City Council

October 22, 2024 The regular meeting of the City Council of the City of Fairmont was held at 7:00 p.m. on the 22nd day of October, 2024, at the Public Safety Building located at 500 Quincy Street in Fairmont, West Virginia. Mayor Bolyard called the meeting to order. Roll call of members was taken by the City Clerk. Councilmembers present were: First District Joshua D. (Josh) Rice Second District Anne E. Bolyard Third District Rebecca Moran Fourth District Richard (Rick) Garcia Fifth District Charles (Chuck) Warner Sixth District Gia Deasy Seventh District Julia (Julie) Sole Eighth District Bruce McDaniel Ninth District Kandice (Kandi) Nuzum Also present were: City Manager Travis L. Blosser City Attorney Kevin V. Sansalone City Clerk Janet L. Keller Building Inspector Scott Jolliff Communications Manager David Kirk Director of Planning Shae Strait IN RE: OPENING CEREMONIES Councilmember Moran gave the invocation followed by the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag also led by Councilmember Moran. IN RE: PROCLAMATION PRESENTED Mayor Bolyard presented a proclamation to Shae Strait, Director of Planning, in honor of October being recognized as Community Planning Month. IN RE: PROCLAMATION PRESENTED Mayor Bolyard proclaimed November 8, 2024 as First-Generation College Student Day in the City of Fairmont, in honor of the significant contributions of all first-generation college students at Fairmont State University. The proclamation encouraged all residents to celebrate and support their journey toward academic and personal success. The 1 proclamation was presented to Dr. Justin Rader, Associate Director of Student Engagement at FSU. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Mayor Bolyard noted that each member of Council had received a copy of the minutes from the Regular Meeting held on October 8, 2024. She asked if there were any corrections, deletions, or amendments. Councilmember Warner moved to approve the minutes as submitted. The motion was seconded by Councilmember Nuzum. The Mayor declared the minutes approved as submitted by voice vote of Council. PUBLIC HEARING S No public hearings were scheduled for this meeting. ANNOUNCEMENTS IN RE: THE LARAMIE PROJECT Councilmember Moran reported that The Laramie Project opens at FSU’s Theater Department, in Wallman Hall, on November 1st. Tickets are on sale now. IN RE: CANDIDATE FORUM Councilmember Moran announced that she had the opportunity to attend the SGA’s candidate forum that was hosted by the local university. She said that the students put it together themselves and it was very informative. Councilmember Nuzum stated that she also attended the SGA candidate forum and said it was very well put together. IN RE: FORMER COUNCILMEMBER DONNA BLOOD RECOGNIZED Councilmember Deasy recognized former Councilmember Donna Blood who recently retired but she was named the WV Child Advocacy Network’s Trudy Laurenson Advocate with Courage during an awards ceremony earlier this month. IN RE: EARLY VOTING Councilmember Nuzum reminded everyone that early voting starts on Wednesday, October 23rd and goes through Saturday, November 2nd. CITIZENS PETITIONS 2 IN RE: CVB ANNUAL REPORT LEAH SMITH, new CVB Executive Director, introduced herself to Council and presented the CVB Annual Report. She provided Council with several handouts regarding the CVB. IN RE: SPEEDING ON COLEMAN AVENUE DARLENE COX, 965 Coleman Avenue, addressed Council regarding speeding and other safety concerns on Coleman Avenue. She said that she bought her house in December, 2020 and the first incident occurred shortly after in March, 2021. A car was speeding down the hill and was not able to make turn and resulted in crashing into her mailbox. The mailbox and landscaping debris hit her husband’s car causing minor damage. On March 10, 2023, a FedEx driver was parked across the street from her house and the employee got out of his truck to deliver a package. When the FedEx employee stepped out of his truck, a car was speeding past him and just barely missed the driver by a few inches. The driver swerved into her yard to avoid hitting the FedEx driver and barely missed her cars and mailbox again. On August 9, 2023, a truck crashed next to her house due to speeding and went over the hill on Woodside Drive. The most recent incident was on October 11, 2024, a drunk driver was going 80 mph down Coleman Avenue and could not make the turn and took out her neighbor’s mailbox, missed her bedroom and her son’s bedroom by about 20 feet, crashed into her and her husband’s car and her husband’s car was totaled but she is still not sure about her car. She said, at this point, she does not feel safe in her home and is afraid to sleep at night because two of these incidents happened while they were sleeping. She said she was afraid to let her child or her