MORGANTOWN – In one of its few non-unanimous votes in recent memory, the Monongalia County Commission split 2-1 Wednesday in favor of purchasing .5 acres of property that once held The Salvation Army building and thrift store.
Commissioner Tom Bloom voted against the move.
The county is purchasing the land from Morgantown Community Resources, the nonprofit that serves as facilitator and landlord for Hazel’s House of Hope.
MCR received it as a gift from the Hazel Ruby McQuain Charitable Trust, which purchased it from The Salvation Army for $1.36 million in July 2024.
The commission will spend a total of $815,000 on the property, which is made up of five small parcels ranging in size from .02 acres to .18 acres.
The county will provide $200,000 prior to closing and the remaining $615,000 spread across the next four years with no accrued interest.
MCR agreed to have all the structures removed from the land prior to the sale.
Commission President Jeff Arnett said the deal was ultimately too good to pass up.
“To me, it’s a pretty exciting prospect that we’re taking on down there. Our immediate use for it is there’s a parking lot there that’s ready to go. So, we’ll have some immediate use for parking. But the overall scope of it is the opportunity to obtain property within your immediate footprint. It’s right behind us, right next to the sheriff’s department,” he said. “The use in the future is pretty much whatever we want it to be. So, we’re looking forward to finding a good use for that in the future.”
As noted, the property sits adjacent to the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Department with frontage along University Avenue. The parcels are divided by Court Street.
“It is an opportunity for us to increase our footprint and plan for the future, and that’s what we’re doing. We’re increasing opportunities for the county in the future and also looking forward to reducing costs and possibly generating revenue,” Commissioner Sean Sikora said. “To me, it was a win-win and a no-brainer that we would take advantage of purchasing this property at the price we purchased it at … We’re just looking out and being good stewards of taxpayers’ dollars and looking forward five, ten, 15, 20 years, and not just looking at the end of our nose.”
Bloom said he would have rather spent that money making existing county property usable once again.
“I just feel that I would rather see the funds go into other priorities. For example, I would rather see the money used to take down the old jail first and use that property before we did this,” he said. “It’s just something that I believe we could have used for other areas, and so I didn’t support it.”
The old jail Bloom referenced is the brick building that sits unused at the corner of Chancery Row and Chestnut Street, directly behind the courthouse.
The Mon County Jail was built in 1881 and enlarged in 1922 to serve an increasing number of prisoners. In 1992, the jail was connected to the second floor of the courthouse by a bridge to bring prisoners into the courtroom.
It was noted Wednesday that the old building can’t be easily renovated for other uses as the actual jail cells provide structural support for the building.
In other county news, Tax Deputy Kelly Palmer said residents with unpaid taxes from 2024 have until the end of business Friday to get paid up before the delinquent tax list is handed over to the West Virginia Auditor’s Office.
“We’re open until 4:30 p.m., but we’re suggesting that people arrive by 4 p.m. on Friday,” Palmer said. “And online, please do so early in the day because the last two years, the system has gone down because of an overload of people literally at 4:27 p.m. trying to pay their taxes.”
