http://www.dominionpost.com/a/news/2004/05/18/bi/

Grants Could Improve River Recreation

Morgantown Dominion Post
May 18, 2004
By Evelyn Ryan

The Mountaineer Navy is going to have to wait a while before it can float into Morgantown for a WVU Mountaineers home football game.

The "Mountaineer Navy" is a vision of Patrick Donovan at the West Virginia Public Port Authority. It's all those Mountaineer fans with boats who would prefer to take the watery highway to avoid traffic jams.

Trouble is, there's no place for those boats to park when they get here.

A grant application Donovan's putting the finishing touches on will remedy that problem. It's for a Boating Infrastructure Grant for $100,000, and it will finance construction of docking facilities at Morgantown and Star City. These are in addition to the marina being built by Platinum Properties.

"Basically, it would create floating campgrounds," he said, facilities for short-term visits to the area via the Monongahela River.

Last Friday, the state Public Port Authority approved a $25,000 match for the Monongahela River project and another $25,000 match for a similar Ohio River project at Point Pleasant.

Issues with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about what hours the three Upper Mon locks and dams will be open have delayed action on the BIG here, Donovan explained.

BIG grants are handled through the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the local grant will go through the Northeast Region, based in Hadley, Mass.

"As soon as we get the motions passed, the letters out, a packet is going back to Fish & Wildlife showing the state has invested in these docks, and the cities are investing," he said. "Hopefully we can shake the money out."

While the Army Corps of Engineers has industry, but not recreation, as a mandate, the state Public Port Authority is empowered to consider the recreational aspect of riverfront development.

"I am a big supporter of recreational uses of our river," Donovan added. "It's a way to grow the economy."

The Upper Monongahela River Association is presently battling to have the Army Corps mandate expanded to include recreational use, but that's separate from the port authority's program.

The docks proposed along the Monongahela River in the Morgantown area is a project of the Morgantown Area Chamber of Commerce's Mon River Recreation VISION 2020 Committee to develop recreational and long-range tourist boating on the river.