dog go out or even for her husband to mow the yard in fear that a car is going to swerve into her yard again. Ms. Cox said that she is not the only one who feels that way, her neighbors also feel unsafe, and children who walk to the bus stop have to do so on a road with no sidewalk that is prone to accidents. She said that it is especially bad at 2:30 p.m. when the school lets out at Fairmont Senior High School and the kids will drive this road. Most people use this road as a shortcut to go around the main road and avoid the lights and save a few seconds of driving and when they do, they are speeding. She closed by saying that someone is going to be killed on this road if changes are not made. She suggested speed humps and the increase of police presence on the street. Mr. Blosser said that he had met with her onsite and there are some issues around speeding, not just in this neighborhood but a couple other neighborhoods. Ms. Cox shared with him some footage and pictures and he will certainly distribute those to City Council. He also mentioned that he has talked to Chief Shine regarding this issue and there will be some stepped up enforcement in that area and maybe using her driveway for the enforcement. He went on to say that they had a conversation around speed bumps vs speed humps, they are two different things. Speed humps are probably the route to be looked at. He said that we have hired our engineer, CEC, and we will be working with them as well as Public Works to identify this and figure out certain neighborhoods where we can potentially trial-run when these improvements may or may not fully solve this issue. He said that every citizen should feel happy and okay to sleep at night and not feel like a car is going to come through their house. 3 Councilmember Sole said that she and Councilmember McDaniel share this area and this is a road that she travels a lot. She said that she noticed today that a police presence was in the area at the intersection of Henry Drive and Coleman and the speed indicator was there on Coleman as well. Councilmember McDaniel asked if we were using the speed cart. Mr. Blosser replied yes. He said the problem is that you cannot be there at every moment so we are trying to identify if there are safety related things that we can do to also help curb some of the issues that we are seeing. He noted that we have had calls and complaints in other neighborhoods as well, Mary Lou Retton Drive has been one of them. He noted that he has turned in information to law enforcement for someone literally going around him on that road and there is no passing lane on Mary Lou Retton Drive nor is it wide enough for that. He mentioned that was the conversation that he and Chief Shine had as well as Ron Miller at the Public Works Department and he will have CEC look at some potential options here. Councilmember Rice asked if there was something like a makeshift speed hump or something we could lay down, not permanently, rather than pave over it and then if something would happen in the winter months. . . He said that has always heard speed bumps are hard on the snow plows in the winter. He said that when Nicky Cinalli was on Council, he was always asking for speed humps on Peacock Lane. He asked if we could look into something like that. We could even move them around the city to other neighborhoods to deter speeding in other areas. Mr. Blosser said that we want to have this discussion with our consultant from an engineering perspective because depending on how they are designed, they could probably be rough on the snow plows and things of that nature but he thought there were ways these exists in other jurisdictions that also plow streets and have to deal with that too. From our standpoint, everything is on the table at the moment in terms of what does that actually look like. Councilmember Warner stated that speed hump is more snow plow friendly than a speed bump. He noted that the negative would be with fire trucks and law enforcement trying to get through quickly. He thought they were available for different speed allowances before vehicles are seriously launched. CITY MANAGER ’S REPORT IN RE: COMMUNITY INPUT SESSION Mr. Blosser reported that a community input session will be held on Thursday, October 24th for the $1.5 million grant application for EPA funding related to the Helmick Foundry site. He emphasized the need to attend this session at 6:00 p.m. for those that want to be part of the potential in that property. 