100 Most Influential - #37 Mon River Summit
Summit Determines Issues Important to Mon River Users
Morgantown Dominion Post
8 April 2007
By Evelyn Ryan
Bob Gay/The Dominion Post - One
determination of the first Mon River Summit is that the new
marina at Morgantown's Wharf District needs to have more
functional ties to the river.
The first Mon River Summit was
organized to bring important river issues to the attention of
government leaders, businesses and others who are involved in the
river's economy.
The planners, members of the
Monongahela River Recreation and Commerce Committee, a Vision
2020 project, "said we would be happy with 75
attendees," said Matt Cybulski, outreach manager, Community
Visions Foundation, and a committee member.
"We nearly doubled that,
with 130. We were all very pleased," he added.
The committee hopes to increase
that number further at Mon River Summit II, set for April 16 at
Waterfront Place Hotel.
This first summit was originally
planned for summer 2005, but was delayed as discussions made it
clear the issues were larger than originally believed.
Mon River Summit 2006 "was
more kind of getting the main issues from each participant, and
getting those ideas out on the table. We had a lot of different
viewpoints. Also, we had more of a focus on riverfront
development."
A summary of the issues raised
during the first summit is posted on the group's Web site,
monriversummit.org. Among the items discussed:
- The U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers Pittsburgh District civil works budget is
woefully under-funded. Because of that, traffic is
severely restricted through the Hildebrand and Opekiska
locks, and limited to daytime only at Morgantown lock.
- Funding could be improved if
the Corps changes the basis on which it determines lock
schedules. Presently, that is based on the annual tonnage
of commercial commodities transiting the lock - a figure
that's dropped drastically on the three West Virginia
locks.
- River commerce costs are
driven upward when locks are not open 24/7, and
commercial shipments from upriver are adversely affected.
- The Point Marion, Pa., lock
could be equipped to remotely operate Morgantown,
Hildebrand and Opekiska locks for about $10 million.
- The U.S. Army permit process
should be streamlined and restrictions re-evaluated to
allow more municipal boating recreation developments.
- A hiking trail is needed to
connect the Cheat Lake Trail with Mon River Trail.
Morgantown's Wharf District construction needs to have
more functional ties to the river.
- The recreation panel
identified these needs: Portage at each dam, information
on river services and location, river access to
Morgantown and to rest rooms, more boat ramps with
parking, fishing piers, fishing access to dams and a
public pump-out station for boat sewage.
- Area water users, including
the Upper Monongahela River Association, support recent
developments on the river, including new boatdocking
facilities. But Mon River use in West Virginia can't
expand if the three locks are on restricted areas, they
reported at the summit.
- A change in the mandate for
the U.S. Army Corps to include recreation as an economic
matter would allow the agency to consider recreational
development in developing its plans.
The Mon River, created by the
merger of the Tygart Valley River and West Fork River at
Fairmont, flows north. It is joined by the Cheat River at Point
Marion, and continues northward to meet the Allegheny River at
Pittsburgh and form the Ohio River. About 40 miles of the Mon
River is in West Virginia.
Mon River Summit
OBJECTIVE: Determine issues
important to Monongahela River users
PROPOSED: 2005
FIRST HELD: 2006
ATTENDANCE: 130
HELD IN: Morgantown