it might be have improvement and what happens when you're lining in areas where the um there are areas where the pavements the concrete's crush down quite a bit. And so I'm wondering what happens when you're lining something and it's already pretty crushed. I didn't know kind of how that works. So that might not be something that people here tonight can answer. Might be. Um but uh if it isn't, I would love to have just a little just a little bit more information about that process. Um, I very much also appreciated the library's presentation this evening, the Main Street's presentation this evening, and those who came to speak um about our neighbors that uh may not have a good way to protect themselves and um how we might how we might address how we might address those concerns from ICE. Um, the second housing workshop I think we should highlight. Is it tomorrow night or Thursday night?

Thursday. Thursday night. So, I would love it if someone would highlight the time and the location. Thursday at the Woodburn Community Complex, formerly Woodburn Elementary, from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Director Jerger and I stopped by today to scout the scene. That is open house drop in style, by the way. So, you don't need to be able to come the whole time. Just come check it out. Leave when you need to. Woodburn Thursdays 6:00 to 7:30.

All right. Thank you very much. Somehow I had in my head that it was Wednesday and Wednesday. So, now I have it more clearly aligned. So, I'd like to pass things along to Mark. Thank you.

Okay. Thanks, Jenny. Um, so yeah, in terms of uh MUB and the Evansdale uh lining, I guess um there's been there has been lots of communication. Um it so happened that the communications were coming into me when Jamie and I were there on Friday meeting with MUB at the MUB office and uh we were real time passing that passing that along to him. Um, yeah. And so in terms of the process, just because I'll just so they do go through and camera the pipes before they line them to make to determine make sure that they're not crushed. Um, so whatever is happening in those instances. U, I think we can rely on that process that that the pro the the infrastructure is intact before they before they go and line it. Um certainly we can get more information from MUB when they come forward. They come to us on the 27th at the committee of the whole. Um we uh suggested some improvements uh in terms of outreach. I know they leverage the door hangers. Door hangers I don't think are you know I mean they're not 100% reliable uh method. So, we uh I know like in in for instance, there's an Aendsdale uh neighborhood association email address.

Yes, there is. Let's let's let's let's reach out to the email address and let them know when we're when we're going to do something in their area. I mean, that's that seems like a lowhanging fruit. So, uh but um I I think we're fortunate to have a utility that is um committed to u getting that feedback and acting on it. So, uh, and they are Yeah, those appreciate it.

Uh, 20, we talked about the 22nd, uh, housing listening session. Um, again, come if you can spend 5 minutes going through it and you literally can. I mean, the it's it's very straightforward. Um, look at the options that we're considering and weigh in, please. Uh I think we had about 18 16 to 20 people come through the last session. It was and it was very engaging. Um so uh that was fun. Um Greenmont Neighborhood Association on Monday the 26th at 700 p.m. at Jeans in the speak easy downstairs. Um so uh looking forward to that. Uh the the uh the West Virginia Balance of State point in time count is happening on the 28th uh from 400 p.m. to the 29th of this month next week at 3:59 p.m. Um, if you don't know what this is, every curriculum of care in the nation does a count of all people experiencing homelessness uh in a shelter or on the street uh in the last 10 days of January and all that data is accumulated nationally and it drives how funds are allocated around around the around the country. So, I will be volunteering uh for that point in time count. You can still sign up to volunteer if you're interested. Um go to uh West Virginia WV or WVBOS.pointime.info for uh more information. Um, we've got, uh, Jody mentioned the the warm-up, uh,

warm-up annual now annual third annual warming shelter fundraiser on the same night, uh, from 6:00 p.m. at starting at 6 p.m. at the co-op. Uh, and then I want to um just say some talk about the budget process and um, it's my first time going through it as well. Um, and uh, I think it's important that folks know, get updates periodically as we're working through this. And, um, I I want to kind of just be clear about the focus that I'm bringing to these discussions as we go through the process. Um, for the public and for council, we all can't be in these meetings at the same time. So, um, but, uh, I've stated many times that our city's not in a growth phase. Uh, if we track our revenue, we're we're down over time adjusted for inflation for about the last 10 plus years. Um, so we will get back to growth. Uh, but that requires us acknowledging where we are uh, today and and and being intentional about turning that around. So, uh, right now we're in a period of contraction and, uh, and and you know, costs not nothing's getting cheaper. Costs continue to go up, demands continue to rise, and, uh, that makes discipline essential. Um, it really does. and and and looking at at the budget, um what concerns me is that we have historic allocations and restrictions that we're operating with that makes it harder for us as a city to manage core priorities

