Should Bridgeport and Clarksburg Merge Into One County Government? (Fairmont: waterparks, property taxes)

[Mr. Bridgeport]

One Metro Mayor. One Metro Council. One County Commission. Residency Requirements for equal representatation for each elected official? It this too ambitious? --or too sane?

[David Kennedy]

Bridgeport has nothing positive to gain by merging with the dead town of Clarksburg.
It will mean an unfair additional tax load on local citizens who live in Bridgeport by choice.
If they had wanted to live in urban decay, they would have moved to Clarksburg in the first place.

This is a political ploy to salvage poor city management at the public expense.

A good county pattern to adopt would be Taylor....no zoning...a very reduced but adequate government in Grafton...and a flood of money through property taxes alone.
A common sense model of 'Less Government Working Well".
My hat is off to those servants who have a good thing and do not wish to fix it and cause its ruination...

I AM in favor of merging some local counties and for the exact reasons you mentioned above...
How about merging Marion county with Monongalia?
Would give Mon the expansion area they will need for the next 50 years of growth..and solve a lot of PROBLEMS for the people of Marion County and the people of Fairmont in particular...
glad you opened this forum, thanks.

[Mr. Bridgeport]

Thank you for your well-reasoned answer. Since Clarksburg has the history and the architecture, and since Bridgeport has the new development, the biotech corridor, and all the positive expansion, it seems like there might be a place for some sort of an entity that would act towards merging all the currently-competing interests into a unified metro-powerhouse. Stonewall Jackson was born in Clarksburg. What a draw. Families planning vacations want the waterparks, etc., but would like to get their kids exposed to some history as well. It is a very ambitious concept, I admit. Thank you again.

[David Kennedy]

I can see your reasoning...and hope. Sadly, we do not live in an academic world anymore. The underpinings of civilization is the education level of its people...our children are really a catastrophie and our future looks dim because of that failure.
I doubt if 2 out of 100 kids in any grade level would know who Thomas Jackson was.
The city of Clarksburg has a rich heritage with the family of George John Jackson.
Little information is known about him...about the connection to Dolly Madison and about his grand scheme for the West Fork River...A parallel message to us might be found with the fact of him marrying a younger woman later in life and moving west...
When the time comes...I'm moving to Savannah, Ga. not Cinncinatti.
As an after thought...and a contemporary one...Ft. New Salem glad to see its re-birth. good luck.