MORGANTOWN — Hallelujah.
That sums up Morgantown City Councilor Jenny Selin’s response to news that the city is pursuing funds to add a sidewalk along Dorsey Avenue, between Hudson and Ross streets.
“I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart whoever put this together,” Selin said, adding, “I know there’s a group working on safe routes to school and this would be a huge component of that.”
Pedestrian access along Dorsey has long been a talking point among city officials looking to provide better access to nearby Mountainview Elementary School.
That project is one of four for which the city is seeking Transportation Alternatives Program, or TAP, grant funding from the West Virginia Department of Transportation.
In this case, it’s $150,000 for preliminary design work.
The city is seeking an additional $150,000 for the design of another high-value addition — a pedestrian/cycling bridge over Don Knotts Boulevard.
The bridge would connect the riverfront and rail-trail to the White Park area of the city’s 1st Ward.
“As it is you can’t get across the Boulevard anyplace around there. It’s very difficult to get to the rai-trail,” Councilor Barry Wendell said. “So if there’s a way to get from White Park to the rail-trail, that would just be so tremendous and help so much for pedestrians and bicyclists. I’m all about this.”
Assistant City Manager Emily Muzzarelli said the city has tried unsuccessfully on multiple occasions to secure funding to initiate the connector.
While there was plenty of enthusiasm about both the pedestrian bridge and Dorsey Avenue projects, developments in the long running effort to overhaul Pleasant Street raised some questions about the TAP process.
Muzzarelli explained that the city must apply for a third round of funding for Pleasant Street — $300,000 this time around — after looking at the finalized plans provided by the state and seeing neither lighting nor landscaping in the design.
Selin questioned how key components of a project could be removed without the city’s knowledge and questioned whether the state was allowing any input or oversight at the local level.
City Manager Kim Haws responded.
“I’ve been involved with many, many projects involving work with grants with the Department of Highways and very little pubic discourse occurs. There’s discourse between the city organization, the engineer and trying to get information and feedback from the engineer, but when it comes right down to it, the Department of Highways hires the engineer and designer for this, and really, the city has very little control over it,” Haws said. “I’m just glad we caught some of those nuances before the project was let.”
Lastly, the city is seeking $450,000 in TAP grant funding for the construction of the Morgantown Municipal Airport Streetscape project, which will essentially build a sidewalk from the Mileground to the airport.