like infrastructure and maintenance and basic services. uh where you know kind of each well-intentioned allocation or or required allocate allocation of funds reduces our ability to response to evolving demands. So um I'm also concerned about spending that functions as a subsidy uh particularly where public dollars are already being allocated. um and and kind of the revenue constrained environment that we're operating in uh I think we owe uh residents clarity, restraint and maturity uh about how we move forward. Um so uh more transparency is something that I advocate for as well. Um, and I just felt compelled to make these public these comments publicly to be clear about kind of the lens that I'm bringing to uh looking at the budget as information that we're consuming now turns into decisions that we apply later. Uh, this process does is presenting us some real challenges. I think we can be honest about that and uh and I expect we're going to be able to meet these challenges and we're going to be able to turn this around and we're going to get back to growth. But again, if we don't acknowledge where we are, it makes it harder to do that. So, um I appreciate saying the opportunity to say that, share that. Uh, I want to thank the folks that turned out here to um to talk about something that I care

about tremendously as well. Uh, I hear you. So, thank you, Deputy Mayor Butcher. Yes, thank you. Uh, I apologize to everybody. I have uh some kind of stomach flu um and did not want to give it to everybody else. And uh yeah, so thank you. Much appreciated.

Yeah, no problem. Um so uh the the first thing I wanted to bring up was just um a a technical issue that we probably need to figure out how we can address with it that that has happened probably more than we realize and and and I've noticed it happening. We get constituent emails pretty frequently that go I mean that's that's essentially what it is. We got one today. Um, you guys may see it in your family right now. If you look, it's a a lady who's talking about her driveway. Um, and I saw it come in as a notification that went to my inbox and it's gone. It's cuz it went spam. Um, so some of these are getting filtered in a way that they shouldn't. I think our spam filter is probably a little too strict for public officials anyway. Uh, but that's just a technical thing that I wanted to bring up because we don't want to be missing emails from folks. Uh, you know, her she says she's had a problem with the driveway for like seven years. Um, so we don't want to miss anyway. Um, I wanted to echo a little bit of what Mark was saying about the budget. Um I do think um at least in terms of us so far we've we've had a workshop on capital expenses and uh capital allocations. Um I think it can be um I think it's pretty obvious that we um we haven't we haven't corrected in the past or ensured that we had uh a plan for a balanced budget in the future. I'm very very grateful uh for our current city manager and I'm hoping that given the kind of challenges that we're seeing um that we can make sure that this council is very intentional about

ensuring that we don't leave a mess for anybody else coming down the road of um the last thing I wanted to address. I appreciate everybody who uh came and spoke. Um, I stand with you. I um I would also say uh as a city council uh we are and especially in terms of this issue quite powerless um those that are sitting out there and and those that I am a you know we're we're all community members and we're quite powerful and there are things that you can engage in with your neighbors and with people who we're in the room with you. Um that can help protect people. And I think um our biggest job, one of our biggest jobs as city council people is to create a vibrant community that has spaces that people can access and build community in um and welcomes community so that these places are harder to be destroyed. Um, but we're also seeing very, very strong communities facing extreme hardship right now because of what's going on. Um, and yes, I am I too am afraid of of what that means. I'm afraid for my neighbors and I am uh always seeking the advice and the input of those impacted and those that work with those impacted. So, just trust that that has happened. We we've discussed we've talked about creative ideas about what we can do to

try to protect people at this time. Um, to be frank, it is slim and um that is largely a function of state code and if you look at the bills that are going into the state legislature right now, it's going to be more slim if they get those bills passed. So advocate at the state legislature. I wouldn't suggest driving down to Charleston. You're not going to get much done. Maybe give them some calls or leave some notes on their bills. We're a little too far from Charleston for anybody to be breaking their back to go down there to talk to people who probably won't listen. But um the biggest thing I would tell you right now is that build networks within your community. build community with the people in your room in the room with you and ensure that when things happen that we have each other's backs and will conclude my comments. Thank you. Um yes certainly in favor of everyone expressing their constitutional right to free speech and peaceful protest. I know we had several of those today. deputy mayor and I felt compelled to put out the statement last week and things have not been pleasant since. Um, but it is what it definitely not the worst uh backlash that I've gotten for anything in my time on council. Uh I will say that I have been in touch with members of the faith community who lead bilingual church services who have um engaged about ensuring that folks that they generally serve who are feeling the need to shelter in place have all of the

