MORGANTOWN — Westover Mayor Dave Johnson said the city has concerns about Mountain Line moving its bus depot from Garrett Street, near downtown Morgantown, out to its Westover base of operations — starting with the fact that the building isn’t actually in Westover.
“I just wanted to make everybody aware that it’s not actually in Westover,” Johnson said at Wednesday’s Monongalia County Commission meeting. “We’ve got a big hole in the middle of Westover that we’re going to deal with sooner rather than later.”
Mountain Line learned in October that Morgantown wanted buses out of the Garrett Street depot ahead of planned improvements along the riverfront. Those improvements are tied to a $4.1 million gift from the Hazel Ruby McQuain Charitable Trust.
A brief and hurried effort to find a downtown replacement location for the depot came up empty, prompting the authority to vote Jan. 10 to route all buses through Mountain Line’s Westover hub — at least until a permanent replacement can be found.
Mountain Line is located at 420 Dupont Road. Westover’s city building is further out the same road, at 500 Dupont. That fact was not lost on Commission President Tom Bloom who said that he, like most, was unaware that there is unincorporated area surrounded by Westover.
“I want you to know, for the public record, that I was shocked. I thought that was in Westover,” Bloom said.
Johnson said his concerns centered largely around incidents requiring first responders, and, to a lesser degree, the depot resulting in people loitering in the city.
“I’m just saying that in the event there are problems that require police, it’s not in our jurisdiction. Now, we would respond, obviously, if it’s something that needed our immediate attention,” Johnson said. “We can’t arrest anybody there. If we responded to a situation where somebody needed to be arrested, we have to hold them until the county or state would get there.”
Johnson said Mountain Line General Manager Dave Bruffy plans to attend the April 16 Westover City Council meeting as well as some other public gatherings to address any questions.
Even so, Johnson said he’d like to sit down with officials from Mountain Line as well as the commission. Bloom said he would also like Morgantown represented at such a meeting.
