MORGANTOWN – The Monongalia County Commission has rescinded its policy regarding distribution of state funding for fire departments, eliminating a contingency fund that’s been a point of friction between the commission and the county’s volunteer departments.
Going forward, all funds received will be evenly split 13 ways and distributed directly to the county’s 12 volunteer fire companies and the Morgantown Fire Department.
During the 2023 special session of the West Virginia Legislature, two pools of money were created to fund fire service statewide – the All-County Fire Protection Fund, which distributes state funds to all 55 counties based on population, and the County Fire Protection Fund, which distributes funds to counties that have a countywide fire levy or fire fees in place.
As Monongalia County has a fire levy in place, it receives distributions from both.
Through 2025, the county received $540,160.93 in All-County Fire Protection dollars, and $634,974.87 in County Fire Protection funds.
Under the distribution method adopted by the commission in October 2024, those funds are split 13 ways with the exception of 10% from the 2023 allocations and 5% from each allocation going forward to be placed in a contingency fund and held for extraordinary expenses approved by the Monongalia County Volunteer Fire Companies Association.
Through 2025, a total of $78,274.64 was held for the contingency fund. An additional $24,151.11 in interest earned to that point was also deposited in the account.
But the commissioners have said the contingency fund has been a point of contention since its inception.
That was the case last week when a representative of the VFCA chided the commission for utilizing the reserve fund to cover a $37,602.80 repair to the county’s primary tanker. The VFCA said it didn’t agree to use contingency funds for that expense. The commission countered that it was asked to fund tanker repairs, and it was honoring that request utilizing funds set aside for such purposes.
With a unanimous vote Wednesday, the commission eliminated the contingency fund, essentially removing itself from the process.
It did so after approving a final $16,218.95 request for contingency fund dollars from the VFCA.
“I think that it’s been something that’s taken up a lot of our time to deal with this account, and there are no winners. The commission is routinely lambasted about this fund and the Volunteer Fire Association isn’t happy, so it’s best we just get the funds in and turn them right over to the VFDs and the city of Morgantown as we do the regular distribution,” Commissioner Sean Sikora said.
Following the request approved Wednesday, the contingency fund has just under $15,800 remaining, meaning each volunteer department and the MFD will receive about $1,215 upon its closure.
In other commission news, the body approved up to $42,000 from the Monongalia County Ballpark Fund in support of the Banana Ball events to take place June 12-13 at Kendrick Family Ballpark.
Granville will welcome the Indianapolis Clowns and Texas Tailgaters for two days of Banana Ball – think the baseball version of the Harlem Globetrotters.
The fund being utilized is earmarked specifically to help support events at the ballpark and is funded through the user agreement between the county and West Virginia University.
“These are not general fund dollars. They can only be spent for this kind of purpose,” Commissioner Jeff Arnett said.
Lastly, the commission approved a request from the Monongalia County Abandoned & Dilapidated Property Enforcement Agency to move four properties to the complaint stage.
Those properties are: 8453 Mason-Dixon Highway; 9894 Mason-Dixon Highway; 1 Cassville-Mt. Morris Road; and a narrow strip of property along Point Marion Road (no address provided).
Entering the complaint stage opens a 60-day window for property owners to complete the needed work before daily fines are imposed.
