At his first Council meeting since newly-elected city officials took office, Mayor Andy Lang officially welcomed Council Member Don Burton, thanking him and returning Council Member Jeff Smell and returning City Recorder Hank Murray for serving the city.

 

Absent from the Council panel Monday evening was Dustin Vincent, noted by Lang as excused.

 

Serving as interim city manager is Bridgeport Police Chief John Walker, who during the city manager’s report, brought attention to the citywide yard sale to be held Sat., Aug. 3 and National Night Out, to be held 6-9 p.m. Tues., Aug. 6.

 

Lang also noted that Bridgeport's new city manager, Randy Wetmore, will begin serving the city on Aug. 1 and his first official Council meeting, which will be preceded by a public reception, is Aug. 12.

 

One member of the public, Barry Balon, addressed Council with his concern about the proposed salt storage unit to be located along Route 131 on property recently purchased from the Benedum Airport Authority.

 

Balon said he is opposed to the project because the property, located just across Route 131 from Forrester Boulevard and the entrance to Bridgeport Recreation Complex, is on a flood plain.

 

“Ann Run runs right beside my (Pennsylvania Avenue) house and there are fish, snakes and muskrats living in it and deer drink out of it,” he said. “If that salt storage building is flooded out and salt gets into the stream, it could be deadly. There’s got to be an alternate place for the storage system and hopefully you will consider that option.”

 

Lang commented that the city engineers have looked at the situation and studied the area. There is dirt/site work planned to be completed prior to the building of the storage unit, he said.

 

Bridgeport Police Department’s two newest officers were sworn in during Monday’s meeting. William J. Cunningham is a former Harrison County deputy sheriff and Isaac Thomas II is a former Clarksburg City Police Officer. Lang did the honors of swearing in the new police officers, who were accompanied by Lt. John Post.

 

The next item of business was the consideration of rezoning 5.76 acres owned by Darren Abraham and located on West Main Street, just behind Bridgeport Municipal Building. Community Development Director Andrea Kerr said it was the recommendation of the Bridgeport Planning Commission that the property, as requested by Abraham, be rezoned from Residential-1 to Business-2.

 

“A rezoning request was brought to the planning commission in 2017 to rezone the property from R-1 to B-2 and R-3,” Kerr said. “The Planning Commission approved the rezoning, but Council took into consideration letters of opposition received by residents of adjoining properties. It was decided then not to allow the rezoning to R-3, but to allow the rezoning to B-2.”

 

Recently, Abraham requested that the entire property be rezoned to B-2 to allow for additional parking and a better turning radius for trucks.

 

“There were no letters of opposition and Mr. Abraham personally spoke to residents that border the property and there was no opposition from them,” Kerr said. “The Planning Commission has already approved the rezoning of everything to B-2, but this is the first go-through with City Council.

 

Councilman John Wilson expressed concern as to whether an exit road would be implemented, as was indicated on a map distributed to Council. His concern was that such roadway would interfere with the city trail system which will eventually stretch all the way to Hinkle/Deegan Lakes. Abraham said it was the original intent to implement an exit, but that is not presently the case.

 

“Right now, if you look at the lay of the land and how it will be built up, there will be no exit or road,” he said. “We don’t have plans for that right now … We don’t want traffic coming through the property.”

After a motion by Councilman Bob Greer, Council voted unanimously to approve the rezoning request. Upon legal counsel by City Attorney Dean Ramsey, the first reading of an ordinance amending the code of the City of Bridgeport, re-designating the property on County Tax Map 309, Parcel 42, from R-1 to B-2. A second reading of the ordinance will take place at the next Council meeting.

 

Because Bridgeport Parks and Recreation will soon be printing the 2019-2020 Fall/Winter Activity Guide, Council voted on the proposed date for this year’s Trick or Treat, which will be observed 6-7:30 p.m. Thurs., Oct. 31.

 

Before Council reconvened into executive session to discuss matters relating to the forthcoming Indoor Sports and Recreation Complex, members voted affirmatively on General Fund Budget Revision 1.

 

“We are required by the State of West Virginia to budget or appropriate the fund balance that remains from the last fiscal year,” said Finance Director Monica Musgrave. “The fund balance is a total of $1,535,385. Items to be funded through this revision are capital items from each of the individual (city) departments; items which weren’t funded in the fiscal year 2019-20 regular operating budget. We pulled those items and discussed with each individual department head and prioritized items requested and first-year escrows on several projects and equipment purchases.”

 

At a work session which preceded the meeting, Musgrave broke down the line items. A full report on the budget revision and the items to be covered will be coming soon to Connect-Bridgeport. The budget revision passed by a unanimous rollcall vote.

 

Monday’s meeting opened with an invocation by Pastor Robin Ray of Bridgeport Presbyterian Church.