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Morgantown Trail Town Meeting

The Morgantown Trail Town Taskforce (MTTTF) had its third meeting on Thursday, at 6:30 pm. With the absence of the usual speaker,  Josh Givens, being necessitated by a last minute scheduling conflict, the meeting was conducted as more of an open-forum discussion led predominately by Sandy Keown.
The Task Force focuses on the obvious economic and ecological benefits the Trail Town opportunity would present in the improvement of Morgantown and Butler County through better use of the natural resources present in the aforementioned areas. Discussions are made about which steps would speed up the lengthy process, and which areas of improvement could offer the most return on investment and best utilize the time of volunteers interested in the betterment process.  Local citizens and business owners who have already expressed interest in the process were given the opportunity to sign up for various committees, thus building the reach of active participation for this cause.


Discussion at the July meeting centered largely on 2 main areas of interest to the task force: bike routes, and kayaking.
The comments made on both topics ranged from what properties within the city would be useable for these activities, and what sorts of activities within the respective categories would generate the most interest from individuals in surrounding counties and even states, citing the ability for bike routes and waterways in other counties within the state to draw active individuals from around the state, and even the country.
The Pros and Cons of these events were essentially whittled down to the potential cost versus gain: More people coming into Morgantown patronizing local businesses and buying registry into these events would mean more money coming into the city, but if too many people come at once, Morgantown could potentially not have the amenities to meet the needs of everyone, and would have to resort to setting up portable restrooms, etc. or turning people away, thus negating some of the benefits. The task force resolved to set up demo events to gauge interest in these activities versus the resources necessary to host them.


The meeting also featured a sample tourism brochure, detailing the positive aspects of Butler County, for potential distribution.
The MTTTF Facebook page issued the following statement following the meeting: “Thank you to everyone that attended the Trail Town meeting last night. We made progress and that is the goal. We are proud to say several signed up for the task force and attendance stepped up a bit.
The Focus remains on the Merchants of Butler County to be involved because once this takes place the economic growth will benefit them greatly.”

Story and photos by J. Harris, Beech Tree News

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