Commission gives the green light to H&H study proposal for future youth sports complex

Monica Zalaznik
July 19, 2020

BUCKHANNON – The Upshur County Commission approved a proposal from Civil & Environmental Consultants, Inc. to conduct a Hydrologic and Hydraulic study on Brushy Fork Road for the Wellness Complex.

The proposal accounted for a 13.84 acres property located on Ridgeway Road and the estimated cost was $10,500 and 14 acres of the adjacent property owned by the Upshur County Development Authority was added to the project for an additional $2,500.

“This would allow the county and anybody else that would try to develop anything on the Wellness Complex to know where they can fill and for us to be able to add the (Upshur County) Development Authority for $2,500 onto that is a really good deal,” President of the Upshur County Commission Terry Cutright said.

The Wellness Complex will eventually be a hub for all of Upshur County’s youth sports.

“We’ve had several different youth organizations try to utilize the property, but once you get a little bit of rain, it makes it tough to play, so I think this is the only way we can know for sure what can be done,” Commissioner Sam Nolte said.

During a previous June commission meeting, Terri Jo Bennett, the Upshur County addressing and mapping, building permit and floodplain coordinator said an H&H study would have to done before any man-made work could be done on the complex.

“We can use the property as it is, just like we have been, so I can’t really say that you have to do an H&H study and spend a substantial amount of money, but if you were wanting to fill it or develop it in any way and that development is any man-made change … like putting lights up there … you would have to do an H&H study first,” Bennett had told commissioners previously.

Nolte made a motion to approve the proposal and commissioner Kristie Tenney seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.

Prior to adjourning, the commission also:

Appointed Katie Loudin to the Upshur County Library Board. The unexpired term is effective immediately and ends on June 30, 2021. Nolte made the motion to appoint Loudin and Tenney seconded.