MORGANTOWN – The Monongalia County Commission has approved $125,000 to assist the town of Star City with a streetscape project along University Avenue.
The commission said the funding will come from interest earned on the county’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) allocation.
“Those are interest earnings, so those funds are unrestricted and don’t have any ARPA requirements,” Commissioner Sean Sikora said.
The amount mirrors what the commission provided to Westover to assist with the recent Holland Avenue project.
Last August, the commission approved a memorandum of understanding allowing Star City to utilize revenue generated through its Boyers Avenue TIF district to address the sidewalk along University Avenue between St. Mary’s Catholic Church down to Boyers Avenue.
Officials with Star City approached the county last week about providing direct funding support for the project, which is estimated in the $1.1 million range based on preliminary engineering by Thrasher Group.
“Basically what we’re wanting to do is replace the deteriorating sidewalk. Then within that, we want to place lighting similar to what we have going down towards the riverfront park just to add a little bit more light to the area and make it nice when you’re driving through Star City,” Mayor Sharon Doyle said. “We really appreciate that the commission has joined forces with us on this because that will help us a lot on this project.”
Doyle said town officials are looking to put the project out for bid in the coming weeks and complete it by the end of September.
While Doyle said the town is able, and willing, to improve the pedestrian experience along the state-maintained University Avenue, she’s hopeful the West Virginia Division of Highways has something similar in mind for the drivers.
“It needs to be milled and paved. You can’t just keep filling those potholes every year and think that’s acceptable, because it’s not. It’s bad and it needs to be taken care of. It’s the main thoroughfare. The people driving through Star City, that’s what they see,” Doyle said. “Our town deserves better than that, but I just feel like we’re constantly falling on deaf ears.”
