New Woodburn Community School

You didn’t see this much reported in the news: On June 5, the morning of the 6-1 City Council vote in favor of purchasing Haymaker Forest for $5.2 million, the right-wing, big business morning talk show on WAJR conducted a poll about whether or not the 40 acres of Haymaker Forest should be purchased for $5.2 million dollars. The two hosts sounded totally depressed and defeated by the end of the show when their own poll of their right-wing, don’t-tax-me audience showed that nearly 40 percent supported buying the Haymaker Forest for $5.2 million.

The forest actually spans about 42 acres rather than the 40 noted in the poll, making the buy an even better deal.

Then, after two weeks of WAJR demonizing the forest buy, and after a politically motivated and politically orchestrated turnout effort, an extremely misleading public presence showed up at City Council on June 19 that opposed the forest buy.

However, one week later, at City Council’s Committee of the Whole meeting, the public presence at Council was flipped back to being overwhelmingly in favor of support to buy the forest: many more people spoke in favor of buying the forest than the very few who spoke against it.

Morgantown City Council needs to realize that as far as anyone knows, as far as anyone can tell, and as far as seems likely, the Council retains the overwhelming popular and public support for the issues that they campaigned on and won on, to get elected to Council, including the idea of preserving Haymaker Forest for all time. Therefore, the City Council would be both foolish and irresponsible if it were to decide not to vote to buy Haymaker Forest, even at the $5.2 million price, let alone at a lower price, should it be brought back up for a vote.

Yes, the city hired an appraiser who appraised the property at $2.5 million, far under the seller’s asking price of $5.2 million. However, sellers are far more likely to sell their property at or near their own price, rather than at or near the price offered by the buyer, whether appraised or not.

The Haymaker Forest should be brought back to a revote as soon as possible, with the price lowered as much as possible. However, even at $5.2 million, Haymaker Forest is a steal. What if another interested buyer comes in at any moment, a developer, for example, and causes the price to go up? By its delay, the City is risking losing the forest forever.

The forest could have been owned by the City by now. It’s worth it. There is little to no reason to think that buying Haymaker Forest even now at $5.2 million would not be a popular vote. Saving the forest for the communities is a very popular and a very valuable thing. The price is worth it. The City must act before it is too late.