Weirton City Manager Mike Adams, right, waits to address members of the Hancock County Board of Education Monday, to request an amendment to the memorandum of understanding approved last fall swapping ownership of Red Rider Road and Sinclair Avenue. Hancock County Schools Superintendent Dan Enich is at the podium. (Photo by Craig Howell)

NEW CUMBERLAND — A property swap between two local governmental entities needed to be revisited after it was discovered more land was involved than previously known.

Last fall, the Hancock County Board of Education and Weirton Council agreed to exchange two streets leading to the campus of Weir High and Weir Middle, with the ownership and maintenance of Red Rider Road moving from the city to the school board, and oversight of Sinclair Avenue going from the school board to the city.

Monday night, Hancock County Board of Education members approved an addendum to the original memorandum of understanding after city officials found more land should have been included.

“There’s a third tract of Red Rider Road,” explained Weirton City Manager Mike Adams, who attended the board meeting.

According to Adams, the initial exchange agreement included two tracts of land for Red Rider Road, stretching from South 11th Street to a point at the gateway onto the campus near the high school’s softball field.

Further study of the property, however, indicated the city’s ownership actually extended along the road’s pathway through the school campus, passing by the softball field and the schools themselves, and connecting to Sinclair Avenue.

Adams said he could find no evidence indicating the stretch of road had ever been conveyed to the school district.

“This third leg has been parcel of the middle school and high school campus forever,” Adams said. “We want to make sure the entirety of Red Rider Road was part of the agreement.”

No changes to the agreement would affect any areas of Sinclair Avenue beyond the original exchange.

Weirton Council also will have to approve the amendment to the agreement, which then would be submitted to the West Virginia Board of Public Works for its review.

chowell@weirtondailytimes.com