Courtesy of the City of Elkins This 25-page ‘Waterfront Study’ was compiled for the City of Elkins by the Pickering Associates firm.

Courtesy of the City of Elkins
This 25-page ‘Waterfront Study’ was compiled for the City of Elkins by the Pickering Associates firm.

ELKINS — Elkins City Council was presented with a “Waterfront Study” during its most recent meeting.

“What I’d like to do first is just give you a little background about how this came to be,” City Clerk Jessica Sutton told councilmembers. “Some of you might be familiar with a study Woodlands Development Group did back in 2016 and 17. They partnered with Enterprise Community Partners to create, at that time they called it (a study of) ‘Riverfront Community Development’ in Elkins.

“Their study, though very thorough, very well-rounded, focused primarily on the redevelopment of the neighborhoods by the river,” Sutton said. “We definitely used this study, we referenced it … but there were several meetings held at that time, with a lot of stakeholders, and there ended up not being any specific projects that came out of that study. It just frizzled out after a while.

“So about two years passed, and then last year we started to have our discussions about this,” she said. “Within the city, outside the city, with community organizations and in particular relating to the renovation of the Tygart Hotel, and a lot of projects that are happening down at that intersection.

“So at that time, I reached out to Sen. Manchin’s office, and talked to some of the representatives there, and they connected me to the Army Corps of Engineers, and I had some discussions there as well,” Sutton said.

“From that, we determined that what we really needed was a more in-depth study of the land itself … so council gave approval in January of this year for Pickering … to do this water study, so that’s what you have in front of you,” she added.

Sutton distributed to council members copies of the 25-page “Waterfront Study” booklet that was created by Pickering Associates. The booklet includes maps, historical information and current data.

“Since then, HubCAP, which Elkins has partnered with for about a year now, has taken it up as a project to look at the waterfront and see what we can do to help with that,” Sutton said. “So as a member of that organization, I have taken on a leadership role in a task group to look at development. We want to bring in some outside members, outside the city, to push that forward. So we are going to take this ‘Waterfront Study’ and read through it. We’ve met once and we’re meeting again next week. We’re going to try to develop some projects out of this study.

“At our first meeting we developed some long-term goals and short-term projects,” she noted. “We also talked a little bit about funding. Of course at this point it’s hard to tell what funding might be available.”

Sutton said one of the “challenges” facing the goals are “a negative attitude” that some residents have toward the Tygart Valley River.

“Do you think that has to do with it being dirty?” Fourth Ward Councilwoman Nanci Bross-Fregonara asked.

“I think that’s a word that I would never use, because I don’t think it’s dirty,” Sutton said. “I think that’s the attitude I’m talking about … explaining it to people, we need to change that attitude and how we talk about it.”

“I think one of the reasons it’s perceived as dirty is because the water levels are so low,” Bross-Fregonara said. “Some of the folks I’ve talked to, and myself included, wonder about the feasibility of having a lot of kayakers and things along those lines until we can have better control on the level of water.”

City Operations Manager Bob Pingley interjected, saying, “As the superintendent of the works of the Flood Control, the number one purpose of Flood Control is flood control in Elkins. I manipulate the river levels to try and accommodate that … that has to be the driving force behind how we manipulate the river levels. We can’t artificially keep it up for boating and everything else and jeopardize our flood control.”

“So how does this plan jive with the reality of the water levels?” Bross-Fregonara asked Sutton. “If we encourage all these people to come with their kayaks and boats and and it happens to be at a time when the water levels are low …”

“We’re not looking to create a whitewater experience for anybody in the middle of town,” Sutton said. “All we’re looking to do, at least initially, is to create access to what exists here.”

Council took no action on the issue and councilmembers plan to read the study and talk more at a future date.

The next council meeting will be at 7 p.m. Thursday at City Hall.