4 IN RE: CONTRACT SIGNED FOR NORWOOD PARK The Manager announced that a contract was signed for Norwood Park with Green River Group who will be serving as the contractor for the project. IN RE: PLEASANT VALLEY WATER LINE Mr. Blosser gave a shoutout to the Pleasant Valley City Council as he had discussions around them on a potential water line project within the City of Pleasant Valley. He said that he appreciated them reaching out to us to potentially do this project. IN RE: MARION COUNTY COMMISSION Mr. Blosser reported that he had a meeting with the Marion County Commission about another potential utility project that they reached out about with the Little Creek service area that could expand additional capacity within that PSD for a potential new housing development in that area out past Pricketts Fort. IN RE: FAIRMONT HOUSING AUTHORITY The City Manager stated that he attended the Marion County Commission meeting last week to support Crystal Crouso of the Fairmont/ Morgantown Housing Authority around the funding of the Housing Navigator position. The meeting went very well and he cannot emphasize how important this position has been and the data in terms of how many people she has gotten into housing. He noted that this was not just for low-income individuals. He added that they are running into a funding issue for the funding that position coming from ARPA dollars that they received directly from HUD running out this December so we are trying to build a coalition to keep this vital position funded. IN RE: NEW BRIDGEPORT CITY MANAGER Mr. Blosser congratulated his friend, Pat Ford, the new City Manager of Bridgeport. He said that he looks forward to working with him and for deepening our ties between the City of Fairmont and the City of Bridgeport. IN RE: FEDERAL ADVOCACY CONSULTANT Manager Blosser announced that the City has retained Merchant McIntyre Associates, out of three firms that submitted bids for our federal advocacy consulting services and they have already begun work with us. He will begin scheduling meetings with various departments and staff around five key areas that we are honing in on in order to start aggressively building our federal advocacy agency in terms of resource advocacy in Washington, DC. Those five items are around 1) Surface Transportation and Water Infrastructure, 2) Beltline Redevelopment Plan Implantation, 3) Public Safety and Law Enforcement, 4) Trails and Pedestrian Infrastructure, and 5) University District Improvements. He said that these are the first five subgroups that we are beginning 5 meetings and discussions with them about in order to start robustly going after federal grant dollars as well as Congressional Directed Spending. IN RE: EMPLOYEE MID-YEAR PAY ADJUSTMENT Mr. Blosser took the opportunity to thank City Council on behalf of our employees for the action they took about a month ago for a mid-year pay adjustment for municipal employees. He noted that went into effect this pay period and he wanted to thank City Council for their actions around that. IN RE: TRICK-OR-TREAT HOURS Mr. Blosser announced that the hours of Trick-or-Treat in Fairmont will be Thursday, October 31st, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. He reminded the community to be cautious and mindful that there will be trick-or-treaters out there so we can ensure that it is a safe and fun time for everybody. CONSIDERATION OF COUNCIL BUSINESS IN RE: ADOPTION, A RESOLUTION BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FAIRMONT, WEST VIRGINIA, AUTHORIZING THE SUBMISSION OF AN APPLICATION TO THE UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY FOR A BROWNFIELD PROGRAM CLEANUP GRANT IN THE AMOUNT OF $1,500,000.00, AND IF SUCH GRANT IS AWARDED, FURTHER AUTHORIZING THE ACCEPTANCE THEREOF, AND PROVIDING THE CITY MANAGER WITH AUTHORITY TO DO ALL THINGS REASONABLE AND NECESSARY IN CONNECTION THEREWITH The City Clerk read the proposed resolution by synopsis for the first time. Mayor Bolyard entertained a motion for the adoption of a resolution authorizing the submission of an application to the US EPA Agency for a Brownfield Cleanup Grant in the amount of $1,500,000.00. Motion: Councilmember Deasy moved for the adoption of the proposed resolution. Councilmember Warner seconded the motion. Roll call was taken by the Clerk. The Mayor declared the resolution adopted by unanimous vote of Council. IN RE: ADOPTION, A RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FAIRMONT IN SUPPORT OF THE INDUSTRIAL HEARTLAND TRAIL COALITION ’S APPLICATION TO THE APPALACHIAN REGIONAL COMMISSION (ARC) FOR AN APPALACHIAN REGIONAL INITIATIVE FOR STRONGER ECONOMIES (ARISE) 6 PLANNING GRANT IN THE AMOUNT OF $145,500.00 TO PROVIDE FUNDING FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A COMPREHENSIVE PLAN TO LEVERAGE THE P2P RAIL TRIAL CORRIDOR AND OTHER REGIONAL RECREATIONAL ASSETS FOR COMMUNITY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT The City Clerk read the proposed resolution by synopsis for the first time. Mayor Bolyard entertained a motion for the adoption of a resolution in support of the Industrial Heartland Trail Coalition’s application to the ARC for a grant in the amount of $145,000.00 to provide funding for the development of a comprehensive plan for leverage the P2P rail trail corridor. Motion: Councilmember McDaniel moved for the adoption of the proposed resolution. Councilmember Rice seconded the motion. Discussion: Councilmember McDaniel asked about the matching funds from the coalition members and who are the coalition members. Shae Strait, Director of Planning, answered Mr. McDaniel’s question and named all of the coalition members. The Mayor noted that the City’s portion is $40,000.00 and the rest will be divvied up amongst the primary coalition members that Mr. Strait mentioned. Mr. Strait also mentioned that this is a very complicated endeavor that we are taking on and the primary benefactors of this effort will be Fayette County, PA, Marion County, WV, and Harrison County in WV which are where the three largest gaps in the PP corridor that currently exist. This is just for the three counties in PA and WV. Mr. Blosser noted that we anticipate that those other organizations will be the larger sums in terms of out of that group, however, we are still working with everyone on what everyone’s exact dollar figures will be, $40,000 was what we felt comfortable pledging toward that based upon the fact that the majority of these funds will actually be spent within Fairmont’s trail section on the East Side because some of that involves some bridge development so there are additional planning stuff that needs to be done on the East Side as well as we are still having ongoing discussions with CSX around acquisition of property over there. Mr. Strait mentioned that this is first of two steps; this is only for the Planning Grant which is for the implementation process. The intent of the Coalition is to then in a future funding year apply for an implementation grant which from the ARC is available in the millions. This would be a big benefit to us and the other neighboring counties. 7 Roll call was taken by the Clerk. The Mayor declared the resolution adopted by unanimous vote of Council. IN RE: ONE RE-APPOINTMENT, FAIRMONT HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION, THREE-YEAR TERM ENDING NOVEMBER 15, 2027 Mayor Bolyard entertained a motion for one re-appointment to the Fairmont Human Rights Commission for a three-year term ending November 15, 2027. Motion: Councilmember Rice moved to re-appoint Cyndy Straight to the Fairmont Human Rights Commission for a three-year term ending November 15, 2027. The motion was seconded by Councilmember McDaniel. The Mayor declared Cyndy Straight re-appointed to the Fairmont Human Rights Commission for a three-year term ending November 15, 2027 by unanimous vote of Council. IN RE: ONE RE-APPOINTMENT, FAIRMONT HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION, THREE-YEAR TERM ENDING NOVEMBER 15, 2027 Mayor Bolyard entertained a motion for one re-appointment to the Fairmont Human Rights Commission for a three-year term ending November 15, 2027. Motion: Councilmember Deasy moved to re-appoint Sue Montgomery to the Fairmont Human Rights Commission for a three-year term ending November 15, 2027. The motion was seconded by Councilmember Warner. The Mayor declared Sue Montgomery re-appointed to the Fairmont Human Rights Commission for a three-year term ending November 15, 2027 by unanimous vote of Council. IN RE: ONE RE-APPOINTMENT, FAIRMONT HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION, THREE-YEAR TERM ENDING NOVEMBER 15, 2027 Mayor Bolyard entertained a motion for one re-appointment to the Fairmont Human Rights Commission for a three-year term ending November 15, 2027. Motion: Councilmember Sole moved to re-appoint Troy Snyder to the Fairmont Human Rights Commission for a three-year term ending November 15, 2027. The motion was seconded by Councilmember Nuzum. 8 The Mayor declared Troy Snyder re-appointed to the Fairmont Human Rights Commission for a three-year term ending November 15, 2027 by unanimous vote of Council. IN RE: ONE APPOINTMENT, FAIRMONT HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION, THREE-YEAR TERM ENDING NOVEMBER 15, 2027 Mayor Bolyard entertained a motion for one appointment to the Fairmont Human Rights Commission for a three-year term ending November 15, 2027. Motion: Councilmember Garcia moved to appoint Dr. Katelyn Baker to the Fairmont Human Rights Commission for a three-year term ending November 15, 2027. The motion was seconded by Councilmember Warner. The Mayor declared Dr. Katelyn Baker appointed to the Fairmont Human Rights Commission for a three-year term ending November 15, 2027 by unanimous vote of Council. ADJOURNMENT The Mayor entertained a motion for adjournment. Motion: Councilmember Rice moved to adjourn the meeting. The motion was seconded by Councilmember Moran. The Mayor declared the meeting adjourned by voice vote of Council at 7:45 p.m. 9