um resources that that they need. and working with him on on however I can personally help with that. Um, H3 happens to be home to Catholic Charities as someone mentioned earlier today. um they have an immigration attorney on site at H3 and we are working to ensure that anyone who feels the need for those services has the ability to access that that facility and those services. Um it as Deputy Mayor Butcher said the state has made it incredibly difficult but that does not mean we we have to be complacent. Um it it's a it's a tough situation all around. I will say I am I do serve with the National League of Cities. My part of my committee's charge is to make recommendations on immigration reform to the federal government. Um, and we did that and they were passed very handily by the uh voting members of the NLC and um that comes from red states, blue states, everything in between. Everyone wants to all local elected officials that were there recognize the need for the federal government to make changes on how things are being enforced. So I have another call with that committee uh leadership I will be chairing that committee this upcoming year. I have a leadership call with them on Friday. I'm sure a topic of

conversation will be some of those policy recommendations and how we can ensure that we are meeting with the correct people in Washington DC to ensure that even if we're not being paid attention to that they're at least listening. I don't think there's a strong will at the federal level to um make a lot of changes on that at this time, but we still we still go and we still try and um if there's anything anyone wants me to pass along to our state legislators while we are there early next week, I am certainly happy to do so. I will break my back and go to Charleston. whether they want to listen to me or not, I will be there and I'm sure I will be there several times throughout the legislative session. So, um just to address that, uh sorry to hear that I missed Lieutenant Sharp's um celebration. Lieutenant Sharp has been a very friendly gentleman with me. He made sure that I had the ability to do my ride along with the Morgantown Fire Department and his crew specifically. And when I sat there for 6 hours and got zero calls after a football game, he allowed me to come back and do some planned uh action. That's what I like to call it at the time, planned action. We did some fire drills with the with the university. So, I will be sure to reach out to Doug um personally, but wanted to acknowledge sorry that I missed that. Uh the city manager and councelor Selene and I attended the Martin Luther King Jr. Unity

breakfast on Saturday with the Center for Black Culture at West Virginia University. Um very good breakfast and presentation from folks there. Um very inspiring. I found it um one of the one of the better speeches I had heard especially on the topic. So um it was it was great. And then yesterday I also uh tuned in to the community coalition for social justice MLK. They had a lift raise your voice and vote theme. Um so a lot of how to make sure that we are getting people out to the polls so that hopefully we can start to turn the tide on some of these awful things that are happening um throughout the country. So, uh, happy to engage with them on getting people registered and making sure people get out to vote. Um, I do have tomorrow my orientation for the National League of Cities Board of Directors. So, I will be missing the partnership board meeting and a voices of hunger meeting for um, statewide food insecurity. But um certainly having a position with the NLC and having that that connection to Washington DC is important. So I will prioritize that. I also have a call next week. Um it was put out to all of council and I drew the straw. Uh I will be representing the city of Morgantown on the West Virginia city's work initiative through the Institute for Justice. I have something somewhere. So Oh yes. So we are bringing together leaders from Wheeling, Parkersburg,

Morgantown, Huntington, and Charleston and reviewing local and state level rules that affect the cost and speed of launching a new business. So looking at some of those regulations and how city code or state code could be changed to make things easier for economic development, small businesses throughout our cities. So very much looking forward to that. Um I that's a 10-monthl long commitment and I will certainly be reporting back to council and city staff and uh be inviting different staff members to attend those meetings with me as the subject um pertains to that particular staff member. the warming shelter as I won't go over more things that uh councelor Hollings had said but I will say that that facility I was there last week because I was driving some folks out there um to use the services and that facility remains at capacity pretty reg regularly. So, um, Catholic Charities, who is our partner with the warming shelter, noted that and did work with the city and the fire marshall and the MCR um, Hazel's House of Hope facility to add an additional 12 beds at least temporarily to regular Grace shelter um, as overflow because of the extra cold temperatures that are experiencing and the snowstorm that we're anticipating to come. So, I'm not sure if those will continue to be available all winter or if what the timeline on those are, but it is my understanding that as of this

week, they are um open and available for use. Uh the Woodburn Association of Neighbors has a meeting tomorrow at 700 p.m. at the Woodburn Community Complex. And then as everyone mentioned, the housing workshop will be at the same facility Thursday from 6:00 to 7:30. I think that's all. Um, if there's nothing else, is there anyone willing to move us into executive session? Um just uh so for executive session proposed our um discussion of matters related to development of property andor investment of public funds in the area of Spruce Street Willie Street uh and Richwood Avenue. It's anticipated this item will be discussed in executive session pursuant to West Virginia code 6-9A4B9. pursuant to uh West Virginia State Code section 6-9A4B2A to discuss personnel matters and considering matters arising from the employment of a public employee related to the sixmonth evaluation for the city manager uh pursuant to West Virginia State Code 6-9A4B2A to discuss personnel matters and considering new appointments for boards and commissions.

Second. Yes. So move. Is that all? That's all. All in favor? All right, we will take a brief recess and then enter executive session.