What does peace of mind cost?

October 4, 2022

What does peace of mind cost? Somewhere between $15 and $70 a year for Monongalia County taxpayers, depending on the assessed value of your property. Among the traditional levies on the November ballot, this year will include a levy to fund Mon EMS, the county’s only remaining emergency medical service. As we’ve addressed in previous editorials, the nation is facing an EMS crisis, and West Virginia has been hit hard. Preston County lost two EMS agencies and Star City had to retire its volunteer ambulance service this year. And like many other things in life, it has all come ...

Is the Pride flag a political symbol?

October 1, 2022

We’ve been contemplating that question since Monongalia County Schools required staff across the county to remove the rainbow flag — and any other Pride symbols — from classrooms. And the question was brought to the forefront by Wednesday’s walkout at Morgantown High School. The edict came in the guise of removing all political paraphernalia from schools, ostensibly because school staff should not be making overtly political overtures. Which, on the surface, is a reasonable request. A “Let’s Go, Brandon” flag or sticker featuring “#DumpTrump” in the classroom are ...

Fun fall things to look forward to

September 30, 2022

In honor of the beginning of the first full month of fall, we’re going to list some things we’re looking forward to this autumn. The leaves changing. Of course this is No. 1 on the list. There’s nothing like West Virginia in the fall — watching the waves of gold, orange and crimson slowly wash over the mountains. It might be the most beautiful time of the year here in the Mountain State, and it’s the perfect time to hike along the many trails in and around town. On a bright, clear day when all the trees have switched from summer green to autumn flames, it’s no wonder this ...

Why are so many state jobs vacant? They don’t pay

September 29, 2022

With all this talk of surpluses, tax cuts and where money should go, we’d like  to draw attention to another of West Virginia’s chronically underfunded services: state jobs. In mid-September, analysts presented the results of a state audit to the Legislature’s Post Audits Committee. The revelation of the day was that millions of dollars are allocated annually for vacant positions, some of which have been empty for years. As of December 2021, there were 4,857 vacant positions that had been budgeted for, totaling about $227 million of allocated but theoretically unspent ...

Homeless people are still people, and we must treat them as such

September 27, 2022

We were disappointed by the comments made at the Sept. 20 Morgantown City Council meeting regarding the “loitering issue” downtown, particularly in proximity to the Morgantown Public Library. One speaker and one council member said they no longer take their children to the library because of the presence of homeless (or “unhoused,” if you prefer) people nearby. While the fact that people are avoiding the library is in and of itself is disheartening, the true disappointment was in the way the homeless individuals were talked about: Not as if they were people, but as if they ...

Making the city greener

September 24, 2022

Back in 2017, when then-President Donald Trump pulled America from the Paris Climate Agreement, cities across the nation took climate action into their own hands. Morgantown joined the National Mayors Climate Agenda and pledged to reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions by 26%-28% from its 2005 baseline levels by 2025. Earlier this month, the Morgantown Green Team announced that the city is halfway to that goal. That is certainly an achievement worth celebrating. But … the Green Team admitted those calculations don’t include municipal properties acquired since 2017, nor ...